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St Lucia: Legend and Leisure
By Clayton Goodwin
 St Lucia: Legend and Leisure; Clayton Goodwin Takes Us to the Caribbean Nations of St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines. Get Your Gingerbread Biscuits and Saffron Buns Ready, You May Be Lucky to Meet the Legend of St Lucia.
Western mythology has never known quite what to make of the concept of "light". It gives the name Lucifer ("light-bearer") to the prince of devils and yet has made the "Feast of St Lucia" ("the festival of light") on 13 December, one of its most cherished and widespread celebrations.
As Western countries have always had similar difficulty in coming to terms with their attitudes towards their erstwhile colonialism, it seems to be only appropriate, therefore, that the island of St Lucia should stand at the historic pivot of the former Caribbean colonies.
St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines, whose 25th anniversaries of independence have fallen on 22 February and 27 October of this year respectively, are part of the Windward Islands, the waters around which were the battleground of the struggle for European hegemony in the region.
The Windward and Leeward Islands, the British and Dutch colonial names for these island groups--which are quite separate entities, interspersed with some French territories--form an arc pointing outwards into the Atlantic and towards Europe and Africa.
And it was towards the southern tip--where St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines are situated--that the privateers, pirates and enemy fighting-ships, plundered the galleons of rival European empires heading for home with their ill-gotten loot from sacking the cities, pillaging the property and exploiting the mines of Central and South America.
The fierce Caribs were among the early inhabitants of these islands, forcing out the more peaceful Arawaks from St Lucia, until they, in turn, fell prey to the even more acquisitive powers of Britain, Spain and France.
Ownership of the territories changed several times with the fortunes of the colonial wars that spread across the globe in the 18th century. The Caribs, who inflicted defeats on the new invaders in both islands, shared St Vincent with the British until they revolted in 1776 and were deported to islands in the Gulf of Honduras.
With the eclipse of the French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Windward Islands passed finally into British possession between 1803 and 1814. The relaxation from the tension of colonial rivalries paved the way for the rulers to exploit the sugar-cane, for which thousands of African slaves and, later, Portuguese and East Indian labourers were imported.
This history is reflected in the present-day ethnic composition of the population--the 120,000 inhabitants of St Vincent and the Grenadines (with some 17,600 living in the capital, Kingstown) are approximately 66% African, 19% mixed, 6% East Indian and 2% Carib-Amerindian.
Similarly, the 165,000 inhabitants of St Lucia (about 60,000 of whom live in Castries, the capital) comprise more overwhelmingly 90% African, 6% mixed, 3% East Indian and 1% European.
Whereas 90% of St Lucians are Roman Catholic, religious allegiance in St Vincent & the Grenadines is more varied at 47% Anglican, 28% Methodist, 13% Roman Catholic, and some Hindus and Seventh-Day Adventists.
St Lucia, which lies to the north of St Vincent and south of Francophone Martinique, is of volcanic origin, with a chain of wooded mountains running from north to south, from which many streams flow into fertile valleys.
St Vincent is the chief island of a chain located south of St Lucia and west of Barbados. It is dominated by the volcano Mount Soufriere, which rises to 4,048 feet.
The Grenadines, themselves a chain of nearly 600 islets, stretch southwards between St Vincent and Grenada--the best-known of which are Bequia, Balliceau, Canouan, Mayreau, Mustique, Isle d'Quatre, Petit Saint Vincent and Union Island.
Both St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines are subject to the ravages of hurricanes--the devastation of Hurricane Allen on St Vincent in 1980 immediately followed the destructive eruption of Mount Soufriere the preceding year.
The economy based on sugar and bananas has suffered accordingly, and has been blighted further by the trade rivalry between the US and the European Union. Both states have diversified their economy, particularly into tourism and other agricultural products.
The current prime minister of St Lucia, Kenny D. Anthony, came to power in 1997 when his St Lucia Labour Party, which had guided the island through the first few years of independence, defeated the United Workers Party that had won the preceding three elections and governed for 15 years.
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent & the Grenadines, led the Unity Labour Party to a similarly decisive, albeit unexpected, victory in 2001. In both countries, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state and is represented by a governor-general. St Vincent & the Grenadines and St Lucia--while being not quite a backwater--have tended to exist in the shadows of the other more dynamic islands of the Caribbean. Even the passion for cricket, a sport which has swept the region, has left this corner almost undisturbed.
Although Test Match status was granted in 1928, no St Lucian has ever represented West Indies at this level and it was only in the summer of 2004 that Darren Sammy became the first cricketer of his nationality to play for the region in even the limited-overs code of the game.
On the other hand, and some would contend more importantly, St Lucia has had two Nobel Prize winners--the poet Derek Walcott and the economist Sir W. Arthur Lewis--a considerable achievement for an island of just 238 square miles. Incidentally, St Vincent at 150 square miles is even smaller.
Enter the Feast of St Lucia, the legend of which is associated particularly with Sweden and Finland but whose celebration has spread throughout much of Western Europe and many other parts of the world.
Appropriately, 13 December was considered to be the longest night of the "old" (Julian) calendar before the "new" (Gregorian) was introduced in 1753, and at such occasions, supernatural forces are at their strongest.
As for St Lucia, herself, well ... to give thanks to St Agatha for saving her mother's life, she vowed to remain a virgin for as long as she lived. That didn't please her fiance too well, so he reported her to the authorities for being a Christian--who were being persecuted at that time under the Roman Empire. (The story is said to have happened at Syracuse in Sicily in 304 A.D).
In vengeance, Lucia poked out her own eyes and sent them to her fiance, which explains why she is considered to be the patron saint of the visually impaired. For her punishment, the authorities, who seem to have had a warped sense of humour, sentenced the young lady who had sworn to be a virgin to work in a brothel. Lucia refused to go there, and when they tried to burn her to death, the flames declined to touch her body.
Eventually somebody killed her by sticking a sword down her throat and appropriately although somewhat macabre, Lucia is now also the patron saint of those suffering from throat infection.
Perhaps the Swedes, who are not usually regarded as being particularly good scholars of Latin, merely confused the name "Lucia" with the word for light "lux/lucis" and blended two entirely disparate traditions--or else they knew a good story when they heard one.
There is also a hint here of the legend of St Nicholas, which has developed into the story of Santa Claus, and the "trick-or-treat" of Hallowe'en.
For the annual celebration, the representation of St Lucia, who is chosen from the most beautiful girls in the locality, is portrayed as wearing a white robe with a broad crimson sash tied around her waist and a wreath of mountain-cranberry bearing tall lighted candles in her hair.
She is accompanied by girls dressed in white robes with strands of glittering tinsel and holding lighted candles. Sometimes there are boys as well, clad in red and white with bonnets or conical-hats on their heads.
To the people she visits, St Lucia distributes gingerbread biscuits and saffron buns. This composite legend has something to interest everyone, and reflects very well the inter-relation of mysticism and materialism in Western mythology.
Interesting or otherwise as it may be, it is not easy to say how the Legend of St Lucia ties in with an island of that name in the faraway Caribbean, except that the latter has now adopted the same legend as its own.
It cannot be merely coincidence that the young ladies of St Lucia are said to be among the most beautiful in the world, and, whatever its merits, anything that may lead to the development of two Nobel Prize winners from such a small area must have something very special to offer.
Now, where did I put my gingerbread biscuit and saffron bun?
Source: New African
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