Dear Editor,
In memory and in celebration of the life of my old friend Mrs. Daniella Jeffry (1941-2019), please allow me to publish these elements of a speech I delivered in Marigot (July 5, 2003) on the occasion of the presentation of her book 1963, A Landmark Year in St. Martin/1963 – Année charnière à St. Martin.
Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen:
Mrs. Jeffry has asked me to say a few words in the context of this presentation of her book to the public on this side of the island. I take this as an honor and thank her for the esteem and the confidence she has placed in me.
My fellow St. Martiners, those of you who are familiar with my views and sympathies know the importance I ascribe to language, to the spoken/written word, to discussion, dialogue and debate in general, to the fundamental relationship between language and politics, by politics I mean life in the “polis,” the city, the community.
There can be no real community without language, without communication, without the spoken/written word. Therein lies the importance of language, of interaction, of communication in general, of a people’s mother tongue, and of a people’s history in particular. Most of us know that the question of the St. Martiners’ mother tongue is a very sensitive subject, more so on this side of the island than on the other side, the South side. It is sensitive because it is political and, therefore, crucially important.
Unfortunately but understandably, as soon as one touches upon this nerve, one runs the risk of being misunderstood, and being labeled anti-French, anti-foreigner, i.e., a member of the “born-here” crowd, a troublemaker, an agent provocateur, etc. I am none of those. At least, I do not wish to be any of those except to say that I was born here, and on that matter, I have no lessons to take from anyone, particularly from those who were born elsewhere but who act as if I must roll over like a dying cockroach.
Fellow St. Martiners, if the old sandbox tree that stands in Marigot, the only one remaining on the waterfront, should fall tonight without anyone ever acknowledging its presence, this old tree, so generous with its shade, would fade out of memory. If no one ever records its existence, attests to its presence, its bounty, this old tree would soon fade away; it would fall into oblivion, into nothingness, would cease to exist due to a lack of representation.
Representation is the key element here. Representation goes hand in hand with survival and democracy. Without representation, democracy cannot exist. Democracy is representative government. (…) That is why we cannot get out of politics, because we cannot get out of language, of interaction. We cannot get out of representation, lest we pay the consequences.
Therein lies the importance of information, of communication, newspapers, literature, books, and history books in particular. History deals with the lives and the development of people. It is the record and analysis of past events. A community that does not record and analyze events is a community whose days are numbered. To be without a history is to be outside of time, to have no existence, no being. (…)
Mrs. Jeffry’s book, 1963, A Landmark Year in Saint Martin deals with the lives and development of St. Martiners. That is what her book is all about, what it “re-presents”. That is why it is crucially important, fundamentally important. That is why we must not only present this book, but we must celebrate its publication that now makes it available to every school child in St. Martin, in every home library in St. Martin, in the libraries of the world. (…)
With this book, Mrs. Jeffry invites us to consider and acknowledge the fact that her community, our community, the St. Martin community, does not date back to the ’60s. Her book bears witness to the fact that, like all people, our people have a history, one that is full of events, full of true stories, full of our stories. This book brings home the fact that, like all people, St. Martiners have a collective memory.
We have no cathedrals but we have our hills and valleys, our gutters and old trees. We have no annals but we have the sand, the sun and the sea. These three have seen all the injustices, all the spoliation, all the suffering. They have seen the red men, the white men and the black men. They have seen all the women and all the commingling. To date, most historians are men who too often neglect to underline the role, the key role of women, of great-grandmothers, of grandmothers, of mothers, aunts, sisters, wives. This St. Martin historian does not neglect them. She does not place them in the margin, on the edge, away from the center where they rightfully belong.
1963, A Landmark Year in St. Martin/1963 – Année charnière à St. Martin is a determined valiant effort to make sure, to see to it that the St. Martin community does not fade out of memory, that it does not fall into oblivion, into nothingness, outside of time, outside of history; that St. Martiners do not cease to exist due to a lack of representation.
This history, this book, this exemplary act of representation, is the ultimate tribute that an individual can pay his or her community. Therefore St. Martiners should, St. Martiners (French and Dutch) shall, forever be grateful to their historian, to Mme. Daniella Jeffry.
Gérard M. Hunt
