The struggle for survival: an historical, political and socioeconomic perspective of St. Lucia

by Anderson Reynolds

There is no denying that for Dr. Reynolds history is the great teacher that one chooses to be guided by, or ignore at one's peril. You get a sense, by reading the book, however, that history is replete with instances reminding one that there are always certain forces (fate) that are beyond the control of island people, and before which they remain powerless. This the author traces back to the post Columbian era. From then till now, European control of the rules of production and trade, and their superiority over the early inhabitants (Caribs and Arawaks), and the slave and ex-slave population in a later era, all had been testimony. He cites the greed of European settlers and its toll in the underdevelopment of the island in the 19th and 20th centuries. According to Dr. Reynolds, the helplessness (or dependence and despondency) of the island population persists throughout the sugar-cane plantation era, into and beyond emancipation, and it was not until the introduction of bananas that the social and economic and even political status of islanders began to change, when they began to truly experience the meaning of independence and empowerment, all but temporarily as shown by the events of 1993. However, Dr. Reynolds doesn't only dwell on the past. He takes a deep analytical look into the state of the island today and what the age of information and technology expects of St. Lucia in order to make it hereon. He believes that the rate of illiteracy is much too high, and he laments the environmental degradation that banana cultivation has brought on the island. He is equally critical of `the social and cultural destabilizing effects of tourism' and the loss of sovereignty resulting from the construction of each new hotel.

206 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2003

About the author

ANDERSON REYNOLDS was born and raised in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia, where he now resides. He holds a Ph.D. in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida and is the author of several national (St. Lucia) award-winning and best-selling books.

His books, blogs, lectures, and newspaper and magazine articles have established him as one of St. Lucia’s leading public intellectuals and a foremost authority on its socioeconomic history.

His writings, be it fiction or nonfiction, have been described as a world in which a great drama unfolds. where history, geography, nature, culture, the supernatural, and socioeconomic factors all combine to seal the fate of individuals, communities, or, for that matter, a whole nation or civilization. In this crucible of a world, readers are provided with deep insights into where St. Lucians come from, who they are as a people, and how they became who they are.

Reviews

[B Sarv · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dr. Anderson presents the reader with a social commentary on the history of St. Lucia with a focus on events surrounding a strike by banana farmers in 1993. The author presents an interesting work which includes chapters on the history of the developments of sugar agriculture and banana agriculture in this small island state. A very interesting chapter, though unrelated to the other content of the book, was the chapter about the St. Lucia Arts Guild.

The theme of the book was a bit hard to grasp but the author seemed to be saying that the farmers should have known better than to go on strike because history would have taught them that they were not in control of their own destiny, “most of the inhabitants of the island never had a say in any of the major events that have determined the very nature and composition of their island. But refusing to take a page from some of their fellow citizens of Vieux Fort who had long bowed to the vicissitudes of history, farmers went on strike and history repeated itself.” (p. 74). The author repeats the phrase, “farmers ignored history and went on strike” (p. 22) or some slightly modified variation (see pages 24, 92, 103, 104, 125, 126, 136, 138, 139, 140, 156, 205 and 229). He even repeated it when it had no correlation to the preceding text. For example, in the chapter about the St. Lucia Arts Guild entitled, “The St. Lucia Renaissance” he provides a thorough and moderately documented history of the Arts in St. Lucia from 1950 to about 2010 (p. 170 et seq.). Although this chapter had nothing whatsoever to do with the banana industry or economic events leading up to the banana strike he concluded the chapter by saying, “But unaware of all this history, [of the Arts and Culture] the 1993 banana farmers, themselves making history, went on a strike that brought deaths in the valley and the transformation of the banana industry in St. Lucia.” (p. 205).

One of the things that does come across clearly in Dr. Anderson’s book is that the transformation of the banana industry had nothing to do with the 1993 strike and everything to do with the change in the trade regime with the United Kingdom. He makes it clear that the advent of the European Union signaled the demise of the preferential trade regime and that this was exacerbated by the Clinton administration’s position at the World Trade Organization. “Clearly, the dismantling of the preferential treatment St. Lucian farmers had been enjoying was well on the way. In fact, the demand for the removal of banana trade restrictions was coming from no less powerful a country than the United States of America.” (p. 144). Although the author cited no source for this assertion I was able to find supporting documentation. The article cited also refers the Chiquita Banana Corporation influencing the decision to bring the case before the WTO. This type of corporate interference is consistent with a long history of United States foreign policy designed to protect corporate interests of U.S. companies (see “The Business of Empire: United Fruit, Race and U.S. Expansion in Central America” by Jason M. Colby). Furthermore, as Dr. Reynolds suggests, “Banana culture empowered the people because unlike laboring on the sugar plantations farmers cultivating their few plots or acres of bananas had to become self-reliant, responsible and forward-looking economic agents. After all, their livelihood now depended directly on the success of their own farming operations.” Perhaps this too was one of the things which caught the attention of the United States, because food self-sufficiency has always been a great enemy of United States exports. This case is clearly brought to light when one examines, not only the United States’ response to banana production by very small island states, but also by the reaction to the Aristide regime in Haiti. Aristide’s party had a firm platform aimed at having the nation grow and eat more of its own food and the history of United States interference in that country is a nightmarish one. (See “Paramilitarism and the Assault on Democracy in Haiti” by Jeb Sprauge).

Although sparsely documented this book gives a general outline of the history of St. Lucia in chapters 5 through 7. In this way it is an accessible and important text which can provide a summary of the major events in the history of the nation. Also, without citing many sources, the author also extensively outlines the history of both the sugar industry and the banana industry in a number of places. In Chapter 12, “Gone Bananas,” he provides details about banana production numbers and GDP over the years, but one is left to assume that he obtained this information in his professional capacity as a holder of “a PhD in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida” because he cites no sources for the information. It is likely that some of the information came from, “Economic and Social Review. Various Issues. Government of St. Lucia” (p. 230) which he lists in his “References” (although there are no in-text citations to these documents).

As a social commentary the book presents a number of challenges for any reader. Some of those challenges are stylistic. Some of those challenges are either outright grammatical errors or oversights in proofreading. Some of those challenges are incorrect factual information. There are also unsupported assertions and commentary on gender relations which suffer from a tendency to unsupported over-generalizations about certain groups in St. Lucian society.

Two main stylistic challenges present themselves: 1) redundant use of phrases and 2) overused or misused attempts at metaphor. One phrase found repeatedly throughout the text was in reference to the late Sir John Compton who is undoubtedly one of the most important people in St. Lucia from the 1950s up until his death in 2007. He is considered “The Father of the Nation” here in St. Lucia. As a result of his presence at the forefront of much of the history presented by the author, Sir John’s name comes up often. The stylistic problem is that the author uses the phrase, “The Prime Minister, himself a banana farmer,” or some slight variation 16 times, sometimes twice on the same page. (See pages 3, 6, 22, 62, 77, 93, 147, 148, 149 (twice), 161, 225, 227, 228 (twice). In addition, the author repeatedly used the phrase, or some variation of the phrase, “ignored history and went on strike.” It is difficult to describe how reading “himself a banana farmer” for the tenth time, or the fourth time in three pages, detracts from the reading experience. The author did the same when, with less frequency, he was referring to Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, when he repeatedly wrote phrases like, “a law professor, not a banana farmer.” (See, pages 15, 148 and twice in the same paragraph 161).

The author’s attempts to use some descriptions or metaphors could also leave the reader uncertain of the idea being conveyed. In one section where he was describing the events surrounding the shooting of two of the striking farmers he refers to, “the smell of bullets” (p. 78). It could leave the mistaken impression that in the heat of gunfire one would smell bullets and not gunpowder. In referring to the rapid advancement of knowledge the author says, “Clearly, history has been placed on a runaway train.” (p. 222). Since a runaway train usually ends up in a disaster we are left with the notion that increasing human knowledge will lead to disaster. This was not the point of the chapter in which the author saw opportunity in the advent of the information revolution. When describing the loading of bananas, which women carried on their heads to the loading area of the boat the author wanted to express the speed with which this process was carried out when he writes, “Even before the men had snatched the bananas from their heads they hurried back to pick up another bunch.” But what he describes is a physical impossibility. Perhaps had the phrase “it seemed as if” had been inserted this sentence would have been saved from coming across as describing an impossibility and worked as the author probably intended. From the perspective of a reader of history the greatest difficulty was presented in the chapter entitled “Gods of the Land,” the author presents the history of the sugar industry and the banana industry as though they were competing “gods”. (Pages 51 et seq.) Referring to each as a “god” and using the pronoun “it” he describes major historical events as if people were not the ones making decisions which negatively affected the sugar workers or the banana workers. The metaphor became tiresome as events that were put into motion by oppressors were depersonalized to make it seem to the reader as if the outcomes were necessary to appease this god or that god: “The evil god played many tricks on the ex-slaves to keep them working on the plantation for mere pittance,” and “Worse, the evil god tricked the people into a metairie system. . . . When none of these things worked, it went all over the world – Europe, Africa, Asia – in search of cheap labor to replace the slave labor it once had for free.” (pp 53-54). Not only does this depersonalize the oppressors, removing them from bearing responsibility for their actions, it takes away from the ways in which the recently enslaved people were able to still stand up for themselves by force of their human agency. Make no mistake; the decisions were made by humans to oppress other humans.

A number of instances of grammatical errors appeared, and although some of these could have been the responsibility of the proofreaders, they had to be present in the first place for them to appear in the final text of the Third Edition. I will ask the reader to excuse my tediousness in cataloging these errors. On page 9 the author writes, “activity had remain sparse” when the word should have been “remained”. At one point the snake species fer-de-lance is incorrectly pluralized as “fer-de-lances” (p. 56) On page 96 he writes, “the banana industry helped brought about,” when it should have been “helped bring about.” Later he describes an, “extended rain spell” when the word he used should have been “rainy.” Other examples abound: “farmers’ agonizing voices” [agonized] (p. 142); “bananas had helped ushered” [usher] (p 149); “how has West Indians” [have](p. 178); “Karl Max”[Marx](p. 209); and “The second world war” [Second World War](p. 218). Since I did not set out looking for these errors it is possible that I missed some.

There were also factual errors. In one instance the author describes the goddess Kali as a Buddhist god; she is a Hindu god and Buddhism is not pantheistic. In another instance the author claims that the fer-de-lance has disappeared, “After all, the toads have disappeared, so too have the fishes and the fer-de-lance.” (p. 132). I cannot speak to the fish, but I have seen plenty of toads and I personally know a recent survivor of a fer-de-lance bite. The author also made a number of assertions which were unsupported by citation, “ Shortly after the new government came into power, young men, many of whom were Rastafarians and were among those who allegedly had received arms to overthrow the government had the UWP won elections, went on an island-wide rampage of rape and armed robbery.” Such an assertion should be supported with a citation; his use of the word “allegedly” does not save him here. In the chapter about Arts in St. Lucia an extensive quote appears without appropriate citation (p. 186-87) and the source is not even cited in the “References” section of the book.

In addition to the aforementioned unreferenced disparagement of Rastafarians, the author makes some other bald assertions which could best be characterized as unfair over-generalizations. Referring to the low wages offered in the manufacturing sector he writes, “No wonder many young men, full of machismo, prefer to remain idle than subject themselves to what they consider slave wages. Nevertheless, the women, unhindered by testosterone and generally more practical than man, reckoned that $200 or $300 was better than zero, especially when staying at home meant endless washing, cooking and cleaning for the same young men who instead of finding jobs were glorying in idleness and marijuana.” (p. 210). Adding on to these observations he goes on to write, “The young men one would see in that kind of business mode are few and far. It seems that before long only women will be running St. Lucia, and the women will be so far ahead of the men that they will have to start importing their spouses.” (p. 211) Dr. Reynolds describes the events surrounding the farmers’ strike and says, “The crowds at the barricades were getting larger as farmers and their supporters were now joined by the unemployed, those seeking excitement, entertainment and bounty, even.” (p 5). But there is no supporting article or interview or other form of evidence to sustain this assertion about peoples’ motives for lawlessness or seekers of “bounty”.

There were also missed opportunities. In discussing deforestation Dr. Reynolds uses the example of Haiti: “Haiti, the first emancipated country in the Caribbean, the first country that had appeared to have defeated history, was once covered with forest – a tropical paradise. Now, with most of its forest gone, it has arguable become the poorest country in the western hemisphere.” (p. 131) Here, when presented with an opportunity to expose the true history of imperialism, occupation and oppression in post-independence Haiti the author oversimplifies what has transpired in Haiti; he seems to imply that it was the deforestation which resulted in the impoverished state of Haiti instead of the myriad of other external causes that led to the deforestation in the first place. There was also the opportunity to link Haiti’s plight with the plight of banana farmers at the expense of the United States foreign policy and the corpratocracy that it is today. Occasionally he seems to make some interesting observations about events, such as when he described the short-lived St. Lucia Labour Party reign from 1979 to 1982. When the United Workers’ Party under John Compton regained the majority he says, “So after fifteen years in power, followed by a less than three-year absence, the UWP Party with Mr. John Compton at its helm returned to power, bringing to an end even before it had begun the people’s experiment in defeating history and becoming truly independent.” Of course this begs the question of whether the Constitution does indeed create St. Lucia as an independent nation and whether democracy worked or did not work in this instance. There was a missed opportunity to develop the assertion that under the UWP St. Lucia was no longer independent. What did he mean? We are left to wonder.

Space limits :(

Ryle, S. (2002, November 24). Banana war leaves the Caribbean a casualty.

[Francine Kopun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this on the plane on my way home from a vacation in St. Lucia as I was trying to understand how it is possible that 737,000 people a year visit the island, but its major cities — Castries and in particular, Soufrière, show few signs of affluence. Soufrière was in terrible shape when we visited (March, 2024). It looked deserted and broken, cracked windows and front doors boarded up instead of replaced. Where were the people? Where was the commerce? The book, which does in fact, read like a well-paced novel, as others have noted, provided history and context. I liked that it was written from a distinct POV — this is not a cautious and objective recitation of the facts — it’s a passionate, insider account of the troubles that generations of St. Lucians have endured and continue to endure. I thought the author’s descriptions of the intensely physical labours performed by inhabitants over the centuries — from slavery to slinging coal and farming bananas — contained a level of detail one rarely encounters in history books and which may not have been recorded in any meaningful way at all, if not for this book. Reynolds has lived the history of which he speaks, and it makes for a riveting read.
He did mention that the types of tourism that is popular in St. Lucia — cruise ships and all-inclusive resorts — do not result in trickle down prosperity. I would have liked to have heard his thoughts on that subject. To be fair, tourism was not the topic of his book, which was published in 2018.
I finished the book feeling like I’d had a fascinating encounter with a thoughtful, highly educated and erudite resident of the island.
I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Caribbean history or who is seeking to better understand events taking place in the Caribbean today. Haiti may be the first island nation to descend into lawlessness, but as this book makes clear, you can only keep people poor and oppressed for a finite amount of generations, even though those generations may be legion.
The murder rate in St. Lucia is climbing — 39 homicides per 100,000 people a year in 2021, compared to about 2 in Canada and about 6 in the U.S. There were 75 homicides in St. Lucia in 2023.
While tourists are not the target, it is hard not to see it as evidence that a new, dark chapter in the history of the island is about to be written.

[Jasmine DeCartier · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a relative dearth of books about socioeconomic conditions/events in St Lucia written by St Lucian. This book which is written by a St Lucian is an excellent choice for readers who are interested in St. Lucia's history and socioeconomic evolution from the perspective of a highly skilled St. Lucian.

[Golan Kashani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. If you’re going to the island to vacation you must read and if you’re of Caribbean descent, you must read. Anderson Reynolds share a lot of passion in this book by giving a deep insight of the real St. Lucia history and true experience by the people. I will be reading other books by him and more about the country

[Gabriela Kaplan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 1 day, on the flight home from St. Lucia. It was a wonderful trip I had there with my family, and it was great to have this clear, well written historical review of the island to supplement and clarify my own impressions and feelings about the island. I especially liked that it goes into the history of the arts on the island as well as the more typical political & economic historical aspects. I am super curious to read some of the St. Lucian playwrights mentioned in this book!

[Ash · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good capture of socioeconomic history of St Lucia. Interesting perspectives, grateful for analysis on colonial impact and global events shaping the culture of the island.