Aruba

18 March is Aruba’s Flag Day. It marks a few different milestones for the country—in 1948 at a Netherlands-Surinam-Curaçao conference in the Hague, Shon A. Enam, an Aruban leader, presented a petition in favour of independence. In 1976 it was decided that this date would be used as a national day for Aruba. In 1986, Aruba achieved “Status Aparte,” granting Aruba an autonomous status within the kingdom of the Netherlands, and separating the island from the Netherlands Antilles. Further movement towards full independence was halted by Aruba in 1990.

I was interested to learn that due to Aruba’s aridity the island has a somewhat different history to other Caribbean nations. The climate meant that Aruba was not a plantation site, and so also largely avoided being part of the slave trade. Its demographics are different from those I’ve looked at in other areas of the Caribbean, with over 80 percent of the Aruban population comprised of Mestizos—people of mixed European and Amerindian descent. Apparently no full-blooded Arawaks remain, but the genetic heritage of the original Arawak population remains.

I was interested to learn that, while tourism is the main economic industry in Aruba today, both aloe and oil have been important in the past. Because of the desert-like ecology of the region, aloe was introduced in the mid-19th century, and was a major industry. It is less important today, but it still exists. Oil became an attractive industry as a result of Aruba’s proximity to Venezuala. For a time, the Lago Oil and Transport Company was the largest oil refinery and storage facility in the world. Refineries had been previously shut down, the Lago refinery was reopened in the 1990s, and is a key contributor to the country’s economy.

On the poetry-front, I’m afraid that today’s poem is something of a “cheat”—though if anyone wants to provide an alternative, I’m happy to update the site later. Today’s poet, Merle Collins, was born in Aruba, but actually grew up in Grenada, and therefore writes in English. What I like about the poem, “No Dialects Please,” is that is explores an idea that is prevalent through a number of Caribbean poetries, that have introduced languages and also dialects that evolve drawing together the international influences through the Caribbean. I found the poem online here.



No Dialects Please

In this competition

dey was lookin for poetry of worth

for a writin that could wrap up a feelin

an fling it back hard

with a captive power to choke de stars

so dey say,

'Send them to us


but NO DIALECTS PLEASE'

We're British!

Ay!

Well ah laugh till me boushet near drop

Is not only dat ah tink

of de dialect of de Normans and de Saxons

dat combine an reformulate

to create a language-elect
is not only dat ah tink

bout de part of my story

dat come from Liverpool in a big dirty white ship

mark

AFRICAN SLAVES PLEASE!

We're the British!

But as if dat not enough pain

for a body to bear

ah tink bout de part on de plantations down dere

Wey dey so frighten o de power

in the deep spaces

behind our watching faces

dat dey shout

NO AFRICAN LANGUAGES PLEASE!

It's against the law!

Make me ha to go

an start up a language o me own

dat ah could share wid me people

Den when we start to shout

bout a culture o we own

a language o we own

a identity o we own

dem an de others dey leave to control us say

STOP THAT NONSENSE NOW

We're all British!

Every time we lif we foot to do we own ting

to fight we own fight

dey tell us how British we British

an ah wonder if dey remember
d
at in Trinidad in the thirties

dey jail Butler
who dey say is their British citizen

an accuse him of

Hampering the war effort!

Then it was

FIGHT FOR YOUR COUNTRY, FOLKS!

You're British!

Ay! Ay!

Ah wonder when it change to

NO DIALECTS PLEASE!

WE'RE British!

Huh!

To tink how dey so dunce

an so frighten o we power

dat dey have to hide behind a language

that we could wrap roun we little finger

in addition to we own!

Heavens o mercy!

Dat is dunceness oui!

Ah wonder where is de bright British?


—Merle Collins