Montserrat

The first Monday of August in Montserrat is celebrated as “August Monday”—this is a celebration of Emancipation Day. A lot of Caribbean nations and territories carve out a day to celebrate the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, that came into effect on 1 August 1834. Some countries keep the holiday on 1 August, while others have a time in the first week of August—as Montserrat does, choosing Monday as the day to celebrate. Montserrat is still a British territory. Location? Montserrat is part of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles—it’s to the East of Puerto Rico, near the top of the tail of islands that heads down toward South America. The name? Not exactly British? Columbus named it, and he wasn’t terribly British either. He named it after Montserrat in Catalonia. The island was forced to drastically rearrange itself on 13 years ago, following the eruption of Soufriere Hills volcano in 1995—this eruption (the volcano had previously been dormant) destroyed the capital of Plymouth, and two-thirds of the population fled the island. The volcano is still erupting, though not on the same scale. The village of Brades—population 1000—is the de facto capital at present.

Want to record an album? Why not head to Montserrat? George Martin (that’s right, of Beatles-producer fame) built studios there in 1979. Record your music in peace.

There’s a familiar narrative with these Caribbean islands: at the time that Columbus claimed it in 1493, the island was populate by Arawak and Carib people. Despite claiming the island for Spain, the Spanish never colonised, and in 1632 Montserrat fell into British hands, as a group of Irish settlers dashed away from Saint Kitts and Nevis, where Roman Catholicism was not popular, and moved to Montserrat. Among the slaves imported in the following centuries were the usually suspects—but also, apparently, Irish slaves who were exiled after Cromwell’s spree in Ireland. For a few years during the American Revolutionary War France captured Montserrat, but the island was returned to British control. Oh, and Montserrat is one of only two places in the world to celebrate St Patrick’s Day as a public holiday. The reason? It’s the anniversary of a 1798 uprising.

Before Montserrat stood alone as a territory, it was first part of the collective colony of the Leeward Islands, and then, for the four years between 1958 and 1962, part of the oh-so-brief West Indies Federation. Then it stood alone. And in 2002 the people of Montserrat were granted full British citizenship. Now that’s a perk.

A poem? Yes, I know that’s what you’re really waiting for. Well, here’s one by Howard Fergus. I found it in The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse—which is, by the by, a great anthology, collecting poems (translated into English if need be) from all the different languages of the Caribbean.


Behind God Back

You come from a two-be-three island
hard like rock
black you have another handicap
and you come from Long Ground
way behind God back.

They taught you like a fool
never told you miles of cotton
went to Liverpool
to line the Bank of England
from Long Ground behind God back
he shoulda turned round
and catch the thieves white-handed
white and black

They took you for an imbecile
never told you Montserrat tobacco
made W.D. and H.O. Wills
rich testators of Bristol University
lightning their names on the crest of history
with Long Ground tobacco
bought behind God back

Never told you how your mother strong
to carry buckra cotton
and his seed
fertile like Long Ground soil
strong to carry bales of history
and buckra deeds heavy like a sack
of cotton picked behind God back

People in the town
didn’t know off-white and brown were black
until they went to England
Powell vote to pack them back
rejected like stained cotton
didn’t know when God turned round
his smile like a rainbow
lit Long Ground with hope
and cotton children weave boot strap
to pull themselves up
from behind God back.

—Howard Fergus
from The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse