GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 27, 2003)—According to writer Fabian Badejo, 1963 – A Landmark Year in St. Martinby Daniella Jeffry is itself a cornerstone by which to measure developments realized and promises not kept. “What has remained the same since 1963 is that quintessential St. Martin character of friendliness.
“If 1963 can be considered the beginning of several transformational changes in the infrastructure and life of the island, its cosmopolitan nature has remained intact, or better still, intensified with the waves of immigrants that came to the island in the boom years that ensued.”
In his epilogue to the new book, Badejo pointed out that “A social anthropologist would quickly unearth the seeds of modernization that germinated into the tourist boom that flung this until 1963, sleepy, rural, peaceful slice of paradise into a boisterous tourist destination some 40 years later.” But he was sure to note, “Not all of the promises made in 1963 have been realized” up to this day.
The book’s first chapter does indeed set up a background profile about the “social” emergence of “Old St. Martin” and points to what was to come, as Jeffry weaned from her research sample in the other two chapters of 1963. “It is an account based, happily, on journalistic reports of the island’s first modern newspaper, the Windward Islands’ Opinion.
“As a people with a rich oral tradition, 1963 may also mark the start of the written documentation of our history. This is by all means a major contribution to the historiography of our island,” stated Badejo.
1963 – A Landmark Year in St. Martin, Jeffry’s first book and the second House of Nehesi Publishers’ title for 2003, follows the February publication of The House That Jack Built and Other Plays, which also made playwright Louie Laveist a first-time author.