GREAT BAY, St. Martin (June 23, 2003) — The biographical booklet Lambee & The Road That Couldn’t Be Built will be launched in Saba on Friday, June 27, 2003, said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers.
House of Nehesi published the junior scholastic reader about Saba’s legendary road builder Josephus Lambert “Lambee” Hassell in mid-June. St. Martin author Gerard van Veen, the main researcher/writer of Lambee & The Road That Couldn’t Be Built is scheduled to travel from St. Martin to the sister island for the launch. The students of the Sacred Heart School will perform songs and a skit directed by Miranda Hassell-Simmons at the “book party.”
Lambee consists of four chapters: “The Queen,” “The Man,” “The Vision” and “The Road.” “With news of the recent low scholastic performance in our schools, House of Nehesi offers this new motivational reader to interest our young people in reading about nation builders of the Caribbean, especially from St. Martin, Saba, and St. Eustatius. Those who read will lead,” said Sample.
“When children and adults see the example of Mr. Hassell and others who overcome small and big challenges to make history, we are confident that publications like Lambee will build self-esteem, ambition and excellence to keep building up the person, the family and the nation.”
Hassell was born in Saba in 1906. He went abroad as a teenager and with little continuous formal education, Lambee would return to his mountainous homeland in the 1940s. At that time he would set about to build the island’s first extensive road against great odds. Even when Dutch engineers did not see a place to put the road, Lambee persisted until he completed what is today a Saban wonder. Lambee is the first publication profiling the life and work of Hassell, who passed away in 1983; and the fourth House of Nehesi junior scholastic reader since 1999.
Lambee & The Road That Couldn’t Be Built is currently at Van Dorp, Arnia, Shipwreck and the Jubilee Library and will soon become available in Saba at locations such as My Store and the high-end Willard’s resort.