22
Feb
Independence Day of Saint Lucia
Today Saint Lucia celebrates the 40th anniversary of independence. This public holiday marks the date when the island became an independent state of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1979.
In 1500 Juan de la Cosa noted the island on his map, calling it El Falcon. Christopher Columbus may have sighted the island during his fourth voyage in 1502 since he landed Martinique, although his log does not mention the island. A Spanish Cedula from 1511 mentions the island within the Spanish domain. A 1520 globe made in the Vatican shows the island named Sancta Lucia. A 1529 Spanish map shows S. Luzia.
Legend has it the French sailors, who shipwrecked there on 13th December, the feast day of St Lucy of Syracuse, were the first European settlers who named the island after the young Christian martyr who died in 304 AD during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. It is the only country in the world named after a historical woman. The island is also known as Iyonola, the name given to the island by the natives.
The English took control of the island from 1663 to 1667. In the following years, England and France have been at war, and the rule of the island changed 14 times; Saint Lucia was ruled seven times each by the French and the British. Because of a frequent switch in control, Saint Lucia was known as the “Helen of the West Indies”, after Helen of Troy from the Greek mythology.
In 1814 the Treaty of Paris, which ended the Napoleonic Wars, finally stopped the change in ownership. The island became part of the British Windward Islands colony. When the colony was dissolved in 1958, Saint Lucia joined the West Indies Federation until 1967 when it became a self-governing island as one of the six members of the West Indies Associated States.
On 22nd February 1979, Saint Lucia gained full independence under Sir John Compton of the conservative United Workers Party (UWP) who eventually became the prime minister of Saint Lucia and served as such on three occasions: briefly in 1979, again from 1982 to 1996, and from 2006 until his death in 2007. This “small, energetic man, born on Canouan... the home of his mother”, moved to Saint Lucia as a teenager and he was brought up by his uncle, a master mariner and successful businessman from the east coast. “The fact that Compton was not by birth a St Lucian was sometimes held against him”, the Guardian wrote about him. However, Compton’s political career began in 1954, when he ran as an independent candidate for the seat and won. He was immensely admired by his fellow islanders and his popularity lasted through three generations, gaining him an honourable title of the “Father of St Lucia” and the more affectionate nickname “Daddy Compton”.
