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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 86 - Wednesday August 23, 2006 |
The 2006 South Eastern Reunion
 Dr. Emanuel Finn and Claudine Roberts
Two years ago the Castle Bruce and Vielle Case communities started a powerful trend of highly successful rural community reunions.
The recent reunion in the cultural capital of Dominica, Grand Bay, probably raised the standard on the quality of these rural festivals.
Other future endeavours have much to learn and draw from these recent highly successful reunions.
 The reunion trend has caught fire resulting in a resurgence of pride amongst rural folks. The festivals foster the concept of identity based on shared experiences and history.
They also provide platforms for the communities to showcase themselves in their in own unique ways, and provide opportunities for tourism and business development.
The very powerful �take home� message which these rural reunions and festivals convey is; it is �cool to be (from) country�. A sociological survey and analysis of these celebrations would probably indicate that they are contributing immensely to the continued transformation of rural Dominica.
This transformation was started by the late Premier E. O. Leblanc in the 50�s with his mandate of a workers government.
Premier Leblanc�s politics of poverty ( �petite borg�-small man versus Gro borg- big man) and his caring and compassionate policies, and programs included increasing the meager wages for poor rural folks (�maleaway�) and implementing much needed road projects through out the Dominican countryside.
One of the most popular folks songs of south east was (and is) �Anou heila hurrah, anou heila bravo, cheme wevea La Pline�.
This song embodies the excitement, celebration and relief which our people expressed when the roads finally arrived in the south east in the mid to late 60s.
Prior to that time, the journey to Roseau took two days on (bare) foot via the mountains of Grand Fond through the fresh water lake and the Roseau river valley to the capital (Cheme Letang). Once they arrived in Roseau, merchants bought their agricultural produce at shamefully low prices.
From December 15th to 30th, the fertile agricultural communities of the south east, stretching from the foothills of Morne Anglais and Trois Piton to La Rivere Blanc (White River) in the south, along the rugged Atlantic coast, will be hosting its first reunion which is called the South East Assembly.
According to the Reunion�s coordinator, Mrs. Claudine Roberts of the Local Government Department who hails from La Plaine, �the purpose of the Assembly is to bring all the persons from the South East together including those living in Dominica and in the Diaspora, to meet and celebrate with family, friends and loved ones.
To explore and cherish our rich resources and reminisce the nostalgic, simple but colorful past and plan for the future.�
Assistant Coordinator, Mr. Derrick Lestrade pointed out that �plans are well underway and the schedule of activities is still being reviewed and revised.
Due to the extensive area of the south eastern districts which consists of the two political constituencies of La Plaine, Morne Juane/Riviere Cyrique/Grand Fond, the undertaking is complex, and challenging but exciting.�
In spite of this fact, a series of activities have been planned with the imput from several people in the various village committees. The reunion coordinating and planning committee has representation from each village subcommittee.
A budget has been formulated; donations and generous financial assistance are being requested urgently from the many businesses that southeastern folks patronize on the island.
The expatriate Washington DC and New Jersey based planning sub-committee are handing affairs with the south eastern diaspora in North America including their pledges of charitable contributions towards the festival.
The festival will open with a motor cade on Friday, December 15th from Delices to Grand Fond where a reception will be held. On Thursday December 22nd, a south eastern Senior Citizen Day in all communities is scheduled. A Cheme-Letang (Lake Road) history play in La Plaine is also scheduled on that day.
The play will be a unique opportunity to experience the region�s living history. One of the hallmarks of that history is the courageous challenge of our peasant forbearers lead by Mr. Pierre Colaire in 1893 against the island�s British (Crown) Colonial governor (Hayes-Smith) and Commander E.H Bailey of the Royal Navy cruiser, HMS Mohawk.
Commander Bailey and his heavily armed twenty�five sailors and nine policemen landed at Laronde Bay. They descended on the village in search of Mr. Colaire to evict and arrest him for his refusal to pay an unfair house and land tax.
Villagers blew conch shells from one end of the La Plaine hills to another announcing that Bailey and his contingent had landed and were marching towards the village and Mr. Colaire�s house. Colaire immediately went into hiding and was out of the grasp of Bailey.
Soon after, a village mob attacked Bailey�s forces with stones and sharpened sticks (�pichets�) only to be pushed back by the well armed and trained troops resulting in loss of life. After the killings, the villagers escaped and melted into the surrounding forests.
I can recall as a child my late grandfather, Mr. Burton Allan who was the village�s oral historian until his death at 92 years in 1991, lecturing me about the riot and the sad loss of life.
His uncle was killed in that incident. This uprising changed the manner in which the British Crown dealt with unrest in the colonies.
I remembered Papa �Borton� specifically telling me that when I become a man and have children, always take time to recount this part of our history to them.
During the reunion, myself, Chrissie and our two little girls (Sari, named after the majestic Sari-Sari falls and Alanna, named after my grandfather�Burton Allan) will visit and say a prayer at the site where our forbearers bravely stood up and were �cut down� by British forces on a sad but defining day long ago (April 13) in 1893.
Today we �stand� on the shoulders of the brave deceased who lost their lives in a united and justified cause.
As peasants from one of the poorest outposts on the island, they were no match for sailors of the almighty British Empire which controlled the world (at that time) and where the sun never set on it.
The festivities will continue and on Boxing Day, there will be a reunion dance at Jungle Bay Resorts in Pte Mularte. On December 29th a symposium dealing with the history, culture, current and future educational, health, agriculture, socio-economic development and human capital empowerment of the region.
The proceedings of the symposium will be formulated in a strategic plan for formation of a South East Development Committee for sustained development.
On December 30th starting at 2:00 a.m, a motorcade will originate north from the banks of the Rosalie River accompanied by lapo Cabrit bands.
The convoy will cross the Taberi, Sari-Sari, Laronde and Boetica River valleys before culminating at dawn�s early light at the banks of the mineral rich and medically therapeutic waters of La Rivere Blanc (White River) and the winds and roar of the mighty Atlantic at Pointe Mulatre Bay.
The commencement of the Motorcade being Rosalie has symbolic historical significance. It was the former provincial capital of the south east before the roads arrived.
The police station which serviced the district was based there before the roads arrived. Rosalie was a rest stop along the Chemin Lateng route.
The Rosalie estate has been sold and is no longer profitable and the roads and communication and technology have changed the dynamics of the hamlet. Today the District's main police station is based in La Plaine.
Rosalie estate was one of the most profitable estates in Dominica providing labour to peasants who lived in the (British) �crown� lands in the near by high lands.
The peasants worked on the estate but were forbidden from living on the land. Today that high land community is called Grand Fond and it is the most in-land village on the island. The estate also provided work to folks in the surronfing hamlets of Morne Juane and Riviere Cyrique.
At 9:00 pm that evening, the last event of the reunion will occur at the La Plaine Playing Field where the calypso monarchs and stars of the south east like Dominica�s reigning carnival calypso king, Dice, who hails from the hamlet of Boetica, and �Hunter� whose dad hails from La Plaine, will �bring down the house' in a massive J�Ouvert jam session.
From December 15th to 30th, please check your final destination as; Rosalie/Grand Fond and points south as all roads will lead in that direction. You will lean about the �Au Vent� region, (windward coast) its rich, colorful and painful history, culture and its aspirations for the future.
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