If you live in St Maarten, or have visited the island for any extended period of time, at some point you have either had to sit and listen to the details of someones dreams, or chances are you felt compelled to describe your own dreams to someone else in detail.
From my earliest childhood, dreams were always it appears as important, if not more important than the physical itself, because it was predictive, an omen, it foretold what was to be, so when the dream was actually fulfilled, it was simply considered a consummation of the dream.
Times are changing, and it seems that all of the old time St Maarten Dream Readers are dying out, as we are consumed by new age technology, and rise further above the rich soil of St Maarten.
I was always raised to believe that there were two distinct stages of dreaming.
The late night dream, which was considered a rehashing of the day's, or past events. You fell asleep, and whatever was preoccupying your mind at that was resolved in your dream, in a subconscious state.
The early morning (madrugada) dream, usually between 4am-6am, were considered the predictive dream.
It is supposed to foretell of events to come.
Now if you spoke to an older St Maartener, chances are they will confirm the above written statements, however if you spoke to one of the younger generation, they might laugh or scoff at the statement.
St Maarten is Americanized, and Europeanized, but like most countries built on the backs of imported African slaves, they still hold strongly to their African ancestry, culture and rituals.
In Afro-Latin countries, it's usually called "Santeria".
I've had the pleasure of meeting Mr Patrick, a local historian who works at the Kadasters office.
He wanted me to know that I was a direct descendant of the slave "Lukie", the Harriet Tubman of St Maarten, who rescued babies before they could be sold into slavery.
I never knew this, and I've read ALOT of books.
Of course, now I'm eager to learn more about my slave ancestry, because this is the first time in my life that I'm learning about this.
Someone said that she even has her own statue at the medical center. That her breast was hacked off, to teach her a lesson, and ultimately kill her, but in the age before antibiotics, and modern medicines, she survived her breast being chopped off, and continued undaunted on her rescue missions.
There are no coincidences, within a week of meeting Mr Patrick, who is publishing a historical book about St Maarten, I ran into Mr T Roumou-Priest, for the first time.
I didn't know him, but obviously we are related, I knew his dad, T. Priest, we also had some conversations that have to be continued.
There is so much about St Maarten that I am just now learning, because they never taught us ANYTHING, but a few basic facts about St Maarten in history class.
We learned about the Spanish Armada, the Romans, The Boston Tea Party, Napolean Bonaparte etc, etc, etc.
But we have NEVER been formally instructed about our ancestors and where we come from.
I learned for the first time that the signed the Concordia treaty in My yard, the yard I grew up in at Marigot Hill.
I learned about the government building being burnt in 1975 by protesters.
Can I ask why St Maarteners are being hidden from their true history?
I believe that with a Dutch Education System implemented, that it was intentionally left off of our syllabus and educational curriculum, because I guess that they didn't want us getting any ideas about rebellion.
I do remember reading about slave rebellions in Curacao, and The Jamaican Maroons, The Caribs, The Arrowaks, learning that we used to be called Soualiga.
Every bit of St Maarten's history and culture is dying out, being washed away.
Do they at least offer courses at the university about The Indigenous St Maartener?
If anyone knows of any courses being given on Indigenous St Maarten Culture and History, please let me know.
I am in the process of uploading historical documents, archives and deeds to the internet, in an effort to have ALL of St Maartens information digital, so that anyone on earth can type in the words St Maarten History, and pull up ALL of our history, not just a few appropiate and carefully selected quotes.
My next blog will be titled:
A PATTERN OF SYSTEMATIC SUBMISSION.