IN Sir Dunstan St Omer, St Lucia has lost not only its most famous artist, designer of our flag, cultural hero and icon. We have lost as well a true nationalist who throughout his life demonstrated pride, belief and confidence in, as well as love for his country. He exemplified all what a country should expect of its sons and daughters. We concur with the Prime Minister’s label, and agree emphatically that he was simply “phenomenal”.
St Omer’s death will be a great loss because he was the kind of St Lucian that we may never be able to replace. Cool, humble, down to earth, with a tremendous sense of humour, St Omer achieved greatness but he was never consumed by it. He never lost the common touch even while chalking up a long list of accolades and awards including a knighthood, his country’s highest honour, a papal medal and an honorary university degree
Not much has been made of the fact that St Omer was sometimes a controversial figure who was not afraid to speak and, yes, paint his mind. His depiction of a black deity would have raised eyebrows even in the Roman Catholic Church of his faith, but who could fault St Omer’s unique logic: “If my faith depends on Christ being white, I think I will lose my faith because the relationship that exists in the world between the white race and the black race is one of prejudice and inferiority for the blacks”.
St Omer was also something of a philosopher. In an interview with this newspaper earlier this year, he described his life as being based on two principles. “The first one is that if you have to live a good life, you have to find the right road. I found the right road in christianity because if you do good, then why should you be afraid? If good is not a greater power, forget it. The other side of me is that I’m a black man and the whole world is open to me to make a name not just for myself but for my people. No man can really be great by himself; he has to be part of his people”.
The last sentence is indeed a profound statement and one would hope that St Lucians who aspire to greatness, now or in the future, would be so guided.
But it now occurs to us that over the past five or six years, St Lucia has been rapidly losing the presence of a large number of its stalwarts in the fields of arts and culture, creating a void that may never be filled any time in the immediate future. Such loss is bound to impact negatively on our country, leaving us much poorer than we already are.