Many things pleased and surprised me about this year’s 33rd consecutive observance of Saint Lucia’s two Nobel Laureates.
From December 1979, when Sir Arthur Lewis won the island’s first Nobel Prize (for Economics), Saint Lucians — for over-a-dozen years thereafter — basked in the glory of an illustrious son-of-the-soil winning one of the most-prestigious global prizes for excellence in economics thought leadership.
That eventful year (1979) had already brought the island Independence Day (February 22), the first post-independence regime-change election took place five months later (July 2) — and another five months later came the island’s first Nobel Prize in December.
Thirteen years later, with the highest number of Nobel Laureates Worldwide per capita, it was occasion for the first annual Nobel Laureates Day – which soon became a ‘Week’ and now a ‘Month’ of nationwide and international observances.
Then came Sir Derek Walcott’s Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 (for his epic 365-page poem ‘Omeros’) and it was like Saint Lucia had won a Global Cricket Cup a second consecutive time – and by 222 runs — appropriately ushering the second national justification for doubly observing Nobel Laureates Day.
The Nobel Laureates Festival Commission, led by Dame Pearlette Louisy, has – for 33 years — annually selected themes to encourage Saint Lucians (of all ages and walks of life) to emulate their two global models.
Saint Lucians have basked as well in the glories of other fellow nationals who’ve scored international and regional ‘firsts’, among them:
• Darren Sammy (for captaining the West Indies team to a Cricket Word Cup win)
• Leverne Spencer (for qualifying for successive Women’s High Jump Olympic Games Finals); and
• Julienne Alfred (for bringing home the Olympic Women’s 100-meters Gold Medal from Paris in 2024, in her first Olympiad
The Olympics being more-widely represented in world sports than the Nobel Prize in its selected disciplines to be recognized and rewarded, Alfred might well have won more praise and adulation, in a shorter time, than over the almost-47 years since Sir Arthur set the pace for Sir Derek – and others to come…
I was satisfied with the wide range of activities organized by the Festival Committee and other entities for Laureates Month 2026, even though there’s still much to be done to get John and Joan Sent Lisi to better understand why the two men are almost deified at home and abroad.
I’m not-at-all surprised that, like me, most Saint Lucians who know why we honour them have had to make extra efforts, over time, to access and acquaint ourselves with their works.
But I am (a bit) taken-aback that so-many among us who now-know, still complain (even louder today) that “too-many” fellow Saint Lucians “don’t know enough about Sir Arthur and Sir Derek.”
Indeed, their wider global landscape portraits have been minimized at home to personal statues.
As a result, many Saint Lucians still don’t know that:
• Sir Arthur’s first (and to many, his greatest) book ‘Labour in the West Indies’ (1939) was/is a global template for calculating Reparations from Britain for unpaid labour in its West Indian colonies during Slavery
• Sir Arthur carved his name in gold at the London School of Economics (LSE) as the first and youngest Black professor
• Sir Arthur was the first Chancellor of the University of Guyana (UG)
• Sir Derek was a great contributor to development of theatre and literary arts in Trinidad & Tobago, before becoming a Nobel Laureate
• Sir Derek was a passionate painter; and
• Sir Derek was an international award-winning playwright for his 1950s production of ‘The Haitian Trilogy: Henri Christophe, Drums and Colours and The Haytian Earth’, still revered as a lifetime classic today.
On the other hand, I was glad that:
• The special mass at the Coubaril Mount of Prayer offering prayers for and in the name of the Nobel Laureates was well attended.
• The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College (SALCC) secured two scholarships from a long-standing local supplier of farming products (Renwick & Co) for studies in Agriculture by two students of farming parents
• This year’s SALCC-sponsored Writers Showcase exposed the likes of me to the fact that there are many more writers who’ve published their works (at home and abroad) than most (of us) would imagine
• The recently established Sir Derek Walcott Library has been gifted all the National Poet and Nobel Laureate’s works by his wife, Sigrid Nama; and
• Sir Arthur’s works are also available to the SALCC’s Hunter J. Francois Library.
I am still not pleased, though, that:
• Not-near-enough is being done to use today’s easily available advanced IT, AI and Augmented Reality devices to take the countless life stories of the two Nobel Laureates to Saint Lucia and the world, through animations and other forms of creative, interactive multilingual TV series (including Kweyol) and 21st Century Popular Theatre
• It’s taking far-too-long for the two Nobel Laureates’ history and works to be formally inscribed into the local school’s curriculum
• Students aren’t being taught about the island’s two noble knights (from primary school to senior and tertiary institutions – and at home) and at the University of the West Indies (The UWI), which he led as Chancellor and where an Institute for Socio Economic Studies (SALISES) stands and serves in his name
• Offline citizens can’t locally purchase — and local public library don’t have — the Full Works of Lewis and Walcott; and
• There are hardly any activities between the annual Nobel Laureates Days to provide next-level platforms for promising and/or flourishing mentees
All-that (and more) aside, however, I think there are fertile grounds for sowing the seeds today for nurturing, growing and giving voice to the silent creators (poets and economists, writers and musicians, scientists, sports and gaming enthusiasts) and all the many-more sitting anxiously and patiently on tomorrow’s innovations — only waiting to be discovered, developed and deployed.
Their time has long come for Shirley-Ann Cyril to sing to them her popular Nobel-themed hit song ‘You can be next!’