SXMElections.com

By John van Kerkhof

COLE BAY--“Early Wednesday, around midnight, a group of people identified as runaway slaves, could be seen crossing the road, hurrying up the slopes of Diamond Hill, rapidly vanishing between the trees and bushes. Only the meagre lights of lanterns assisted them on their way. Shortly after, a man on horseback approached, accompanied by two men with hounds. Several gunshots were fired as the men tried to prevent the group from crossing the border between the Dutch and French sides of the island,” thus could have read the first paragraph of a newspaper report on July 1, 1848, on the escape of 26 slaves from Diamond Estate in Cole Bay running to freedom on the French side.

This historic event, known as the Run for Freedom, was re-enacted on this scenario early Wednesday with much passion and enthusiasm by a group of approximately 100 persons, who took on the roles of fleeing Dutch slaves and their freed peers of the French side.

Like the short but perilous journey of the slaves in 1848, when slavery had just been abolished on the French side, but still existed on the Dutch side, the journey of the “runaway slaves” began at midnight at the Caribbean Auto parking lot to usher in Emancipation Day 2015.

The group, costumed in nineteenth-century clothing trekked barefooted or on sandals through the bushes from Diamond Estate to Bellevue.

Coordinator Clara Reyes said this may very well have been the last possibility to organise a re-enactment on this location, as ongoing development in the area may block off access to hillside paths in the future. “Several slave walls here have already disappeared,” she said.

Carrying torches and lanterns to light the way the “slaves” escaping the hardships of plantation life stealthily navigated the bushes to freedom. Due to the dry weather and to reduce the chance of fire, most lanterns were battery-powered this time.

Not only the moon assisted the “runaway slaves” to find their way over rocky paths and “treacherous” tree roots and other obstacles. The re-enactment was also captured on a number of video-cameras, every so often putting the modern-day escapees in bright spotlights.

Nevertheless, the actors and dancers, Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs Rita Bourne-Gumbs among them, played their part vividly as they were chased. Tears were shed and wails were heard as the runaways hid and crouched behind hilltops and bushes to stay out of the hands of their ruthless pursuers, who could be heard shouting and cursing as they were searching.

Sweaty, thirsty and breathless, the runaways reached a clearing in Bellevue at a short distance from the Cole Bay/Bellevue border point, where they were welcomed by song and the sound of drums by their freed counterparts. These had also made a somewhat easier journey through the bushes from just outside Marigot.

At the clearing, both groups met and burst out in song, singing of their newly-attained freedom and release from bondage. United, they thanked God for deliverance from the “evil institution of slavery.”

To pulsating drum rhythms, forbidden in the days of slavery, group members not only sang traditional songs, but also danced their hearts out in a rendition of the Ponum dance, as well as in tap dance, as this was another means of expression used by the enslaved.

Poets read verses in remembrance of ancestors who struggled and died for freedom, in which they also reflected on modern-day slavery and injustice.

Run for Freedom was coordinated by Co-director of National Institute of Arts Clara Reyes and President of Conscious Lyrics Foundation Shujah Reiph. In an emotional vote of thanks Reiph showed his gratitude to all persons who took part in Run for Freedom and had shown respect and admiration to the forefathers who had broken the chains of slavery.

This evil should never return, Reiph said, in quoting several verses of “Redemption Song.” An a cappella rendition of this well-known Bob Marley classic closed off the impressive event. Previous re-enactments of the Diamond Estate escape were held in 2005 and 2006.