Juju and the Legionnaire

On exiting the aircraft at Hewanorra International Airport there was a wall of heat. A young British couple was arguing, there was something she had kept from him until now he shouted, she pushed a young child in a buggy trying to placate him, he loudly declared that he did not care if he got arrested in a different country. The passengers, St Lucians and British Airways staff looked on. I'd met two of the other sailors, Joel and Peter, and we hired Kenneth to drive us to Rodney Bay where the boat, Cleone, and the skipper, James, were waiting. Leaving the airport we passed small abandoned out of service aircraft, handmade brooms for sale on the roadside, hitchhikers, Kenneth said he had lived in France—in Marseille and other places, that was the way he had put it that he had lived in France, further inquiry revealed his career in the French Foreign Legion. He stopped to show us a view where tourists were having their pictures taken by their taxi drivers, smiling in each other's arms as the ground fell away and revealed the vast sea with small colourful fishing villages built near the shore, a few boats in the water. He looked out at the scene, he wore a purple shirt decorated with a uniform pattern of square flowers, alone I asked him again about the Legion, 'They did inhuman things'.

Kenneth left St Lucia at seven years old, shortly before independence from the UK which was on '22 February 1979' he said this as if reading out his date of birth, deliberately with no hesitation. He said the English took more than they left, and when they did leave gifted their plantations to local whites, a few went to blacks. We've done better without them, he said. St Lucia passed between English and French hands several times and on independence they chose to keep the British sovereign as head of state, more recently there have been calls for St Lucia to become a republic, though in Kenneth's estimation there was more talk of taking land back in the French colonies of Guadeloupe and Martinique, whereas English speaking Caribs were more gentle. Along the way we saw bananas bagged on trees to protect them from the sun, some would end up in the UK—they were known as ‘green gold’ by the English, he said. Kenneth was 59 years old, with four sons who were doing well in France but he did not believe in the country now, saying he had worked hard for people who did not want to work anymore, a man sat on the tailgate of a pickup in front of us with one leg inside the other out, we passed Land for Sale signs, the Sea Breeze Guest House, men tying sheets of corrugated iron to a pick up truck, a man slowly cycling with a long white pipe balanced on a shoulder, a bar on stilts with a large Guinness logo painted across the front, a man stripped to the waist in a shipping container cleaning himself with a small towel.

There was also some pride. 'Julien Alfred', he replied when I asked who the female athlete was, on several large billboards along the way, I read out the headline 'Fastest Woman in the Universe', yes she is, he replied, Alfred, known locally as Juju, had won a gold medal in the 100 metres at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris—she was the first St Lucian to ever win an Olympic medal. Having quit running when she was twelve after her father died, a coach convinced her to carry on. She dedicated her win to her late father, “He believed I could be an Olympian. That I can be here." In a photo of the win you can see to Alfred's right, the favourite, the US's Sha’Carri Richardson, there were 0.15 seconds between gold and silver. Juju's race was watched in Derek Walcott Square, named after one of the island country's most famous sons, the poet Sir Derek Walcott. Kenneth also told us St Lucia was hoping to produce all its own energy from Sulphur Springs, a geothermal field, today it got its oil from Venezuela. And that there were ten hotels under construction. Tourism was St Lucia's main trade, after which came bananas. More of St Lucia flashed by as we neared Rodney Bay and Kenneth kept up his commentary either explaining what we saw or how it came about. Sean’s Wrecker Service, Toyotas, Hondas, signs for the local beer Piton, traditional bread being baked in a wood oven, West Indies Shipping, "Our Lady of Lourdes Pray for Us" on a building on a hillside, Jays Daily Creole Bread, Monroe University, jerk chicken, a billboard for Bounty St Lucian rum, a WW2 US naval air station, and we arrived.

We told him about the plan to sail across the Atlantic. He was worried about the weather, it had rained yesterday, the wet season was meant to last from July to October but this year it went into February. We bid our farewell and went to meet James.

The next day the boat was lifted back into the water by Dwayne who wore his helmet on top of his dread sock. We moved onto the boat, there was space for six to sleep so the four of us had plenty of space. We motored around to a spot on the marina and spent a couple of days preparing the boat for the voyage. Opposite were two young couples, one from Germany and the other Austria, planning on staying in St Lucia and the surrounding islands for around a year. One was a surgeon, the professions of the others I did not inquire after, a career break or a life change I did not know. The Austrians had crossed the Atlantic and said there was little sleep. We visited the cafes and bars meeting other sailors, some fixing up boats, some touring the islands, some working on big white yachts with most of their days spent cleaning them, they complained about the clients and the work but said the money was good and bought expensive rounds. Young people posted online looking for an adventure wanting a space on a crossing to anywhere around the Caribbean. There was a life being lived on the water. And we were about to start our journey back to the UK. We left for Martinique early on Saturday morning.

In The Schooner 'Flight', Derek Walcott wrote,

Out in the yard turning gray in the dawn,
I stood like a stone and nothing else move
but the cold sea rippling like galvanize
and the nail holes of stars in the sky roof,
till a wind start to interfere with the trees.

I was looking forward to sailing at night, I wanted to see that sky.

Until the next time thank you for reading and please share this post with friends,

Adnan
Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia, 2025

Adnan Sarwar is a philosophy student at the University of Oxford and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He won The Bodley Head/Financial Times essay prize, edited for The Economist and is an Iraq war veteran of the British Army.

References

Germano, S. & Noble, J. (2024), St Lucia’s Julien Alfred takes gold in women’s 100 metres, Financial Times, Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/0f7e090b-a803-4b28-84dd-3f71f4c7cb52, Accessed 28 April 2025

Graham, P. (2024) Julien Alfred wins 100 meter for St. Lucia’s 1st Olympic medal, dedicates victory to her late father, Associated Press, Available at: https://apnews.com/article/2024-olympics-alfred-shacarri-324ed6e373f93ab7e1fcf2758c10cf75, Accessed 28 April 2025

Nicholas, T. (2024) TC Brown Reflects On His Musical Tribute To Julien Alfred, St Lucia Times, Available at: https://stluciatimes.com/166059/2024/09/tc-brown-reflects-on-his-musical-tribute-to-julien-alfred/, Accessed 28 April 2025