Reparations will form part of the cultural conversation at this year’s Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival with the staging of ‘Repair’, a satirical musical production at the Anchorage Car Park on Tuesday, May 5.
Presented as part of the festival’s Art and the City programme, ‘Repair’ uses music, humour and storytelling to invite audiences to reflect on the connection between Saint Lucia’s colonial legacy, the country’s present-day challenges, and the changes needed to move forward.
For Sherween Gonzales, Saint Lucia-based Community Organiser with event sponsor The Repair Campaign, the play offers an accessible way to expand conversations around identity, community and reparatory justice.
“As an educator, I see the arts as one of the most powerful ways to reach people,” Gonzales said. “‘Repair’ allows us to engage audiences through laughter, music, story and reflection, while still asking serious questions about who we are, what we have inherited, and what reparations can look like for Saint Lucia.”
Christelle Lee, who portrays lead character Ma Ayo, said the production speaks to how history continues to shape everyday life.
“I believe the very lives we live are intricately shaped by our history,” Lee said. “The reality that our ancestors endured years of subjugation, torture and torment has quietly crept into our psyche. It has influenced how we approach life, how we view and trust systems, and even how we show up for each other. That is exactly why this story matters. This play invites you to reflect, to question and to reconnect with a history that still lives within us.”
That reflection is central to the purpose of ‘Repair’. Rather than presenting reparations as a distant or abstract issue, the production places the topic in a format that is familiar, cultural and community-centred. “The topic of reparations is increasingly important to us, and we should take every opportunity available to educate our people,” said actor Kolbe Devaux, who portrays Robert in Repair.
“To me, the chance to do so using theatre arts is a perfect union. It provides another avenue for sharing information with the public, while taking a cultural art form usually seen solely as entertainment and using it to make a real impact on its audience. These things line up with our goals as a group for every performance we do.”
Repair is free to the public and will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Anchorage Car Park in Castries.
United Nations matters should be dealt with at the United Nations. And let jazz be jazz. Don’t chip away at an already dying event.
Reparations are not coming. Too many of us are staring at this non-starter with googly eyes. My suggestion is to get another “cause celebre.”
To understand where the momentum for reparations is going, you must first look to Europe which is the payer. I am amiss that one would think that the present environment in Europe, would cause one to believe that a huge payout was around the corner. Europe wants immigrants out. Its literature is about how good they have been. Most of it is under economic strain brought even further down by the oil crisis. The populations care less about what happened in the past to other people. They are firmly looking forward trying to delay their future fall from power. Most importantly, they don’t have that kind of money sitting on the night stand. Did I say anything about nationalism?
We must come to the realization that those reparations meetings are just time wasters. This negotiating technique has been around for ages. At every meeting, they agree to meet again. Just consider ourselves ripped off and move on. Unfortunately, politicians have so much to gain by keeping this sham going. They are pretending that they are in overdrive working for the people…which always translates to votes. Deep down, they know this effort is going nowhere.
Let’s fold up the banners, pick up the confetti laying on the ground. It was fun while it lasted. Time to get serious and come to the realization that no pile of money is coming our way. We were suckered. Tell me again how African countries have joined our reparations battle.