Saint Martin Communal Identities on a Divided Caribbean Island Ank Kl omp Klom p, Ank 2000: Saint Martin. Communal Identities on a Divided Cari bbea n fs land. - Ethnologi a Europaea :10, 2:73-86. The Cari bbea n i::dandSt Martin, wi th a land area ofabout 90 km", is divided by an inte rnational border. ' The northern part forms an integral part of the French Republ ic, the southern ar·ea belongs to the Netherlands Antil les, an autonomous con stituent ofthe Dutch Kingdom . Despite the partition which exists already fin· 3fi0yea rs, St Marti ners conceive themselves as one people. A peop le wh ich shares a la nguage <English), an national anthem, and many inte rests. In my pape r I wil l describe St Martin as a special borderland case. Special because in this small demarcated space, centre and periphery overlap. The whole of St Martin may be concei ved as a borderland . On the other hand St Martin docs not stand on its ow n, each of the two sections ofthe island forms part ofa larger country. In this respect St Marti n is like other borderlands, which are the peripheries of larger entities. I will indicate what makes St Martin a unity, and I will indicate that differences between the French and the Dutch part. It will become clear that the impact ofthe at tachment to th e centres, th e two European states, fo rms a threat to th e unity of the island. This impact increased concomitantly with the move towards unification in Europe. Luckily there are countervailing forces of which the awareness of the local popul ation fo rms one of the elements. Dr Ank Klomp, Department of" Cultural Anthropology, POB 80 140, NL -3508 TC Utrecht, the Ne therlands. E-mail: A.Klomp@FSS. UU.NL 'It's Dutch, it's French, it's Caribbean', a tourist longer perceived as fixedand impermeable. The slogan once proclaimed. The mess age is still border is inextricably bound up with the fate of true: the island Saint Martin is Dutch, French, the nation state and the nation state is nowa­ and Caribbean. The northern area is an inte­ days often confined to the dustbin of history gral part of the French Republic, while the (Creveld 1999, Hobsbawm 1990). Not all agree south belongs to the Netherlands Antilles, an about its demise, however. Wilson and Donnan autonomous constituent of the Dutch Kingdom. (1998 :2) stress the continuing importance of However, Saint Martin's most interesting char­ the state in shaping the lives of its subjects. acteristic is its shared 'C aribbean' identity: for According to their viewpoint, "the new politics notwithstanding a division of more than three of identity is in large part determined by the old hundred and fifty years Saint Martiners still structure of the state." They propose the devel­ see themselves as one people. They are proud of opment of an anthropology of international their unity, 'We are an example to the world' a borders, an attempt to "integrate seemingly self-conscious Saint Martiner will say referring divergent trends in the study of power and to the long-standing peaceful coexistence and culture."They argue that " [T)heir integration in not without justificationgiven the fate of other an anthropology of borders resides in the focus divided islands. But not all Saint Martiners are on the place and space of visible and literal content with the present situation, some are in borders between states, and the symbolic bound­ favour of a united independence. aries of identity and culture which make na­ International borders have recently received tions and states two very different entities."2 much attention. The reason is clear: they are no Saint Martin is a good case for illuminating 73 the debate on internationalbor ders. On the one Historical Background ha nd the border on Sa int Marti n is like other borders di scu ssed in the literature (Don nan The division of Saint Martin dates fr om the and Wi lson 199tl , Wi lson unci Donnan 1998, curly involvement ofthc Fren ch and the Dutch Rosuldo 1989). The border on Suint Marti n, this in the Caribbean. A treaty signed in 1648, "twin dependency of other dependencies, Ithis I giving France the slightly larger portion (56 double appendage of other peri pheries" (Badejo km2) still fo rms the basi s of the relationship 1990:1 20), is on the political margins of two today. Nowadays the border is marked by little (large) states. The French and Dutch govern­ more than a hump in the road and fr ien dly ments regulate the daily lives oftheir subjects signs, written in French on the French side and on their respective parts of the island. The two in English and Dutch on the Dutch side" , wel­ Sai nt Marti ns arc constructed as separate com ­ coming the visitor. A small monument reminds mu nities by the interventions of the core state the visitor of the long fr iendship betw een the to which they belong. The tics which bind each two sides. There are no border controls. Th is is side of Saint Marti n to the metropolis create remarkable, as the border is an outer EU bor­ barri ers to the un ity of the island. This became der: French Saint Martin, as an integral part of particularly evident when each metropolitan France, fo rms part of the EU, while Dutch Saint power stepped up its concern for this distant Martin, which belongs to the autonomous Neth­ outpost ofthe realm concomitant with the proc­ erlands Antilles, is only an associated member. ess of European unification . The customs barrier was scrapped when Saint On th e other hand Sa int Martin is an island, Martin became a fr ee port in 1939. and as an island, and as a (semi)colonial island, Although Saint Martin was a plantation is­ it has some specific ch aracteri stics. An island is land in the past, the climate was too dry for a clearly demarcated space, and in the case of successful agriculture. "Salt, not sugar f-1 was Saint Martin, this is a very small demarcated king here" as Badejo (1990: 121) puts it. But salt space indeed, about 90 km2 altogether. Donnan was never economically important enough for and Wilson's (1994: 3) assertion, "that all bor­ the island to prosper. After the abolition of ders, by their very historical, political and social slavery (in 1848 on the French part and in 1863 constructions, serve as barriers of exclusion on the Dutch part), plantation agriculture prac­ and protection, marking 'home' from the 'for­ tically ceased and the land was divided up for eign'," does not apply to Saint Martin: the bor­ subsistence farming. The majority of the popu­ der between French and Dutch Saint Martin lation are descended fr om African slaves, most does not carry this exclusionary significance.As white plantation owners left the island after will be seen below, Saint Martiners do share the abolition. Often people had to go elsewhere 'com.m.u nitas' and 'societas' with those at the to earn a living. The most significant destina­ other side of the border. tion for Dutch as well as French Saint Martin­ This article begins by providing a brief his­ ers, were the oil refineries, established on torical background to Saint Martin. I then dis­ Curaao in 1918 and on Aruba in 1927. The tide cuss those elements which are shared by the turned towards the end of the 1950s, when the two Saint Martins and fo cus on the centripetal opening ofthe firstmodern hotel in 1955 marked tendencies in Saint Martin society. The second the beginnings of a tourist boom. In 1994 the part addresses the differences between the two island had more than 7,000 hotel rooms, nearly island parts and considers the centrifugal fo rc­ 733 cruise ships dropped their anchor at its es. In the third part I review the unity of Saint harbours, and 627 ,406 persons passed through Martin and speculate about the fu ture. the airport (La Guadeloupe 1993: 120, and 1996:91-93 ). Consequently, the population grew rapidly (see Table 1). 74 Table 1.PopulaI. ion orSi II t Mrw rte /1 and Sa int -Ma rtin English islands or North America. Given th e (1954- 1 !J9:.l). angl ophone origin of many inhabitants, and Lhe contacts with th e su rrounding'English' islands, Sai11 I Marfi11 English of a Creole variety became the mother 1,597 19GIJ 3,364 tongue of all Saint Martiners. 7,807 1 971 6,191 The 'Engli sh' influence is also clearly di::;­ 13,15 6 1982 8,072 cernible in the religious orientation of Sai nt Marti ners, the majority of whom belong to a 32,221 1. 990 29,G05 Protestant church (Richardson 1996:62). Th ese Source: Hartog 1.981 : 12:3 ; Census of Sin t Mam·ten churches have an all-Saint Martin organiza­ 1992: 45; Ccnsu ofSa int -Ma rt in 1990: 20. tion. The Roman Catholic Church is now th e largest on both Sint Maarten and Saint-Mart in as most newcomers are Roman Catholics. This At the end of the 1950s many Saint Martiners" , church is not organized on a cross-border basis. who had migrated to Aruba or Curac;:ao, re­ However the split is, or never was, that seri ous. turned home, accompanied by their children French priests with sufficientcommand ofEng­ born on one of the Dutch Leewards." Other lish to preside at mass were difficult to find so migrants began to arrive as well and in large Dutch priests were often appointed on the 1 numbers as the figures in table suggest.