A squandered opportunity

I want to put on record how sad I am that such a great opportunity for St Helena is being squandered by the wholly unnecessary rush to rebury the bones of the “Liberated Africans” in Ruperts.

We should be making an international event of it.  People with an interest in the history of enslavement – and there are many - would have come from all over the world to attend the event.  Slavery is a very hot topic in America at the moment, as it is in Britain, the Caribbean and – of course – Africa.  The international media attention could have been enormous.  The world’s media would have been delighted to talk about St Helena.

In my view we should have delayed the event until March/April/May next year.  By then the rush of Saints coming home for Christmas will be over and there should be the availability on the flights to get people here.  If the event was well enough publicised it might even be possible to charter a flight to bring headline-grabbing big-name interested parties here, and there are plenty of them.

The worldwide attention it would have given to St Helena could have re-launched our tourism industry after the ravages of Covid-19, and the additional income to the island – to our government and to our tourism-related businesses who have suffered so much recently - would not have gone amiss either.

If nothing else, the weather would have been warmer; much better suited for an essentially outdoor event.

Yes, I know the bones and artefacts of these unfortunate people have lain abandoned for fourteen years in the Pipe Store, disrespectfully stored in cardboard boxes, poked and prodded by scientists.  At least now they are respectfully stored in a place that would have been familiar to them during their brief time here.  In my opinion, another six-to-nine months would not have made a whole lot of difference and the respect shown by having a large international attendance to witness and celebrate the event of their reburial would have more than made up for it.

So why just rush them into the ground now with nobody present except the few Saints who will turn up on a (probably) cold, wet and windy August Sunday afternoon at the peak of fear of Covid-19?  I cannot see any logic behind this.

It is perhaps ironic that the reburial is being planned in a way that seems to actively oppose all the reasons these people were dug up in the first place – to encourage tourism by building the airport.

We missed out on the opportunity of Napoleon’s Bicentenary (in 2021) due to Covid-19.  We will miss out on the opportunity from the reburial due to bad planning.

I am immensely disappointed.