Photo Credit: Ángel Velázquez Herrera Photo Credit: Justin( Saskheat) Photo Credit: James Carmine Armato
Photo Credit: James Carmine Armato © Photo Credit: James Carmine Armato
Photo Credit: James Carmine Armato
On landing in St. Kitts, I took a taxi for the 5-minute ride( yes, literally 5 minutes!) into Basseterre, the island’ s capital, and was let off in the heart of town at the“ Circus”. The“ Circus”, lively and bustling, consists of a huge circle in which open-air restaurants are nestled neatly among one-door shops and breezy, welcoming bars in multi-storey buildings. At the centre of the Circus sits the Berkeley Memorial, a towering green cracker boxshaped structure that integrates a 4-point-facing clock and drinking fountain and is named after an early Kittitian legislator and estate owner, Thomas Berkeley-Hardtman. The Memorial is a popular local hangout spot and photo opp for tourists. As we pulled up to the
Circus, I remember feeling like a passenger on one of the toy trains frequently pictured on Christmas cards from my youth. In my imagination, we were entering a tiny world with tiny cars and tiny people rushing about doing their tiny things. What a cute picture! I reluctantly brought myself back to reality.
My purpose here was lunch, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that in the same ¨Circus¨ the island’ s national museum was also ideally situated. As a museum aficionada, I had to take a look! Housed in the historically significant old treasury building, the museum offers simple displays of the island’ s history and culture. Heart-wrenching drawings of downcast slaves wearing spiked
collars are juxtaposed with photos of brightly or scantily-clad sun-drenched paraders revelling in Sugar Mas, St. Kitts’ annual carnival celebration. Around an eye-level partition, a brownskinned mannequin is revealed sporting a madras( the red, green, and yellow plaid pattern characteristic of many islands’ cultural dress)-accented outfit and flanked by national symbols and a visual account of St. Kitts and Nevis’ independence. In the mild heat and soft sunlit glow of the room, I was silently whisked away to a bygone era: old-time artefacts- typewriters, sewing machines, irons, carpentry and stone tools and a Warri game( traditional African game)- pieced together the intriguing story of daily life in 19th century St. Kitts.
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Photo Credit: Justin Thorsteinson
afficionada, I had
Sugar Mas, St. Kitts' annual