One of the main events that remains indelible on the minds of the older people of Anguilla, who still relish their patriotic thoughts about the island’s 1967 Revolution, is the breaking up of the St. Kitts-organised Statehood Queen Show.
The event was on Saturday, February 4, 1967 – 54 years ago, this past Thursday, February 4, 2021. The show was put on by a drama group involving the St. Kitts Jaycees with a number of contestants from Anguilla participating.
It was to mark the attainment of Associated Statehood with Britain for the former colony of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla – and was endorsed by the Central Government in St. Kitts which was given responsibility for internal affairs.
The Anguillians were opposed to that arrangement – having endured an unpopular union of their island with St. Kitts in 1825. They have had a long history of complaints against the St. Kitts Government about its political ill-will to, and neglect of, Anguilla; and for almost a century and a half they made repeated demands for separation without success. Fearing for their future, they wanted no part of Associated Statehood under the St. Kitts Government – and so the Statehood Queen Show was broken up, sparking off a series of protests which climaxed in the Anguilla Revolution on May 30, 1967. The St. Kitts Policemen were forced to leave the island and a Peacekeeping Committee took over the day-to-day affairs of Anguilla. Thirteen years later, Anguilla was granted its long wish for separation – by the British Government – from St. Kitts.
The rest is history.
The story of the breaking up of the Statehood Queen Show is carefully told in the book: Anguilla’s Battle For Freedom 1967-1969 by Colville Petty and Nat Hodge. Copies of this well-sought-after book are available at The Anguillian newspaper’s office.
