The year 2017 was meant to be one of celebration and remembrance in Anguilla, as the island commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 revolution. Instead, the island was suddenly swept back to a condition many thought would never again apply to Anguilla.
There was a time, however brief, when Anguilla flew its own flag, a time when unity of purpose galvanized the island’s resistance against the irrelevance to which it had been relegated by external forces, a time when Anguilla forewent all prudence and declared itself the world’s smallest republic.
There is an island on the Anegada Passage, little known and seldom visited, which once bore the riches of a hardly prosperous community and which still today pays invaluable service to seafarers and pleasure cruisers alike. It goes by the name of Sombrero Island.
For centuries, goats have ruled unmolested and hardly challenged over the peaceful speck of limestone and white sand beaches that is Anguilla. As a result, locals have come to embrace their presence as a sign of identity.