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One-Tété Lohkay: the legendary freedom fighter of Sint Maarten

According to tradition, One-Tété Lohkay was an enslaved woman on Sint Maarten who kept running for freedom. Her legend, her Emancipation Day honours and the story of her Cay Hill statue.

By SXM Daily · October 22, 2026

One-Tété Lohkay is a heroine of the slavery era on Sint Maarten, a freedom fighter whose story has come down through oral tradition rather than written records. No birth or death records exist for her. What is told about her life is legend, and it has made her a symbol of resistance on the island, honoured each year on Emancipation Day.

Illustrative: a view over Cay Hill, Sint Maarten. Photo: giggel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

The legend

According to tradition, Lohkay was an enslaved woman on a plantation on the Dutch side of the island. Legend says she tried again and again to escape. Each time she was caught and brought back, and as punishment one of her breasts was cut off, which is where the name "One-Tété" comes from. The story goes on to say that she escaped once more and fled to the hills, where she lived free.

The General Audit Chamber of Sint Maarten, which examined her legend in a 2020 report, and The Daily Herald both describe her as a female freedom fighter. Her name is spelled in several ways, including Lohkay, Lokay, One-Tete and One-Tété. According to the Audit Chamber's report, the Department of Culture has explored calling her simply "Lohkay" and dropping "One-Tété", though that was not official as of November 2020.

Emancipation Day

Lohkay is honoured on Emancipation Day, 1 July, according to the Audit Chamber. You can read more about that history in our article on emancipation and the abolition of slavery.

The statue at Cay Hill

A bronze statue of Lohkay by Nigeria-born St. Maarten artist Michael Maghiro was unveiled on Emancipation Day 2006 at the roundabout between Cay Hill and Belair. It shows her running, carrying sugarcane.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria damaged the statue in September 2017. It was taken down and kept at the sculptor's home in Pointe Blanche, according to the Audit Chamber and The Daily Herald. In February 2021 The Daily Herald reported that the restored statue was back in Cay Hill, with Culture Minister Rodolphe Samuel present.

Sources

• https://www.smn-news.com/images/stories/pdffiles/The%20Legend%20of%20Lohkay%20EN%20version.pdf
• https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/update-one-tete-lohkay-found-at-her-sculptor-s-house
• https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/statue-of-one-tete-lohkay-still-waiting-for-better-times
• https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/one-tete-lokay-statue-restored
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Maarten,Karibik-View_of_Cay_Hill-_panoramio.jpg

Source: https://www.smn-news.com/images/stories/pdffiles/The%20Legend%20of%20Lohkay%20EN%20version.pdf