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Caribbean Islands
Dubbed “the Indies” by Christopher Columbus in the late 15th century, the Caribbean Islands were subsequently designated the West Indies to distinguish them from the East Indies in Southeast Asia. Columbus’s visits to the islands during his voyages to the New World between 1492 and 1502 proved to be the beginning of a long tradition of European intervention in the area. During the 17th century the slave trade and the sugar cane originally introduced by Columbus steered the course of the region’s history.
The charming colonial architecture and stone sugar mills characteristic of the islands remain as a legacy of that era.
Many of the Caribbean Islands have since achieved independence, although some remain as overseas territories of European countries. Realizing the importance of solidarity and community, the nations formed the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) in 1973 to address economic issues and to promote development in the Caribbean.
Official name: State of Antigua and Barbuda
Area: 440 sq km
Population: 67,000
Capital: St. John’s on Antigua
Currency: Eastern Caribbean dollar
Language: English
Major cities: St. John’s, Codrington
Independence day: November 1, 1981
Major exports: Petroleum products, food, manufactures, machinery and transport equipment.
Antigua and Barbuda comprises three islands in the eastern Caribbean (Antigua, Barbuda, and uninhabited Redonda). Tourism is the mainstay of the nation’s economy. The island attracts tourist with its 300 beaches; the historic Nelson’s Dockyard in English Harbour (a national park); cruise-ship facilities; Barbuda is less developed, but offers pink sandy beaches, beauty, and wildlife; animal attractions; international sailing regatta and carnival week.
Antigua’s population is 96 per cent African and 3 per cent European, the rest comprise people of Syrian, Lebanese and Asian origin. Barbuda’s population is entirely of African descent. Most locals belong to Protestant groups, although there is a significant number of Catholics and some followers of Islam, Baha’i, and Rastafarianism. The Anglican Church is the state religion.
They have a passion for sports. Cricket is the most popular. Antiguans are proud that the last two captains of the West Indies cricket team, Viv Richards and Richie Richardson, were Antiguans. Soccer and basketball are also popular.
A popular dish is seasoned rice (rice, peas, vegetables, and meat with seasonings). Fungee is a bread made with maize meal and okra. Doucana is made with coconut, sweet potatoes, flour, sugar, and spices, and is served with spicy saltfish (dried cod). Pepper pot, a spicy vegetable stew, is prepared in many different ways, the recipe varying from home to home.
Barbados
Official name: Barbados
Area: 430 sq km
Population: 259,000
Capital: Bridgetown
Currency: Barbados dollar
Language: English and Bajan
Major cities: Speightstown, Holetown, Oistins
Independence day: November 30, 1966
Major exports: Sugar, molasses, syrup-rum, chemicals, electrical components.
Barbados is one of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean. A tropical climate, tempered by sea breezes, attracts holidaymakers from every part of the world. Good climate, coral beaches, swimming, and outdoor sports are the chief tourist attractions.
About 80 per cent of the people of Barbados are of African descent, 16 per cent are of mixed descent, and 4 per cent have a European heritage. About two-thirds of Barbadians are Protestant, 4 per cent is Roman Catholic, with small communities of Hindus, Muslims, and Jews.
Local dishes include jug-jug (Guinea maize and green peas), pepper pot (a spicy stew), and conkies (cornmeal, coconut, pumpkin, raisins, sweet potatoes, and spice steamed in a banana leaf).
Cricket is the national sport. Barbadians also enjoy soccer, bridge, chess, cycling, basketball, rugby, and volleyball. Barbados offers excellent opportunities for swimming, windsurfing and surfing, yachting, waterskiing, sailing, scuba-diving, and skin diving. Other sporting activities include polo, horse racing, golf, squash, and tennis. The national table game is dominoes. Sir Garfield Sobers, one of the most famous cricketer, belonged to Barbados.
Dominica
Official name: Commonwealth of Dominica
Area: 751 sq km
Population: 71,000
Capital: Roseau
Currency: Eastern Caribbean dollar; pound sterling; French franc
Language: English
Major cities: Portsmouth, Berekua, Marigot, Rosalie
Independence day: November 3, 1978
Major exports: Bananas, soap, coconuts, grapefruit, galvanized sheets.
Island in the eastern Caribbean, between Guadeloupe and Martinique, the largest of the Windward Islands, with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the Caribbean Sea to the west. The island has a tropical climate with an average annual temperature of about 27*C. The annual rainfall is considerable, ranging from about 1,780 mm on the coast to more than three times that in the mountains.
Christopher Columbus sighted and named Dominica (Sunday Island) in 1493. The chief tourists attraction are picturesque scenery; nature reserves; marine reserves; rich birdlife, including rare and endangered species such as the imperial parrot.
More than 90 per cent of the inhabitants of Dominica are the black descendants of slaves brought from Africa in the 18th century. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion.
Grenada
Official name: Grenada
Area: 344 sq km
Population: 93,000
Capital: St George’s
Currency: Eastern Caribbean dollar
Language: English
Major cities: Grenville, Sauteurs, Victoria, Hillsborough
Major exports: Cocoa, bananas, cocoa, mace, fresh fruit.
Grenada is an island country in the Caribbean, the southernmost of the Windward Islands. Eighty four per cent of Grenadians are descendants of African slaves who were brought by the French and then the British. Other groups include those of mixed African and European heritage (12 per cent), Asians and Europeans.
About 60 per cent of the people are Roman Catholic, while 35 per cent belong to various Protestant churches. The remaining belong to other Christian churches or practise Islam or Rastafarianism.
The national dish is called the “oil down”, a stew of callaloo, breadfruit, meat or salt fish, and coconut oil. Grenadians also eat manicou (a type of opossum) and iguana. A variety of seafood is available which includes reef fish, shark, snapper, sea turtle, tuna, lobster, as well as canned sardines and salmon.
Music is extremely popular, and people of all ages enjoy calypso, soca, reggae, raggamuffin, dub, and steel drum music.
Montserrat
Area: 110 sq km
Population: 11,957
Capital: Plymouth
The Caribbean island of Montserrat, one of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, is a dependency of Great Britain. The island is mountainous, rising to the volcanic peak of Chances Peak (2,999 feet high).
The island was sighted in 1493 by Christopher Columbus who named it after a noted monastery on Montserrat, a mountain in Spain. Montserrat produces cotton, cotton-seed, coconuts, citrus and other fruits, and vegetables.
Hurricane Hugo devastated the island in 1989. The eruption of the Soufriere Hills volcano on August 3, 1997 rendered it uninhabitable. Around 7,000 islanders were evacuated. The UK stated that it would help rebuild Montserrat, constructing a new capital city in the northern ‘safe zone’ to replace Plymouth but the government had in fact frozen such development and was encouraging islanders to leave.
St. Kitts and Nevis
Official name: Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis
Area: 262 sq km Population: 39,000
Capital: Basseterre
Currency: East Caribbean dollar
Language: English
Major cities: Charlestown, Newcastle, Sandy Point Town, Dieppe Bay Town
Independence day: September 19, 1983
Major exports: Sugar, manufactures, postage stamps, beverages and tobacco
Christopher Columbus landed on St Kitts in 1493, naming it St Christopher. The English shortened the name to St Kitts when they settled the island in 1623. Both islands are volcanic, with fertile plains on coast and black beaches. The chief tourist attractions are coral beaches on St Kitts north and west coasts; coconut forests; spectacular mountain scenery on Nevis; St Kitts historical Brimstone Hill Fort and associations with Lord Nelson and Alexander Hamilton.
Most of the islands’ inhabitants are Christians. The two major religious groups are the Anglicans and the Methodists. Before St Kitts was colonized, the Carib people called the island Liaminga, meaning “fertile land”. Today nearly one-third of St Kitts is under cultivation. Mount Misery (3793 feet) is the highest peak.
St. Lucia
Area: 617 sq km
Population: 150,000
Capital: Castries
Currency: East Caribbean dollar
Language: English
Major cities: Soufrihre, Vieux-Fort, Laborie
Independence day: February 22, 1979
Major exports: Bananas, coconut oil, cocoa beans, copra, beverages, tobacco, miscellaneous articles.
Tropical climate; sandy beaches; mountain scenery; rich birdlife; historical sites; sulphur baths at Soufrihre are the chief tourist attractions of St. Lucia.
The majority (90 per cent) of the people are descendants of Africans brought to the island as slaves. Five per cent are of mixed European and African heritage. Religion plays an important role in the lives of most St Lucians. About 80 per cent of the people are Roman Catholic. The rest are Seventh-Day Adventists, Pentecostals, and Anglicans. Soccer and cricket are St Lucia’s most popular sports. St Lucians enjoy many types of music, including calypso, soca, reggae, American country, and cadance. Quadrille dancing is also popular.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Area: 388 sq km
Population: 112,000
Capital: Kingstown
Currency: East Caribbean dollar
Language: English
Major cities: Georgetown, Chbteaubelair, Layon, Baronallie
Independence day: October 27,1979
Major exports: Bananas, eddoes, dasheen, sweet potatoes, flour, ginger, tannias, plantains, tennis racquet.
St Vincent and the Grenadines is part of the Windward Islands group in the southeastern Caribbean Sea. St Vincent and the Grenadines is volcanic in origin. It is crossed by a forested range that rises to a maximum elevation in the northern part of the island at La Soufriere (4,049 feet), an active volcano that erupted violently in 1821, 1902, and 1979.
Famous white beaches, clear waters, lush vegetation and excellent yachting facilities are enough to attract tourist to this part of the world. Agriculture dominates the country’s economy. Bananas is the principal crop, and St Vincent is the world’s leading producer of arrowroot. Other important crops include nutmeg, mace, and coconuts.
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