Hairouna, Land of the Blessed: St Vincent and the Grenadines

Mireille delves into the history of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, covering topics such as geography or one main island and 32 smaller islands, the indigenous tribes, colonization, slavery, indentured servitude, cultural integration, religious influences, and Hema discusses food and traditional cuisine. It highlights the resilience and cultural diversity of the island nation.

Resources

https://www.caribbeanlife.com/late-vincentian-cultural-icon-brought-big-drum-alive-in-union-island/
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/archives/2022/countries/saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines/
https://thevincentian.com/a-brief-historical-overview-of-the-portuguese-in-st-vincent-and-the-grenad-p20809-133.htm   
https://2009-2017.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/saintvincentandgrenadines/11730.htm
https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines
https://www.gipsvginc.org/history.html
https://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines.html
https://www.gov.vc/index.php/visitors/culture-festivals
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-culture-of-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines.html
https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230518102531/https://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce54c.html
https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-106157/
https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/18060/variables
https://www.searchlight.vc/dr-fraser/2010/07/23/sugar-slavery-and-emancipation-in-st-vincent-a-brief-overview/
https://www.georgetownsvgrevisited.co.uk/indentees-who-were-they.php
https://yelhispressing.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/19th-century-protest-movements-in-the-west-indies/
https://tourism.gov.vc/tourism/
http://botanicalgarden.gov.vc/botanicalgarden/index.php/history
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222019017

Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y2CLM0rQ

Transcript

Hema: Hi Mireille.

Mireille: Hi Hema.

Hema: We are back with another episode of The Moreish Podcast. We ended last week with a little hint on the country we're talking about today, and we said this country has one main island and 32 smaller islands. Mireille, which country are we talking about today?

Mireille: St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

 So have you ever been to St. Vincent and the Grenadines?

Hema: I have not been to St. Vincent and the Grenadines and I'm really excited to learn everything that you know. found out in your research.

Mireille: I learned so much about St. Vincent and Grenadines. This is one of the few Caribbean islands I have absolutely no connection to, and I've never been there. So let's just get right into it.

The country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines consists of the main island of St. Vincent, located 20 miles southwest of St. Lucia, and 100 miles west of Barbados and the northern Grenadine islands.

 The Grenadines includes 32 islands, with St. Vincent having control of the northern islands, like I said.

The largest being Bequia, Moustique, Canaon, Meraux, Palm Island, Petite St. Vincent, and Union. I'm sorry if I mispronounced some of those. Some of the islands are even privately owned. St. Vincent is mountainous, with the highest peak being Mount Soufrière at 4, 000 feet.

This is a volcanic mountain which has erupted violently many times over the years, as recent as 2021, causing damages, displacement of people, and hindrances to economic development. Like many other islands of this region, we've already discussed, like St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia. The Siboney's were the first Indigenous people on the islands, later replaced by the Arawak and then replaced by the Kalinago. The Kalinago named the island Hairoun, Land of the Blessed. For a long time, January 2nd, 1498 was celebrated in St. Vincent as Discovery Day. However, it has now been proven that Columbus did not discover the island on that day. Hema, have you heard about the Garifuna before?

Hema: I don't know a lot about the Garifuna. My understanding I'm sure you're going to tell us. My understanding is they were a mix of African and Indigenous, and they were referred to as black Caribs? Am I right?

Mireille: Well, here in New York City, and specifically in the Bronx, we have the largest Garifuna population in North America. and the Garifuna have ties to St. Vincent, which is why I'm bringing them up. Somewhere in the 1600s.

Some records say 1635, while others say 1673, so take your pick. A slave ship got shipwrecked somewhere near St. Vincent. The Kalinago rescued them and intermarried with the Africans. They would later be called the Black Caribs by the colonizers. Today, they are known as the Garifuna.

 A shared culture emerged. with the Kalinago absorbing West African music and dance and the Africans learning seafaring from the Kalinago and absorbing some of their religious traditions.

Hema: I think this is a really good example of what the people of the Caribbean became over the years. nice mix of cultures based on who was there, who was brought there, and maybe who was already originally on the island.

Mireille: The Kalinago language absorbed African words, and that is how we have the Garifuna language, cuisine, and culture that is present today. Just to note, history books will most likely refer to the people here as the Black Caribs or just the Caribs, but to be factually accurate, I will refer to them as the Garifuna Kalinago. St. Vincent was one of the last islands to be colonized. In the 1700s, the British, French, and Dutch all attempted to settle on St. Vincent. but the Garifuna Carinago resisted.

However, they allowed the French a small settlement on the island in 1719 who they preferred to have as neighbors as compared to the more aggressive British. However, the control of the island went to the British with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and then later again with the Treaty of Versailles in 1783.

Whenever the British were in control, the Garifuna Kalinago refused to accept them. This led to the first Carib war of 1772, led by the Kalinago chief Joseph Chatoyer with the British. After 10 months of battle a, a peace treaty was agreed upon, essentially dividing the island in half. But this didn't last for long.

In 1795, the British settlers complained that the Garifuna Kalinago had the most fertile land on the island.

 The Second Carib War against the British resulted in the Garifuna Kalinago being forced to surrender.

Chatoyer was killed and is regarded as St. Vincent's first national hero. Many of the Garifuna Kalinago hid out in the interior until 1805, when they were pardoned for their considered treasonous war.

Hema: The people that went to the interior and hid out, would they have been considered Maroons?

Mireille: I don't think so because they didn't hide out. They were, basically the British allowed them, said, okay, you can stay here at this part. Okay. It wasn't like they were hiding out and the British couldn't find them. The British won the second Carib war and said, okay, you guys, who apparently look completely indigenous, since you're not mixed with the black folk, we're going to let you stay here.

The ones that, um, the black Caribs that you guys mix, we're going to send you over to Roatan Island, which is part of present day Honduras.Most of the ones that remained on St. Vincent died of starvation and disease, and their language and religious traditions were outlawed, which caused them to go extinct. As a result, the Garifuna language and culture disappeared on the island. However, the language and culture of the Garifuna survived in present day Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, St. Vincent became part of the Windward Islands, which also includes Dominica, Tobago, Grenada, and the Grenadines. After the treaty in 1763, the British set up sugar plantations, and enslaved people began to arrive from Africa.

Although the French had small numbers of slaves, mass importation of slaves did not happen until the sugar industry developed under the British.

They came from Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and the Gold Coast, present day Ghana. In addition to sugar, plantations also produced cotton, coffee, cocoa, and indigo. In 1791, this union collapsed and St. Vincent took control of the northern Grenadine Islands while Grenada had control of the rest.

Perhaps since slavery started much later in St. Vincent, the enslaved seem to have been treated a little less brutally here. However, it was still slavery. They had many restrictions on their lives. They could not leave the plantations without a ticket, unless they were going to market. They were given provision land, which we also discussed previously, so that they could grow their own crops.

They would sell these at market. On August 1st, 1834, slavery ended, but they were still required to serve an apprenticeship as referenced in previous episodes. In 1838, they would achieve full emancipation. With the abolition of slavery, indentured servants arrived. About 2, 429 arrived from India. between 1861 and 1880. I'm going to link an article in the show notes that goes into horrible detail what life for these Indians was like, but I just wanted to read a little excerpt to demonstrate the harsh reality

According to Lieutenant Governor Rennie, Indian women who chose migration came from the class which was not very rigid in their morality. There were at least two Indian men to every Indian woman. But according to Rennie, these few women, considering the class to which they mostly belong, are quite sufficient for the men they accompany.

In other words, each woman should be expected to provide at least two men with sexual relations. In 1870, one episode reveals the perilous position of many Indian women who were without the protection of their families or the support of their employers. Saberchanney, a laborer on Argyll Estate, was held on the floor by several men and flogged 18 times on the back by Samuel Parsons, an English overseer. She was punished in this way for refusing to have sex with one of the Indian drivers.

Hema: I think it's the colonizer's view of people. When they say the women were not, quote unquote, not very rigid in their morality, but also in the same paragraph say they are required to provide sexual relations to two men, it seems very contradictory. And it seems like they are judging people that they do not know and calling them lower in morality as they have done. to the enslaved people and to the indentured servants. It's very clear that the colonizers do not see these people as people.

Mireille: Absolutely I always say whenever we're looking at these histories, look at who's writing these histories. And when it's the colonizers writing the history that we're using, take that with a grain of salt, you know, because they, their histories are written with their own biases and prejudices in their points.

We've talked about indentured servants being a source of labor after the end of slavery, mostly from India, as referenced above, and China. Now I'm introducing a new group of indentured servants who also came to the Caribbean. Poor people from the Madeira Islands of Portugal answered the call for labor on the plantations of the Caribbean.

They would go to Brazil, guyana, Trinidad, Antigua, and St. Vincent. 2, 100 of these Portuguese would come to St. Vincent between 1845 and 1850. However, their indenture was far easier than those who came from Asia. Their contracts only lasted maybe one to two years, and they were given a free piece of land called a yam piece.

They were given free housing. and medical attention for six months until the yam piece started producing food. Despite this, many still fled. Unaccustomed to the tropical climate, harsh working conditions, and unhygienic living conditions, many died and many fled to neighboring Caribbean islands like St. Kitts. For the ones that stuck it out, they acclimatized by the end of their indenture and remained on the island. Not only in St. Vincent, but in many Caribbean islands. Racial tensions would start between these newly arrived indentured servants and the formerly enslaved. It was difficult for the enslaved to find work when the indentured servants replaced their labor.

During the riots of 1862, while the plantation owners were the primary target, East Indian and Portuguese indentured workers were also targeted.

The roots of these riots and several that occurred in the Caribbean post slavery is a carryover from slavery when the slaves would be given rum, molasses, salt fish, provision land, and medical care. This continued post slavery and the formerly enslaved considered this to be part of their wages. When the former slave owners would stop giving these rations amid an economic depression, this is what caused these riots.

To this day, many Vincy's have Portuguese last names like Da Silva, Gomes, and Gonçalves, although some would anglicize their names. Many would become small traders, merchants, and shopkeepers. They form a vital part of St. Vincent's business class and have been absorbed into Vincy culture. Their Roman Catholic faith has influenced the culture of the island with the tradition of Nine Mornings, where a Christmas novena takes place, often as early as 3am on the nine mornings before Christmas.

This tradition also includes street parades or concerts.

Towards the end of the 1800s, sugar prices fell, plunging the country into a depression that would last until the turn of the century. The hurricane of 1898 and eruption of the Soufrière volcano in 1902, killing 2000 people and destroying much of the land, firmly ended the sugar crops in St. Vincent.

 and Sea Island Cotton would replace it as the primary until bananas would replace those in the 1950s. Today, bananas and arrowroot are major crops, with others including coconut, yam, dasheen, or taro root, eddoe, sweet potatoes, and plantain.

Hema: I've never heard anybody refer to eddo in the singular. Every time I say it, it's eddoes

Mireille: say eddoe, but I'm also born and raised in America. So, you know, but eddoe is something I'm trying to think for my mother. I think she says singular too. It's not like the okra, ochro thing.

Hema: I've only ever heard it referred to as eddoes. To my ear, it sounds like when people refer to doubles as a double. It just doesn't sound right to my

Mireille: My mother hardly calls it eddoe because eddoe is actually part of one of the most popular, like holiday meals or anything in Suriname. Um, the dish is called Pom and the main ingredient is eddoe, but in Suriname, it's a different language. So we call it Pomtayer.

And so maybe that's a come, I don't have an English reference to it

 St. Vincent remains a mostly agricultural society, despite the focus on the development of the tourism industry, starting in 1993. The quest for representation began in 1925 with the setup of a legislative assembly, but descendants of slaves were excluded. Autonomy for all was eventually achieved in 1969 and independence on October 27th, 1979.

Although English is the official language, they also speak an English based patois with influences from African languages, as well as Spanish, Portuguese, and French. A French based patois is also spoken by some. 70 percentnt of Vinceys are Black, with minorities of Portuguese, Garifuna Kalinago, East Indian, and others.

Most are Protestant, with the majority being Pentecostal, with Catholic, Hindu, and Muslim minorities. A religion also known as Shaker, or Spiritual Baptists in St. Vincent, combines Protestant and African religions. It was banned from 1912 until the 1960s, but has seen a resurgence in recent years.

Much of the music of St. Vincent is akin to those found on other islands, but the music and dances of the big drum is something that has been handed down generationally from the African ancestors. Most common on Union Island, this tradition carries on today. Big drums, usually made from tree trunks, dried goatskin and calabash, are made so that each drum in the group sounds a little different, has different tones.

Artisans of this craft are highly regarded for their skill. Rooted in African religions, big drum dances and songs may be performed to ward off evil spirits, heal the sick, or call upon ancient deities. Big drum dances are also included in festivals and especially weddings for blessings and to bring good luck.

The first dance in honor of the ancestors includes the "wetting of the ring", where blessings are offered in the form of rum, rice, water, and corn. The Maroon Festival is also an important festival, taking place on the day of the full moon in May. It includes songs, dance, and drum beats handed down generationally.

This Maroon Festival is an ode to the Garifuna Kalinago history.

Hema's gonna talk about the delicious cuisine of St. Vincent.

Hema: Similar history to that of other Caribbean islands and countries, it probably won't surprise you that breadfruit is a part of the national dish of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Brought to the Caribbean as a cheap source of food for the enslaved people, there were many trees planted to grow an abundance of this crop, and throughout the years it truly became part of the cuisine all over the Caribbean.

 It is said that Captain Bligh, who we've spoken about in previous episodes with relation to breadfruit, took some breadfruit to the Botanical Garden in St. Vincent, which at the time was already established globally as a plant propagation and conservation garden.

 2015 marked the 250th anniversary of the garden, and they held a ceremony with a reenactment of the handing over of the breadfruit. Breadfruit is so important and so prominent in the St. Vincent culture that there is actually a breadfruit festival during emancipation month. They tie these two together, emancipation month and the breadfruit festival, because of the association with slavery. I'm going to read a quote from the Ministry of Culture of St. Vincent about emancipation month. "We celebrate the status of all as free individuals during Emancipation Month in August. This is a festival not of laughter, but of learning, of remembrance, and tribute to the ancestors who traveled the Middle Passage. In cultural performances, lectures, and exhibitions, we learn about those who became enslaved and how all became free." In my research, I found out that St. Vincent has over 25 varieties of breadfruit. Mireille, I didn't even know there was 25 varieties. Did you?

Mireille: Of breadfruit? No, that's I've only ever seen one type.

Hema: Same. As I was researching and reading, I got lost a little bit in the breadfruit knowledge. There's an article or a study that I'm going to link in the notes called Linking Breadfruit Cultivar Names Across the Globe Connects Histories After 230 Years of Separation. And in this study, people took DNA tests and traced the breadfruit from the Caribbean all the way through 200 years to try to find the origins of the breadfruit lines.

The other part of the national dish of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is jackfish. it is a smaller fish that you eat whole. I did a ton of research to try and find more information on jackfish and what it tastes like, but apparently jackfish is a catch all name for an abundance of fish in different varieties.

There was a whole series of information about jackfish. in Canada and that's not what I was looking for. the entire national dish is roasted breadfruit and fried jackfish and it includes a variety of spices and aromatics like lime or lemon juice, onions, chives, garlic, thyme, salt and pepper. The breadfruit is ideally roasted whole on a wood fire or charcoal and turning until it's roasted all over.

When it's cooked, it's ready to be peeled, sliced, and eaten. most people nowadays, at least in North America, are not cooking over an open fire or charcoal. So some people do roast it very lightly and bake it in the oven. I've seen some people say they boil it, but it is generally cooked whole and then peeled and eaten. The jackfish is cleaned, washed with citrus, then seasoned and dredged in a seasoned flour and shallow fried.

I'm going to leave a link in the show notes to a YouTube video so you can see somebody roasting the breadfruit over an open fire and what that whole process looks like. Interestingly, this national dish wasn't adopted as the national dish until the 1950s.

Mireille: Did they have a different national dish prior to that or did they just not have one?

Hema: I didn't find any indication that there was something else that was the national dish before that. Before we wrap this episode on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, I want to leave this quote that I found on the Minister of Tourism website. "In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the history of the country has produced a marvelous heritage of Amerindian strength of spirit fused with European governance, to which we add African inventiveness, complimented by Asia's resilience philosophy."

Mireille: as some people may not know, but Amerindian is a phrase that's used to identify the indigenous people in the Caribbean.

 Thanks for joining us this week as we explored St. Vincent and the Grenadines on The Moreish Podcast.

Hema: Mireille, this is our 12th episode and the end of season one.

Mireille: So after Season 1, we're taking a short break and we'll be back in the first week of June with brand new episodes. Don't forget to join us on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for more content and maybe some behind the scenes.

Hema: We'll see you in a few weeks. Bye.

Mireille: Bye!

Resources

https://www.caribbeanlife.com/late-vincentian-cultural-icon-brought-big-drum-alive-in-union-island/

https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/about/archives/2022/countries/saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines/ 

https://thevincentian.com/a-brief-historical-overview-of-the-portuguese-in-st-vincent-and-the-grenad-p20809-133.htm   

https://2009-2017.state.gov/outofdate/bgn/saintvincentandgrenadines/11730.htm 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines 

https://www.gipsvginc.org/history.html 

https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Vincent-island-West-Indies 

https://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Saint-Vincent-and-the-Grenadines.html 

https://www.gov.vc/index.php/visitors/culture-festivals 

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-culture-of-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines.html 

https://webarchive.archive.unhcr.org/20230518102531/https://www.refworld.org/docid/4954ce54c.html 

https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-106157/ 

https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/18060/variables 

https://www.searchlight.vc/dr-fraser/2010/07/23/sugar-slavery-and-emancipation-in-st-vincent-a-brief-overview/ 

https://www.georgetownsvgrevisited.co.uk/indentees-who-were-they.php 

https://yelhispressing.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/19th-century-protest-movements-in-the-west-indies/ 

https://tourism.gov.vc/tourism/index.php/festivals-a-events/65-breadfruit-festival 

https://tourism.gov.vc/tourism/index.php/news/413-the-botanic-gardens-celebrates-250th-years-of-existence-during-the-year-2015

http://botanicalgarden.gov.vc/botanicalgarden/index.php/history

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982222019017

https://tourism.gov.vc/tourism/index.php/44-culture-department/culture-administration

Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y2CLM0rQjw