Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

National Anthem of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines click here 

Lyrics by Phyllis Joyce McClean Punnett

Arranged by Joel Bertram Miguel

In use since 1967

Saint Vincent! Land so beautiful,
With joyful hearts we pledge to thee
Our loyalty and love, and vow
To keep you ever free.

CHORUS

Whate'er the future brings,
Our faith will see us through.
May peace reign from shore to shore,
And God bless and keep us true.

Hairoun! Our fair and blessed Isle,
Your mountains high, so clear and green,
Are home to me, though I may stray,
A haven, calm, serene.

CHORUS

Our little sister islands are
Those gems, the lovely Grenadines,
Upon their seas and golden sands
The sunshine ever beams.

CHORUS

National Flag : Click here to see the National Flag

Geographic location Click here or here to see a map

Historical background

The islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are located in the south of the Caribbean archipelago. The history of this plural nation is similar to that of the other islands in the chain in many respects. All the islands have, at some point in their history, been occupied by European explorers and administrators, at least from the 15th to 19th centuries. This is probably as far as the similarities go, since each island had specific and even singular sociohistorical and demographic events that "shaped" it. On St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for instance, large scale plantation slavery was introduced only in the latter part of the 18th century.

At the time the Europeans sought to settle on St. Vincent and the Grenadines, they found Ciboneys, Tainos or Arawaks, and Caribs or Kalinas. The French missionaries who, as soon as 1653, were in close contact with these indigenous peoples, identified them as Indians. Later, French explorers wrote that there were in fact two distinct races. Labat (1722: 3) identified two groups of inhabitants having identical physionomy.

The reputation of what was identified as the Carib race was such that any European settlement was unheard of. In 1627, Charles I granted the island of St. Vincent to Lord Carlisle, but this remained a symbolic acquisition. In 1672, Charles II conceded St. Vincent, Dominica and Barbados to Lord Willoughby. However, the British settled on Barbados only as Caribs were present both on St. Vincent and on Dominica. Many historical accounts describe the Caribs as a fierce people that ate their enemies' flesh. It is quite common to find accounts that are bent on labelling the Caribs Cannibals. Christopher Columbus did not hesitate to propagate this image which has influenced many a definition (see the Oxford English Dictionary's 16th century entry (In 16th c. pl. canibales a. Sp. Canibales, originally one of the forms of the ethnic name Carib or Caribes, a fierce nation of the West Indies, who are recorded to have been anthropophagi, and from whom the name was subsequently extended as a descriptive term…). Hulme (1986: 41) points out that there was absolutely nothing to support Columbus' suppositions. Gargallo (see reference below) insists that not only was this description of the Caribs an act of vengence, it was undoubtedly "la elaboración simbólico-jurídica de un enemigo extraño y terrible contra el cual, según el derecho español, podían usarse la guerra a sangre y fuego y la esclavización de los prisioneros. 

Thus, whereas the island of St. Kitts was occupied by French and British settlers from 1623 (Williams, 1970: 81), St. Vincent remained unknown to the European colonists until 1719 when French planters arrived with African slaves that were to till the lands. It is believed that they arrived from what is today the French West Indies.

In 1660, the ailing Gouverneur de Poincy received 15 Carib chiefs at his bedside... they had come to lodge complaints about being chased from and robbed of their lands. De Poincy signed a solemn act, granting the islands of St. Vincent and Dominica to the 3000 Caribs who had survived the massacres. In return, the Caribs had to vow never to harass the French settlers on the other islands. This pact marked the beginning of mutual friendship between the Caribs and the French and possibly British hostility toward the Caribs. 

During the 17th Century, St. Vincent and the Grenadines were said to be neutral territories since no colonial power made claims to these islands. The "peaceful existence" of the Caribs changed in 1675 when a slave ship transporting Africans wrecked off the coast of Bequia, one of the Grenadine Islands of St. Vincent. (See http://www.geocities.com/baerhans_2000/Jesuit_massacre.html,) The surviving Africans sought refuge among the Caribs on St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  The accounts are contradictory. Some accounts would have it that there was much enmity between the two peoples. and that the French often had to intervene to settle disputes between the Caribs and the Africans. Others claim that the Caribs and the Africans lived well together. What is known is that a new race (Garifunas or Black Caribs) sprang from this cohabitation, as the African men took the Indian women as their wives. 

Prior to 1719, the French had begun abusing their prerogatives vis-à-vis the Caribs of St. Vincent and the Grenadines In 1708, Mr. Coullet forced them to give up all trade with the British. Towards 1723, the British decided to strengthen their hold on St. Vincent but could not prevent the growth of the French population. There were 1000 French to 3000 slaves by the mid 1700s. The Garifuna population was estimated at some 3000, the Caribs, at a "small number". Based on Alexandre Moreau de Jonnès' accounts (1840), Hulme questions these demographic data. This scholar insists that the Caribs were an ideologically and numerically dominant race compared to the Garifunas. Hulme (2000) states that Alexandre Moreau de Jonnès (1840) estimated the Garifuna population at 1500 and the Carib's at 6000 for the same period.

The slave population doubled in 1763, when the Treaty of Paris stipulated that St. Vincent, Dominica, Grenada and Tobago be ceded to the British Crown. The white population tripled as a result. The next twenty years marked a period of conflict between the British and the French. This hindered the British from introducing large scale plantation slavery until 1783 when the "British lands" were restored to them.

In 1795, during the Second Carib War against the British, the Caribs had every intention of regaining their lands from the British. The final Carib War was unsuccessful. Chatoyer, who was proclaimed the first National Hero of St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2002, was killed. The defeated Garifunas were forced to retreat to the northern hills. They eventually surrendered some months later and in 1796 the British sailed them off to Balliceaux, an island off the south coast of St. Vincent. From there, they were to be taken to the north of the Caribbean chain and finally abandoned on Roatan off Honduras. This deportation was necessary in the eyes of the British whose serenity was to be assured as they developed and expanded the sugar economy. It is believed that some 5000 Garifunas were shipped to Balliceaux (5200 according to Anderson, (1800?), 5080 according to (1955: 25), 4200 according to Craton (1997: 131) of whom only 2700 were deported from there on 5 April 1797. It is unknown how many survived the journey to Roatan. A rich cultural and linguistic heritage was uprooted as a result of this deportation. Some 400 Caribs, mainly "Yellow Caribs" withdrew to the north of St. Vincent.

The Slave Trade was abolished in 1807. In 1834 slavery itself was abolished, and replaced by an Apprenticeship system. The abolition of the Slave Trade and slavery meant that labour was no longer cheaply and readily available as a number of slaves bought their freedom and left the plantations. The British planters had to find new sources of labour. Workers began arriving from Madeira in 1840, to be followed by Africans from the Kru coast (pesent day Liberia) in 1841. These workers were free to leave St. Vincent and the Grenadines as soon as their contracts expired. Whites from Barbados also joined this new labour force. They eventually settled in Dorsetshire Hill, where their descendants still live today. Indentured labourers from India, who arrived between 1865 and 1880, also formed part of the new labour force.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained political independence from Great Britain on 27 October, 1979 and remain a member of the Commonwealth.

References

ANDERSON, John, Journal of (1800?). In MC DONALD, Roderick Alexander (éd.), Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001.

CRATON, Michael, Empire, Enslavement and Freedom in the Caribbean. Kingston : Ian Randle ; Oxford : James Currey ; Princeton, NJ : Markus Wiener, 1997.

DUNCAN, Ebenezer. A Brief History of St Vincent with Studies in Citizenship. Kingstown : St Vincent Reliance Printery, 1955.  

GARGALLO, Francesca http://www.ccydel.unam.mx/pensamientoycultura/biblioteca%20virtual/f%20gargallo.

HULME, Peter. Colonial Encounters: Europe and the Native Caribbean, 1492-1797. London: Methuen & New York : Routledge, 1986.

HULME, Peter. “Travel, Ethnography, Transculturation : St. Vincent in the 1790s.” Paper presented at the Conference entitled Contextualizing the Caribbean : New Approaches in an Era of Globalization, University of  Miami Coral Gables. Septembre 29-30, 2000.  

LABAT, Jean-Baptiste. Nouveau Voyage aux Isles de l'Amerique 1693-1705. Paris : Giffart, 1722.  

MOREAU de JONNES, Alexandre. Recherches statistiques sur l’esclavage colonial et les moyens de la supprimer. Paris : Bourgogne & Martinet, 1840.

WILLIAMS, Eric. De Christophe Colomb à Fidel Castro : l’histoire des Caraïbes 1492-1969, Traduction de Maryse Condé. Paris : Présence Africaine avec la collaboration de Richard Philcox, 1^ère édition de 1970. Traduction de 1975.