Antigua

For other places with the same name, see Antigua.

For more detailed information on Antigua as a political entity, see Antigua and Barbuda.

Antigua (pronounced /ænˈtiːgə//an-tee-gah) is an island in the West Indies, Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. It is also known as Wadadli, which means approximately "our own". The island's circumference is roughly 87 kilometres (54 miles) and its area 281 km² (108 square miles), and ita population is about 69,000 as of July 2006. It is the largest of the Leeward Islands, and the most developed and prosperous due to its upscale tourism industry, offshore banking, internet gambling services and education services, including two medical schools.

Over 31,000 people live in the capital of St. John's, at 17° 6' N. and 61° 45' W. The capital is situated in the northwest, near to VC Bird International Airport, and has a deep harbour which is able to accommodate large cruise ships. Other leading population settlements are All Saints (3,412) and Liberta (2,239), according to the 2001 census.

English Harbour on the southeastern coast is famed as a "hurricane hole" (protected shelter during violent storms) and is the site of a restored British colonial naval station called "Nelson's Dockyard". Nelson was at the time a Captain and in correspondence made it clear he would prefer not to be there, but rather facing the French. Today English Harbour and the neighbouring village of Falmouth are an internationally famous yachting and sailing destination and provisioning centre. At the end of April and beginning of May Antigua Sailing Week, an annual world-class regatta started in 1967, brings many sailing vessels and sailors to the island to race and socialize.

Geography

• Capital: St. John's
• Land area: 108 sq. mi. (280 km²)
• Location : 17.09°N 61.80°W / 17.09; -61.80
• Capital and largest city: St. John's, pop. 31,000
• Climate: tropical marine; little seasonal temperature variation.
• Terrain: mostly low-lying limestone and coral islands, with some higher volcanic areas.
• Elevation extremes: 402 m (Boggy Peak), sea level.

The high rocky coast is indented by many bays and arms of the sea, several of which form excellent harbours. The surface is comparatively flat, and there is no central range of mountains as in most other Caribbean islands, but among the hills in the southwest an elevation of 1,319 feet (402 m) feet is attained on Boggy Peak. Owing to the absence of rivers, the paucity of springs, and the almost complete deforestation, Antigua is subject to frequent droughts, and although the average rainfall is 45.6 inches, the variations from year to year are great. The problem is partly solved by desalination of sea water.

Economy

Antigua's economy is reliant upon tourism, and it markets itself as a luxury Caribbean escape. Many hotels and resorts are located around the coastline, and the island's single airport is serviced by several major airlines including Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, US Airways, American Airlines, Continental, Delta Air Lines, BWIA and Air Canada. The only regular service to Barbuda flies from VC Bird Airport. The United States Air Force maintains a small base near the airport mostly used for space missions and communications.

The University of Health Sciences Antigua (UHSA) and the American University of Antigua (AUA) College of Medicine teach aspiring doctors.

The country's official currency is the East Caribbean dollar. However, many prices in tourist oriented businesses are shown in US dollars. The EC dollar is pegged to the US dollar at a fixed rate of $1 US = $2.67 EC.

History

The early Antiguans

The Arawaks were the first well-documented group of Antiguans. This group paddled to the island by canoe (piragua) from Venezuela, ejected by the Caribs--another people indigenous to the area. Arawaks introduced agriculture to Antigua and Barbuda, raising, among other crops, the famous Antiguan "Black" pineapple. They also cultivated various other foods including:

• Corn
• Sweet potatoes (White with firmer flesh than the bright orange "sweet potato" used in the United States.)
• Chiles
• Guava
• Tobacco
• Cotton
• Mangos

Some of the vegetables listed, such as corn and sweet potatoes, still play an important role in Antiguan cuisine. For example, a popular Antiguan dish, dukuna (DOO-koo-NAH) is a sweet, steamed dumpling made from grated sweet potatoes, flour and spices. In addition, one of the Antiguan staple foods, fungi (FOON-ji), is a cooked paste made of cornmeal and water.

The bulk of the Arawaks left Antigua about 1100 A.D. Those who remained were subsequently raided by the Caribs. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Carib's superior weapons and seafaring prowess allowed them to defeat most Arawak nations in the West Indies--enslaving some, and cannibalizing others.

The Catholic Encyclopedia does make it clear that the European invaders had some difficulty identifying and differentiating between the various native peoples they encountered. As a result, the number and types of ethnic/tribal/national groups in existence at the time may be much more varied and numerous than the two mentioned in this Article.

According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, European and African diseases, malnutrition and slavery eventually destroyed the vast majority of the Caribbean's native population. No researcher has conclusively proven any of these causes as the real reason for the destruction of West Indian natives. In fact, some historians believe that the psychological stress of slavery may also have played a part in the massive number of native deaths while in servitude. Others believe that the reportedly abundant, but starchy, low-protein diet may have contributed to severe malnutrition of the "Indians" who were used to a diet fortified with protein from sea-life.

The indigenous West Indians made excellent sea vessels that they used to sail the Atlantic and Caribbean. As a result, Caribs and Arawaks populated much of South American and the Caribbean Islands. Relatives of the Antiguan Arawaks and Caribs still live in various countries in South America, notably Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. The smaller remaining native populations in the West Indies maintain a pride in their heritage.

Europeans

According to the AntiguaNice web site, Christopher Columbus supposedly named the island "Antigua" in 1493 in honor of the Santa Maria La Antigua Cathedral in Seville. Unfortunately, this data seems to be inaccurate since this cathedral actually exists in Castilla y León, Spain. A common practice for Spanish explorers was to name newly "discovered" areas after Catholic saints. San Juan, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, Santa Barbara in the United States and others follow the same trend.

In 1632, a group of English colonists left St. Kitts to settle in Antigua. Under Edward Warner, their leader, they grew cash crops of tobacco, ginger, indigo and sugar.

Slavery

Sugar became Antigua's main crop from about 1674, when Christopher Codrington settled at Betty's Hope Estate. He came from Barbados, bringing the latest sugar technology with him. Betty's Hope, Antigua's first full-scale sugar plantation, was so successful that other planters turned from tobacco to sugar. This resulted in a huge increase of slaves, as sugar requires so much labor.

According to A Brief History of the Caribbean, many West Indian colonists initially tried to use Indians and whites as slaves. Unfortunately, these groups succumbed very easily to disease and/or malnutrition, and died by the thousands. The African slaves had the misfortune of adapting well to the new environment; and thus became the number one choice of "unpaid labor." In fact, the slaves thrived physically and also provided medical services, and skilled labor, such as carpentry for their slave masters.

Today, collectors prize the uniquely designed "colonial" furniture created by West Indian slaves. Many of these works feature what are now "traditional" motifs in slave-made West Indian furniture. These details include pineapples, fish and stylized serpents. The popular decorating magazine, Veranda, features a fascinating article on this subject; peppered with interesting photographs of the uniquely West Indian furnishings.

By 1736, so many slaves had been brought in from Africa that their conditions were crowded and open to unrest. A slave called "Prince Klaas" (whose real name was Count) planned an uprising in which the whites would be massacred, but the plot was discovered and put down. Prince Klaas and four other accomplices were caught and executed by the breaking wheel. Six other slaves were hung in chains and starved to death, and another fifty-eight were burned at the stake. Ironically, the location of this torture and execution is now the Antiguan Recreation Ground.

Horatio Lord Nelson

Nelson's dockyard was started in 1725, to provide a base for a squadron of English ships whose main function was to patrol West Indies and thus maintain England's sea power.

Lord Nelson was Senior Naval Officer of the Leeward Islands from 1784 to 1787 on H.M.S. Boreas. During his tenure, he tried to enforce the Navigation Acts. These acts prohibited trade with the newly formed United States of America. Most of the merchants in Antigua depended upon American trade, so many of them despised Lord Nelson. As a result, he was unable to get a promotion for some time after his stint on the island.

Conversely, the British considered Nelson a great hero! The following quote from The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson by Robert Southey sums up his and England's views about the controversial Navigation Acts:

The Americans were at this time trading with our islands, taking advantage of the register of their ships, which had been issued while they were British subjects. Nelson knew that, by the Navigation Act, no foreigners, directly or indirectly, are permitted to carry on any trade with these possessions. He knew, also, that the Americans had made themselves foreigners with regard to England; they had disregarded the ties of blood and language when they acquired the independence which they had been led on to claim, unhappily for themselves before they were fit for it; and he was resolved that they should derive no profit from those ties now. Foreigners they had made themselves, and as foreigners they were to be treated.

Southey then quotes Nelson as saying that "[The Antiguan Colonists] are as great rebels as ever were in America, had they the power to show it."

Sport

The major Antiguan sport is cricket. Antigua is the location of a 2007 Cricket World Cup site, on a new Recreation Ground constructed on an old cane field in the north of the island. Sir Vivian ("Viv") Richards is one of the most famous Antiguans, who played for, and captained, the West Indies team. Both soccer and basketball are becoming popular among the island youth.

Internet hosting & gaming

Antigua is a recognized centre for online gambling companies. Antigua was one of the first nations to legalize, license and regulate online gaming. Some countries, most notably the United States, argue that because the gaming transaction is initiated in their jurisdictions that the act of online wagering is illegal. This argument has been repudiated by the World Trade Organization. However in 2006 the United States Congress voted to approve the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act which criminalizes the operations of offshore gaming operators which take wagers from American-based gamblers.

Slysoft, a vendor of CD- and DVD-copying software designed to overcome anti-copy technologies also operates from Antigua.

Notable residents

• Viv Richards, West Indian cricket legend; the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua was named in his honour
• Marie-Elena John, Antiguan writer and former African Development Foundation specialist. Her debut novel, Unburnable was selected Best Debut of 2006 by Black Issues Book Review
• Jamaica Kincaid, novelist famous for her writings about life on Antigua. Her book A small place was banned under the Vere Bird administration
• Oprah Winfrey, American television/entertainment icon and entrepreneur; owns a home near Galley Bay
• Eric Clapton, established an Antiguan drug treatment centre; has a home on the south of the island
• Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer; owns a home near Galley Bay
• Calvin Ayre, billionaire founder of internet gambling company Bodog Entertainment Group
• Allen Stanford, Texan billionaire, and business tycoon.
• Ounghu, Onyan and Krokuss, members of the Burning Flames International Soca band.

References

• Antigua Nice (The Antigua Nice article was extracted by D.V. Nicholson's writings for the Antigua Historic Sites and Conservation Commission.)
• The Torture Museum Site
• The Life of Horatio Lord Nelson by Robert Southey
• The Catholic Encyclopedia
• Veranda Magazine, Island Flourish: West Indian Furnishings by Dana Micucci, March - April 2004
• A Brief History of the Caribbean, A Brief History of the Caribbean from the Arawak and the Carib to the Present, by Jan Rogozinski, Penguin Putnam, Inc September 2000
• Joanne Christian’s website

External links

• Government of Antigua and Barbuda
• Antigua Barbuda Department of Tourism