Southern Caribbean

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The Southern Caribbean is the group of islands that neighbour mainland South America in the West Indies. St Lucia lies at the north of the region, Barbados in the east, Trinidad & Tobago at its southern most point and Aruba at the most westernly part of the region. Geographically, they are referred to being a subcontinent of North America although

most islands sit on the South American continental plate. All the islands are small in the Southern Caribbean and are either volcanic or made of limestone coral as they form at the ridge of the Caribbean plate and the South American plate. Due to its close proximity of the equator, the Southern Caribbean has some of the most tropical weather in the West Indies, islands such as Aruba and Barbados suffer droughts occasionally while Grenada receives a great deal of rainfall. The Southern Caribbean has the Caribbean sea to the north and west, the Atlantic ocean on the east and the Gulf of Paria to the south and most islands are in the windward islands chain and the Netherlands Antilles. Most islands have tropical rainforests, and swamps, the most dense are in Grenada, St Lucia and Tobago while other islands have decreased the size of these over the last century.

Contents 1 Countries 2 History 3 Culture 4 Demographics 5 Music 6 Sport 7 External links

[edit] Countries

| St Lucia: Capital City:Castries:Population: 160,765

| St Vincent and the Grenadines: Capital City:Kingstown:Population:119,000

| Barbados: Capital City:Bridgetown:Population: 279,254

| Trinidad and Tobago: Capital City:Port of Spain:Population: 1,305,000

| Grenada: Capital City:St George's:Population: 103,000

| Netherlands Antilles: Capital City:Willemstad:Population: 183,000

| Aruba: Capital City: Oranjestad:Population: 103,484

Total Population: 2,146,403

Associates:

| Isla Margarita | Guyana

[edit] History

The caribbean has been inhabited since 350 CE by the Arawaks,Caribs and Tainos who came to the Southern Caribbean on canoes from South America, (Primarily Venezuela) and they lived in the region until the 1400's when European explorers and colonizers arrived in the area and wiped out the population of the native tribes. European countries then made the Caribbean islands as part of their empire. Most of these islands were disputed over and fought over by the European empires such as Britain, France, Spain, Portugal and The Netherlands:

• The Spanish claimed: Trinidad & Tobago
• The Portuguese claimed: Barbados
• The French claimed: St Lucia, Grenada, St Vincent & the Grenadines Trinidad & Tobago (Briefly)
• The British claimed: Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada,Barbados, St Vincent & the Grenadines, St Lucia
• The Dutch claimed: Aruba, Netherlands Antilles (Bonaire and Curaçao).

Eventually all but Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles were occupied by the British permanently since the 18th century until they declared independence from Britain during the 1960's onwards. The Dutch Caribbean are still part of Holland and none have yet declared full independence. Trinidad & Tobago was the first nation in the Southern Caribbean to become independent since 1962 followed by Barbados in 1966. All of the islands (except the Dutch Antilles) were part of the West Indies federation from 1958 until it dissolved in 1962.

[edit] Culture

Like other Caribbean nations the Southern Caribbean island states share similar cultures. Trinidad, invented Caribbean Carnival and they (followed by Barbados) hold the biggest Carnivals in the Caribbean. Cricket is widely enjoyed in the region and rum is the local drink. African traditions are majorly influenced on these islands particularly Grenada and St Lucia, while European culture is heavily based in Barbados and the Netherlands Antilles. Other than English, the main language, French creole, Portuguese creole, Dutch, Spanish and Papiamento are also spoken in the region as well as Hindi.

[edit] Demographics

Generally, the Southern Caribbean is very diverse, with over 70% of it's population of Afro-Caribbean descent who originated from West Africa brought to the Caribbean as slaves to work on plantations, Indians from India & Bangladesh are primarily in Trinidad although large numbers can also be found Barbados and St Vincent, many more live on the other islands too. Chinese arrived in the region as labourers from Hong Kong and are found on most islands, Europeans are found all over the West Indies due to colonization of the region by countries such as France, Spain, United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Portugal and there are many French Creoles living on the islands of St Lucia, Grenada, and Trinidad; while Portuguese people make up 17% of Barbados' population numbering over 5,000, more than the English and Irish people on the island. Spanish people settled on Trinidad and still have small numbers of descendants while the Dutch people have a massive influence on ABC islands. Neighbouring South America had a massive influence on the ethnic diversity of the Southern Caribbean many Brazilian mullattos and Brazilian Jews to Barbados in which the population still exists, Venezuela has many immigrants arriving in Trinidad, Barbados and Aruba every year and many Puerto Ricans, Dominican Republic people migrate to Barbados alongside the Guyanese. Other than that, the area recieves a lot of expatriates from the USA, Canada and Europe.

[edit] Music

Each island has its own music but Soca is particularly the most dominant in the English-Speaking islands of this region. Invented in Trinidad, the closest islands, Barbados and Grenada were the first islands to promote and produce the music out Trinidad & Tobago since the 1960's many other islands have been promoting the music such as Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts & Nevis and even Jamaica has recently adopted the music to a lesser extent of the other islands. The Steel Pan a famous symbol of the Caribbean was invented in Trinidad also during the 1940's, during the World War II, many oil drums from the U.S had been ported to Trinidad when a musician moulded the base to make a drum now it's a worldwide recognised symbol of Trinidad and the West Indies.

Island Music:

Barbados- Soca-Samba: A fusion of Brazilian Samba and Trinidad's Soca music. Samba was introduced to Barbados exclusively by Afro-Brazilians although the music had never really been produced by Barbadian Artists until in 1999 when Square one released 'Faluma', African-Inspired song featuring Soca-Samba bass. Rupee had also produced 'Jump' which had a Soca-Samba essence (although some argue it's pure soca). Barbados also produced Rihanna one of the Caribbean's biggest international artists as well as Rupert Clarke (Rupee) and Alison Hinds.

Grenada-Grenadian Calypso: Derived from neighbouring Trinidad & Tobago, Grenadian music uses a lot of african drums in their music such a te 'Big Drum' music which arrived in Grenada when Africa slaves were brought to the island by British and French colonizers. Carriacou, has similar music to those of the French West Indies, Boula music is a type of music using hand drums made from old rum casks.

St Lucia-Zouk: A french-Caribbean themed soca music, It's normally spoken in French Creole and uses the accordion to accompany the drum, guitar and the maracas. St Lucia also holds a jazz festival in which many U.S artists perform there.

Trinidad & Tobago-Soca: A fusion of Soul and it's predecessor Calypso give the name Soul-Calypso or shortned as Soca. Used in Carnivals, it's usually high tempo with bass and a hi-hat, bongo and tassa drums are used in Soca as well as guitars and Trinidad' famous Steel Pan music made from oil drums. Trinidad has contributed artist such as Machel Montano and Destra Garcia.

[edit] Sport

Cricket is the major sport in the Southern Caribbean, Barbados is hub for cricket fans and sportsmen with legedary sir Garfield Sobers and Clyde Walcott hailing from the island. Brian Lara from Trinidad also is a key player in the West Indies cricket team. In 2007, the West Indies region hosted the Cricket World Cup 2007, apart from Antigua & Barbuda, Jamaica and St Kitts & Nevis, all the other matches were played in the Southern Caribbean in Queen's Park Oval , Trinidad, Beausejour Stadium, St Lucia, Queen's Park, Grenada, and the final held at the 28,000 Kensington Oval in Barbados.

Football (or soccer) is the second sport in the area after Trinidad & Tobago was the first team in the Southern caribbean (and second in the Caribbean after Jamaica]] to qualify for the World cup. The 'Soca boyz' were knocked out in the group stages as they competed in Group B along with England, Sweden and Paraguay at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

Netball, Hockey and Volleyball are also competative sports in the region but are not widely recognised as is Cricket and Soccer. Golf is a sport which is mainly based in Barbados' Sandy Lane resort which hosted the World Golf Championships-World Cup in 2006, Tennis and Badminton are on the steady increase in Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago but they occassionally send national teams to the Commonwealth Games. Athletics is a well established category of sport in the Southern caribbean in both the Olympics and the Commonwealth games, Hailing from the Southern Caribbean include sprinters Obadele Thompson of Barbados who won Bronze at a 100m sprint at the Sydney Olympic games and Ato Boldon of Trinidad & Tobago who won Silver at the 100m sprint at the Sydney Olympic games, Marc Burns of Trinidad & Tobago who won Bronze at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Trinidad's 1976 Montreal Olympics Gold Medalist Hasely Crawford, Grenada's Alleyne Francique won Silver at the Melbourne 2006 commonwealth games 400m sprint.

[edit] External links

• http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/article.cfm?ID=70