ST. VINCENT

Indigenous Resurgence in the Contemporary Caribbean: Amerindian Survival and Revival. Edited by Maximilian C. Forte. Published by Peter Lang, New York, 2006

Contributor: Paul Twinn studied Ancient History and Social Anthropology at University College London, 1973–76. After a long period in management he returned to university in 1994 to complete an MSc in Social Anthropology (with distinction). Since then he has been conducting research in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, has made four field trips to the island, and currently holds citizenship there. He has been visiting Tutor at Goldsmiths College and Tutorial Assistant at University College London. At present he is an Associate Lecturer with the Open University based in London.

Chapter: Chapter Five. Land Ownership and the Construction of Carib Identity in St. Vincent
Abstract:
This paper sets out how a chain of events precipitated by the eruption of the Soufriere volcano in 1979 led to a resurgence in a sense of Carib community in the north windward area of St. Vincent W.I. It traces how the effects of the eruption led, as it had own a previous occasion, to a decision by the owners of the Orange Hill Estate to sell up. However, whereas on the previous occasion this had occurred within a colonial setting, by the time of the second sell off of the largest plantation on the island St. Vincent was a newly independent nation. The sale of the property to a group of Danes led to an island wide debate, which encompassed issues not only of Carib identity and identification with the land but also of national integrity, extended beyond the islands themselves to emigrant groups overseas. The issues raised by the land sale became entwined within wider discourses of Native American rights, slavery and conquest. It also served to refocus national attention on a group of people who had hitherto been marginalized within the nation state. Foremost in this were, to use Gramsci’s term, a group of organic intellectuals who were able to effectively put the case for the indigenous rights of the Carib Community and the implementation of a land settlement scheme in the north of the island.

Websites on the Caribs of St. Vincent:

The Caribs and Garifuna of St. Vincent: Caribbean Amerindian Centrelink