Dominica: A Passion for Nature and Focus on People
Some mistake it for the Dominican Republic. It truly is a 'nature island', as its inhabitants like to call it. But Dominica is more surprising, more enchanting even than this gracious compliment. The new trend for green tourism is a ’natural’ for the island and, despite the international financial crisis, giant cruise ships berth in front of the windows of the seafront hotels of Roseau, the capital, every day. Another interesting fact is that, for 15 years, this little island was headed by Dame Eugenia Charles, only the 5th female president or Prime Minister elected in the world, and the very first in the Americas.
‘Massacre’ murals by Earl Etienne, Petros Meaza & Lowell Royer / Massacre, Dominica, 2009.
© Hegel Goutier
Unspoiled beauty and social welfare
While much of Dominica’s beautiful landscapes can be reached by road the island particularly appeals to 'eco' tourists: those attracted by walks in a virgin countryside of untouched beauty, with its rainforest, waterfalls and rivers and places of interest (such as the Boiling Lake and the hot sulphurous springs bubbling and spurting from the geothermal depths). Dominica is the most mountainous island in the Caribbean with hardly any flat countryside and with peaks reaching to 5,000 feet. It combines the two extremes of modernity and wilderness, even in the cities. It is also a country that, while based on an agricultural economy with all its ups and downs, does not have any extreme poverty and benefits from a relatively balanced distribution of its resources, a rather high level of education and good medical services. Its fairly long life expectancy is the same both for rich and poor, a sign of good social balance and commitment from its successive governments to invest in their people. Its social welfare and health insurance system is efficient. Today, life expectancy in Dominica is 75 years, 14 years higher than the world’s average. But what makes this country so extraordinary is its relatively high number of centenarians, 22 in 2002 for a population of just 70,000. These have included the world's oldest person, Ma Pampo, who died in 2003 at the age of 128; one of her neighbours was just 13 years her junior.
The country also offers a certain quality of life, security and friendly relationships and it is not unusual for a stranger to be stopped in a village or in Roseau to be warmly welcomed by a Dominican who simply wants to talk.
Dominica is an agricultural country and, unlike other small islands, its population is not concentrated in the capital and no more than a third of its inhabitants live in or around Roseau. However, in recent years there has been a rural exodus, a consequence of the many hurricanes that have ravaged plantations coupled with the problems encountered by banana growers (the leading export product) due to erosion of their preferential access to the European market.
Culture: mixture of languages, religions, peoples
Although an English-speaking country, Dominica speaks the same French Creole as the French départements of the Americas and Haiti. It sits between Guadeloupe to the north and Martinique to the south, right in the middle of the Lesser Antilles arc stretching between Florida and Venezuela. As is the case throughout the Caribbean, Dominica has a mixed population and culture, even though most of its inhabitants are of African descent. The island is one of the very few in the Caribbean still having an Amerindian minority (the Caribs), just under 2,500 out of a total Dominican population of just over 70,000. There is a mix of French and English, of European, African and Amerindian influences along with those of new arrivals from around the region and from Asia. There is a religious mix of Protestants and Roman Catholics along with African beliefs and those of its native population, not to mention a strong presence of the political/religious Rastafarian movement. Six out of ten Dominicans are practising Catholics and the influence of this religion is clearly visible at both the moral and political levels. During our visit, the prayer gatherings in Roseau for Holy Week generally attracted some 2,000 people, a considerable figure for a small country like this. All led by preachers borrowing the performance, tone and vehemence of similar American preachings and denouncing moral deviations such as the sensual excesses of the carnival. The carnival is, nevertheless, a great success every year. Truly, a mixed culture!
A history of resistance
Although Dominica was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493, barely a year after his arrival in the Caribbean, it was not occupied until one and a half centuries later, thanks to both the intrepid Carib warriors that fiercely defended it and the mountainous topography. The Carib Indians did not refer to themselves as such - the word resulting from a misunderstanding by Christopher Columbus - but as Kalinagos. The Genoese navigator first landed on the island on the 3 November, a Sunday, hence the name Dominica for an island that its occupants honoured with the enchanting name Waitikubuli (Tall is her body) to describe an island that rose so abruptly from the sea. Towards the middle of the 16th century, Spanish ships in the region had a re-supply point on the island at Prince Rupert Bay. This was also used over the years by French, British and Dutch navigators. In 1569, there were 30 Spanish and 40 Africans living in the bay among the Kalinago Indians. Among the illustrious adventurers that used the bay were Sir Francis Drake, George Clifford Earl of Cumberland and Prince Rupert du Rhin. A few French buccaneers settled there much later, followed by some British and increasing numbers of Dutch. In 1625, the Kalinagos launched a battle against them, but had to beat a retreat as they were outnumbered and outarmed. After that, they arbitrated inter-colonial conflicts and were among the last in the region to be colonised. In 1627, the Earl of Carlisle affirmed his country's sovereignty over several islands grouped around Dominica. The French did likewise. However, the die was not cast for Dominica until 1805, when the British took it following the complete destruction of Roseau by the French. In the meantime the Kalinagos often played one off against the other.
After the First World War, British colonisation granted an increasing amount of self-governance to the island, which was able to elect its local representatives. In 1967, Dominica acquired a system of autonomy under the West Indies Associate State and finally independence on the 3 November 1978 with Patrick John, of the Dominica Labour Party, as its Prime Minister. He resigned a few months later following allegations of corruption. Soon after, the island was devastated by a hurricane. In June 1980, Dame Eugenia Charles won the elections at the head of the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP). She won two other general elections and spent a total of 15 years as head of the country. Nicknamed the 'Iron Lady of the Caribbean’, she withstood two attempts at a coup d’etat and, as President of the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States), supported the US invasion of Grenada in 1983. In 1989, while remaining a member of the British Commonwealth, the new State opted for a republican system; the president, with formal powers, is the Head of State and the Prime Minister is the head of government.
The country is currently governed by a young Prime Minister from the Dominica Labour Party, Roosevelt Skerrit, elected in 2004 as the head of the government when just 31 years old.
