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A Message

from our CEO

Welcome aboard and thank you for

choosing Caribbean Airlines.

There’s something special about July

and August in the Caribbean. It’s a time

when the islands come alive — not just

with music, colour and movement —

but with deeper meaning. School’s out,

families reunite, and everywhere you

turn, there’s a sense of joy, rest, and

renewal.

For many of us, this season stirs warm

memories — arriving at the airport

to the scent of curry or callaloo in a

foil container; cousins flying in from

“foreign”; or boarding a flight with that

special excitement because Carnival is

calling in St Lucia, Antigua, Grenada,

Barbados, and St Vincent, while Emancipation

celebrations await in Trinidad &

Tobago and across the English-speaking

Caribbean. It’s like a homecoming.

At Caribbean Airlines, we understand

what this time means. We don’t just

move people from point A to point

B. We carry generations, traditions,

reunions, and dreams. Every day, we

proudly connect the French, Spanish,

Dutch, and English Caribbean — 28

destinations in all — with reliable, affordable

service that feels just like home.

Our mission has always been rooted in

the idea that “home is where the heart is”.

Whether you’re flying in for the first time

or returning after years away, our goal is

to make your journey feel as warm and

familiar as a Sunday lunch with family.

This year, we’ve been working hard

to enhance your travel experience. In

June, we increased our service between

Trinidad and Miami — now offering two

daily flights every Thursday and

Sunday. This provides greater flexibility

and more options for those heading to

and from South Florida.

What’s more, our daily flights

between Kingston, Montego Bay

and Fort Lauderdale remain a vital

bridge between Jamaica and the United

States, keeping families and business

travellers connected with ease.

We’ve also launched some unbeatable

fares and continue to offer our popular

Caribbean Layaway plan — an

interest-free payment option that lets

you book your trip now and pay over

time. We know that every dollar counts,

especially when travelling with family.

So, we’re committed to giving you more

ways to fly without stress.

The importance of regional and international

travel cannot be overstated.

According to the World Travel

and Tourism Council (WTTC) and

Statista, tourism continues to be a key

contributor to the Caribbean’s Gross

Domestic Product (GDP), accounting

for around 13% of the region’s

total economic activity. At Caribbean

Airlines, we are proud to play a central

role in this vibrant ecosystem — helping

to keep economies strong and

cultures connected.

So, wherever this season takes you —

whether you’re dancing in the streets of

Grenada’s Spicemas, marvelling at the

costumes in Antigua Carnival, enjoying

beachside serenity in Tobago, or simply

heading home to catch up on hugs —

we are here to get you there safely and

with care.

Caribbean Airlines is your bridge to

what matters most. At our heart, we are

Caribbean. Our accents, our smiles, our

service — everything we do is inspired

by our people, our region, and the

stories we carry with pride.

Thank you again for choosing to fly

with us. On behalf of the entire team

at Caribbean Airlines, I wish you a safe

and joyful July–August vacation!

Regards,

Garvin

CaribbeanAirlines

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Contents

No. 189 • July/August 2025

34

46

22 Event buzz

Festivals and events around the

region

28 Film buzz

Jonathan Ali talks to Joseph Hillel,

the Haitian-Canadian director of

Koutkekout

30 Music & book buzz

Reviews by Nigel Campbell and

Shivanee Ramlochan

34 Word of mouth

Journey through Tobago’s

living history

Here, history isn’t buried in the

past, writes Aisha Sylvester — but

preserved to enrich the present

40 Panorama

Our words, our Caribbean

The Caribbean is a living linguistic

laboratory, writes Dr Jo-Anne

Ferreira, who traces how languages

from Europe, Africa, Asia, and our

Indigenous Peoples have converged

and transformed over centuries in a

way that is uniquely ours

46 Bucket list

Getaway français

As families prepare for their mid-year

adventures, Giselle Laronde-West

suggests why Martinique should be

your next stop

48 Inspire

Sustainable impact

As Meg Downy learns, Grenadian-

American entrepreneur Shannen

Henry is helping protect and uplift our

islands through promoting sustainable

practices — one gorgeous creation at

a time

52 Closeup

“I did it for pan”

Against the backdrop of World

Steelpan Day and Steelpan Month in

64

Trinidad & Tobago, Donna Yawching

profiles one of the artform’s foremost

players and arrangers: the inimitable

Duvone Stewart

60 Green

Nature’s way

Having left his work in tourism,

Kenny Blandford and his family have

14 WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM

CaribbeanBeat

An MEP publication

Editor Caroline Taylor

Designer Kevon Webster

Editorial assistant Shelly-Ann Inniss

Production manager Jacqueline Smith

Finance director Joanne Mendes

Publisher Jeremy Taylor

Business development consultant Halcyon Salazar

Business Development Manager,

Tobago and International

Evelyn Chung

T: (868) 684–4409

E: evelyn@meppublishers.com

Business Development Manager, Trinidad

Tracy Farrag

T: (868) 318–1996

E: tracy@meppublishers.com

developed his six-acre Cocoa Valley

Eco Farm with a faithfulness to living

in balance with nature. Paul Crask

reports on what makes this place so

special

64 Discover

Aquaculture ascending

In other parts of the world,

aquaculture produces more than half

the seafood available. In much of the

Caribbean, it’s barely 6%. But, writes

Erline Andrews, some are beginning

to turn that around

Media & Editorial Projects Ltd.

6 Prospect Avenue, Long Circular, Maraval 120111, Trinidad and Tobago

T: (868) 622–3821/6138

E: caribbean-beat@meppublishers.com

Websites: meppublishers.com • caribbean-beat.com

68 On this day

Haiti’s double debt

The 200th anniversary of the

huge debt imposed on Haiti by

France — the price for recognising

its independence — comes as

Caribbean nations have been

pressing for reparations. James

Ferguson explores how the past has

shaped the present

72 Puzzles & brain teasers

Enjoy our crossword, spot-thedifference,

and other brain teasers!

Printed in Trinidad & Tobago by

CaribbeanAirlines

Website: www.caribbean-airlines.com

© 2025 Media & Editorial Projects Ltd (MEP) and individual contributors. All rights reserved. No part

of this magazine, or any content on caribbean-beat.com, may be reproduced in any form without the

written permission of the publisher. Caribbean Beat (ISSN 1680–6158) is produced six times a year for

Caribbean Airlines (CAL) by MEP, and is also available by subscription. MEP makes effort to ensure all

content is accurate up to press time. Views expressed in Caribbean Beat are not necessarily those of

MEP or CAL, and neither party accepts any responsibility for advertising content.

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

15

Cover The region’s

stunning beaches — like St

Lucia’s Pigeon Island Beach

— are a top attraction for

many over the July–August

vacation

Photo Courtesy St Lucia

Tourism Authority

This issue’s contributors:

Erline Andrews is an award-winning journalist with more

than two decades of experience. She has a master’s

degree from Columbia University Graduate School of

Journalism, and a particular interest in the environment and

conservation.

Paul Crask — originally from England — is a travel and

culture journalist who has lived in Dominica since 2005.

Meg Downey is a travel writer and editor who’s written

for Cruising World, Good Old Boat, the Chicago

Tribune, and more. She extensively cruised the Caribbean

with her family on a 42’ sailboat before putting down roots

in Grenada.

James Ferguson is an Oxford-based publisher, translator

and writer with a background in French culture and

Caribbean history. He has written several books on Haiti,

the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.

Shelly-Ann Inniss is a Trinidad-based Barbadian writer;

community builder; self-appointed tourism ambassador for

Barbados; gluten-free baker, and founder of Your Glutenfree

Companion.

Giselle Laronde-West (Chaconia Medal Gold, and Miss

World 1986) is a Conflict Women brand ambassador,

Foundation for the Enhancement & Enrichment of Life

board member, and 3rd-degree black belt karateka, with

bylines in MACO Magazine, Trinidad Weddings, and others.

Aisha Sylvester is a freelance writer (published in Beat,

Discover Trinidad & Tobago, and LoopTT), and author of

the travel blog, Island Girl In-Transit. She lives in Trinidad

but spends countless hours exploring Tobago’s beaten

paths and hidden gems.

Donna Yawching is a freelance writer, currently based

in Canada. She has written for Caribbean Beat since the

beginning of time — or at least since the beginning of Beat,

whichever came first. Her special interests are travel and

culture.


17

A Message

Writing for our lives

Excerpt from the foreword of Writing For Our Lives: a

Caribbean Climate Justice Anthology, written by Simon

Stiell — the Caribbean man, from Grenada, at the helm of the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC)

When I became Executive

Secretary of UN Climate

Change, I made it my

mission to keep humanity at the core

of our work. Even at the highest level,

as we worked on negotiations where

parties combed over every sentence,

every word, every comma of text,

agreeing to the commitments of all

countries around the world, I strove

to keep front of mind the human face

of climate change.

Writing For Our Lives takes on this

mission with the appearance of ease

that can only be born out of great

beauty and artistry. Through fictional

stories, poignant poems, and harrowing

accounts of real experiences from

authors across the Caribbean, the

reader gets acquainted with the lived

experience of those on the frontlines

of climate change. Not just the factual

loss and powerlessness experienced

by those in the midst of disaster, but

the fear, anxiety, and hope that came

before, and the despair, determination,

and willpower that followed the

trauma of seeing your home gone

and meeting a new world — a poorer

world — in its stead. Indeed, climate

reckoning is not something that will

one day come — in an uncertain

future we hope may not truly come to

pass. It is here. Not one day. Today,

Today, Congotay!

from our CEO

immovable object of human perseverance

— you are steeled in your resolve

to act in every way you can. Making

your own voice heard, at home, and

in civil society, making it clear to your

representatives that fighting climate

change and supporting every community

to adapt — leaving nobody behind

— is not just a priority, it is the priority.

I, myself, was acquainted with this

experience in 2024. From the foreboding

nature of so much climate

news — we are not on track, and we

need to accelerate — to the experience

of seeing Carriacou — the

island I call home — devastated by

hurricane Beryl. In its wake, I saw a

community that helped shape the

man I am today, and among whom I

raised my own family, united around

each other with determination in the

face of despair.

To see the emotional depth of these

experiences reflected in this book

fills me with hope. That others may

understand where we come from.

That they may feel the loss of seeing

a place erased from the world, even

as they still have time to avoid it for

themselves and for so many others.

I hope that, as you read these short

stories, essays, and poems — these

truthful, honest accounts of the

emotional confrontation between the

unstoppable force of disasters and the

In this book, the perseverance and

humanity of so many people across

the Caribbean is represented. It is up

to all of us to make sure they are not

tragic heroes fighting an inexorable

enemy in human greed, human indifference,

human inertia.

It is up to us to make sure that the

enemy — the only remaining enemy —

is man-made climate change and the

disasters it is already wreaking upon all

populations on the planet. It is up to us

to make sure that everybody — from the

richest to the poorest, from the largest

nation to the smallest island — is part

of the solution. That nobody puts greed

first. That nobody neglects the plight

of their fellow men and women. That

nobody stands idle while others fall.

And there is no greater force for

caring than the beauty and power of

art. Irreverent, contemplative, defiant,

measured, energetic.

Writing For Our Lives is a powerful collection of stories, poems and essays that

bring the climate crisis into sharp focus through the voices of some of those most

affected yet least heard — the people and communities of the Caribbean. These

18 writers from eight countries tackle climate justice from diverse viewpoints,

exploring the profound impacts of environmental change on health, livelihoods,

culture, and heritage. A must-read for those who seek to understand the cost of

climate change and the strength of Caribbean storytelling.

#REcalibrated

CaribbeanAirlines

explore

Two Foot Bay

National Park,

Barbuda

Located on the northeast coast of Barbuda — Antigua’s sister island

— this is so much more than a beautiful stretch of beach. Dramatic

cliffs and caves line the coast, rising some 140 feet above sea level.

The most important of the caves here is Indian Cave, where you can

see petroglyphs — carved by the island’s First Peoples — among the

stalagmites and stalactites. The park is also full of biodiversity —

including several species endemic to Barbuda — like red-billed tropicbirds,

red land crabs, pearly-eyed thrashers, Caribbean elaenias,

Lesser Antillean bullfinches, Antillean crested hummingbirds, and

Griswold’s ameiva (a ground lizard).

Courtesy Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority



21

Shelly-Ann Inniss on the major festivals,

holidays, and celebrations across the

region this July and August

Courtesy Tobago Festivals Commission

Celebration time

Caribbean “summer carnivals” reflect the unique cultures of each

destination, while bringing together diverse groups of participants and

spectators. Barbados’ Crop Over festival, for instance, represents the

ending of the sugar cane harvest and the crowning of the king and queen

(most productive cane cutters) of the crop!

Enjoy CayMAS (28 June–7 July), Vincy Mas

(2–9 July), St Lucia Carnival (17–23 July),

Carnival of Santiago de Cuba (18–27 July),

Antigua Carnival (30 July–6 August), Toronto

Caribbean Carnival (31 July–1 August, formerly

Caribana), Barbados’ Crop Over Festival

(30 July–5 August), Grenada’s Spicemas (11

August), and Notting Hill Carnival (23–25

August).

Further south, immerse yourself in Tobago’s

oral traditions, music, dances, food, and folklore

across various communities and villages in the

Tobago Heritage Festival (1 July–1 August).

Carolyne Parent/Shutterstock.com

The Belize Lobster Festival sees three

coastal communities take centre stage in July:

the San Pedro Lobster Fest (1–12) features

a lobster crawl and block party; the Placencia

Lobster Fest (4–6) is known for its familyfriendly

fun; and the oldest and biggest lobster

festival on Caye Caulker (18–20) offers parties

and pageantry.


event buzz

International Reggae Day (1 July)

celebrates this beloved Jamaican

genre with themed events and globally

synchronised playlists connecting fans.

The celebration continues at Jamaica’s

renowned Reggae Sumfest (13–19

July) with seven events, complete with

a star-studded line-up and electrifying

performances.

Traditional sailing meets a distinctive

cultural experience as visitors enjoy

competitive sailing at Traditour Sailing

Race (2–4 July) in Dominica.

Meanwhile, every Thursday in July,

Bahamas Goombay Summer

Festival offers a bush tea tasting, the

distinctive Bahamian Junkanoo rushouts,

quadrille dancing, and more!

Adam McCullough/Shutterstock.com

Dark or sweet-and-milky,

chocolate’s health benefits and its

power to deliciously enhance desserts

make it easy to love. On World

Chocolate Day (7 July), visit one of the

cocoa estates in the Caribbean, make a

chocolate creation, and share the love!

Katerininamd/Shutterstock.com

For lovers of sweet and juicy

mangoes, the Nevis Mango Festival

(4–6 July) has created a mouthwatering

culinary escape, with

masterclasses, food tours, and other

events to captivate your senses. Next,

savour more unforgettable flavours

during St Kitts & Nevis Restaurant

Week (17–27 July), while engaging in

cultural fun at Nevis Culturama (24

July–5 August).

The spirited tones and theatrical

performances of the Marionettes

Chorale enthral audiences around

various locations in Trinidad annually;

their mid-year concert Rejoice II (4–6

July) promises another sensational

showcase.

Courtesy Discover Puerto Rico

Declared the official drink of Puerto

Rico in 1978, celebrate the marvellous

blend of coconut cream, rum, and

pineapple with Piña Colada Day (10

July) and the Piña Colada Festival

(10–13 July) in Old San Juan. Expect

a bounty of artisan markets, salsa

dancing, and a treasure hunt with a

twist. ¡Salud!

Courtesy Pixabay


23

event buzz

Hemis/Alamy Stock Photo

Photography/Shutterstock.com

Montserrat’s Calabash Festival (18–

27 July) marks the 30th anniversary of

the Soufrière Hills volcanic eruption, with

a poignant programme including the Sir

George Irish Lecture, Neighbourly Day,

the Grand Food Fair, the CalaSplash fete,

and other activities saluting strength,

resilience, and versatility. Montserratians

also celebrate their African ancestry at

the Cudjoe Head Festival (1–3 August)

with masquerades, string band music,

and revelry.

Courtesy Montserrat Tourism Division

Fleets of narrow race boats with

large rectangular sails circumnavigate

Martinique at the popular Yole Boat

Race (27 July–3 August) — with deep

roots in traditional fishing.

Similarly, Carriacou pays homage to

their traditional boating heritage as

beautifully crafted boats take to the

sea at the Carriacou Regatta Festival

(31 July–5 August). The races are

electrifying, and the onshore activities

like donkey racing, greasy pole, and

street parties are just as exhilarating.

Over 25 varieties of breadfruit are

found in St Vincent & the Grenadines.

This staple is so revered it has its own

festival and is the key ingredient in

SVG’s national dish: roasted breadfruit

with fried jackfish. Check out the

Breadfruit Festival (August) for a

plethora of breadfruit creations and

cultural activities.

Bells of freedom ring out on

Emancipation Day (1 August)

with street processions, African

drumming, dances, art exhibitions,

and cultural events to commemorate

the abolition of enslavement in the

former British colonies. Immerse

yourself in similar observances:

Suriname’s Keti Koti (1 July), and the

BVI’s Emancipation Festival (17

July–9 August).

From roadside carts to the finest

restaurants, “cocoa tea” is a St Lucian

mainstay! Learn about the island’s

rich cocoa traditions at Chocolate

Heritage Month (August) — and

grab some cocoa sticks and elite

chocolate bars as souvenirs. Cocoa

plantation tours, special menus,

and inventive cocoa products await.

Flower enthusiasts can also check

out the La Rose Flower Festival (30

August).

Fashion and entertainment intertwine

at the BVI Summer Sizzle (23–28

July); and on Virgin Gorda, BVI Xmas

in July (26 July) takes on a nautical

theme with the boating community

from Puerto Rico joining locals for a

beach party and lots of fun. Proceeds

go to nonprofit organisations and

environmental conservation groups.

Perhaps this is where Santa vacations in

the summer…!

Mihidum Jayasinghe/Shutterstock.com


event buzz

Courtesy CPL via Getty Images

Gwoka (a music and dance form) is the

pulse of Guadeloupe. Every July, music

lovers head for the Gwoka Festival

at Sainte-Anne, where popular artists

and tanbouyés (percussionists playing

the “ka” drum) perform in the streets

and on beaches. The tunes continue at

the Guadeloupe Creole Jazz Festival

(4–30 August).

Neighbouring Martinique’s Baccha

Music Festival (9–10 August),

meanwhile, promises two days of

dancing to the music of Caribbean and

international artists in Pointe Faula.

Don’t miss the “biggest party in

sport”! Featuring spectacular T20

cricket from the world’s leading players,

the Caribbean Premier League (14

August–21 September) unites cricket

fans (and casual limers) at fixtures

across the six host nations — Antigua &

Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts &

Nevis, St Lucia, and Trinidad & Tobago.

The excitement culminates with an

invigorating two-week finale in Guyana —

inclusive of the annual Cricket Carnival!

Dive into the depths and explore

captivating marine life and stunning

underwater landscapes at Barbados

Dive Fest (15–20 August). Awareness

programmes, scuba and freediving

demonstrations, conservation tips, and

beach clean-ups are part of the packed

agenda.

At the Trinidad & Tobago Great Race

(16 August), power boats in several

speed classes compete over 100

nautical miles to win their category and

be the fastest boat from Trinidad to

Tobago! The event attracts scores of

onlookers to the best vantage points,

in the hope of catching a glimpse of the

competitors.

Under the theme “Caribbean Roots,

Global Excellence”, the Caribbean

community celebrates our cultural

ties at CARIFESTA XV (22–31 August)

in Barbados, with an explosion of

regional music, dance, drama, fashion,

sculpture, literature, and delectable

multinational cuisine.

In Curaçao, the Kaya Kaya Street

Party (23 August) celebrates

community and artistry with a

multi-stage experience showcasing

gastronomy, art, dance, music, and

more across Otrobanda. Soon after,

an eclectic mix of global talent rocks

the North Sea Jazz Festival (27–30

August). It begins with a free concert

at Kura Hulanda Village, followed by the

main events at the World Trade Centre

in Piscadera Bay, with appearances by

legends like Kool & the Gang, Snoop

Dogg, NE-YO, and Ricky Martin.

Courtesy TC Davis/Flickr CCL

Did you know the steelpan — first

forged in Trinidad & Tobago — is the

only acoustic instrument invented in

the 20th century? T&T’s Steelpan

Month (August) highlights include

World Steelpan Day (11 August), the

World Steelpan Festival, plus myriad

workshops, discussions, parades,

performances, competitions, and

cultural exchanges.

Shutterprice/Shutterstock.com



27

film buzz

“I would

like to show

something

else about

Haiti in my

films”

In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, within the walls

of a large residential compound, an event

has been taking place every year for the

last two decades. The Quatre Chemins

theatre festival, founded by the writer

and artist Guy Régis Jr, is more than a

showcase for Haiti’s performers. It is a

testament to a formidable desire to keep

the arts alive in a country perpetually on

the brink of violent collapse.

Born in Haiti and based in Montreal,

Canada, Joseph Hillel talks to Jonathan

Ali about his intimate and indelible

documentary about this remarkable

festival, and the artists who keep it

going at all costs — or koutkekout, to

use the Kreyòl term that gives the film

its title.

How did Koutkekout come about?

I had this project in mind for 10 years.

In 2013 I did a casting, with Guy Régis

Jr, for a director looking for a young

Haitian for a role in a film in Quebec.

At that time, Guy was the director

of the theatre department at the

National School of the Arts in Haiti. I

had just finished working with him on

the Creole version of my first feature

documentary, Ayiti Toma, in the Land

of the Living (2013). I was surprised

because there were so many young

students coming to this casting. It was

impressive. That’s when I started to

think that [it] would be interesting to

do something with these guys. I kept

in contact.

In 2022, I spent almost a month

watching the different plays that

were being staged in the festival. I

was very surprised by its popularity,

with mostly a young audience. People

were very enthusiastic. I decided that

I should come back next year with a

crew. I would try to find a way to make

the film without putting anybody in

danger. I wanted to do it fast because

things in Port-au-Prince were getting

worse and worse.

You immerse the viewer in the

creative process of putting

together the festival. What was

filming it like?

It’s not easy to capture theatre for

cinema. There’s always that fourth

wall that I was trying to break [to get a

character to acknowledge the camera].

People were rehearsing all around the

headquarters of the festival — there is

not much space available, so the artists

are rehearsing everywhere they can.

I decided to film them everywhere.

I spent a lot of time with them, just

chatting. After a while, as they’re

rehearsing, I introduce the microphone.

After that, I bring the camera in close.

That was the way it evolved.

The principal shoot took place in

2023 with my director of photography

and soundman. We’re all white guys,

blan. It wasn’t very discreet, but it

didn’t take long to earn their trust.


Photography courtesy

Joseph Hillel

Stills from Festival Quatre Chemins,

a theatre festival captured in the

documentary Koutkekout (At All Kosts)

Everyone was welcoming and happy

to see foreigners during this difficult

period in the country. Also, since I

speak Kreyòl, it was very casual.

You beautifully integrate cultural

history into the film, giving a sense

of Haiti’s rich artistic traditions.

Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) was the

most lucrative and also the most

brutal French colony, and people loved

to be entertained there. It was home

to the most important theatrical

tradition in the Antilles. There were

many theatres and numerous troupes.

White planters, mulattoes, and

freemen alike were passionate about

the spectacle.

After the revolutionary transition

and the departure of the colonists,

Haitian theatre would bring a political

message to the world: that of the first

Black republic, decolonised by the

strength of its people. The fates of

the liberator Toussaint Louverture, of

Dessalines, or of Henri Christophe have

inspired many writers.

The young artists in the film, like

all Haitians, know the history of their

country very well, and they’re very

proud of it, and of their traditions. It’s

not so much for them that I included

this history in the film. It’s for people

outside, who always hear the same bad

things about Haiti. I would like to show

something else about Haiti in my films,

something brighter. A rich culture.

In the interviews, the protagonists

discuss the challenges of living and

working in Haiti.

They are struggling with that question.

To leave, or to stay, with the situation

as it is in Haiti. They have their friends

and family there, and it is their source

of creativity. Of course, it’s not easy

for them to leave. We all know about

the immigration situation in the United

States. Most of the protagonists are

trying to get artists’ residences outside,

but they would prefer to stay in Haiti.

They love their country; it is their world.

Koutkekout (2024)

Joseph Hillel

Haiti, Canada • 86 minutes


29

music buzz

This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean

Reviews by Nigel Campbell

Collé Kharis

Lot 13 (RacJam Records)

The modern Caribbean

immigrant story in the

United States is not always

hard-scrabble nor filled

with over-the-shoulder

glances towards forces of

removal. Lives are being

transformed positively,

while island memories and

multicultural perspectives

linger. Born in Guyana, Collin

Harris — reborn in music

as Collé Kharis — is on a

mission to make his music a

signpost of what new Caribbean-Americans

can call

contemporary metropolitan

island music. Lot 13, his new

full-length album (his fourth

in a two-decade career)

explores topics of love and

relationships, social justice,

West Indian pride, and his

reflections on his place in

this new world. Direct lyrics,

devoid of artifice, get to the

message quickly. A reggae/

dancehall vibe permeates

the album, which moves

in a multi-genre fusion

direction. Accessible lyrics

are front and centre.

Production values ensure

that beats are danceable

for everyone. A new voice

in reggae’s expanding world

is here.

Anti-Everything

True Love (Boatshrimp

Records)

Anti-Everything’s music has

been described as melodic

hardcore punk from Trinidad

& Tobago, combining punk’s

sonic aesthetics with steelpan

and calypso. That musical

juxtaposition is evident

on their new record, an 11

song EP with short odes to

the islands’ version of political

nationhood (blighted and

otherwise), along with cynical

and wary observations

that position this band’s

generation of millennials

as keen commentators

on stalled progress. The

marvellous lyrics perfectly

capture the antipathy and

agony of disappointed island

youth. The music subliminally

breathes the legacy of

the islands’ calypso, telling

stories that need to be

heard, and providing musical

pathways for native rhythms

— here, Afro-Caribbean

beats and steelpan work

well to define a “punkaiso”

minimalism. Mockery of

florid political speech on

“Hansard”, and progressing

vocal angst on “Letter to

the Prime Minister” embody

an ethos of rebellion tied to

smart songcraft. Genius!

Gary Hector

Memphis Medicine (Maraval

Records)

The appeal and influence

of Americana and country

music to outsiders — yes,

it’s territorial, just ask

Beyoncé — has always been

enigmatic. Englishman Elton

John successfully flirted

with it on Tumbleweed

Connection; and Saint

Lucians, to this day, deify

the genre. 1960s rock and

roll also became an early

influence for Gary Hector

that infuses his second solo

album Memphis Medicine.

His continued escape from

island genres yields rewards.

Bob Dylan vocalism with

vintage Rolling Stones

bluesy vibes spread across

the album, but the twang of

the pedal steel guitar points

the whole project towards a

traditional Nashville quality.

Hector’s first-person narratives

use clever wordplay

like I wanna be the first to

find the last great lovesong,

and droll autobiography as

on “Time Flies, Time Lies” to

give listeners an inside look

at his character. Pioneering

stuff.

Victor Provost and

Alex Brown

Island to Island (Dark Fire

Records)

Victor Provost continues

to provide listeners with an

ever-expanding range of

jazz music possibilities for

the national instrument of

Trinidad & Tobago, the steelpan.

On this, his third official

album — this time with

pianist and frequent collaborator

Alex Brown — Provost

explores more Caribbean

and Latin American rhythms

including the Venezuelan

joropo, the Brazilian baião,

and the Creole mazurka of

Martinique, and applies the

language of jazz (expanded

harmonies and improvised

melodies) to a satisfying

result. Brown counters with

three compositions that

speak to this tropical jazz

vibe with elegant touches of

virtuoso playing, allowing for

the interplay of steelpan and

piano that does not seem

overly cerebral but assuredly

sensual. The Brown composition

“Victor’s Tune” is their

10-minute swan song on the

album that encapsulates

the idea that calypso and

Latin rhythms, together with

moving tempos, work well to

smartly celebrate pan jazz.

30

WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM

ADVERTORIAL

The Jumbo Jet Thoroughbred Committee

announces the highly anticipated

17th running of the Guyana Cup,

scheduled for 17th August, 2025 at the

Rising Sun Turf Club.

As the most prestigious horse-racing

competition in Guyana, this year we are

expecting the participation of elite

horses and jockeys, given our continued

growth and the development of the

sport in Guyana.

Just recently, our victory at the Sandy

Lane Barbados Gold Cup made history.

Our presence at the event’s 42nd edition

marked Guyana’s first entry into the

competition. Facing off against the best

in the world, we delivered nothing short

of a golden performance — securing a

first-place finish.

In so doing — and cementing our firm

love for horse-racing — we have

organised a team to help make this

year’s Guyana Cup our biggest ever. Our

cash prizes for the Guyana Cup 2025

total over 50 million dollars — making it

the largest purse ever in the Caribbean.

17th August, 2025

A total of 11 races will form part of this

year’s programme. In contrast to years

prior, we will conduct an open nomination

process for horses to be entered in

the featured “Guyana Cup” race. This is

because, for the past two years, there

has been a large influx of imported

horses into the country, with new horse

owners — all of whom have developed

an interest in participating in this

competitive sport. Olympic Kremlin, the

2024 Guyana Cup winning horse from

Slingerz Stable, will race by automatic

entry.

This year, patrons can expect an

exclusive VVIP experience through the

VVIP Village, which will feature a lounge

setting with multiple private cabanas

and one grand stage that provides a full

360-degree view of the ring.

The grand VVIP stage will also be ideal

for those interested in enjoying the

after-show, as it offers a direct view

from the upper deck of the stage to the

performance stage. The after-show

promises to be exciting and energetic,

with a live showcase of chutney/soca

music. Patrons can expect performances

from an amazing line up of local

artistes and a popular international

artiste who will soon be announced.

For additional entertainment, we will

also be hosting a cultural parade

around our ring, which will illustrate the

rich cultural diversity of our people and

country. Our exclusive Kiddies Zone

also remains, making this a familyoriented

event.

Most importantly, we have recognised

the growth of small and medium-sized

enterprises (SMEs) and their great

importance in developing economies.

As a result, this year we will be

supporting SMEs by creating a space

that allows them to display their

products at minimal cost.

Furthermore, the week leading up to

race day, we will host a special event:

Brunch With the Stars. This event

concept will be a mixer allowing

attendees to meet and greet their

favourite jockeys and stakeholders of

the sport, take photos, and witness the

live drawing of the races.

It is our intent to revolutionise

horse-racing, to give it the prestige and

recognition it deserves. Our team is

committed to working diligently to offer

the best horse-racing experience come

race day. We therefore take this

opportunity to wish all owners,

trainers, jockeys, and their horses the

very best.

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM 31

book buzz

This month’s reading picks from the Caribbean

Reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan, Book Review Editor

Village Weavers

by Myriam J.A. Chancy (Tin

House Books, 352 pp, ISBN

9781959030379)

Winner of the 2025 OCM

Bocas Prize for Caribbean

Literature, Village Weavers

winds a spool of unbreakable

thread around the lives

of two Haitian children,

Gertie and Sisi. Slipping

back and forth through

decades, in and out of cities

and crises, their allegiance

cracks — but never fully

fractures — beneath the

weight of history, the

spectres of illegitimacy, and

the homegrown horrors

of secrets buried deeper

than navel strings. Chancy’s

prose is both luminous in

its emotional excavations,

and as grounded in reality

as rich, resourceful earth

itself. “Sisterhood”, one

girl reflects — longing for

the other with a palpable

grief — “is like a loose net in

which fishermen catch fish

that never see the hands of

their captors, a net full of

holes and empty promises

that doesn’t let you go,

but doesn’t hold you close

either.”

Some of Us Can Go

Back Home

by Yashika Graham (Blouse

& Skirt Books, 80 pp, ISBN

9789768267405)

Shortlisted for the 2025

OCM Bocas Prize for

Caribbean Literature in the

poetry category, Yashika

Graham’s debut collection

teems with a verdant and

alert ancestry. It is both

annunciation and reckoning,

both family tree and fighting

chant, both lilting love letter

and dire comeuppance.

Faithful in their respect for

Jamaican poetic heralds like

Edward Baugh and Lorna

Goodison, the speakers

of these poems yet carve

their own paths through

the teeming mysteries of

life’s grievances and graces.

At their empyrean heights,

Graham’s images are so

powerful they both shatter

and reassemble the heart. In

the wake left by a brother’s

death, “There is no oil, no

ring, no prayer, / just the

mesh of fall-over tired / and

the soft-soft of a place /

where you have been.”

An Ordinary Landscape

of Violence: Women

Loving Women in

Guyana

by Preity R. Kumar (Rutgers

University Press, 198 pp,

ISBN 9781978819047)

Attentive in its scholarship,

ethically focused on the

remits of its research, this is

not only a text of academic

merit, but a living register

of queer experience in

postcolonial Guyana. Kumar

avows her commitment to

the book’s 33 interview subjects

in unambiguous, even

devoted terms, underscoring

her mission “to describe what

happens to these womenloving

women when violence

is folded into their lives”.

Unmooring that violence

from its basic dictionary

definitions, the author traces

queer Guyanese women’s

traumas through their sexual,

sociological, and political

frameworks, showing how

such harms are insidious

— not incidental — to the

natural and built environment

of an entire nation. The intimacies

that unravel from the

lived experiences within this

work are at once cautionary

and triumphant, marking so

many survivals snatched from

untimely ends.

Ibis

by Justin Haynes (The

Overlook Press, 352 pp,

ISBN 9781419772771)

Where does an entire village

put its guilt? In Trinidadian

Justin Haynes’ debut novel,

the answers lie stifled in

the sands of coastal New

Felicity — a tiny fishing

locale dotted with colourful

characters of ill-repute harbouring

a young Venezuelan

refugee girl, Milagros. Taking

a zigzagging approach to its

often-dizzying narrative,

Ibis is a flinty-eyed exploration

of the consequences

of political greed, carnal

misrule, and insurrections

soaked in plantation blood.

Along the winding path of

Haynes’ prose, packed with

humorous repetitions and

bacchanal-dyed references,

expect to encounter a

true motley crew. Herein

is a disillusioned university

graduate nursing an

impossible-to-finish project;

a jilted quasi-gentleman who

only speaks binary; a pair of

jetty-destroying expatriate

thugs; and a shark-punching

heroine with a heart of gold.

For all that, Ibis is more than

a laugh-a-minute: in its

sharpest moments, it stuns

with a desperate sorrow.


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Journey

through

Tobago’s

living

history

Courtesy Tobago House of Assembly

Tobago is a destination where history isn’t

buried in the past, writes Aisha Sylvester,

but carefully preserved so it can be fully

appreciated in the present

While Tobago’s scenic beaches and lush flora may draw you

in with their picture postcard perfection, dig a little deeper

and this quietly majestic island begins to whisper its layered

stories through aged stone walls, moss-covered gravestones,

and towering church steeples. Here, chronicles of times gone by present

themselves in subtle ways … just waiting to be discovered.

Assembly Legislature House

Jerningham Street, Upper

Scarborough

Exactly 200 years of history echo

through the stone corridors of the

Assembly Legislature House in Tobago’s

capital of Scarborough. Built under

British rule between 1821 and 1825, it

housed the island’s legislature and judiciary

until the abolishment of representative

government in 1877. For over a century,

the house lost its lustre and stature.

But in the early 1980s, it was restored

to its original glory, becoming the seat

of the Tobago House of Assembly in

1985. Today, this near-perfect example

of Georgian architecture stands as a

symbol of Tobago’s political evolution —

once the foundation of colonial oversight,

its chambers now host decisions and

debates among elected Tobagonians that

shape the island’s future.


Jad Davenport Courtesy Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd

Courtesy David Kirsch/Flickr CCL

Fort King George Heritage

Park

84 Fort Street, Scarborough

Perched high above the Atlantic Ocean

with a bird’s-eye view of Scarborough,

Fort King George Heritage Park is Tobago’s

most iconic military relic. Originally

constructed by the British in the 1770s,

the fort served as a deterrent to rival

European powers. Its strategic placement

is no coincidence, as Tobago’s colonial

history is marked by repeated handovers

among the French, Dutch, and British for

over two centuries. Dubbed “Scarborough

Hill” in its first incarnation, it was

subsequently named after King George

III in 1803. Today, its cannon, officers’

barracks, gunpowder magazine, and jail

cells are among the best preserved in

the region. The fort is also home to the

Tobago Museum, containing artefacts

ranging from Amerindian settlements to

post-emancipation Tobago, making it a

must-visit — not just for the views, but

for the deep history it holds.

Courland Monument

Commissioner Street, Plymouth

On the southwestern side of the island,

in the village of Plymouth, lies the Courland

Monument — a quiet but significant

site that commemorates Tobago’s

unlikely connection to Latvia. In 1654,

the Duchy of Courland (a now-defunct

Baltic state) attempted to colonise

Tobago, establishing what was then

called New Courland. Though the settlement

was short-lived and repeatedly

contested by other European powers,

the Courlanders left a lasting impact.

At its peak, Europeans, First Peoples,

and Gambians from Africa formed an

international settlement of free men at

Great Courland Bay, engaging in trade

with communities in North America,

Brazil, Europe, and Africa. This unique

monument, unveiled in 1978, marks

the location of that lesser-known, early

European foothold. Understated in its

design, the Courland Monument serves

as a reminder of the island’s often-overlooked

ties to minor colonial players

and symbolises the many layers — and

the international interests — that have

shaped Tobago’s past.


35

Mystery Tombstone

Shelbourne Street, Plymouth

Kara Roopsingh Courtesy the National Trust of Trinidad & Tobago

Tobago is a land of stories, and some

of them remain unsolved mysteries.

One of its most famous enigmas lies

in Plymouth — a tombstone whose

riddle has puzzled visitors and scholars

for over two centuries. The so-called

Mystery Tombstone reads: “She was a

mother without knowing it, and a wife

without letting her husband know it,

except by her kind indulgence to him.”

The inscription, both cryptic and poetic,

adorns the grave of one Betty Stiven,

who died in 1783. Historians have speculated

about her story, hinting at issues

of illegitimacy, secrecy, and colonialera

scandal. But the truth will forever

remain buried with her. Over time,

this roadside tombstone has become a

pilgrimage site — a quiet place where

tourists pause, ponder, and confront

the complicated realities of human lives

lived long ago.

Courtesy Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd

St Patrick’s Anglican Church

St Patrick’s Church Road, Mt Pleasant

Set just off the main road in Mt Pleasant,

St Patrick’s Anglican Church is both

a place of worship and a monument

to endurance. On record as the oldest

church in Tobago, it was originally constructed

in the early 1800s and served

a growing Anglican community during

a period of British colonisation and

plantation prosperity. Its clean lines, high

ceilings, and arched windows are classic

Caribbean adaptations of Georgian

ecclesiastical architecture. But perhaps

its most poignant feature is its steeple

— once used as a guide for sailors and

fishermen, guiding them safely to shore

at Mt Irvine Bay and Little Courland Bay.

Since it was first erected, the church has

withstood natural disasters and shifting

demographics, standing as a spiritual

anchor and a guardian of Tobago’s colonial

and religious history.

Speyside Estate Ruins &

Waterwheel

Windward Road, Speyside

Over on the island’s northeastern coast,

the village of Speyside holds one of

Tobago’s most evocative plantation relics

— the Speyside Estate Ruins. Once

a sprawling sugar estate, the site is now

defined by a massive, rusting, cast-iron

waterwheel that is still as commanding

a structure as the day it was installed.

Built in the 1800s, the wheel harnessed

hydropower from nearby streams to

crush sugar cane, a brutal business that

depended on the labour of enslaved Africans.

Walking among the moss-covered

stones and vine-strangled columns

— against a scenic ocean backdrop, no

less — one can almost forget the turmoil

of the times. Almost. It’s a beautiful yet

sobering site with nature reclaiming

industry, while history stubbornly (and

rightfully) refuses to be forgotten.

Tobago’s historical sites do

more than preserve stone

and mortar — they preserve

emotion, legacy, and identity.

Whether majestic or humble, marked by

grandeur or quiet defiance, these places

offer visitors a deeper, more textured

understanding of the island beyond its

beaches. They invite us to slow down,

listen, and remember. Because here,

the past doesn’t just rest in books or

museums — it lives on, in open air,

under sun and rain, for all who choose

to walk its path. n

Jad Davenport Courtesy Tobago Tourism Agency Ltd


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37

the view from here

Animal Flower Cave, Barbados

Located in Barbados’s most northern parish of St Lucy,

the Animal Flower Cave’s natural beauty serves up

extraordinary moments with dramatic views of the

Atlantic Ocean through the cave’s “windows”. This

iconic landmark, under the cliffs at North Point, houses

sea anemones (locally called animal flowers) and several

refreshing natural pools. Listening to the waves crash

against the ancient cliffs and observing the cave’s

stunning rock textures — with green and brown walls

fashioned by the oxidation of copper and iron — evoke

a sense of wonder. It is enchanting, magical — a natural

masterpiece.

Photo by Alisa Burn-Murdoch/Alamy Stock Photo



panorama

Our words,

our Caribbean

Courtesy Martinique Tourism Committee/N. Haughton

The Caribbean is a living linguistic laboratory,

writes Dr Jo-Anne Ferreira, who traces how

languages from Europe, Africa, Asia, and our

Indigenous Peoples have converged, been

preserved and transformed over centuries in

a way that is uniquely ours

If you are flying over, to, or through the Caribbean — a region where

language is as vibrant and diverse as its landscapes — have you

ever wondered about the place names and words that fill Caribbean

conversations?

Our region is a living linguistic laboratory where languages have been

preserved, have converged, mingled, and transformed over centuries.

Caribbean words have also travelled beyond the Caribbean for just as long.

Words are more than just static labels; they’re like living, breathing entities

that evolve right alongside their users. New words pop up all the time to keep

pace with our ever-changing world — the latest in technology and fashion,

and other social shifts and movements.

Words know no borders. They travel just as easily across cultures — finding

new homes, new pronunciations, and new meanings as they journey from

one culture to the next. English, a language itself known for its eclectic mix,

Courtesy Guyana Tourism Authority

has been both a famous (or infamous) borrower

and a lender.

Words have histories too.

Let’s start with place names. The name Caribbean

(itself with two pronunciations, one with

emphasis on the second syllable, the other on the

third) is based on the Europeanised name for an

Indigenous group (possibly the Kalina). And names

like Aruba, The Bahamas, Bonaire, Carriacou,

the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Guyanas, Haiti,

Jamaica, Saba, and Suriname, among others, all

have Indigenous roots — not to mention names

aplenty for rivers, mountains, bays, and much more.

Many territories had more than one recorded

Indigenous name — depending on the group

doing the naming and the recording. Two different

groups may even have shared one name for the

same place.

Modern Trinidad & Tobago, for example, might

have been known as Chalibaboue & Aloubaéra

in Island Carib (an Iñeri Maipurean/Arawakan

language) — or Kairi & Urupaina in Karìna auran (a

Northern Galibi Cariban language). Tobago itself is

often assumed to be of Indigenous origin, but some

theories have it that the name came from Spanish

with Arabic roots.

Martinique’s two known names are Madinina,

“land of flowers” (of Kalinago origin); and Jouanacaera,

“land of iguanas” (from a Cariban language).

The language of the Indigenous people of the

Lesser Antilles — called Kalinago for the men and

Kalifuna for the women by missionary priest Raymond

Breton — is often now referred to as Kalinago.


Courtesy Tobago Festivals Commission

Take a moment to consider the words we use every day in a range of

western European languages. Did you know that when you mention

agouti, barbecue, canoe, cassava, cay, guava, hammock, hurricane,

mangrove, pawpaw, potato, savannah, you’re using words that originated with

the Taíno people who spoke Arawakan (or Maipurean) languages? These names

all have to do with natural phenomena, like flora and fauna; or topography and

weather patterns; or cultural practices.

At the time of European conquest and contact in the 15th century, the

Taíno and other Indigenous nations numbered up to two million, and they

lived in what are now The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (Haiti and

the Dominican Republic today), Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and beyond.

The Taíno are the Indigenous people of the Greater Antilles, designated by

Europeans as Arawaks and later described as Taíno to distinguish them from

the Arawaks or Lokono of mainland South America.

When we think of the legacy they gave us in terms of flora, often the same

plant carries multiple names — reflecting the diverse linguistic heritage of

the region. Cassava is Arawakan and manioc is Tupí, two completely different

language families. Corn comes from a Germanic word meaning grain or seed,

but Arawakan gave us maize — now we use corn here for maize. The name

roucou is interesting because we got a Tupí name, at least in Trinidad; annatto

is from Cumaná (a Cariban language); and achiote is from Nahuatl, an Uto-

Aztecan language.

Above Bèlè is a dance form found in

Martinique, St Lucia, Dominica, Grenada,

Guadeloupe, Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago

Below Martinique is known as “land of

iguanas” or Jouanacaera (in Cariban)

Opposite page (bottom) Traditional

method of making cassava bread in Guyana

Courtesy Martinique Tourism Committee


41

Henry Agudelo/Shuterstock.com

Courtesy Guyana Tourism Authority

Left Descendents of our First Peoples keep both

language and culture alive across the Americas

Top “Hammock” is an Arawakan or Maipurean word

Above The name “canoe” (pictured here in Dominica’s

Kalinago Territory) originated with the Taíno people

Discover Dominica

Of course, the story is never that simple. Some of those words above may

have had other Indigenous influences, and many of them came through either

French or Spanish — or both — to be later adopted into English.

Speaking of English, there are English words that we think we made up or

have “corrupted”, yet many of them are regional English retentions — some

obsolete, old-fashioned/archaic, or regional.

Some examples are: hoss (horse), mines (mine), onliest (only), to carry someone

(to take), to full (to fill), to grater (to grate), to learn (to teach), to out (as in,

to put out a light), to loss (to lose), to leff (to leave), nosehole (nostril), to study (to

ponder), and from I was a child (since I was a child).

Both preservation and innovation are

hallmarks of Caribbean languages today

Many of these words no longer enjoy the neutral status they once did, and

their users are often (mis)judged as being antiquated or even ignorant, based

on how others feel English should be.

English came to the Caribbean in 1623, not long after Shakespeare’s

passing, and the Bard would definitely recognise some Caribbean words,

pronunciations, and meanings in Caribbean varieties of English and in

Caribbean English-related Creoles.

Dutch and French also came to the Caribbean in the early 1600s, and

both those languages have also left their mark on Caribbean speech.

Examples of regional (and archaic) European French persisting in Caribbean

French and in Caribbean French-related

Creoles include anse and morne (also in Canada)

for plage (beach) and colline (hill), and ramager (to

sing like a bird).

Spanish, of course, came to the Americas in

1492. Like English of the 17th and 18th centuries in

the Caribbean, the 15th and 16th century varieties

of Spanish have also impacted Caribbean Spanish

in ways that modern Spain has diverged from.

Portuguese has impacted Papiamentu/

Papiamento spoken in the ABC islands (Aruba,

Bonaire, and Curaçao), and Saramaccan spoken

in Suriname. Other European languages, such as

Portuguese in Guyana — which was not among

the colonising languages — have come to the

Caribbean and have left some traces behind,

mainly in personal names. So both preservation

and innovation are hallmarks of Caribbean languages

today.

In addition to Amerindian and European names

and general words, African names, words, and

calques — especially from the Atlantic-Congo

language family — are very much part of Caribbean

speech, not to mention the famous steups (an

expression of disapproval also known as kiss teeth

or suck teeth, and tchip in French).

42

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43

There are words we think we

made up or have “corrupted”,

yet many of them are regional

English retentions — some

obsolete, old-fashioned/

archaic, or regional

Right New Caribbean words like “doubles” have longevity

Bottom The same plants often have multiple names due

to our heritage. This one is called Porcelain Rose (Etlingera

elatior) and grows wild in Martinique’s nature parks

The languages in question include languages

such as Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Kimbundu, Koongo,

Yoruba (from the same general language family);

and Akan, Éwé, Fon, Gãa, Gbe, and Mande (from

the same language family).

We have words such as accra (a saltfish and flour fritter), bèlè (a dance

form), bobol (corruption), dingolay (gyrate), gangang (grandmother), jook and

chook (pierce; stab), kalinda (a dance/martial artform), macaque (monkey),

mook (also English), nennen (godmother), soucouyant (a skin-shedding woman

in folklore who turns into a blood-sucking ball of fire), sousou (a community

savings system), tabanca (unrequited love), yampi and zombie/jumbie, and for

body parts like toti (penis) and bonda (buttocks).

The Caribbean has also adopted Asian languages, particularly Bhojpuri

and Cantonese. Indic words in sociocultural domains like religion, music,

food, kinship, and behaviour have come to us from Indo-European languages

such as Bhojpuri and Hindi.

Various food and food-related items persist, and well-known words for them

include aloo (potato), choka (mashed vegetables), bilna (a rolling pin), baigan

Learn more

Check out the Oxford English Dictionary online for a carnival of

words from the Caribbean to the wider English-using world.

Some other solid Caribbean dictionaries (solid in more ways than

one) include those edited by Richard and Jeannette Allsopp for Caribbean

English in general; John Holm and Alison Shilling for The Bahamas;

Paul Crosbie and team for Belize; Frederic Cassidy and Robert Le Page

for Jamaica; Sylviane Telchid for Martinique and Guadeloupe; Raphaël

Confiant for Martinique; and Lise Winer for Trinidad & Tobago.

And we know that St Lucia has two of everything — two airports,

two pitons, two languages, two Nobel prize winners, and two dictionaries!

One is by Jones Mondésir and Lawrence Carrington, the other

by David Frank.

More dictionaries have been recently published, and glossaries

abound — but nothing replaces a good dictionary, whether in print or

online. So get that Caribbean dictionary and enjoy a window to the

past, with an eye on the present and future.

(melongene, eggplant, or aubergine), bhandhania

(culantro), and many more. People eat potato chips

but also aloo pies, and can talk about buying melongene

to make baigan choka in the same sentence.

Cantonese food names such as chow mein, pakchoi

(also bok choy), pow (also bao), and see yow (soy

sauce) are still with us; as are games like whe-whe;

and terms like hakwai (someone born of mixed

Chinese and African ancestry).

New, lasting Caribbean-born words abound

too — many for food, music, and beyond. We have

doubles, horn, lime, pelau, soca, wine from Trinidad &

Tobago; and diss, dub, irie, jerk, patty, ska, wa a gwaan,

and more from Jamaica. More transient slang words

are always being created, and we watch and wait to

see if they will stand the test of time.

Words are a source of amazement, amusement

and enlightenment, and reveal much about

cultures, history and beyond. Language change is

normal and should be embraced. We continue to

contribute to the official languages of our region. n

Sockagphoto/Shutterstock.com

Courtesy Martinique Tourism Committee/D. Giral


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45

bucket list

Getaway

français

At this time of year, with schools

closed, families are preparing to

take off on exciting adventures —

and top of mind for all parents is

finding activities children and teens

can enjoy. Giselle Laronde-West

suggests why Martinique should be

your next stop

Anse Michel beach

With Caribbean Airlines now servicing

Martinique and Guadeloupe (both overseas

departments and regions of France), it’s

getting so much easier to add the magnificent

destinations of the francophone Caribbean to

your family travel bucket list!

Martinique is smaller and more urban with one main island.

Neighbouring Guadeloupe (nicknamed Gwada locally) is larger

with two main islands (Grand-Terre and Basse-Terre), four more

inhabited islands, and several other smaller uninhabited ones.

Martinique is picturesque and hilly in the interior, with an

unspoiled coastline, and much to offer the whole family. It also

has deep Creole ties with not only Guadeloupe (4–5 hours away

by ferry), but neighbouring St Lucia and Dominica (1.5–2 hours

away by ferry) if you want to extend the adventure!

December through April is high season (as in the rest of the

Caribbean) — with dry season weather and trade winds that are

ideal for outdoor activities on land and in the water. But July and

August can offer great deals and savings over the steeper high

season prices.

If you want to go exploring in Martinique, renting a car

may be your best bet (outside of any scheduled tours), as the

public transportation system can be tricky to navigate, even

if one is a fluent French speaker, and there are no rideshare

services.

Fortunately, the stunning beaches are conveniently located

near each other, as noted by Francesca from One Girl One World.

The tranquil, white-sand beaches like Les Salines and those in

Les Salines

the southern part of the island are particularly good for families

with young children.

For any avid kitesurfers, paddleboarders or kayakers in the

family, head to Anse Michel beach (in the south), and have

lunch at the rustic, self-sustaining, local restaurant there —

Le Cocotier. Snorkelling enthusiasts will want to head for

Anse Dufour and Anse Noir, where you have the opportunity

maybe to see a turtle or glorious tropical fish. Other aquatic

activities include dolphin-watching, and visiting a small

waterfall and pool nearby called Foret Coeur Bouliki (ideal

for little visitors).

One of the most popular places to take the young in Martinique

is the Jardin de Balata — the enchanting botanical

Martinique Tourism Committee/F.Xerri


The Banana Museum,

Sainte-Marie

dpVUE.images/Shutterstock.com

Pack-Shot/Shutterstock.com

Jardin de Balata

Courtesy Gillyan/Flickr CCL

Dave Primov/Shutterstock.com

D. Giral/Shutterstock.com

Jardin de Balata

Two parrots at the Martinique Zoo

gardens, located a little over six miles from the capital, Fortde-France,

where the cruise ships dock. There is a tree-top

trail made of suspension bridges, which is marvellous for kids

to experience.

Another exciting place for children is the Zoo de Martinique,

housed in the unique and enchanting Habitation La Touche —

one of Martinique’s oldest dwellings, built in 1643. Visitors can

stroll along an educational trail to discover the animals, ruins,

waterfalls, and exotic flowers.

The quaint Banana Museum — located on a former sugar

estate in Sainte-Marie, which has been a banana plantation

since 1950 — is also popular among families as a truly immersive,

educational, and delectable experience. The restaurant

on the property also provides delicious food and desserts made

from bananas.

La Savane des Esclaves, meanwhile, is an open-air museum

with reconstructed Indigenous and Creole cottages, exhibitions,

and materials bringing to life over 300 years of the island’s history

— including life during and after enslavement.

The Jesuit Hike isn’t too taxing and doesn’t require too

much physical exertion, so it’s perfect for families. It has a

gentle descent, with the opportunity to cross a magnificent

suspension bridge. There’s a pause for a dip in a refreshing pool

before heading back. Experience total immersion in the natural

beauty of this stunning island’s lush rainforest.

So, if you are looking for calm beaches, easy access to all historical

attractions, adventure, and beautiful weather, Martinique

is the island for you — and your family! n


47

inspire

Sustainable

impact

Through sustainable practices and the promotion of circular product

development, Grenadian-American entrepreneur Shannen Henry is

helping preserve and uplift our islands — one gorgeous creation at a time.

Meg Downey learns more


Attendees at the first

annual Sustainable Design

Impact Hub by CSFDG

Right Shannen Henry

Joshua Moffitt, courtesy Shannen Henry

Shannen Kaylia Henry is among those at the forefront

of paving a path to Caribbean climate resilience.

She leads The Kaylia Group — an international

consultancy fuelling sustainable innovation in the

fashion industry. And in 2024, she founded the

nonprofit Council on Sustainable Fashion & Design

of Grenada (CSFDG) — an organisation that’s already joining

like-minded artisans and environmental advocates across the

Caribbean. The goal? Using sustainable design practices to

positively impact the climate resilience of our islands.

Henry was born in New York to Grenadian parents. Fashion

was how she and her mother bonded, with regular trips to Saks

Fifth Avenue and Vera Wang for her mother’s fittings. She also

developed a passion for environmental science — especially

after experiencing the beauty of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

She also visited Grenada periodically during her childhood,

where her grandfather was a cocoa farmer.

After completing undergraduate studies in biology in

California, Henry moved to Paris to pursue a graduate degree

Floyd Robinson, courtesy Shannen Henry

in international business management with a minor in sustainable

development. During an internship in southern India,

she witnessed the direct impact of the textile industry on the

environment.

“Seeing the piles of textiles burning, rivers that are stained

with textile dyes, and the harsh working conditions,” she says,

“was a transformative experience.” It motivated her to use her

science background to drive innovation in sustainable fashion.

Henry founded The Kaylia Group and eventually settled in

Biella, Italy — a town in the foothills of the Alps, famous

for producing luxury textiles. It was under the umbrella

of The Kaylia Group that Henry founded CSFDG — an idea that

was sparked while visiting a hotel giftshop in Grenada.

“Not one item in the shop was local,” she says. “I know there’s

local talent here. They could be investing in that talent.”

Henry also saw an opportunity to train designers in circular

product development — using sustainable methods and materials

to create durable, repairable, long-lasting products that

can be repurposed and recycled. The approach is the heart of

CSFDG’s mission.

She started building a relationship with the fashion design

programme at the TA Marryshow Community College (TAMCC)

in Grenada’s capital, St George’s, and quickly realised she needed

to prioritise immediate needs — like finding a sponsor to provide

mannequins, a resource the programme previously lacked.

Henry also learned the students didn’t have access to Wi-Fi,

and reserved a space with a steady internet connection twice a

week. “I needed to give them access, a sense of agency,” she says.

Henry then developed the Kaylia Couturier Programme, one

of CSFDG’s flagship initiatives. Offered to women in particular

through an application process, the 12-week programme takes

place in Grenada and guides local designers through developing

a full collection.

Workshops led by Henry and other international fashion

experts include sewing and pattern-making skills, the use of

regenerative textiles, package development and more — all while

emphasising the importance of patience, precision, and quality.


49

Henry is also building a community

of climate-conscious entrepreneurs

across the Caribbean and its

diaspora

Shannen speaking at

the Sustainable Design

Impact Hub

The couturier programme is supported by the Fashion

Impact Fund, an initiative of the PVBLIC Foundation, allowing

selected designers to participate free of charge. The first class

of five students — which graduates this August — includes a

crochet artist and swimwear and leisurewear designers.

Courtesy Ayana B Joy

On a grander scale, Henry aims to show the positive

impact of sustainable design on the climate resilience of

Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which includes

the Caribbean archipelago. Defined by the United Nations, these

islands are linked by their remoteness, dependence on ocean

resources, reliance on imports, and vulnerability to the impacts

of climate change.

Henry’s team is working to address the reliance on imports

by training local artisans to create high quality goods using

sustainable materials, so that people buy lasting, locally made

products that can be repaired, repurposed, or recycled.

Henry is also building a community of climate-conscious

entrepreneurs across the Caribbean and its diaspora. CSFDG

now has more than 50 members and ambassadors representing

multiple disciplines, all connected by the goal of shaping a

sustainable creative economy.

Henry says homegrown innovation is the key, not “international

agencies coming up with solutions that aren’t good fits for

these very localised places.”

One of CSFDG’s members is Ayana Benjamin, CEO and

founder of the brand Ayana B Joy. Born and raised in Brooklyn

but with ancestral roots in the islands, Benjamin is a jeweller,

fibre artist, and glassblower who uses recycled glass and

inspiration from the ocean to create one-of-a-kind pieces. She’s

Ayana B Joy in her

workshop

committed to sourcing hyper-local “waste” like glass bottles

to create high quality products that are then sold in the same

locations.

Benjamin heard about CSFDG through social media and

immediately contacted Henry. “It was a dream come true,” she

says. “I was able to work on my packaging and the educational

part of my jewellery, and it brought me home [to Grenada] more.”

Benjamin’s current studio is in New York, but she hopes to

open a location in Grenada soon and teach glassblowing to other

artists. Sharing their skills and knowledge is a catalyst that unifies

CSFDG members.

This past December, CSFDG hosted its first masterclass

on regenerative tourism. Cocoa farmers, hoteliers,

and others collectively explored how businesses could

use tourism efforts to preserve culture and revitalise their

communities.

This August, Henry and CSFDG will host the second annual

Sustainable Impact Hub in Grenada, welcoming business owners

from across the Caribbean to participate in workshops in

ocean-focused sustainability.

The event will delve into how microplastics are impacting

the local aquatic ecosystem, and also highlight companies that

have found innovative (and profitable) solutions to recurring

problems.

So, what can we do to help? We can spread the word about

these efforts and support organisations like the CSFDG through

volunteering or financial contributions. And we can shop locally

— for locally made goods. In fact, you can shop the CSFDG

collection online (csfdg.com/shop) or in person at their new shop,

Cannella, at the Mount Cinnamon Beach Resort at Grand Anse

Beach, Grenada. n

Courtesy Shannen Henry


Explore Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinique

The Spice of the Caribbean

A hidden gem with unspoiled beauty offering a

lifestyle so pure and authentic that you will feel

instantly rejuvenated.

PureGrenada

closeup

“I did it for pan”

Against the backdrop of World Steelpan Day and Steelpan Month in Trinidad

& Tobago (which recently incorporated the islands’ national instrument, the

steelpan, into its coat of arms), Donna Yawching learns more about one of

the artform’s foremost players and arrangers: Duvone Stewart

Maria Nunes

This year, Duvone Stewart was determined to

repeat history. The arranger for Renegades Steel

Orchestra had his sights set on the Holy Grail: the

hattrick, the trifecta, three Panorama wins in a row.

It had only been done once before in the history

of the national competition — by Renegades in

1997, under the leadership of the legendary Jit Samaroo.

Having piloted the band to victory in 2018 and 2019, then

2023 and 2024, Stewart was poised on a knife’s edge. Given the

extraordinary level of competition, with powerful legacy bands

fighting tooth and nail for the yearly championship, a hattrick is

a near-impossible feat. Which is to say, the type that Stewart, 48,

embraces with gusto.

“I know I have the mindset and the confidence necessary to

win,” he told me in the panyard, a week before the finals. “The

rest is up to God.”

The bad news for Stewart and the band is, they lost — coming

in a close second to Exodus Steel Orchestra. The good news is:

he is undaunted. “Music is a mission, not a competition,” Stewart

is fond of saying.

Still, he’s won more competitions than most.

They have, in fact, defined the course of his life,

ever since he aced the well-loved children’s talent

show 12 and Under when he was 10.

But the story begins much earlier. Duvone

Stewart was born in Tobago in 1976, the eldest

son of two steelpan enthusiasts. His father, a

dockworker, was vice-captain of Tobago All Stars

and an ardent supporter of the fabled Desperados;

his mother, a seamstress, also played in the band.

“When he was two or three years old, he would

line up tin pans below the house, and he would

lick the life out of those pans, from early morning,”

recalls Nancy Percival, Duvone’s mother, who later

left Tobago to train as a nurse in the United States.

At the age of eight, Duvone discovered his destiny.

Accompanying his parents to the panyard one

Saturday night, “I saw the instrument and fell in

love with it,” he says simply. “Steelpan is the greatest instrument

that God ever created.”

Legend has it that by the end of the night, he was picking out

“Mary Had a Little Lamb” on a tenor pan: apocryphal or not, a

year later he was on the road with the band at Carnival, playing

Crazy’s “Suck Mih Soucouyant”.

“He had to stand on a crate to play,” laughs his mother.

“People were amazed to see this little boy on the road, hitting it

out non-stop; getting it right.”

The band’s musical director (and principal of Bishops’ High

School in Tobago), Gwyneth Armstrong, recognised his instinctive

talent. She offered him — gratis — lessons in music theory;

he eventually completed Grade 8 exams.

She also launched a junior section of the band, where young

Duvone eagerly honed his skills, practising every day after

school. “I always wanted to be a panman,” he explains. “I never

turned back from pursuing the dream.”

At home, there was total support. “Pan was always in the

house,” says Nancy Percival. “Duvone and his cousin were both

playing, waking up the neighbours.”


Maria Nunes

Renegades Steel Orchestra won its 13th Panorama title in 2024

His 12 and Under success in 1986 won him a trip to Disney

World; later, another national competition would bring

a much greater prize. Playing Mozart’s Sonata in C at

the Schools Music Festival in 1991, he came fifth. But something

about his playing attracted the attention of Jit Samaroo. Sensing

promise, Samaroo contacted Mrs Armstrong and offered the

teenager the opportunity to train with Renegades in Port of Spain.

“I’d never dreamt of coming to Port of Spain until that

moment,” muses Stewart. He still remembers the thrill of arriving

at the Renegades panyard for the first time: the excitement

of hearing the bands practising, music filling the air as he and his

father walked up Charlotte Street from the ferry dock.

Life changed drastically for the 15-year-old. Each Friday

— his parents having negotiated special permission from his

principal — he would leave school early to catch the 1pm ferry;

beat pan all weekend; and return on Sunday night to resume

classes the next day at Signal Hill Secondary School.

He spent his nights on the boat, where his uncle was a cook.

After only five or six weeks of practice, he was onstage with

Renegades at the 1992 Panorama finals, playing “Bee’s Melody”

(they came in third).

It was an exhausting schedule, but it paid off. In 1996, the

young virtuoso — who was already winning every solo competition

in sight — won himself a scholarship to study classical

music at the University of the West Indies (The UWI).

Port of Spain became his permanent base; he moved in with

a cousin on Nelson Street. His parents, ever supportive, sent

He had seen firsthand “the

discipline, the self-motivation, the

spiritual beliefs” necessary to be a

great arranger; and he believed that

he had been “chosen” — by God,

and by Jit — to carry on the legacy

him money to survive. His father brought food on the weekend

ferry — “just for moral support,” explains Percival, “letting him

know we’re here.”

Nelson Street is an inner-city neighbourhood famed for all

the wrong thing (drugs, guns, gangs), but close to the steelband

heartland, where the instrument — and the early bad-boy bands

— originated. “Renegades came out of the lawbreakers era,”

says Stewart. “I didn’t have the opportunity to experience it, but

I heard the stories. The war was always around.”

It was a far cry from tranquil Tobago: “I saw it all — guns,

drugs, love, murder, peace,” he told me. But he also learned

about “the unity of the panyard, the camaraderie; the good and

the bad things that come out of it.” He was befriended by Wayne

Alleyne, a father-figure to many in the Nelson Street community.

He kept Stewart on an even keel.


53

All images courtesy Duvone Stewart. Top middle image also courtesy Pan Trinbago Inc/TC

“Wayne was a realist,” Stewart says soberly. “He made

everything okay for me. He encouraged me to go to work

hard in the panyard and steer clear of trouble. He was my best

friend.”

Stewart played for Renegades until 1998, building his skills

and — incidentally — his fame as a top pannist. “There was never

a national competition that Duvone Stewart took part in that he

hasn’t won,” he said in The Man

Behind the Music (2023), a documentary

on Stewart produced

by the late Mark Loquan and

directed by Maria Nunes.

Still, things weren’t always

perfect: by the time he graduated

from The UWI, fame had

gone to his head. “I had my

ups and downs — gambling,

drinking, nightlife, running down women; taking advantage of

my celebrity status. The down times was there; the dark days was

there. I was in destructive mode.”

He credits his dear friend, Candice Andrews-Brumant — now

Renegades’ band captain — for getting him “out of the gutter”,

and back on track.

Once again, Fate stepped in to guide his steps. Invited to

arrange a tune for La Horquetta Pan Groove, which had suffered

Renegades had been suffering

through a dry spell since Samaroo’s

fabled hattrick in 1997; Stewart’s

mission was to turn that around

a long and ignominious losing streak, Stewart was able to pull

the band into the finals that year (2001 Single Pan Category).

Under his continued tutelage, La Horquetta was soon a repeat

champion in its class.

That was the beginning of his extraordinary success as an

arranger. Since then, Stewart hasn’t looked back, arranging for a

multiplicity of bands in various categories, and winning in one or

more categories every year, for

20 years in a row. In 2019, he

won small, medium and large:

a trifecta in its own right.

He had learned from the

best: Stewart describes his

years of working under Jit

Samaroo as “free tuition”.

He had seen firsthand “the

discipline, the self-motivation,

the spiritual beliefs” necessary to be a great arranger; and he

believed that he had been “chosen” — by God, and by Jit — to

carry on the legacy.

“Panorama music is about the soul of the people, the spirit

of Carnival,” he says. “We get to express ourselves in a unique

way.” His own way of working is unique: he uses a mathematical

formula for creating chords that give single pan bands the richness

and texture of their larger counterparts.


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55

the music that he chose for the competition:

“Year for Love”, by Voice. People

who heard it at Panorama say Stewart’s

arrangement “made their pores raise”.

Renegades won. And kept on winning —

though never quite a hattrick.

Maria Nunes

Samaroo retired in 2007, for health reasons. Stewart was

offered the musical leadership but declined: he didn’t feel he

was ready. In 2012, he accepted. Renegades had been suffering

through a dry spell since Samaroo’s fabled hattrick in 1997;

Stewart’s mission was to turn that around.

They came in fourth that year; and for the next five years, the

band was “knocking on the door”, he says, consistently coming

in third. “I knew that one day the door would open. We were still

feared by everyone.”

Ask a Renegades player to describe

Stewart’s approach to arranging, and

you’re likely to hear the word “full”

The door opened, memorably and tragically, in 2018. Just as

the band was starting to prepare for Panorama, Wayne Alleyne

was shot and killed by one of the Nelson Street gangs. Stewart

still gets emotional talking about it.

“I see him every day,” he says. (He means this literally: his

apartment overlooks the cemetery where Alleyne is buried.)

“He’s there with me all the time. I’ll never have another friend

like Wayne.”

The pain from his friend’s death poured out of him and into

Ask a Renegades player to describe

Stewart’s approach to arranging,

and you’re likely to hear the word

“full”. “He finds the spaces, he knows

when to hit certain things,” says triple-cello

player Stacy Doughlin. “He knows how

to capture the different strengths of the

different instruments. Now the band feels

full when he arranges. It’s sweetness.”

Band captain Candice Andrews-

Brumant agrees: “Duvone is in a class

by himself. His songs are full: he takes

advantage of the chords, extends them

as far as he could to get the fullness. He

definitely has his own style. And he has

an energy that the band feeds off. If he’s

in a good place, we are always productive,

and it’s fun.”

Stewart’s skills as both player and

arranger have taken him across the world.

Since 2004, he has worked full-time — at

times remotely — for the University of

Nantes, in France. Much of his year outside

of Carnival is spent teaching masterclasses and performing

concerts in Europe and elsewhere (he is particularly proud of

having introduced steelpan to the Maldives where, he says,

the pan version of their national anthem is still played daily on

radio and TV). His dream is to someday arrange for a Tobago

steelband, and see them victorious.

Ask Stewart himself what is his greatest achievement, and

the answer may surprise you: it’s not all his musical victories,

or even his international renown. It’s his weight. Starting as a

chubby kid, he gradually ballooned to 440lbs.

“I loved to eat,” he confessed in the Loquan documentary.

“I didn’t even know it was getting out of control.” His health

remained robust, and it clearly didn’t affect his talent; but his

friends — and especially his mother — were deeply concerned.

Eventually he realised that something needed to be done: his

waistline was 60” and his shirt size was 6XL. He understood that

he was on a fatal path, and that if he died, his goals to inspire and

motivate the younger generation of pan players would die with

him. “I had to save my life.”

In 2016, he underwent gastric surgery that removed 90% of

his stomach; 18 months later, he was down to 180lbs. “No one

recognised me,” he chuckles. “People thought I was dying.”

Today, his diet is spartan: eggs, salads, vegetables.

What gave him the courage to take such drastic action?

Stewart’s reply is simple, encapsulating every move he’s ever

made: “I did it for pan.”

His mom, smiling, declares: “That’s my Duvone!” n


natural wonder

Pete Oxford


Ataraipu Rock,

Guyana

The majestic Ataraipu Rock — a granite outcrop popularly

known as Bottle Mountain or Devil’s Rock — is among

Guyana’s most distinctive and stunning natural landmarks.

Surrounded by thick rainforest and savannah in the Rupunini

region, in the southern part of the country, its peak

reaches up nearly 500 feet above its base — dominating the

landscape that surrounds it. Catching a glimpse of it is a

highlight of treks and safaris in this part of the country.


59

green

Nature’s way

Having left his work in tourism, Kenny Blandford and his family have developed

his six-acre Cocoa Valley Eco Farm — on the fringes of Dominica’s Kalinago

Territory — with a faithfulness to living in balance with nature. After taking one

of the farm’s tours, Paul Crask shares what makes this place so special

Paul Crask

Courtesy Cocoa Valley Eco Farm


Left Kenny Blanford shows

off a grafted cocoa tree

Top Freshly cut carambola

or five finger fruit

Above Nutmeg




Freshly harvested cocoa pods

A cocoa oven, constructed by Kenny and his son

“

You’re probably wondering what’s going on

here,” says Kenny Blandford with a smile

as we begin our tour of his farm. “I’m

guessing it’s not what you were expecting.”

He’s referring to the fact that Cocoa

Valley Eco Farm doesn’t have tilled soil

with vegetables or ground provisions growing in neat rows —

not even raised beds made of tree stumps and old galvanised

sheeting. There are no orderly orchards, no gravel paths, no

neatly trimmed grass.

At first glance, it seems like six acres of unruly bush — and

in some ways, it is. But take an educational tour and subtle,

important differences soon emerge.

This is what Kenny calls “natural farming”. At first, it can

seem chaotic — but the more he explains the interactions, connections,

and the science of soil, the clearer the structure and

intention behind it all become.

The tour begins with a shallow wade across the Pagua River

— just outside the hamlet of Concord on the northern edge of

Dominica’s Kalinago Territory — and follows a roughly beaten

track climbing gradually uphill. Keen to explain the farm’s appearance,

Kenny crouches and carefully parts the undergrowth.

“The basic idea is to mimic nature as much as possible,” he

says. “We minimise our impact by not interfering with natural

processes. And key to that is soil management. What you may

view as a blanket of weeds, we see as essential ground cover that

protects the soil from harmful UV light while also maintaining

moisture and an environment for organics to thrive. There’s no

tilling, no weeding, and absolutely no chemicals.

“Take a spade or a hoe,” Kenny continues, “and you turn

living, thriving soil like this into inert dirt. Add fertiliser or

chemicals, and it’s the same story — you kill the natural processes.

The plants become junkies, dependent on artificial fixes

to survive.”

No-till soil management is becoming a more common

practice in gardens and natural farms such as this one, whereby

minimal disturbance helps to protect soil health and structure,

organic matter, and “beneficial biological communities” that

thrive in undisturbed humus. Crop rotation is also considered

important for this kind of farming, though Kenny questions the

need for it.

“Based on my experience here,” he says, “banana plants such

as these have established relationships with the soil and everything

else that grows around. If I break that and plant somewhere

else, then it must start over and reestablish these relationships.

So, while they continue to be healthy and productive, I see no

reason to impose my will on them. Nature knows best.

“I’m often asked about weeds competing for the same

resources as the crops that we plant,” he adds. “We’re led to

believe it’s beneficial to pull them out. But that only happens if

your soil is poor or inert, and there are not enough resources to

go around. The same happens if you add chemicals. But if your

soil is healthy, everything lives in balance. Just look around.”

It’s hard to argue with Kenny’s logic. His knowledge is selftaught

and experiential; his enthusiasm, infectious.

As its name suggests, the farm’s dominant crop is cocoa,

though there are many other interesting things growing here.

The bananas, for example, are the kinds of varieties that were

present before large commercial crops of cavendish took over

and became the backbone of the so-called Caribbean “banana

boom” of the mid-to-late 1900s. These older varieties grow as

tall as trees, and their bunches are the biggest I’ve ever seen.

The farm is so productive that Kenny has been feeding

his family from it for around five years. With a background in

traditional farming, he gave up his job in tourism during the

pandemic and redirected his efforts into producing food for his

wife and seven children.

They all get involved in the day-to-day tasks and his eldest

son, O’Brian, has become accomplished at grafting cocoa plants.

Together, they’ve constructed a clay oven which they use to bake

bread made from their banana and breadfruit flour.

We walk past a large hole that has recently been excavated.

“Tilapia pond,” says Kenny, grinning. “Coming soon, I hope.”


61

Paul Crask

Left Kenny’s son, O’Brian, gazes

at a lone cocoa pod

Above Kenny proudly compares

the bananas to his height


As I follow Kenny and O’Brian through ankle-deep ground

cover, they point out and offer me different varieties of guava.

We see lemon trees that are so full they’re tipping over; huge

golden apples; pineapples peeking out of vines and weeds;

avocado trees; coconut palms; and ever more towering banana

plants.

What first seemed like randomness and entanglement is

beginning to reveal a quiet logic. Companion planting, shade

growing, nitrogen fixing, regular spacing, bird-attracting ornamentals

— my head spins trying to take it all in.

“We don’t just plant a young cocoa tree in the ground,”

O’Brian explains. “We’ve learned to plant pigeon peas next to

every cocoa. The pigeon peas grow quickly, providing the cocoa

with nitrogen and shade. And they also feed our family.”

“We’ve learned to plant pigeon peas

next to every cocoa. The pigeon

peas grow quickly, providing the

cocoa with nitrogen and shade. And

they also feed our family.”

In their large greenhouse are all the plants they are currently

propagating. There seem to be hundreds of cocoa saplings as

well as a healthy supply of other young trees such as cherry,

avocado, breadnut, and more.

“We try to maintain a regular stock. Many are grafted, some

are grown from seed,” says Kenny. “These plants will either go

out into the farm or they’ll be sold to other specialist farmers and

gardeners, giving us a source of income.”

I had been wondering about that. While the farm feeds the

family, there are still life essentials that require money.

“That’s true. And it’s why we’re now developing our farm tour

and inviting locals and visitors to come and look at what we’re

doing. Having said that, a freshly peeled lemon works excellently

as a deodorant. Do you think I smell?”

He doesn’t, and I make a mental note to experiment with

said citrus.

“But make sure you peel it,” O’Brian says with a smile. “Or

you’ll be doing a dance. It stings!”

The tour lasts around three hours and, by the end, I’m

itching to plant the Surinam cherry tree I bought and

look at my garden through new eyes. But first, Kenny and

O’Brian have invited me to taste some of their first attempts at

chocolate-making.

It’s coarse because they haven’t used a melanger (a stone

grinder used in chocolate-making — it’s on their shopping list).

But what strikes me most are the strong fruity flavours, which I

assume were added during processing.

“Not at all,” says O’Brian. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? Those flavours

come from the fruit trees growing alongside the cocoa we

harvest. My favourite is the cherry.”

Mine too. It’s quite a jaw-dropping moment. I’m one of those

people who struggles to identify “notes” in coffee or a glass of

rum. But this was easy — and any doubts I may have harboured

about the interconnectedness of plants and trees through

healthy soil were swept away by this small piece of chocolate.

Back across the river, I wave goodbye to Kenny and O’Brian,

knowing I’ll be back. These days, we’re inundated with cruise

ships and seemingly endless festivals, but Cocoa Valley Eco

Farm is proof that another Dominica still exists — quiet,

grounded, and thriving beneath the radar, rooted in the fertile

soil of a resilient Nature Island.

To book a tour: Phone/WhatsApp: +17672761234; Instagram:

cocoa_valley_ecofarms.dm


discover

Dr Megan Davis observing juvenile

conch habitats in the seagrass beds

of East End, Grand Bahama

Antony Johns, courtesy Florida Atlantic University

Robinson Bazurto, courtesy Florida Atlantic University

Aquaculture

ascending

In other parts of the

world, aquaculture

produces more than half

the seafood available.

For much of the

Caribbean, that figure

is just six percent. But

there are hopeful signs

for the Caribbean’s

struggling aquaculture

industry. Erline Andrews

investigates


Aquaculture — farming aquatic life — has

a long history in the Caribbean. Last year,

archaeologists operating in Belize published

findings that showed Mayans guided fish

through canals, putting them behind weirs or

river barriers, where they were kept and used to

feed tens of thousands of people, helping the ancient civilisation

to develop.

Four thousand years later, Belize and the rest of CARICOM

(the Caribbean Community) are struggling to keep up with other

parts of the world where aquaculture contributes more than

half of the seafood produced. For CARICOM, it accounts for six

percent.

Aquaculture eases the problem of overfishing, which has

caused fish stocks in the wild to be drastically depleted. It also

helps to reduce the degradation of coral reefs, sea grass, and

other parts of the marine environment caused by the encroachment

of fishing vessels.

Aquaculture took off in Jamaica in the 1970s and was going

well until around 2007, when things went downhill because of

the global financial crisis and increasing competition.

Today, international, regional, national, and individual efforts

are coming together to boost aquaculture in the region. The

Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism/CRFM, a CARICOM

body, established the Aquaculture Working Group in 2014,

developing a five-year action plan that has been updated and

is being implemented to varying degrees by member countries.

“We are lagging behind the rest of the world in aquaculture

development,” said CRFM’s then executive director, Milton

Haughton, on a video posted late last year to mark the Caribbean

Week of Agriculture. “We must therefore enhance our investments

in aquaculture and support training and other capacity

building programmes for farmers to improve their efficiency,

reduce resource use, and mitigate climate risks.”

Megan Davis, the world’s foremost expert on queen

conch — an iconic Caribbean marine species valued for

its resplendent shell as well as its meat, and threatened

by overfishing — has pledged to have a conch farm in every

Caribbean nation.

She has been working with queen conch for over 45 years

and, since 2019, she’s helped establish community-based conch

hatcheries/nurseries in Puerto Rico, The Bahamas, Curaçao,

and Jamaica. Predator-free, the hatcheries aim to grow conch

by the thousands. They’re returned to the ocean when they’re

about 7cm.

“If it wasn’t for aquaculture, there wouldn’t be enough seafood

for people to eat,” Davis — a research professor at Florida

Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute

— said in a Zoom interview.

“In the 1980s, there was a plateau that was reached,” she

said of wild fish stocks. “And then aquaculture started to grow

because populations started to grow in the world.”

Davis was part of a team that ran a conch farm when she lived

in Turks & Caicos decades ago. No longer in operation, it was the

first and remains the only commercial conch farm. Videos about

the conch hatcheries on the Harbor Branch Institute’s YouTube

channel show how challenging it is to rear conch.

Eggs are collected by fisherfolk in the community. Then the

larvae and juvenile conch are cared for by highly trained staff

using microscopes and other technical equipment. A video

demonstrating how to feed the larvae — an intricate process —

is half an hour long.

Making conch aquaculture commercially viable is under

investigation, said Davis. Right now, her focus is on conservation

of the species and providing a livelihood for the fisherfolk who

depend on them.

“We don’t want there to be a day when there’s no more conch

left in the ocean. The technology needs to stay alive. It needs to

be taught to as many as possible,” she said.

Davis and her colleagues have designed a conch aquaculture

manual and offer an online course that they call “eConch”. They

also offer hands-on and virtual training at the hatcheries.

“One of the things we would like to see in the future is that

there might be regional hatcheries,” said Davis. “So you start to

have one place that has the very technical part of it. And then

Courtesy Dr Megan Davis

Opposite page (below) Dr Megan Davis, Director of FAU

Queen Conch Lab, showing Jamaica team members how to

set up algal cultures for feeding queen conch in the Mobile

Lab stationed at the UWI Discovery Bay Marine Lab

Left Khianna Lee, Aquaculture Manager of the Jamaica

Queen Conch Conservation Programme, taking care of the

hatchery-reared queen conch in the Mobile Lab


65

A shoal of red tilapia gather for

feeding. In Jamaica, a new hatchery

is being constructed to meet local

demand

Akram Mubarak/Shutterstock.com

you have farmers and fishermen and the public or community

members to be able to then take the little seedling conch, and they

raise them in the tanks, and then more people can grow them.”

The government offers fish farming

training. Barnett would like to get the

certification that comes with the training.

But going to a physical location doesn’t

work for him and other people. “I have

my 9-to-5,” said Barnett, a high school

teacher.

Another challenge small-scale fish

farmers face is expense. On a trip to New

York last year, Barnett came across fish

tank pumps at a far cheaper price than

they are available in Jamaica. “Let’s say

my light bill was $10,000,” he said. “After

I installed the pumps and everything

working, when I get my light bill the next

month, my light bill jumped to 20-something

thousand dollars!”

A more experienced fish farmer

advised Barnett that he didn’t have to

run the pumps all day and he was able to bring his electricity

bill down to a more manageable amount. “It’s a little bit difficult

for persons to finance the start up for a tilapia farm,” he said.

The Jamaican government earlier this year started

construction on a massive tilapia hatchery at Twickenham

Park, St Catherine, that when completed should generate

five million tilapia fry a year to be made available to local

farmers.

Raliegh Barnett, a Jamaican part-time fish farmer and You-

Tube content creator, praised the project but said his experience

with state hatcheries is that they mainly benefit large-scale

farmers more than small-scale farmers like him.

“The four times I’ve been there, they haven’t had the amount

of fish (I wanted). Fish finish!” he said. “Because you’ll have

one person coming in and purchasing, like, 6,000 fish. Another

person purchasing 4,000 fish. You might have five to 10 persons

coming in and buying off everything. So when the little man

comes in for a five dozen or six dozen, they can’t get it.”

On his YouTube channel, Fish Keeping Jamaica, Barnett

chronicles the highs and lows of rearing tilapia and ornamental

fish. He has more subscribers, videos, and views than channels

run by governments and NGOs about aquaculture in the

Caribbean.

His wide, attractive smile and enthusiastic delivery could

be part of the reason for his success. But it’s also because he’s

providing information at a depth that isn’t found elsewhere.

“When I check on the internet, I actually see my own information

coming up,” he said. “When I see ‘tilapia in Jamaica’, I

see my videos come up, and so I realise that a lot of the academic

information I’m sharing regarding tilapia has not been shared by

anybody else.”

There’s strength and hope in numbers. The Caribbean

Aquaculture Network came about when Juli-Anne Russo,

a Jamaican aquaculture researcher and advocate, used

the pandemic lockdown time to reach out to other people in the

field from the region. The Caribbean Aquaculture Education &

Innovation Hub is an online meeting place for the network.

Aquaculture eases the problem

of overfishing and helps to reduce

the degradation of coral reefs, sea

grass, and other parts of the marine

environment

Now with 180 members in 19 countries, the network has

done a series of workshops and produces an online magazine.

A YouTube channel features interviews and talks with farmers

and researchers.

In an email exchange, Russo said a lack of education and

research is one of the hindrances to aquaculture development

in the Caribbean.

“There is a shortage of trained teachers and scientists, limited

capacity-building initiatives, and uninformed policymakers.

Policies hinder rather than support the sector’s growth,” she said.

She sees the meeting of minds in the hub as a hopeful sign. n


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on this day

Haiti’s

double

debt

The 200th anniversary of the massive

debt imposed on Haiti by France — as the

price for recognising its independence —

comes as Caribbean nations have been

pressing for reparations from former

colonial powers. James Ferguson explores

how the past has shaped the present

The sudden and unexpected

arrival of the French

warship Circé in the bay of

Port-au-Prince — Haiti’s

capital — in the first week

of July 1825 would have

caused consternation among the city’s

inhabitants. Since Haiti had declared independence

from France in 1804 after a bitter

15-year war of liberation, the fledgling

republic had feared that the former colonial

power might one day return to seek

vengeance.

The French had finally left their colony

of Saint-Domingue in ruins after a slave

rebellion evolved into a full-scale war, but

Haitians always knew that their fight with

France was not over. As news spread that

a flotilla of 14 heavily armed ships were

anchored offshore, it became apparent

that Haiti was indeed under attack. What

was not yet understood was that this

onslaught would be economic rather than

military — and would last for more than

a century.

The commander of the fleet, the Baron

de Mackau, demanded a meeting with

Haiti’s president, Jean-Pierre Boyer. He

announced that France’s recently restored

Bourbon king, Charles X, had issued an

ordinance the previous April finally recognising

the independence of Haiti.

In return, the Haitian state was to

agree to an indemnity of 150 million gold

francs — payable to the French colonists

who had lost their “properties” (principally

slaves as well as estates) during the

extended revolution and independence

struggle.

The terms of the ordinance were

brutal. The Haitian state was to pay this

vast sum of reparations in five annual

instalments of 30 million francs, the first

in December 1825. On 11 July, the Haitian

senate agreed to these and other preferential

trade terms, and the baron sailed

back to France.

Two centuries later, it might seem

strange that Haiti’s leaders were prepared

to accept this humiliating and ruinous

deal. But in reality, they had little choice,

as the country was already on the brink

of bankruptcy.

Since its declaration of independence

on 1 January 1804, Haiti had been

ostracised and embargoed by almost

all its neighbours in the Americas, who

were terrified that the successful slave

revolution might be duplicated in other

slave-owning territories in and around

the Caribbean.

Britain and the United States refused

to recognise the new country, and the new

independent countries of South America

were wary of forging links. Trade was

limited, and the young nation was forced

into an undeveloped form of peasant

economy, where smallholdings replaced

the hugely prosperous plantations of the

French colony of Saint-Domingue.

Boyer knew that Haiti needed official

recognition of its independent

status to extend political and trade

agreements — and to leave behind its

pariah status. The cruel reality, however,

was that the nation — whose army of

slaves had beaten the formidable war

machine of Napoleon Bonaparte — would

have to pay compensation to the same

French planters who had enslaved and

exploited its people.

While war reparations are normally

paid to the victor by the vanquished, here

it was the reverse. The impoverished

peasants of Haiti were in debt to the

wealthy descendants of Saint-Domingue’s

plantocracy.

The debt was immediately duplicated,

since Boyer’s government could not raise

the money to pay the first instalment.

France cynically agreed to lend the

funds to the Haitian government. And so

began the “double debt”, whereby Haiti

was in debt to French banks in order to

pay its debt to the dispossessed slave

owners.

The first payment was calculated

to be six times greater than the annual

revenues of the Haitian state. It was

settled by borrowing from a French bank,

which in turn raised the capital from

French investors — all of whom were

paid interest by the Haitian borrowers. It

is said that what was not raised in France

came by ship from the Haitian treasury in

reinforced sacks of gold coins.

The situation was unsustainable, and

for decades successive Haitian governments

had to enter into new debts to pay

off the old ones. Late payments incurred

penalties and threats, and in 1843 Boyer

was forced from office after a debt crisis

led to crippling new taxes on the poor.

Five years earlier, France had reduced

the overall indemnity to 90 million francs,

but the spiral of indebtedness was already


Niday Picture Library/Alamy Stock Photo

Jean-Pierre Boyer,

President of the

Republic of Haiti,

circa 1825

Furthermore, had that money been

invested in the Haitian economy over the

previous two centuries, it estimated, it

would have added at least US$21 billion to

national wealth.

The newspaper concluded that without

the “double debt”, Haiti’s per capita

income in 2018 would be six times larger

— and on par with its successful neighbour

the Dominican Republic. The Haitian

National Committee on Restitution &

Reparations (HNCRR) puts the converted

value of debt repayments at US$38–$135

billion, depending on how the sum is

calculated.

The historic injustice is now well

documented, but there seems little

prospect of compensation. Was it pure

coincidence that the radical president,

Jean-Bertrand Aristide — who vociferously

called for restitution from France

— was removed from power in 2004,

allegedly with the approval of Washington

and Paris?

In any case, the campaign for reparations

— as other Caribbean nations

know all too well — is controversial and

produces few quick results.

But in April 2025, French president

Emmanuel Macron conceded that Haiti

“was confronted with the unjust force of

history from its very inception”. Referring

to the “heavy financial indemnity”

unstoppable, with new loans contracted in

Europe and the US. By the end of the 19th

century, an estimated 80% of Haiti’s government

budget went on debt repayments.

The vicious cycle meant that successive

governments lacked money for

schools, hospitals and roads. While other

Caribbean territories — including colonies

— saw advances in their social structures,

Haiti stagnated in poverty. Only a

small elite with connections to political

and military power enjoyed prosperity,

and the military was always well funded

for fear of unrest and rebellion.

Unrest was frequent, though, and

governments were regularly overthrown

amidst accusations of corruption. So serious

was the turmoil in July 1915 that the

US government, anxious over its investments,

dispatched marines to Port-au-

Prince — starting a 19-year occupation.

The occupation confirmed the US as

Haiti’s chief creditor, and repayments

So began the “double debt”, whereby Haiti was in

debt to French banks in order to pay its debt to

the dispossessed slave owners

— stemming from loans contracted to

pay off earlier debt — were directed to

American companies such as National

City Bank (nowadays Citigroup).

Some 40% of government revenues

were paid to US banks in interest from

1915 to 1934. The final tranche was paid

to National City Bank in 1947 — 122 years

after the original French ordinance.

An in-depth report by The New

York Times in 2022 concluded

that in today’s value, Haiti paid

France about US$560 million as a ransom

to gain recognition of its independence.

of 1825, he announced the creation of a

French-Haitian commission to “examine

our shared past” and assess current

relations.

It is, says Fritz Deshommes of

HNCRR, “a very small step in the right

direction”. Cynics, meanwhile, will note

that Macron pointedly referred to “the

forces of the counterrevolution since

1814, the restoration of the Bourbons

and the monarchy” in his account of the

events of 1825. In other words: historic

responsibility does not lie with Republican

France and, by extension, with his

government. n


69

destination


Rush

slowly in

St Kitts &

Nevis

From magnificent plantation houses to captivating mountain

formations, St Kitts & Nevis’ picturesque landscapes

invite exploration. Myriad hiking trails cut through lush

vegetation and volcanically sculpted mountains to enjoy via

hikes, dune buggies, ATVs, and — best of all — with good

company! Don’t miss the architectural sensation known

as Brimstone Hill Fortress (aka the Gibraltar of the West

Indies); Wingfield Estate’s 17th century Indigenous petroglyphs;

the St Kitts Scenic Railway; Mount Liamuiga; and

many more attractions — on and off road.

Courtesy St Kitts Tourism Authority


71

puzzles

Caribbean Crossword

1 2 3 4 5

Across

1 Word meaning opposite [7]

4 Medieval farmer [7]

6 Graduate’s headwear [3]

7 Great revival period in history [11]

8 CPL finals, for example [13]

9 A circus discipline; pathway on old sailing

ships [8]

10 Ballerina, for one [6]

13 Group of sports teams [6]

14 Befriend, then quietly betray [8]

16 Dismay and bewilderment [13]

18 Government by planters [11]

19 Jet __ [3]

20 Footballer or basketballer’s action, like a

baby’s [7]

21 Betrayal of a country [7]

6 7

8

9 10 11

12

13 14

15

16 17

Down

1 Relating to one’s forefathers [9]

2 Theme or issue [5]

3 Exclusive ownership [8]

4 Harmful substance [6]

5 Ages 13 to 19 [5]

11 Revolt, uprising [9]

12 Roam, travel for pleasure [8]

15 Fortune teller of classical times [6]

18 19

20 21

16 Matchmaker with a bow and arrow [5]

17 Makes a comfy home [5]

Spot the Difference

by Gregory St Bernard

There are 17 differences between these two pictures.

How many can you spot?

Spot the Difference

answers

Card player’s cap; player’s

expression; player’s shirt; one

of player’s cards faces the

wrong way; hiker’s expression;

hiker’s bottle; hiker’s

sleeves; hiker’s backpack;

snake’s skin; overhanging

tree differs; diver’s trunks;

diver’s flippers; fish’s colours;

kite’s tail; kite flyer’s shirt; the

sun’s rays; the cloud cover


Word Search

Provocateurs

Windrush

Amalgam

Psychedelic

Properties

Francs

Compensation

Gold

Crop Over

Mannequins

Glassblowing

Innovation

Jeweller

Griot

Flagship

Microplastics

Memories

Vintage

Soucouyant

Gyrate

Jumbie

Fishermen

Passionate

Spectacle

Yoles

Gwoka

M X G L A S S B L O W I N G P

A I J E W E L L E R S A R M R

N F C J D D A L E E I W P E O

N R P R L K C V I M E I F M V

E A I O O A O T A G H N I O O

Q N G W T P R G A S T D S R C

U C G C O E L T G O J R H I A

I S E R P A N A I V U U E E T

N P C O M I L R S S M S R S E

S V R A V F G B Q T B H M G U

B P S Y C H E D E L I C E Y R

P A S S I O N A T E E C N R S

U I N N O V A T I O N S S A X

Y O L E S O U C O U Y A N T M

C O M P E N S A T I O N K E R

Sudoku

Caribbean Beat Magazine

Medium 9x9 sudoku puzzle

Sudoku 9x9 - Puzzle 3 of 5 - Medium


Hard 6x6 mini sudoku puzzle

Sudoku 6x6 - Puzzle 5 of 5 - Hard

by www.sudoku-puzzle.net

Fill the empty square with numbers

from 1 to 9 so that each row, each

column, and each 3x3 box contains

all of the numbers from 1 to 9. For

the mini sudoku use numbers from

1 to 6.

If the puzzle you want to do

has already been filled in, just

ask your flight attendant for a new

copy of the magazine!

2 5 1

9 6

4 6 3

5 3 1 4

6 2 8 7

1 5 4 9

5 1 2

3 8

4 8 7

www.sudoku-puzzles.net

6 3

4

2

3 6

5 2


1

www.sudoku-puzzle.net

Solutions

Caribbean Crossword

Word Search

R I B B L E 21 T R E A S O N

I L N T O

Sudoku

Mini Sudoku

Sudoku 6x6 - Solution 5 of 5 - Hard

Sudoku 9x9 - Solution 3 of 5 - Medium

5 3 4 2 6 1

3 6 2 4 7 5 9 8 1

9 8 5 1 6 3 4 7 2

7 1 4 9 8 2 6 3 5

5 9 7 3 1 6 8 2 4

6 4 3 2 9 8 5 1 7

1 2 8 7 5 4 3 6 9

8 5 1 6 4 7 2 9 3


2 1 6 3 5 4

2 7 6 5 3 9 1 4 8

4 3 9 8 2 1 7 5 6

M X G L A S S B L O W I N G P

A I J E W E L L E R S A R M R

N F C J D D A L E E I W P E O

4 6 5 1 3 2

1 2 3 5 4 6

3 4 2 6 1 5


6 5 1 4 2 3

N R P R L K C V I M E I F M V

A

1

C

6

N 2 T O N Y 3 M

4 P E A S A N 5

T

N O O O E

A P 7 R E N A I S S A N C E

E I O S N

E A I O O A O T A G H N I O O

S 8 C H A M P I O N S H I P S

T O N

R

9

O P E W A L K D

A Y G

10 A N C E R

11

12

E

L A N T O C R A C Y 19 S K I

L

13

E A G U E 14 B A C K S T A B

O

15

L E

U A V E L

17

L

O N S T E R N A T I O N

D

20

P

18

C

16

C O M P E N S A T I O N K E R

Y O L E S O U C O U Y A N T M

U I N N O V A T I O N S S A X

Q N G W T P R G A S T D S R C

U C G C O E L T G O J R H I A

I S E R P A N A I V U U E E T

N P C O M I L R S S M S R S E

S V R A V F G B Q T B H M G U

P A S S I O N A T E E C N R S

B P S Y C H E D E L I C E Y R




73

Caribbean Airlines

ROUTE MAP

Ft. Lauderdale

GRAND CAYMAN

Montego Bay

Puerto Rico

Tortola

St Kitts

Guadeloupe

Dominica

Martinique

Curacao

Caracas

Ogle

parting shot

Curaçao’s crested

caracara

The northern crested caracara

(Caracara plancus) is an incredibly

adaptable bird of prey in the falcon

family. Unlike other birds of prey,

they aren’t aerial hunters, preferring

to hunt on foot, scavenge, and even

eat fruit! With distinctive black caps;

light chests, wingtips, and tail ends;

golden legs; and orange facial skin,

they can sometimes be mistaken

in flight for hawks or vultures. The

species breeds in the Dutch Caribbean,

with populations in Curaçao

rebounding over the last 30 years

after almost disappearing. Prime

places to spot them include between

Sami Liber and Bullenbaai; near

Vaersenbaai beach; and perched on

large columnar cacti.

Ngrane/Shutterstock.com


KOI RESORT, ST. KITTS, CURIO COLLECTION BY HILTON

Stay Under

this summer

THE RADAR

Double your Hilton Honors points when you book the 2X

Points Package at Koi Resort, St. Kitts, Curio Collection by Hilton.

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Caribbean Beat — July/August 2025 (#189)

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