Beez Neez now Chy Whella

Guadeloupe

Big Bear and Pepe Millard

Fri 10 Apr 2009 23:30

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is an island group or archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, it is an overseas department of France. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is one of the twenty-six regions of France, an integral part of the Republic and a member of the EU. However, Guadeloupe does not fall under the Schengen Agreement, the prefecture of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre.

Official name: La Guadeloupe (pronounced gwa-da-LOOP)
Departure tax: None
Area: 1434 square kilometres
Population: 451, 000
VAT: 8.5%
Added Tax: 2.5% added to many items
Octroi de Mer: is an import duty of 7%, this applies to all imported goods even from France
Famous for: Its butterfly shape
Country code: 590
Currency: Euro
Language: French, Creole
Capital: Basse-Terre
Phrase: Pas ni problem (No problem, no worries)
People: Guadeloupeans

History: Around 700 B.C. the Huecoides, from pre-Columbian Andes arrived in the archipelago then migrated to Puerto Rico. Between 300 and 700 A.D. the peaceful Arawaks arrive from the Orinoco Delta. They introduce hammocks and tobacco. In the 14^th Century, coming from the Amazon Basin, the Caribe Indians or Kalinagos arrive. These brave warriors conquered the Lesser Antilles thanks to their superiority at sea. They exterminated the Arawaks and named the island, Karukera, meaning, island of beautiful waters.

During his second trip to America, Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadeloupe on the 4th of November 1493, seeking fresh water. He called it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of Villuercas, in Guadalupe, Extremadura and to please Queen Isabel, the catholic who had financed his expedition. The expedition set ashore just south of Capesterre but did not leave any settlers ashore. Christopher Columbus is credited with discovering the pineapple on the island of Guadeloupe in 1493, although the fruit had long been grown in South America. He called it "piña de Indes" meaning "pine of the Indians". Violent fighting took place with the Carib Indians and the Spanish left in 1604.

After successful settlement on the island of St Christophe (St Kitts), the French Company of the American Islands delegated Charles Lienard and Jean Duplessis, Lord of Ossonville to colonise one or any of the region’s islands, Guadeloupe, Martinique or Dominica. Due to Martinique’s inhospitable nature, the duo resolved to settle in Guadeloupe and in 1635 took possession of the island and wiped out many of the Carib Indians. It was annexed to the kingdom of France in 1674. Over the next century, the island was seized several times by the British. The economy benefited from the hugely lucrative sugar business introduced during the closing decades of the seventeenth century: one indication of Guadeloupe's prosperity at this time is that in the Treaty of Paris (1763), France, defeated in war, agreed to abandon its territorial claims in Canada in return for British recognition of French control of Guadeloupe.

Berger Paints have much to answer for. The pink one we have seen a few similar are Kingdom Hall for Jehovah Witnesses. The yellow one is my favourite, I took it at a jaunty angle to show the navy blue and white eaves, red and white striped sun blinds and purple banister tops, pale green wall and white fencing, I think it all works quite well. Not sure what Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen would make of it. And an orange one.

In 1790, the upper classes of Guadeloupe refused to obey the new laws of equal rights for the free coloured and attempted to declare independence, resulting in great disturbances; a fire broke out in Pointe-a-Pitre and devastated a third of the town, a struggle between the monarchists (who wanted independence) and the republicans (who were faithful to revolutionary France) ended in the victory of the monarchists, who declared independence in 1791, followed by the refusal to receive the new governor appointed by Paris in 1792. In 1793, a slave rebellion started, which made the upper classes turn to the British and ask them to occupy the island. In an effort to take advantage of the chaos ensuing from the French Revolution, Britain attempted to seize Guadeloupe in 1794 and held it from the 21^st of April to the 2^nd of June. The French retook the island under the command of Victor Hugues, who succeeded in freeing the slaves. They revolted and turned on the slave-owners who controlled the sugar plantations, but when French interests were threatened, Napoleon sent a force to suppress the rebels and reinstitute slavery. Louis Delgres and a group of revolutionary soldiers killed themselves on the slopes of the Matouba volcano when it became obvious that the invading troops would take control of the island. The occupation force killed approximately 10,000 Guadeloupeans in the process of restoring order to the island.

On the 4^th of February 1810 the British once again seized the island. By the Anglo-Swedish alliance of the 3^rd of March it was ceded to Sweden, but the British administration continued in place while Swedish commissioners were sent to make arrangements for the transfer. Sweden already had a colony in the area, but then by the Treaty of Paris of the 30^th of May 1814, ceded Guadeloupe once more to France. An ensuing settlement between Sweden and the British gave rise to the Guadeloupe Fund. French control of Guadeloupe was finally acknowledged in the Treaty of Vienna in 1815. Slavery was abolished on the island in 1848 at the initiative of Victor Schoelcher after a difficult fight.

Today the population of Guadeloupe is mostly of African origin with an important active European and Indian population. Lebanese/Syrians, Chinese, and people of many others are also present.

Hurricanes: During the 20th Century, the island was devastated by several hurricanes:

On the 12^th of September 1928, a hurricane caused extensive damage and killed thousands of people.

On the 22^nd of August 1964, Guadeloupe was ravaged by Hurricane Cleo which killed 14.
Two years later, on the 27^th of September 1966, Hurricane Inez caused extensive damage and killed 27, mostly in Grande Terre. Charles De Gaulle visited the island after the hurricanes and declared it a disaster area.
On the 17^th of September 1989, Category 4 Hurricane Hugo caused extensive damage, left more than 35,000 homeless, destroyed 10,000 homes, 100 percent of the banana crops and 60 percent of the sugarcane crops.
From late August to mid September 1995, the island was in the path of three successive cyclones: Iris on August 28th - caused minor damages, Luis on September 5th - caused moderate damages in north coast of Grande-Terre, Marilyn on September 15th - caused moderate damage in Basse-Terre.
On September 21st, 1998, Hurricane Georges pounded the islands causing moderate damage and destroyed 90 percent of the banana crops.

Black basalt sand on this particular beach, Bear on a very volcanic outcrop. La Desirade (ex leper colony)

Geography: Whoever named the individual islands had a sense of humour because the larger mountainous one is called Basse Terre (meaning - lowland) and the smaller low one Grande Terre ( meaning - large land). Guadeloupe comprises five islands: Basse-Terre Island, Grande-Terre (separated from Basse-Terre by a narrow sea channel called Salt River) with the adjacent islands of La Desirade, Les Saintes and Marie-Galante. Basse-Terre has a rough volcanic relief while Grande-Terre features rolling hills and flat plains. Basse-Terre, the western wing, is home to the national park, crowned by La Soufrière volcano. Hiking trails and a Jacques Cousteau underwater reserve off Pigeon Island. South of the butterfly-shaped ‘mainland’ of Guadeloupe are a number of small archipelagos that give a taste of Guadeloupe’s yesteryear. Ranging from the ex leper colony on La Desirade which gives a feeling of chill to the cosmopolitan Terre-de-Haut and the largely rural Marie-Galante.

Very strange being in the Caribbean driving along a three lane motorway. Still we did see a dog snoozing out of the sun - in the shade of the central crash wall. We have seen all four corners of the butterfly by hire car doing 522 kms and a few more by bus.

Guadeloupe mixes the best of France – a fully modern infrastructure and fantastic food – with a local culture that people here are proud of and want to share. Guadeloupe’s two main islands look like the wings of a butterfly and are joined together by a mangrove swamp. Grande-Terre, the eastern wing of the island, has a string of beach towns that offer visitors every variety of fun in the sun known to man. From surfing schools, canyoning, rafting, to beach bars and long stretches of beautiful sand with azure water. A very popular holiday destination with the people of France until this years major strikes when they cancelled in their thousands, causing some hotels to close, some never to re-open, but are being sold off as apartments.

Further to the north, Saint-Barthelemy and the French part of Saint Martin once came under the jurisdiction of Guadeloupe but on the 7th of December 2003 , both of these areas voted to become an overseas territorial collectivity, a decision which took effect on the 22^nd of February 2007 . Their combined population was 35,930 and their combined land area was 74.2 km² at the 1999 census. Guadeloupe thereby lost 8.5 percent of its population and 4.36 percent of its land area, based upon numbers from that census.

Guadeloupe's culture is probably best known for the islanders' literary achievements, particularly the poetry of Saint-John Perse, the pseudonym used by Alexis Leger. Perse won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the soaring flight and the evocative images of his poetry which in a visionary fashion reflects the conditions of our time."

Breadplant, Christphine in the tree and cut in half (boiled for three or four minutes - texture and taste like marrow). Soursop or ganabana on the tree and cut, Bear thinks it tastes like pineapple, I think it tastes a bit like apple with the texture of polystyrene. Just rip it open and pick chunks out as the seeds are a bit random.

The traditional sugarcane crop is slowly being replaced by other crops, such as bananas (which now supply about 50% of export earnings), eggplant, guinnep, noni, sapotilla, paroka, pikinga, giraumon squash, yam, gourd, plantain, christophine, monbin, prunecafe, cocoa, jackfruit, pomegranate, and many varieties of flowers. Other vegetables and root crops are cultivated for local consumption, although Guadeloupe is still dependent on imported food, mainly from France.

Prunes or monbin growing, frequently used to produce monbin liqueur. Heliconia of all shapes, sizes and colour grow everywhere.

Culture.

Guadeloupe has always had a rich literary production prolonged today by many living writers, poets, novelists, essayists and journalists, among them Mesdames Maryse Conde and Simone Schwartz-Bart, M. Ernest Pépin.

The arts. Famous painters and/or sculptors include Michel Rovelas, Claudie Cancelier, Jean-Claude Echard, Christian Bracy, Roger Arekian, les Frères Baptiste, Michelle Chomereau-Lamothe, Léogane, Pédurand, Nicole Réache, Victor Sainsily.

Guadeloupean visual effects artist compositor Karim Sahai of Weta Digital, New Zealand, has worked on the visual effects of many movies such as The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, and The Waterhorse.

Music and dance are also very popular, and the widely accepted interaction of African, French and Indian cultures has given birth to some original new forms specific to the archipelago. Islanders enjoy many local dance styles including the quadrille "au commandement", zouk, zouk-love, kompa toumbélé, as well as all the modern international dances. Typical Guadeloupean music includes la biguine and gwo ka à la base. Kassav and Admiral T embody the traditional and the new generation of music. Many international festivals take place in Guadeloupe, like the Creole Blues Festival, the Marie-Galante Festival, Festival Gwo-Ka Cotellon, etc. It goes without saying that all the Euro-French forms of art are also omnipresent in the melting pot.

Dress. Women in particular have a unique style of traditional dresses, with many layers of colourful fabrics, now only worn on special occasions. On festive occasions they also wore a madras (originally the 'kerchief' from South India) head scarf tied in many different symbolic forms. The headdress could be done in many styles with names like the "bat" style, or the "fire-fighter" style, as well as the "Guadeloupean woman." Jewellery, mainly of gold, is also important in the Guadeloupean lady's dress, a product of European, African and Indian inspiration. Many famous couturiers like Devaed and Mondelo are Guadeloupeans.

ALL IN ALL an interesting island. A very French place, speaking French with some understanding of English, driving on wrong side of the road, and Euros. Not as typically Caribbean as other islands.