Carriacou

Amerindian settlers reached Carriacou between about 500 and 1000 AD and called it Kayryouacou, "the land of reefs". The first recorded European visitor was Jean-Baptiste Du Tertre, who came in 1656, and the French were the first to colonise it; in 1720 the pirate Bartholomew Roberts seized a French ship nearby and renamed it the Royal Fortune. The first census, in 1750, counted 199 people. After the Seven Years' War France ceded Carriacou with Grenada to Britain in 1763, and the British turned it into plantation land: by 1776 the population was 3,239, of whom 3,153 were enslaved. Limes and citrus were the leading exports of the 18th century. The French held the island again from 1779 to 1783.

Settlers from Madeira arrived in 1845, and the island has been a dependency of Grenada since independence in 1974. On 1 November 1983, during the US-led invasion, Marines landed on Carriacou by sea and helicopter; the nineteen Grenadian soldiers defending it surrendered without a fight.

Hurricanes have shaped its modern history. The first recorded one struck in 1944, Hurricane Janet blew the upper floor off the Beausejour great house in 1955, and Ivan and Emily followed in 2004 and 2005. On 1 July 2024 Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Carriacou as a Category 4 storm, the strongest ever to hit Grenada or its dependencies. It damaged or destroyed 99 per cent of the island's buildings, stripped it of its vegetation and badly damaged its marinas.

Carriacou is best known for the Big Drum, or Nation dance, which celebrates the West African ancestors brought to the island in slavery. Its songs have allowed families to trace their ancestry to particular peoples, among them the Akan (Cromanti), Temne, Hausa, Igbo, Arada, Moko, Chamba and Mandinka. Two boula drums, now usually made from rum casks, and a cutter drum — called Mama, Papa and Baby — accompany singing and chanting, while barefoot dancers in headscarves and white dresses perform inside a ring. The dance is held at maroons, village festivals held in spring to call for rain, and at wakes, tombstone feasts, weddings, fishing-boat launchings and times of illness or misfortune.

European dances survive too: the quadrille is still performed at festivals and historic events, and the island's painter Canute Caliste was also a quadrille violinist. Its masquerades include the Pierrot Mas, introduced in the 19th century, and the jab-jab devils of carnival, first brought to the island in 1922, while the August regatta, held since 1965, celebrates the island's locally built boats.

Islanders call themselves Kayaks. Many have emigrated, especially to Huddersfield and London in England and to New York, and many return for holidays or to retire. The island appears in Paule Marshall's novel Praisesong for the Widow, and the memory of the island, which her parents left for New York, runs through Audre Lorde's autobiographical Zami.

About 6,100 people lived on Carriacou in 2022. Hillsborough, with roughly 1,000, is the only town; the rest live in small villages such as L'Esterre, Harvey Vale and Windward. Although the Grenadian constitution guarantees local government, none has ever been established, and the island and Petite Martinique form a single constituency in Grenada's parliament.

The economy rests on the sea. Tyrell Bay is the island's port and a favourite anchorage for visiting yachts, and divers come for reefs that are among the least spoiled in the region. The island is a popular holiday destination for Grenadians as well as foreign visitors, many of whom arrive by yacht. Windward keeps up the old craft of building wooden boats, and more than 100 rum shops serve as the island's meeting places. The hospital is small, so serious cases are sent to St. George's.

Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 touched every part of daily life. It damaged or destroyed almost every building, stripped the island of its vegetation and badly damaged its marinas, and it was said to have flattened the island.

Carriacou's food is closely bound up with its gatherings. At a village maroon, food is cooked through the day in large pots over open fires before the Big Drum begins at night, and libations of rum and water, known as "wetting of the ground", invite the ancestors to join the dance. The Big Drum is also danced at wakes, tombstone feasts and boat launchings. Village maroons are held in spring to call for rain, and the island's Maroon and String Band Music Festival is usually held in April.

The island shares Grenada's national dish, oil down — breadfruit, salted meat, dumplings and vegetables cooked in coconut milk until only a little oil is left in the pot. Limes and citrus were once the island's chief exports.

Rum is everywhere, although none is distilled on Carriacou: it is drunk in the more than 100 rum shops scattered through the villages, the small bars where islanders meet. Visitors eat mostly at the restaurants and bars along Tyrell Bay and in Hillsborough, many of them on the water's edge.