Union Island

The first people on Union Island were Arawaks and Caribs. In the colonial era it passed through the hands of French and English slave traders and plantation owners, who brought hundreds of Africans to the island, mostly from regions that are now Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola and Ghana. Sea Island cotton was an important export. After slavery was abolished, islanders still lived by farming and fishing, and many men went to sea on freighters to support their families.

In the late 1970s the island was the centre of political unrest, when a group of residents sought to secede from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and join Grenada to the south; the uprising was put down by government forces. The building of the airport in 1994 opened Union Island to small planes and made it a major gateway to the southern Grenadines, and the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a coast guard jetty and office at the mouth of Clifton Harbour. Yacht services and day charters to the Tobago Cays came to provide many jobs.

In July 2024 Hurricane Beryl devastated the island. Most residents were left homeless, most of the island's infrastructure was left in ruins, and half the population was displaced to Saint Vincent. On Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island, the southern islands worst hit, the great majority of homes were damaged or destroyed; across the Southern Grenadines damage reached $187 million, more than 80 per cent of the national total.

The islanders are descended from enslaved Africans, Caribs and people of European and East Indian origin. Calypso, reggae and soca are heard across the island, and music runs through celebrations, festivals and social gatherings.

Easter is one of the biggest events of the year. Easterval fills Holy Week in both Clifton and Ashton with nine days of activities ending on Easter Monday, and has long brought charter flights of visitors to the island. Carnival is also held each year, with parades, music and dance. In late May, at the end of the dry season, comes the Maroon, a day-long festival that starts before dawn and runs late into the night with drumming, Big Drum dancing, street games and food for the whole community — traditionally meant to call down the rains.

Island life is tied to the sea. The Union Island Sailing Club sponsors dinghies that race in local regattas, and the Union Island Environmental Attackers, a local conservation group, have run turtle watching during the closed season from March to July, when catching or killing turtles is forbidden. The island also has its own small gecko, found nowhere else and listed as critically endangered.

Just under 3,000 people live on Union Island, an island of about 3.5 square miles, about three miles long and a mile wide. Clifton, on the south-east coast, is the commercial town, with the harbour and the airport; Ashton, on the south coast, is the main residential area. The island is semi-arid, and in the dry season from December to June the only water is what was stored during the rains.

Before the hurricane, yacht services and day-chartering to the Tobago Cays provided many jobs, and local piers earned money renting space to visiting boats; the island also had shops, bars, guesthouses, schools, churches and a small health clinic. Ferries have linked Clifton with Saint Vincent, and a local ferry has run between Ashton and Hillsborough on Carriacou in Grenada.

Hurricane Beryl in July 2024 left most residents homeless and most of the island's infrastructure in ruins, and half the population was displaced to Saint Vincent.

Union Island's cooking draws on African, Indian and Creole traditions, built around fresh seafood, tropical fruit and local produce. Across the country the national dish is roasted breadfruit with fried jackfish, and callaloo soup, stewed and grilled fish, souse and provisions such as dasheen, sweet potato and plantain are everyday food. Arrowroot, once Saint Vincent's cash crop, still turns up in porridges and baking.

Fruit stands along the road selling tropical fruit have long been part of island life, and fishing has supported islanders since the end of slavery. The Maroon festival at the end of the dry season is known for its plentiful food, shared out to the whole community. Turtles are protected from March to July, and their capture or killing for food is forbidden then.

Fresh juices, mauby and sorrel are the everyday drinks, with local beer and rum for the evening. Clifton's waterfront has long been the place where yacht crews and islanders eat and drink.