Carriacou 2003

A Brief Visit to Carriacou

May-June 2003

In May-June of 2003 I made a month-long visit to Carriacou to carry out research on the local variety of Creole French, and also to attempt to collect information on any possible changes in Creole English since my latest field recordings, made about 20 years earlier. Of course, this was also an opportunity to see old friends and former students from my Peace Corps days, 1971-74. The field trip was made possible by a summer research grant from the University of North Florida. The photo at right shows me arriving at Hillsborough on the Osprey II, a twin-hull ferry that makes the trip from Grenada in about 2 hours and a half... much faster and smoother than the 4-6 hour trip on the old wooden schooners, though not quite as "romantic."
I stayed at Millie's Apartments in Hillsborough, close by the Catholic Church.The apartment was equipped with all the modern conveniences except air conditioning and screens for the windows. However, there was a nice breeze blowing through all the time, and the mosquitoes were relatively civilized.
My apartment was on the third floor, and had a nice view looking south and west toward Lauriston, Mabouya island, etc. When I arrived Carriacou was at the end of a long dry season, and the sunsets were spectacular (this photo has not been doctored).
Carriacou has changed a lot over the past 20 years or so.For one thing, many roads are now nicely paved, as this road on the edge of Harvey Vale and Belmont shows. The poles along the road illustrate the spread of electricity, telephone, and cable television service to most parts of the island. These amenities were scarce or non-existent not too many years ago.
Traces of the older dirt roads remain, however. This is the old road to the Princess Royal Hospital at Belair. Most of the road system on Carriacou was built by the French in the 18th century for moving cannon, like the one I'm sitting on, around during their perpetual wars with the British.

In addition to roads, the French (or rather, their slaves) built wells at several points on the island. The water in these wells is now brackish, the result of destruction of the water table when the British deforested the island to plant sugar cane beginning in the late 18th century. Here Dan Cring, an anthropologist from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, checks out the well at Sabazan, on the eastern side of Carriacou.

To grind sugar cane for making molasses, rum, and raw sugar, the British built windwills like this one at Belair. The havoc wrought upon Carriacou by the introduction of a sugar economy has been called the "overdevelopment" of Carriacou. And although sugar provided much of the wealth required for the development of capitalism and the Industrial Revolution, people in places like Carriacou continue to live with the effects of this overdevelopment, which include destruction of natural ecosystems leading to the lowering of water tables and erosion of arable soils, culturally manufactured dependence on the former colonial powers, and overpopulation.
More archeology: the old Belvidere estate house, listed on the 1784 map as belonging to John Urquhart. The family also owned the famous castle often seen in photos of Loch Ness, Scotland.
One all-pervasive effect of 18th-century deforestation and water table destruction on Carriacou is that people today must rely on rain water collected from their roofs. Nearly every house has a cistern, traditionally built of concrete "wall," but now increasingly in the form of large plastic containers.
Still more archeology... Before Columbus, there were the Caribs and Arawaks. These peoples located their village sites at what appear to have been places where semi-permanent streams flowed into the sea. At Sabazan, on the Atlantic side, one such site is eroding away. The strata, which include pottery sherds, fish bones, and bits of charcoal, can be seen clearly at right.
Boatbuilding has been an important industry on Carriacou for many years. Traditionally boats were built by hand, using both local materials and special imported materials such as greenheart, from South America, for the keel. Here Mr. Bynoe repairs his vessel in Windward while anthropologist Dan Cring, a former sailor himself, looks on.
The traditional "blueprint" for building a boat is a scale model, like these built by school-boys for a competition.
I have always been fascinated by the wildlife of Carriacou, and I got to see some on this trip. At right are some tortoises, locally called morokoy, a land-crab, a large (about 18") green anole, and a tree boa, which people call a tètchyen. Unfortunately, the boa was being stoned by some youths when we encountered it. Carriacou people are, traditionally, very afraid of these animals, and attribute magical powers to them, like the ability to fly. It's surprising that this one had lived to be as large as it was (about 5 feet).	Testudo denticulata	?
	Anolis richardi	Corallus enydris
Plants are interesting too. Clockwise from top left: agave or century-plant, prickly-pear cactus (ratchèt), a flamboyant tree, some decorative garden plants, and a soursop.	Agave americana	Opuntia sp?
	Annona muricata	Delonix poinciana regia

One special plant community is the mangrove, which occurs in several places. This is the one at Lauriston.	Rhizophora sp?
My major research goal was to record some samples of Creole French, which Carriacouans call Patwa. This language is known mainly by older people; younger people no longer acquire it even as a second language. The photos at right are some of the people who graciously shared their knowledge of the language with me. Some Patwa expressions, with English equivalents* Eti ou ka-ale? Where are you going? Mw' ka-ale lanboug. I am going to Town (Hillsborough). Sa ou ka-ale ganyen? What are you going to buy? Mw' ka-ale ganyen pwa epi diwi. I am going to buy peas and rice. Ki-plas ou fèt? Where were you born? Mw' fèt isit nan Kayakou. I was born here on Carriacou. Sa ou ka-ale plante nan jaden-ou? What are you going to plant in your garden? Mi, pwa, patat, epi pistach. Corn, peas, sweet potatoes, and peanuts. The samples are written using the official IPN system adopted for Creole French (Kreyòl*) by the Republic of Haiti.


On Monday, June 16, I appeared on Kayak Radio with Winston Fleary, the Director of the Carriacou Folk Life Institute. Under the able direction of dj Kim "The King" Mills, we discussed traditional Carriacou culture and language and the importance of Alan Lomax's 1962 field recordings, some of which have been released recently on Rounder Records in the Caribbean Voyage series. Both Mr. Fleary and I worked on the production of some of these reissues.