Dominica

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Dominica is the only eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Kalinago, the people who once called the island Wai'tu kubuli, meaning "Tall is her body." More than 3,000 Kalinago remain, living in eight villages on the east coast. They elect their own chief on a territory granted by the British Crown in 1903. Around them rises an island still being born. Dominica is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, first emerging from the sea roughly 26 million years ago. Its highest peak, Morne Diablotins, reaches 1448 metres. Why does a river here bear the name "Massacre"? How did an island the French called Dominique pass through Spanish, French, and British hands? What drove a band of mercenaries to plot its takeover, and how does a country with no army defend itself? The answers run from boiling lakes to a purple parrot found nowhere else on Earth.

• 2. The Nature Island

  ›

  Boiling Lake is the world's second-largest hot spring, and it sits on an island still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity. Dominica earned the nickname "The Nature Island of the Caribbean" for this reason. Its volcanic peaks are cones of lava craters, running north to south: Morne aux Diables, Morne Diablotins, Morne Trois Pitons, and Morne Anglais. Morne Trois Pitons National Park blends tropical forest with volcanic features. It was recognised as a World Heritage Site on the 4th of April 1995, a distinction it shares with four other Caribbean islands. The island holds 365 rivers and several protected areas, including Cabrits National Park. The sisserou parrot, also known as the imperial amazon, is critically endangered and found only on Dominica. It is the national bird, featured on the national flag. That makes Dominica one of only two sovereign nations whose official flag features the color purple. A related species, the jaco or red-necked parrot, is also endemic to the island. Both birds are rare and protected, though some forests are still threatened by logging. The waters tell their own story. A group of sperm whales lives in the area year-round, drawing tourists interested in whale-watching.

• 3. From Wai'tu Kubuli To Dominique

  ›

  Christopher Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday, the 3rd of November 1493, during his second voyage to the Americas. Because he sighted it on a Sunday, he named it Dominica, an abbreviation of the Latin dies Dominica, meaning "day of the Lord." In keeping with the Spanish pronunciation, the name carries emphasis on the second i. The Kalinago were thought to have driven out an earlier Arawak population. That may be a partial misconception, since ancestral Kalinago narratives describe the two groups coexisting and intermarrying. Before either group, a population of paleo-Indians is believed to have arrived towards the end of the late Pleistocene period. Spain had little success colonising the island. In 1632, the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique claimed it for France, though no physical occupation followed. Between 1642 and 1650, the French missionary Raymond Breton became the first regular European visitor. In 1660, the French and English agreed that Dominica and St. Vincent should be left to the Carib people as neutral territory. The peace did not hold. The river named "Massacre" honours the mass murder of native villagers by English settlers on St. Kitts, whose survivors were forced into exile on Dominica.

• 4. Slavery And The Coffee Plantations

  ›

  In 1690, the French established their first permanent settlements, when woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe set up timber camps and gradually stayed. They brought the first enslaved Africans from West Africa to the island they called Dominique. In Dominique they developed coffee plantations rather than the sugarcane grown on Martinique and Guadeloupe. The trans-Atlantic slave trade meant the general population came to consist primarily of enslaved people of African descent. Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years' War, ceded by France under the Treaty of Paris. The best-documented slave plantation on the island is Hillsborough Estate, which held 71 male and 68 female enslaved people. The Greg family figured notably in this trade. Thomas Hodgson, a brother-in-law, owned a slave ship, while Thomas Greg and his brother John Greg were part-owners of sugar plantations on Dominica. In January 1814-20 enslaved people absconded from Hillsborough. They were recorded as recaptured and punished, with 100 lashes for the males and 50 for the females. They reportedly said one of their people had died in the plantation hospital, and they believed he had been poisoned. With the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, Britain ended slavery throughout its empire, except in India.

• 5. An Early Black Majority Legislature

  ›

  In 1831, the Brown Privilege Bill conferred political and social rights on free blacks, mostly free people of colour of mixed African and European ancestry. With freedom came enfranchisement. In 1835, the first three men of African descent were elected to the legislative assembly. In 1838, Dominica became the first colony of the British West Indies to have an elected legislature controlled by an ethnic African majority. Most of these legislators had been free people of colour, smallholders, or merchants before abolition. Their economic and social views clashed with those of the small, wealthy English planter class. Reacting to a perceived threat to their power, the planters lobbied for more direct British rule. In 1865, the colonial office replaced the elective assembly with one made up half of elected members and half of appointed ones. Planters allied with colonial administrators often outmanoeuvred the elected legislators. In 1871, Dominica became part of the British Leeward Islands, and the elected assembly's power steadily eroded. Crown colony government was re-established in 1896. After World War I, in which many Dominicans volunteered to fight in Europe, political consciousness surged. The Representative Government Association won one-third of the popularly elected seats in 1924, and one-half in 1936.

• 6. Independence And Its Aftershocks

  ›

  On the 3rd of November 1978, Dominica was granted independence as a republic, led by Prime Minister Patrick John. The calm was brief. In mid-1979, discontent with John's administration climaxed in a civilian coup and a motion of no confidence that collapsed his government. An interim government formed under Oliver Seraphin, Dominica's second prime minister. His roughly 13-month premiership was dominated by Category Five Hurricane David, which caused 56 deaths and untold damage. After the 1980 election, the Dominica Freedom Party took power under Eugenia Charles, the Caribbean's first female prime minister. In 1981, her government faced two attempted coups. The first was led by Frederick Newton, commander of the Military of Dominica, who organised an attack on the police headquarters in Roseau that killed a police officer. Newton was executed in 1986, while five accomplices had their death sentences commuted to life in prison. The second attempt, known as Operation Red Dog, was led by mercenaries Mike Perdue and Wolfgang Droege, who hoped to reinstate ex-prime minister John. The FBI was tipped off, and the ship hired to transport them never left dock. The white supremacist Don Black was jailed for his part, which violated US neutrality laws. In response to these coups, there has been no standing army since 1981, when the Dominican Defence Force was disbanded.

• 7. Citizenship For Sale

  ›

  The required contribution for Dominica's economic citizenship starts at US$100,000 through the Economic Diversification Fund. The nationality law authorises the government to waive the normal requirement of seven years of legal residence in exchange for an investment. Since 2014, applicants can instead make a US$200,000 minimum investment in pre-approved real estate from island resorts or global brands such as Marriott, Kempinski, or Hilton. Dominican citizens can travel without a visa, or obtain one on entry, to nearly 140 countries and territories, including the UK and the Schengen Zone. Officials called the citizenship by investment programme a fiscal "lifeline" after Tropical Storm Erika in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017. The programme is valued at 16% of the government's total revenue. Its management and an early perceived lack of transparency became a frequent topic of heated domestic political controversy. Prime minister Roosevelt Skerrit defended it in 2016, warning that discrediting it would force the government to raise taxes. By his 2018-2019 budget address, he reported the programme had helped fund a national health insurance pilot sending critically ill children overseas for treatment. The government also pledged to build 5,000 hurricane-proof homes, with the first batch of 125 houses scheduled for occupancy in February 2019.

• 8. Storms, Records, And A Golden Leap

  ›

  Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island on the 18th of September 2017, with early estimates suggesting 90% of buildings had been destroyed. The losses came to approximately US$930 million, or 226% of GDP. The UK, France, and the Netherlands set up shipping and air lifts to deliver aid, with most people left homeless. Two years earlier, Tropical Storm Erika had killed upwards of 30 people in August 2015, with total damage and losses of US$484.82 million, or 90% of Dominica's yearly GDP. Recovery has run alongside moments of triumph. Roosevelt Skerrit, who became the world's youngest head of government at the age of 31 when he took office, won his fourth consecutive general election in December 2019-18 seats to 3. On the world stage, Dominica won its first two Commonwealth Games medals at the 2018 games on the Gold Coast, silver in the men's triple jump and bronze in the women's. The country received its first Olympic gold at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, when Thea LaFond won the women's triple jump with a length of 15.02 metres. A new chapter is literally rising from the ground. A third airport, Dominica International Airport, is under construction in Wesley and expected to be completed in 2026.