St Lucia is part of the Windward Island chain of the eastern Caribbean region and is a volcanic mountainous island with a total land area of 616 sq km (238 sq miles). It’s coastline measures 158km (98 miles) with the capital town Castries located in a bay on the northwest coast. St Lucia is more mountainous than other islands with the highest Mount Gimie at 950 meters (3116 feet) and World Heritage volcanic sites Gros Piton 798.25 m (2,618.9 ft) high, and Petit Piton 743 m (2,438 ft) high.
The population of St Lucia is 184,947 (2022) of which 82% identified as Afro-Caribbean or mixed African-European; 15% identified as British, mixed African, French; 3% Indo-Caribbeans or East Indian. There is a small community descended from the Caribs.
St Lucia is a two-party parliamentary democracy. There are 10 districts of the island, established by the French colonial government and continued by the British – with an additional area of Forest Reserve. Approximately 90% of the population is Roman Catholic with the natives of St. Lucia having English as their official language but many speaking a french dialect called creole.
National Flower
Marguerite daisy (Argyranthemum frutescens) are thick and fern-like, with a spread of one to three feet (30 to 90 cm). Marguerite daisy flowers are a small, shrub-like perennial in the family Asteraceae and are good pollinators within a domestic and wild garden.
History
St Lucia was inhabited first by the Ciboney peoples (East Taino) group, then the Arawak peoples and finally the Caribs, who arrived around 800 A.D. Christopher Columbus may have sighted land but did not stay. In 1605, an English vessel called the Oliphe Blossome was blown off-course on its way to Guyana, and the 67 colonists started a settlement on Saint Lucia, after initially being welcomed by the Carib chief Anthonie. Later in 1605, when only 19 colonists had survived, following attacks by the Carib chief Augraumart, they fled the island.
For the next 150 years the French and English forces took control of the island which was attractive to both with plantations and sugarcane industry embracing the slave trade from Africa. The 1730 census showed 463 occupants of the island, which included just 125 whites, 37 Caribs, 175 slaves, and the rest free blacks or mixed race. The French took control of the island in 1744, and by 1745, the island had a population of 3455, including 2573 slaves. By 1779, the island's population had increased to 19,230, which included 16,003 slaves working 44 sugar plantations. Yet, the Great Hurricane of 1780 killed about 800. By the time the island was restored to French rule in 1784, as a consequence of the Peace of Paris (1783), 300 plantations had been abandoned and some thousand maroons lived in the interior.
The British regained the island in June 1803 and the island was officially ceded to Britain in 1814 and in 1838, St Lucia was incorporated into the British Windward Islands administration, with it’s headquarters in Barbados.
During the 20th century St Lucia gradually developed resilience, economic independence and self-government. During the Battle of the Caribbean, a German U-boat attacked and sank two British ships in Castries harbour, in 1942. By 1957 banana exports exceeded sugar and as an associated state of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1979, St. Lucia had full responsibility for internal self-government but left its external affairs and defence responsibilities to the United Kingdom. This interim arrangement ended in February 1979, when St. Lucia achieved full independence.
Pitons Mountains
The Pitons, form the island's World Heritage site on the western side of the island. Forests cover about 77% of the land area, which include tropical Rainforests.Maria islands lie off the South East coast.
Climate, Geography & Environment
Coral reefs cover almost 60% of the site's marine area. A survey has revealed 168 species of finfish, 60 species of cnidaria, including corals. The dominant terrestrial vegetation is tropical moist forest grading to subtropical wet forest. At least 148 plant species have been recorded on Gros Piton, 97 on Petit Piton, and the intervening ridge, among them eight rare tree species. The Gros Piton is home to some 27 bird species (five of them endemic), three indigenous rodents, one opossum, three bats, eight reptiles, and three amphibians. Eco and cultural tourism is growing with rainforest adventures and birdwatching tours in Castries Rainforest Parks and Mamiku Gardens.
Culture Music, Dance and Carnival
The biggest festival of the year is the St Lucia Jazz and Arts Festival. Held in early May at multiple venues throughout the island, it draws visitors and musicians from around the world. The grand finale or main stage is held at Pigeon Island, which is located to the north of the island.
St Lucia used to hold a carnival before Lent, until 1999, when the government moved Carnival to mid-July to avoid competing with the much larger Trinidad and Tobago carnival, to attract more overseas visitors. St Lucian cultural festivals include national flower day celebrations La Rose and La Marguerite. St. Margaret Mary Alacocque is the patron saint.
The large Roman Catholic population has been influenced directly by early French settlement on the island. English is the official language but quite a large amount of the St. Lucian population speaks a French dialect called creole. Being a mixture of different ethnic groups, St. Lucians have a diversity of cultural events, celebrating Catholic feast days, African festivals and all English national holidays.
There are a number of famous people who were born on or lived in St. Lucia for a major part of their lives. One famous actor, Joseph Marcell, is a St. Lucian by birth, most famous for his role as ‘Geoffrey’ in the sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Belaire.” Two Nobel Laureates were born in St Lucia, Sir Arthur Lewis, born in 1943 contributed to the field of economics and Derek Walcott, born in Castries 1930, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. The pioneer dancer choreographer Julienne Virginia Alexander, from St Lucia, collaborated with Derek Walcott in the Trinidad Theatre workshop which Walcott founded and directed until 1971. The work and life of this dance pioneer has been recorded in Angela Christine Samuels’s book Footprints: 40 years of dance activity on the island.
