Grenada

By: Lisa Clayton Robinson

Source:

 Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition

Grenada

Caribbean nation that is one of the largest islands in the West Indies.

Tourist guides in Grenada, an island north of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, boast of their country's friendly people, beautiful landscape, and status as the Spice Isle of the Caribbean Sea. Many people, however, associate Grenada with a 1983 military coup that led to the occupation of the island by foreign troops, chiefly from the United States. That conflict was rooted in the long history of struggle for control of Grenada.

Native American Origins

Grenada's first inhabitants were the Arawaks, a Native American people who probably migrated north from Venezuela by way of Trinidad and Tobago between before 500 C.E. The island's first takeover occurred between 700 and 1000, when the Arawaks were wiped out by another Native American people, the Caribs. By the time explorer Christopher Columbus and his crew became the first Europeans to see Grenada in 1498, the island, named Camerhogne in the Carib language, was covered with well-established settlements.

Although Columbus did not stop on the island, he gave it the name Concepción as he sailed by. Over the next few decades other passing Spanish sailors name the island Granada, recognizing the similarity of its landscape to the lush green hills of Granada, Spain. In later years the name was modified again—the French changed it to Grenade, and the British finally changed it to Grenada. The fact that the Spanish, French, and British all had a hand in naming the island illustrates the struggle among the European powers to control it during the colonial period.

Grenada

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Grenadian Caribs successfully resisted European settlement efforts well into the seventeenth century. In 1650, after earlier British and French attempts to subdue the Caribs had failed, 200 French colonists arrived from Martinique with cannons, rifles, and gunpowder. These settlers and their weapons proved effective, and by 1654 the last surviving Carib families had retreated to a cliff at the north of the island. When the French finally attacked them there, the Caribs committed suicide by jumping into the ocean. Today the cliff is known as Le Morne de Sauteurs (Leapers' Hill).

French and English Colonization

Once the French had established control of Grenada, they began planting tobacco, indigo, cotton, coffee, and sugar. To be profitable, each of these crops required a large, cheap labor force. Like other planters in the Caribbean, French plantation owners in Grenada met their labor demands by importing African slaves. By 1753, after a century under French control, Grenada's population numbered 1,262 whites, 179 free blacks, and 11,991 slaves. The small free-black population consisted primarily of the mixed-race offspring of white French planters and their black slaves. The divided allegiances of these free blacks—some of whom felt loyal to the whites, others to the slaves—would prove important in Grenada's political future.

In 1763 the British took over Grenada. They immediately alienated and angered both black and white Grenadians by outlawing Roman Catholicism and the French language, placing new restrictions on free blacks' rights to own property and to move freely, and forcing slaves to work longer hours in an attempt to make the island more profitable. The French recaptured the island in 1779 and held it for four years, but once the British regained control their rule was even harsher than before. Eventually, several free black Grenadians joined forces with white French Grenadians to plan a rebellion against the British.

The leader of the rebellion, Julien Fédon, was a wealthy mixed-race landowner. Fédon and his supporters were inspired by recent Slave Rebellions in Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Haitian Revolution, and by Carib revolts on the island of Saint Vincent. Fédon's rebellion lasted from March 1795 to June 1796 and drew 24,000 slaves from the estates where they lived and worked. They joined Fédon, free blacks, and white Frenchmen to fight for a common goal: Grenada's installation within the French Republic as a free state that did not allow slavery.

During the rebellion, the slaves and their allies took over most of Grenada, destroyed many of its plantations, and captured and killed a number of British prisoners, including the British governor of the island. But when the British finally managed to bring in effective reinforcements, the rebels were captured and forced to surrender. Dozens of blacks were executed, many more were deported to slave estates on other islands, and Fédon himself apparently drowned in an attempt to escape at the end of the conflict. The rebellion crushed French hopes of regaining control of Grenada, which remained a British colony for nearly 200 more years.

Emancipation and Blacks in Politics

Even as the British fought to preserve slavery on Grenada, the combination of a changing economy and increased criticism of slavery by white abolitionists at home gradually brought an end to the slave system. In 1834 slavery was abolished in all British territories. For most of Grenada's black population, however, life remained much the same after emancipation. Throughout the nineteenth century, many former slaves continued to be employed as agricultural laborers on white-owned estates. Some of these workers were bound to metayage (sharecropping) systems, which at their worst reproduced the conditions of slavery.

Gradually, however, more and more black Grenadians were able to buy or lease their own small pieces of land. Often, they formed small freehold villages at the edges of larger estates. By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were enough mixed-race and black Grenadian freeholders for a new black middle class—including teachers, doctors, lawyers, and civil servants—to develop. As black Grenadians gained more economic stability, their next step was to increase their political power.

Under British crown colony rule, the local Grenadian legislature was made up primarily of individuals appointed by the British government, which meant that whites still held complete political control although they were a minority of the total population. T. Albert Marryshow was one of the first middle-class black Grenadians to take a strong public stand against this inequality. From 1915 to 1935 Marryshow edited the newspaper The West Indian, which continually called for political independence for Grenada and the rest of the West Indies. Britain responded in 1925, changing Grenada's constitution to allow five of the legislative council's sixteen seats to be elected. Marryshow won one of those seats in the next election and remained on the council for thirty-three years.

The progress represented by Marryshow's election was not enough for the majority of Grenadians, however. New crops such as nutmeg had provided a relatively stable economy for Grenadian laborers for several decades, but even within that economy wages had remained low. The worldwide depression of the 1920s and 1930s reminded working-class Grenadians and workers throughout the Caribbean of how fragile their livelihoods were, dependent upon shifts and forces in the global marketplace. These workers began forming labor unions. In Grenada as in many other countries, unions gave rise to the first political parties. Union leader Eric Gairy formed the country's first political party, the prounion, proindependence Grenada United Labour Party (GULP), in 1951. When elections were held under universal suffrage for the first time that October, GULP won easily, making Gairy the leader of the assembly. Gairy, who had risen from a poor childhood in rural Grenada to his new position as the first black leader of the country's government, was especially popular with rural and working-class black Grenadians. Others, including many middle-class and upper-class blacks, disliked him intensely, partly because of class differences but also because Gairy publicly expressed belief in unproven supernatural phenomena such as UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, and witchcraft, which many Grenadians found embarrassing. Once in office, Gairy also received criticism for ignoring the needs of the poor. In 1957, the new Grenadian National Party (GNP) defeated GULP, and the more moderate Herbert Blaize became the country's new leader. But when economic conditions failed to improve under Blaize, Gairy and GULP were reelected in 1961. Gairy's second administration began with so much corruption that the British colonial administration intervened and scheduled new elections for 1962. These brought Blaize and the GNP back to power, but in 1967 Gairy won once again.

Since Independence

In 1967 Britain granted Grenada associated statehood, which meant that the island was given control of its domestic affairs. Grenada finally won full independence on February 7, 1974, after 200 years of British rule. But what should have been a triumphant occasion raised new concerns for many Grenadians. With independence, Gairy became the country's first prime minister, giving him even more power and prominence. The country faced serious social and economic problems. Unemployment was high, health care was dismal, and only 15 percent of Grenadian students attended high school. Many Grenadians felt new leadership was needed.

That leadership arrived in the New Jewel Movement (NJM), a political party led by Maurice Bishop. He and his allies were part of a new generation of Grenadians who had been educated abroad in the 1960s. They were influenced by Black Power in the United States and by such prominent African and African American leaders as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Kwame Nkrumah, and Walter Rodney. The young Grenadians of the NJM were appalled by the poor conditions under which the majority of black Grenadians still lived. Committing themselves to taking power to change those conditions, they became part of the Black Power Movement in the Caribbean.

When the next national elections were held in 1976, GULP narrowly defeated the NJM, but most observers felt GULP had won through widespread fraud. The NJM did gain six of the fifteen seats in the House of Representatives, the elected branch of the two-chambered legislature, and Bishop became the opposition leader in the government. But the NJM's goal was complete control, and when Gairy left the country on March 12, 1979, for a visit to the United States, NJM forces attacked his army and took control of the government in a swift coup. Maurice Bishop became the new prime minister of what was named the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG).

The PRG's stated goals—to provide work, food, decent housing and health care, and better education—were widely supported by the public. The chant on the streets the next day was “Freedom come, Gairy go, Gairy gone with UFO.” But the PRG's model and closest ally in the Caribbean was the Cuba of revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, a fact that immediately turned the United States, an opponent of Cuba, against Grenada's new government. Cuba and its backer, the Soviet Union, sent much-needed financial aid and other resources to Grenada. They also sent military supplies and personnel, which made the United States especially uneasy. The United States claimed that a Cuban-sponsored airport project was in reality a Soviet air base.

By 1983, the PRG government was in severe financial trouble. The grants from Cuba and the Soviet Union were gone. Grenadians had gotten used to the initial benefits the PRG had brought them and were demanding more. The financial crisis led to so much instability and disagreement within the PRG that in September 1983 part of the party contested Bishop's place as leader. When Bishop refused to share power, a group within the PRG staged a coup, assassinating Bishop, two ministers, and more than a dozen supporters on October 19.

During this chaos, the United States decided to intervene. President Ronald Reagan ordered an invasion on October 25, and within a week the United States had taken control of the country. Over the following year the United States worked with the British governor-general to restructure Grenada's political situation and government. Elections were held in December of 1984. Ironically, the candidates who received the most support were Eric Gairy and Herbert Blaize. During most of the campaign, Gairy led in the polls, but after the United States strongly urged the opposition parties to form a last-minute coalition, Blaize was elected. While the transition was peaceful, the new government was split by factional fighting. No party won a decisive majority in the 1990 elections, and although Nicholas Brathwaite was able to lead a coalition government for several years, he voluntarily stepped down in February 1995. Elections for the House of Representatives were held in June of that year, with the New National Party (NNP) winning the most seats. NNP leader Keith Mitchell became prime minister. In the January 1999 elections, the NNP won all fifteen seats in the House, and Mitchell retained the post of prime minister. Mitchell and his party won a narrow victory in the 2003 elections. The NNP kept control of eight of the legislative seats, and Mitchell became the first Grenadian prime minister to be sworn in for a third term in office.

Grenada's economy has evolved since the 1983 coup. Economic troubles surfaced in the mid-1990s, after the banana crop failed and a mealybug infestation damaged the cocoa crop. The spice industry that has given Grenada its nickname, however, remains strong—more spices are grown per square mile on Grenada than anywhere else in the world, and the island is a significant source of nutmeg and mace. Tourism increased after the construction of a new airport in 1985, and it is now the main source of economic exchange with other nations. Grenada is especially popular with sailors and snorkelers. The island has considered forming a federation with three other Caribbean nations, Dominica, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Although some Grenadians think that such a union would ease financial pressures in all four countries, no action has yet been taken. Like other Caribbean nations, Grenada faces economic and social challenges, yet in the early twenty-first century, with its most recent political turmoil several decades in the past, it is a peaceful, stable nation. It is also unmistakably Afro-Caribbean, with a population that is 82 percent black, 13 percent mixed black and European, and 5 percent European and East Indian.

See also Role of Slaves in Abolition and Emancipation in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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