FRENCH WEST INDIES
Golf in Martinique & Guadeloupe
In the Leeward or Windward Islands (Antigua, Barbados, Granada, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Sainte Lucie…), golf is an inheritance of the English early presence in the West Indies and many new resorts have been implemented during the last decades to satisfy the growing international tourist demand. With one exception in the French Indies.
Fort de France March 2005 - People in white Bermuda trousers playing golf on a sunny green surrounded by coconut trees along a blue lagoon is the stereotype image for an attractive tourist poster for any of the Caribbean islands from Cuba to Trinidad and Tobago.
All those Indies islands have been more or less discovered by Christopher Columbus and occupied by the British. Even so each island has its own character and history depending mainly of the duration of the Portuguese, Spanish, English or French colonization. But, never forgetting that, long before Columbus’ discoveries, the natives were all Indian tribes coming from Central and South America: Arawaks or Karibas (becoming Caribbean). They called the Guadeloupe island “karukera” (which means “clear waters”) while Martinique was “madinia”, the “flowers island”. Afterwards it appears that Indians’ denominations were much cleverer than the “Christian” ones and some local people are very proud nowadays to remind publicly those old native names!
In the French Indies, Columbus reached first the Guadeloupe’s shore at Sainte-Marie on November 4, 1493 near the Soufrière volcano and the Martinique’s at le Carbet (near the Montagne Pelée volcano) on June 15, 1502. In 1505, the Spanish and Portuguese initiated the slave trade and imported the first black African slaves for their asientos (commercial monopolies) long time before the English colonization of Sainte Lucie in 1605 and the first French settlements in Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1635. In the French colonies, slavery was officially abolished on Feb. 5th 1794 but not in the facts till the order prepared by Victor Schoelcher in 1848. As a matter of fact, it appears that the slavery remembrance is still alive as some local workforces consider any work as a sort of slavery and prefer social benefits, the “flies benefit” being the most famous one!
In such a context in the two French islands (which are French departments), golf has not yet been very popular to local population. And a hard strike at the Meridien Hotel in Guadeloupe a few years ago has tarnished the golf poster image of the French Indies. Is this trend about to change nowadays? Answer could be no but yes as well.
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by R. Bourone
French Caribbean islands
Tropical vegetation
Colonial architecture
Caribbean golf poster
! To enlarge click pictures |
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