GUADELOUPE

Guadeloupe is a five-island archipelago located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, off the northwestern coast of South America. The two principal islands are Grande-Terre on the east and Basse-Terre on the west. Other islands are located about 250 km to the northwest. Guadeloupe’s total area covers 1,780 square kilometres.

Geography

History

The island of Guadeloupe was first inhabited by indigenous Taino (Arawaks) and Kalinago (Carib) groups who called it ‘Karukera’ or the ‘Island of Beautiful Waters’. It was renamed ‘Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura’ by Christopher Columbus who landed there on 14 November 1493. After more than a century of indigenous resistance, French colonists were finally able to establish settlements in 1635 which led to the gradual disappearance of the indigenous population.

Guadeloupe was annexed by France in 1674, under control from Martinique. For several centuries afterwards shiploads of Africans were regularly brought in to provide forced labour on the sugar plantations and the territory prospered.

Over the next century, the profitable island was seized several times by the British, who finally captured it in 1759. Britain retained control until it again passed to France in the 1763 Treaty of Paris, under which France agreed to abandon all claims of territory in Canada in return for British recognition of French control of Guadeloupe. During the turmoil of the French Revolution in 1794 Africans in Guadeloupe rebelled against slavery and French plantation owners and succeeded in becoming French citizens.

This prompted Napoleon to send an occupation force in 1802 to end the uprising and re-institute slavery. 10,000 Guadeloupeans were killed and slavery was not finally abolished on the island until 1848.

In order to fill the labour gap resulting from emancipation, French plantation owners turned to indentured or contract emigrant labourers from India.

The first indentured Indian workers arrived in 1854 and continued coming until 1889. This transplantation brought 42,326 migrants, more than half of whom perished under the prevailing labour conditions however 9,460 managed to return to India.

Those who stayed continued to be tied to the plantation system and agricultural labour well into the 20th century until increasing access to education provided new opportunities.

Guadeloupe became an overseas department of France in 1946. A movement for independence emerged in the 1980s but following a series of bombings in 1984, French authorities outlawed the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance, the militant organization that was pushing for autonomy.

People

Main languages: French, French Creole

Main religions: Christianity (Roman Catholic)

The population of Guadeloupe is 75 per cent of African descent, including those of mixed African and European ancestry. There is a significant community of East Indian descent (9%, CIA 2006). These are the descendants of indentured labourers brought to Guadeloupe in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery in 1848. There is a small minority of Europeans, primarily of French origin.

There are also estimated to be approximately 45,000 illegal immigrants from Haiti, Dominica and St Lucia who are popularly believed to work for wages much lower than the French minimum.

Governance

As an overseas department (département d’outre mer or DOM) of France the population enjoys full French citizenship. The territory is administered by a popularly elected general council and regional council. An appointed prefect represents the French government. The islands are also represented by four deputies and two senators in the French Parliament.

Guadeloupe mainly produces sugar, bananas, and rum. About 60 per cent of the annual external trade is with France, which also provides over 80 per cent of its tourists and large annual subsidies.

‘Lose’ or ‘Loose’ — English spelling is a minefield

Lost In Translation — London

Aug 7, 2019·3 min read

#HowToSurviveEnglish

I arrived in London in July 2014, directly from Lyon. Before I start with Lyon, I’ll tell you a little bit more about me.

Female and french Caribbean, I was born in a small Island called Guadeloupe. For little bit of political geography, Guadeloupe is a French overseas region, a small island group in the southern Caribbean Sea. I moved in Paris when I was 18 for my studies and then in Lyon for work. I decided to leave France for a lot of professional, political, social, economic and cultural reasons. Of course it is a very personal choice that I still don’t regret.

So back to our story. When I arrived in London, my english level was already very good thanks to my educational background. Although my english was good when working in Lyon I realised that phone conferences with my English colleagues were really strenuous! The accent was just a parameter that you don’t take into account when you haven’t been in England, Scotland, Eire, the USA or any other english speaking country. THAT was a daily challenge, so I decided I needed to live in an english country to grasp the essence of the accent.

I moved in London and started working shortly after my arrival. The firsts days were a real nightmare! Go and try to understand what the cashier is telling you, with a very strong english accent, when you are trying to buy a ticket to go to central London. Of course, I could have used the machine and buy myself a ticket without issues. But what’s the point!? I wanted to interact with people as much as possible to try to work out the words. Because I was sure I knew all the words, it’s just that I just couldn’t recognise them because when I learned those words(by reading books) in my mind they didn’t sound the same.

When it comes to spelling or pronouncing words the right way in English, there are some twists and turns along the way! English is far from easy! Why is that?
In fact, there is probably no consistency in English spelling or pronounciation at all. Any word could appear in various forms — spoken the same way, but spelled differently or written the same way but pronounced differently. Here are some familiar examples of words ending the same way, where logic most definitely does not apply: CHOOSE and LOOSE…
I understand that ‘lose’ and ‘loose’ are different but I don’t understand why ‘CHOOSE’ and to ‘LOSE’ have the same pronunciation, when ‘CHOOSE’ and ‘LOOSE’ have a different pronunciation even though the ending of the words is the same! Loose rhymes with goose! I mean seriously, why? (ꐦ ´͈ ᗨ `͈ ) I really don’t get it!

Chose is the past tense of choose — Ok I get that part. Same verb different tense. Choose: verb, present tense. Chose: verb, past tense! Easy!
Lose is a verb, and loose can be an adjective, a verb, or a noun — Ok, I also get that part.

I’d be damned if I for example tatoo on my skin something like “Never loose faith!” or worst “Never loose yourself!”. With my skills for misuse of english, I am surprised I never did that one. Although I did worst… But that’s for another post (truth is one post won’t be enough to list them all).

Is there a rule that determines whether the letter S is pronounced as an S or a Z? There should be some kind of discernible patterns.

Another thing that makes no sense to me at all is the orthography:
Can someone tell me why it is a ‘4 day weekend’ and not a ‘4 days weekend’ with an ‘S’ when we speak about Easter Monday / Good Friday, or sometimes Christmas Day / Boxing Day. I really mean it. There’s 4 days so it should be plural but it is not. there should be a reason but I don’t get it. I tried to ask Google but nothing! There was no explanation or rules I could look into to try to understand.

Any idea? Because I am really trying to understand things here! Even Google failed me…