Petite Martinique, a tiny island in the Eastern Caribbean almost unknown until recently, burst into world history with the United States plan to build a Military Base/Satellite Tracking Station’ on the island in 1997.

The island became the focal point of intense debate. The 800 inhabitants feared that this project would destroy the moral and social fabric of their fragile island.

On this unique island, the elders in the society were thought of as living embodiment of traditions, which traveled to the island from Africa. Here once untouched by time, wooden boats were constructed by hand from plans passed from one generation to the next. It was an idyllic island with a rich folk culture. However, all this has changed and it is the traditions and changes that we address in this book.

Petite Martinique is the smallest island within the small Island State of Grenada. On February 7, 1974, the State of Grenada, including Carriacou and Petite Martinique, became independent and joined the United Nations in 1975. On the island, waves of colonization have obliterated the pre-Colombian past to produce new ways of life that draw upon traditions from Europe, Africa, and recently America.

Petite Martinique, seen here from Carriacou

This culture is facing a growing constraint. Petite Martiniquian society is made up of two components - European traits and a once well-developed folk society. Petite Martinique has the civil and religious institutions typical of any colony. Petite Martinique maintained a traditional social organization, which paralleled the functions of these civil and religious institutions. They chose between these two aspects of the social organization in solving specific problems. For example, subsistence gardening or canned food, elder settlements or civil court, bush or Western medicine. At times there was a fusion between Western and folk aspects within these institutions, for example in the wedding ceremony.

Petite Martinique’s economy was based on remittances and a few local occupations (carpenters, barter trade, boat-building, and fishing). Complementing this economy was the subsistence economy in which Petite Martiniquians grew corn, peas, and other ground provisions. Petite Martiniquian women were mostly housewives and taught the children the traditional folk values. Girls and boys were taught differently. Girls to be good wives and boys to be good providing fathers. Because of a number of reasons discussed later, the society has changed considerably in recent years. Men and women hold economic power and elders no longer maintain ritual control in the folk order.

Ancestors are no longer a daily part of their lives and dreams are scorned as superstitious. As a result, big drum dances, maroons, and the cycle for the dead are a preserved pastime. To answer the question, “has the folk order collapsed?” we can say that the social organization and culture of Petite Martinique is rapidly changing, and the social structure is unstable, due to a collapse in the migrant ideology and the introduction of electricity, which brought with it the Internet superhighway and the television, “the bright devil” according to the elders.

In recent years transformations have included demographic shifts (increase in emigration of the youth, both women and men), higher divorce rates, and a total disrespect for ancestors and elders within a weak folk religion. New jobs and other changes in the division of labor resulted in the inability to participate in the old rituals. And ceasing to participate, they cease to share values for which the rituals stood. This is, admittedly, only a part of the explanation. The secularity has developed with the influence of high personal mobility, of machine, and of science.

To get an idea of the patterns of life on traditional Petite Martinique, we would sometimes turn back the clock and calendar. In doing so we should keep in mind that we are talking about a Petite Martinique of the past. Very few of the customs and ways of life that will be described still remain. This is due to the many changes that have occurred to Petite Martinique during the “modern” era. Then we can ask the following question: If some of the old customs are out-of-date, why bother talking about them at all? Because we can’t begin to understand what Petite Martinique is changing into without first knowing something about what Petite Martinique is changing from.

On Petite Martinique, the islanders are very much independent. To the north of the island is the largest village called Madam Pierre. The people of this village are mainly of mulatto or “Red”2 persons with northwest European racial characteristics. The main surnames here are Belmar, Bethel, Blair, DeRoche, Enoe, Frank, and 0llivierre. The houses once of vernacular architecture (wooden cottages with high gabled roofs and elaborate trim) have given way to more substantial and ostentatious “modern” cinder-block houses. Common to most houses are electricity, a telephone, and a television and a radio.

There is less than two miles of road on Petite Martinique. There are two Toyota pick up trucks, one yellow Bedford truck, and a number of “dumpers”—small yellow diesel-powered vehicles. Made by a company called Thwaites, dumpers are capable of getting around the rugged paths on the island. Today most Petite Martiniquians use speedboats. Speedboats are made from plywood and fiberglass. The boat’s frame is made of a very hard wood from Guyana called silver valley. Most families have access to speedboats.

The main port is in the Village of Paradise. Local fishermen utilize Man’s Bay to the north for sheltering their small sloops. Paradise is home to such businesses as the Shell Marine Depot, Palm Beach Restaurant and Bar, the Miracle Mart, and the Seaside Holiday Cottages.

The people of Paradise are of West African descent. Petite Martinique was settled by the French and the names of the inhabitants, in Paradise, Benjamin, Clement, Caesar, Joseph, Mitchell, Nedd, and Patrice, attest to this history.

In the southern part of the island is the community of Citen and Kendace. Citen, a name accredited to the area because of a large abandoned cistern, is said to be the ritual burial place of large sums of money and human sacrifice. Kendace is home to the Delta Cottage. Here one can find the gravestone of Louisa Clement, who died on December 16, 1904, at the age of 130. That would make her the longest living person in history, surpassing Jeanne Calment, who at 120 years has the official world record for longevity. (Klaus De Albuquerque; CW, 4/96)