Have you heard the news? During the first week of March, the aptly named Cultural Heritage (Protection) Bill (2025) was approved by both houses of Parliament! Antigua and Barbuda, with over 56 forts, 100 prehistoric sites, 250 known shipwrecks, 200 sugar estates, and churches and architectural masterpieces, NOW has comprehensive heritage protection legislation.
Twenty years in the making, the legislation provides for the inventorying and efficient management of our tangible and intangible terrestrial (land) and marine (underwater) cultural heritage resources. This will allow for the safeguarding of our heritage for future generations. It will also advance our economic and sustainable development by creating additional tourism revenue streams, generating jobs, and enriching both our education and heritage sectors.
We recently caught up with the legislation’s longtime champion, renowned archaeologist Dr. Reginald Murphy, who gave us a closer look at the origin, significance, and implementation plan of this important piece of legislation. Please view and/or listen to the interview below:
Interviewee: Dr. Reginald Murphy, CN, MBE, GOH, PhD. Archaeologist, Antigua and Barbuda’s UNESCO National Commission Secretary-General, and a relentless heritage advocate.
Interviewer: Dr. Hazra C. Medica. Cultural Advisor, Ministry of Sports, Culture, and the Creative Industries.
Videographer: Mr. Jeremiah Joseph. Data Entry Clerk, National Archives of Antigua and Barbuda.
It is official! Antiguan and Barbudan Artists have a new place to call home or hub!
The recently-opened Quay Studio & Art Gallery, located in Redcliffe Quay is dedicated to showcasing the diverse incredible talent of local artists. Its stated mission is to “create a vibrant community hub where creativity thrives, and the artistic expressions of the island is celebrated.”
Situated just above the C&C winehouse and next to the Rendezvous Tours, the Art Gallery is accessible by stairs, featuring artwork from established artists as well as “up-and-comers”.
Artists wishing to showcase their work or arrange for use of the space may contact the Gallery via telephone at (268) 780-7618 or email quaystudiosanu@gmail.com. The Gallery is intended not only as a space for the showcasing of art but, also for creation, collaboration, and discussion.
Raisins or not? Pudding debate splits island nation.
Gemma Handy – Reporter, St John’s, Antigua
February 15, 2025.
Novella Payne uses traditional recipes learnt from her grandmother [Gemma Handy]
It is not cricket or politics that triggers the most ardent debate in Antigua and Barbuda. It is the ingredients of a beloved national dish.
The question of whether “ducana” – a sweet potato and coconut dumpling – should or should not contain raisins has divided local residents for decades. The piquant pudding is one of many foods widely eaten in the Caribbean country that has its origins in Africa and has survived to this day.
And its inclusion in a national inventory of cultural heritage currently being created looks set to reignite the jocular dispute. Antigua and Barbuda’s traditional food is just one aspect of the work under way to preserve the twin isles’ distinct features for posterity.
The inventory will also include its unique dialect, bush medicine, games, crafts, architecture and boat-building techniques. The mammoth venture, being funded by the United Nations cultural body, Unesco, follows concerns that key elements of the country’s cultural identity are being lost, explains project leader Dr Hazra Medica.
Project leader Dr Hazra Medica says the work highlights the country’s African heritage. [Cpoise.gov.ag]
“There is no longer the traditional transmission of knowledge from older to younger people,” she tells the BBC.
“Without that, we start to lose the sense of who we are. Outside influences can dilute indigenous culture and people fear that what is peculiarly Antiguan will be lost.”
More than two dozen specially trained data collectors have been tasked with interviewing residents from each parish, gathering stories, photos and information. The results will be meticulously entered into a publicly accessible database.
Local author Joy Lawrence needed little encouragement to take part.
The former schoolteacher’s books focus heavily on the country’s Creole/English dialect that weaves in many African words from Antiguans’ ancestors.
Joy Lawrence has studied the local dialect and uses it in her books. [Gemma Handy]
English may be the main language but patois, spoken at accelerated speed, is ubiquitous and routinely used to show kinship and camaraderie.
“When the British brought Africans here, they could not speak English and the British could not speak African languages. Because the Africans came from all over and spoke different languages, they could not even converse among themselves for the most part,” Ms Lawrence says.
“To communicate, the Africans borrowed some vocabulary from the British and incorporated their own pronunciation and syntax to form a pidgin thing. Over the generations, it became perfected and developed structure and grammar.”
A couple of generations ago, Antiguan dialect was sneered at and children were commonly forbidden to speak it in school. There are still some who look down their nose at it today, Ms Lawrence scoffs.
“Our forebears worked hard to coin that language,” she asserts. “It’s our first language; how can we not preserve what’s ours? It’s not a written language and we spell it any old how, but it has rhythm and I’m proud of it.”
The dialect is characterised by an “economy of words” and sparse pronouns, she continues.
“We don’t waste time to say ‘not at all’; we just say ‘tarl’. Instead of ‘come here’, we say ‘cumyah’. And we never say her or him; it’s always she or he.”
In places such as school and church, dialect is used for “emphasis, clarity and reinforcement”. “Because we think in it,” Ms Lawrence adds.
Disagreements over the “correct” way of doing something is one reason for the decline of some cultural practices, Dr Medica believes.
Varying methods of stirring “fungee”, a cornmeal paste which also hails from the mother continent, and precisely what to add to it is another subject of friendly bickering.
“There’s this idea that this is how it’s done and should always be done. Sometimes younger people are turned off by not doing it ‘right’.
“In the workshops, we saw the ‘fungee war’. Antiguans say it should have okra in it, while Barbudans add peas, which made some gasp in shock,” Dr Medica smiles.
Novella Payne – who produces a range of teas, sauces and seasonings under her “Granma Aki” brand – learnt everything she knows from her mother and grandmother, but adds her “own twist” to time-honoured recipes.
Novella Payne has been passing her skills on to her granddaughter Jenna Reid. [Gemma Handy]
“The seasoning is what sets Antiguan food apart – garlic, onion, thyme and seasoning peppers,” she explains.
Many of Ms Payne’s creations feature local medicinal plants, long used to treat everything from coughs and fever to rashes and nausea. Soursop, lemongrass, noni and moringa regularly appear in her syrups and juices.
“Our food is delicious, nutritious and should be preserved because it’s part of our culture and heritage,” she adds.
The project recently got under way in Antigua’s sister isle, Barbuda, where Dwight Benjamin is striving to keep the art of traditional broom-making alive.
Mr Benjamin uses palm leaves, which must be sun-dried for two days, to create the bristles before weaving them on to a stick crafted from a bay tree.
The techniques were passed on to him by his grandfather and Mr Benjamin, an accountant by profession, is one of few people still making and selling the brooms.
Dwight Benjamin learnt to make traditional brooms from his grandfather Joseph Desuza (pictured) [Dwight Benjamin].
He says they remain in high demand among Barbuda’s residents.
“I may be biased, but I find them more effective than store-bought brooms – you feel the difference when you use them. They cover more ground too,” he says.
“It’s not widely practised anymore, but it’s something we should cherish and document. I’m hoping my son will pick it up.”
Dwight Benjamin learned how to make traditional brooms from his grandfather. [Gemma Handy]
For Dr Medica, the project has deeper significance still.
“When we talk about culture in Caribbean islands, we tend to forget the engagement with our colonial past and the impact of that. We’re told that our history began when Africans were brought here, projecting this notion that we came as empty vessels with no memory,” she says.
“The great thing about this work is the huge evidence of African cultural retention. As a people we can claim, ‘This is us.’
“In dialect, when someone treats you unfairly, we say ‘me smaddy [somebody] too’,” she adds. “And that’s what this whole project is; it’s a claim to personhood.”
Join us over the course of this year for our “Look We!” series as we spotlight familiar, and perhaps not so familiar, sights and sounds of Antigua and Barbuda, and publish updates on the Antigua and Barbuda ICH Project.
In this third edition of Look We!, we revisit that moment when a passionate farewell delivered at a November 2002 state funeral became the talk of the town and the region.
Do you remember it? When, then former Foreign Minister of St. Lucia, George Odlum eulogised his friend, politician, political activist, educator, crusading journalist/newspaper publisher, sports administrator, and literary/music critic, Leonard “Tim”Hector? More to the point, were you there?
(Video clips courtesy: ABS TV; remastered by Dr. James Knight.)
Date: November 19, 2002. Location: The Antigua Recreation Grounds.
Event: The State Funeral of Leonard “Tim” Hector.
Speaker: George Odlum Eulogy, then former Foreign Minister of St. Lucia.
To learn more about Tim Hector, see Conrad Luke’s Biography here.
Today, we celebrate being able to publish the two reports from the Department of Culture’s UNESCO IFCD-Sponsored Cultural/Creative Industries Mapping Project. The data collection phase of the project came to an end in the last quarter of 2022, and the reports were delivered in 2023. Their intent and contents are very much in keeping with the spirit of the SIDS conference.
Participants of the UNESCO-sponsored 3-5 February, 2020 Cultural Industries Mapping and Implementation Workshop at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium. The workshop represented the official start of the 2020-2023 project.
Report 1 examines the contribution of the cultural and creative industries to the economy and society of Antigua and Barbuda. Report 2 provides an excellent roadmap/guide for unprecedented propulsion of the Creative Industries and related sustainable national economic development.
We would again like to thank all the creatives and institutions who responded to the project’s surveys. We would also like to thank our local, regional, and international colleagues in sustainable development who provided us with assistance.
To access the summaries and reports, please visit our Repository page or click the individual links below:
Have you ever wondered how Devil’s Bridge got its name or why Bendals is “Bendals”? Let us take a look at some place names in Antigua and Barbuda and their stories, as reproduced from Places Names And their Stories (Desmond V Nicholson and expanded by Brian Dyde (2012 edition))
All Saints Chapel was built in 1839 on Obsborne’s Pasture. The Chapel was called All Saints both for the Anglican All Saints Day (November 1st) as well as the adjoining parishes — St John’s, St Peter’s and St Paul’s — which all meet at the point where the chapel was built. As houses sprung up around the chapel and schoolroom, the village was named All Saints.
A community at the foot of the Sherkeley Mountains, four miles south of St John’s, and believed to have been named after a former estate. A deep water well named after Sir Eustace Fiennes, the Governor of the Leeward Islands from 1921 to 1929, is located at the site, and there are several other wells in the area that still supply water to St John’s and surrounding districts. One of the island’s three sugar factories was built here in 1905 when sugar production became mechanised and the planters moved away from wind-powered mills. It closed in 1940 when all sugar production moved to Gunthorpes.
Blue Waters:
The name given to an area of housing and holiday villas surrounding the Blue Waters Hotel in the north of Antigua close to Boon Point and adjoining Crosbies. The area was originally known as Soldier’s Ghut, presumably after a long-gone military station situated in the ‘ghut’ or valley.
Cedar Valley:
This area was named after the Cedar Valley sugar estate on which the old mill still stands. Many white cedar trees also grow in the area.
Carlisle:
A former estate situated between Barnes Hill and Cassada Gardens, the name of which comes from ownership by Captain Francis Carlisle in 1678. It overlooks the main runway of the V.C. Bird International Airport and is now an area of residential and light industrial buildings.
Codrington, Barbuda
Barbuda’s only village is named after the Codrington family that leased Barbuda for 185 years from 1685 until 1870.
Originally called, for an unknown reason, Dead Sands, the beach changed to Darkwood after a bar of that name at the south end of the beach. This is a very popular beach. At one time it was lined with coconut trees which have been demolished over the years during hurricanes.
Devil’s Bridge:
A natural limestone arch in the low cliffs to the eastern side of Indian Town Point in the north-east of Antigua. Legend has it that due to the unhappy conditions of slavery on the sugar estates, many escaped slaves committed suicide at this spot, giving people rise to think that the devil must dwell there (Smith & Smith 1986: 109) It is now one of Antigua’s most popular tourist sites, famous for the dramatic Atlantic waves.
Ebenezer:
A roadside village just north of Jennings. The origin of the name is sadly lost in time.
Freetown:
Along with Liberta, this village was named to commemorate freedom after emancipation in 1834. Both settlements were amongst the first ‘free villages’. Freetown was originally called Farr Hills.
Goat point, Barbuda
The name given to the northernmost point of Barbuda, presumably after the resident population of goats.
Green Bay:
This south-western suburb of St John’s is named after the bay of that name, so called because in former times, before the reclamation of land, it was green with mangroves. The village was originally called Fitzroy Town after the 1842 Governor, Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, and is shown on maps up to about 1943. In 1933, there was a Pan American Seaplane anchorage in Green Bay (Camacho Map)
Colonel John Gunthorpe owned Gunthorpe’s Estate, the site of the 20th century Central Sugar Factory. The Central Sugar Factory was built in 1904-5 and closed in the early 1970s/ At one time it was the island’s major employer.
Hodges Bay:
Here, in the 1740s, Henry Hodge owned a sugar mill. Even up to the 1880s the estate was owned by the Reverend W.O.B. Hodge but was then sold to one Oliver Nugent.
Indian Cave, Barbuda:
A series of interconnected caves contain petroglyphs close to Highland House on the east coast, thus making it the island’s most notable prehistoric site.
Jennings:
This village was named after Samuel Jennings who owned a small estate with a cattle mill south of the present village in 1749. By 1772, heirs of the Codrington Family owned the estate, which was also known as Herman Hill. Jennings village was famous for the Moravian Church and Mission House built in 1921.
McKinnons
It is named after the former estate owned by the McKinnon family from around 1750.
Mill Reef
A hotel and villa complex on the east coast, created by a group of Americans seeking an exclusive getaway in Antigua after World War II. The name derives from the mill tower which belonged in the 19th century to the Sheriff estate, which is at the main gate to the property.
A village in a fairly remote position on the east coast. Its name is believed to derive from a past increase in the layout of the estate on which it later developed i.e. a new field.
Rubbish Bay, Barbuda:
Rubbish Bay near Spanish Point is named because of the quantity of flotsam and jetsam that washes up in this particular area.
Spanish Point, Barbuda:
Spanish Point, studded with coral reefs, is the most south-easterly point of Barbuda and is most likely named after the wreck of a Spanish merchantman by the name of Santiago de Cullerin.
And finally (for now) …
St John’s:
The capital city of Antigua was named after Saint John the Divine. The town was built after the French invasion of 1666 and had become as large as Falmouth by 1689. The first St John’s Cathedral was built in 1681 but this simple wooden structure was damaged by an earthquake in 1745. A second brick building was constructed, but that again bore the brunt of an earthquake. The present cathedral was built in 1845.
