The tropical islands of Antigua and Barbuda are located in the heart of the Caribbean about a thousand miles to the east of Jamaica and half that distance from Trinidad on the coast of South America. We are at 17¼ N latitude, about the same as the Cape Verde Islands and Bombay and 61¼ W longitude, (didn't know the Caribbean was so big, did you?). The island of Antigua was born out of the sea by a volcano about 30 million years ago. A young island in geologic time. On the northern flank of this volcano, reefs were formed; hence the greater part of Antigua is low lying and is composed of limestone rock. The highest point of Antigua is 1,319 ft in the south-west and is called Boggy Peak, (no bogs up there!), but the limestone Highlands of Barbuda rise to only 125 ft. The area of Antigua is 108 square miles, while Barbuda is 62 square miles. The population of the former is approaching 70,000, but the latter is relatively unpopulated at 1,400.

Days and nights are refreshingly cooled by the gentle trade winds. Antigua boasts the largest expanse of freshwater in the whole of the Caribbean with a lake nearly two miles long by a mile wide. Here and at other forested places the bird watching is great. Barbuda became separated from Antigua by about 28 miles, when the sea levels of the world rose considerably at about 10,000 BC. Today parts of Barbuda are geologically flooded to form interesting lagoons. Here may be seen the largest breeding and nesting colony of the Magnificent Frigate Bird in the world. Barbuda supports a tremendous diversity of native habitats, as yet unthreatened by development. Reef-fringed Barbuda may be one of the best-kept ecological secrets in the West Indies. Her rugged scenery, beautiful beaches, (one at least 12 miles long), lagoons and abundant wildlife may be a resource as valuable as its fisheries.

HISTORY Because of the abundance of conch shell and other protein producing marine species, Antigua appears to have supported more stone age people than any other island in the Lesser Antilles. Also, no other island could produce flint, so necessary in the making of tools for a Stone Age people. The first Antiguans were Amerindians from South America. The date for their first known existence is about 2,400 BC and was determined from a site at Little Deep, Mill Reef. At about the time of Christ, agricultural seafaring Amerindians arrived on the blessed shores of Antigua and Barbuda and began to subsist by growing cassava, a local tuber plant still used to this day. These copper coloured Amerindians also knew the art of pottery making and settled in many villages. To date, over 125 prehistoric settlements have been recorded in Antigua and Barbuda. According to the early missionaries, Antigua was then known as Waladli and Barbuda, Wa'omoni.

Columbus sailed past Waladli in 1493 and renamed the island after a famous miracle working virgin in Seville Cathedral called Santa Maria la Antigua. It was not until 1632 that Antigua was colonised by the English under Edward Warner, the island's first governor. These early Europeans grew tobacco, ginger, cotton and the dye plant indigo. After a glut in tobacco, sugar was introduced, but was very labour intensive. Africans were imported to work Antigua's sugar industry from the 1640's and the cruel institution of slavery began in Antigua. The first full-scale sugar plantation was at Betty's Hope and soon sugar became king. Barbuda was leased to the Codrington family for "one fat sheep" per annum over a period of 300 years, and was used to supply their five Antigua sugar plantations with livestock, estate supplies and provisions. Relations were often uneasy and uprisings of the Africans were cruelly put down. The sugar industry was to continue for over three hundred years when tourism took over. Today over a hundred stone sugar mill towers dot Antigua's landscape in mute evidence of bygone days. Emancipation of the slaves occurred in 1834, and then the long road to Independence began.

Antiguans only began to obtain their rights when trade unionism was introduced in 1939. Just under 150 years after emancipation, in 1981, full Independence was finally gained. (I think we need a little bit about the type of government (British system etc) JEF could do that, as I am not good at that type of thing!) WELCOME TO WALADLI & WA'OMONI! If you had been a visitor to our islands not long before Columbus you would have travelled by canoe. The village elder would have sent a host to greet you. · On arriving at the large central house (carbet) · of the village you would have been provided with a seat and tobacco, or a bed if you were old. * To show great friendship, you would have exchanged names with your hosts. * If you were special, you would have been given a feast at which all would have made merry with much cassava wine. * If your cassava bread had been given you unfolded, it would have meant you could have taken the leftovers along with you when you left! * You would have eaten in silence without drinking. Only one man spoke at a time, whilst listeners hummed if they had approved of his words. * Special hammocks (hamaca) were provided for visitors and a woman would have been given to paint your body with a natural paint (roucou) and dress your hair in the morning. Bon voyage, come again!

WADADLI was Antigua's Prehistoric Name Firstly, we would like to point out that Antigua's and Barbuda's pre-colonial names were found in a 1665 French dictionary of a later spoken Amerindian tongue, that means the language spoken at the time of Colonial contact. This volume may be seen in the Museum's library. Barbuda's name was Oua'omoni and Antigua's Oualadli. There is no true spelling of these words, as the original inhabitants did not read or write. A French Missionary aiming to spread the word of God figured the spellings just given. For an English-speaking people the words are perhaps best spelled Waladli and Wa'omoni, considering the French Oui for 'Yes' is pronounced 'Wee'. In 1974, an Antiguan music band searching for a name, on seeing an article about Waladli in the 'Nation' newspaper of 20 July 1974, decided on Wadadli, and spelled it thus just to have an slightly different Antiguan flavour. Hence the name in general use today! Now, what does Waladli mean? Well, nobody really knows, though a few linguists have made a few guesses, but they do not make much sense except perhaps Barbuda's, that some say means 'Heron'. In the early years any large bird was known by this name, just as the words 'Gaulin' and 'Booby' cover several species of bird today. Perhaps then, 'Heron' referred to the Frigate Bird that is and has been so evident in Barbuda. Anyway, we are on a speculative subject and we think we had better leave it at that!

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