The frantic staccato of island party music pounded along the beach last night and marched right into our bedroom window. Just a few blocks below us, hundreds of islanders descended on the beach with their lawn chairs and tarp tents ready for a party.
Wouldn’t you want to celebrate too if you were freed from hundreds of years of plantation-style servitude?
Emancipation Day comes around the first Monday of August and celebrates the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean. First, the Prime Minister gives a speech before the Emancipation proclamation is read in the market square. Then, people throng the streets and the party begins.
Travel websites described masses of masked locals parading down the streets in traditional African costume with drums pulsating in the background. What we saw looked more like a day of beach-side barbecuers just enjoying a day off.
Most of the people you meet here are the descendents of African slaves, shipped onto the island over hundreds of years by the French and British who needed free labor for their spice plantations. The original Caribs were essentially wiped out by about 1654 when the French moved in.
Years of struggle peppered Grenada’s history with the French and British fighting between themselves and the slaves having a bone to pick with both of them.
After a bloody clash, Grenada’s African transplant locals finally had their freedom on August 1, 1834 – a full 30 years before America would decide the same issue.
Don’t be deceived though; everything wasn’t just peachy after that little proclamation. Grenada’s Africans continued as “indentured apprentices” for many years following their emancipation, slowly chipping away at slavery for almost a century more. After a few more ups and downs, Grenadians were given the ability to completely self govern in 1967. But that’s another story …
Skipping to Monday, Emancipation Day was a quiet one for us. Since David had the day off from school, we went to Magazine Beach for a little sun and snorkeling with some friends. The rainy season seemed to have other plans for us and brought a little rain to our snorkeling day. But the fish don’t seem to care about getting a little wet and neither did we.
P.S. While the din on the beach quieted down after a while and let us enjoy a good nights sleep, we thought you might want to know what Soca Music sounds like. Here is a little taste of what is blaring on all the buses … and most everywhere you go around here. For those more conservative, you might want to just take a listen to the music instead of watching the video – or enjoy the second half of the video as the first part is in a club.
Happy Emancipation Day!
