Hairoun

The original inhabitants of St. Vincent’s, the Caribs called the island Hairoun which means the land of the blessed. St. Vincent became known as it is known today on January 22 1498 when Christopher Columbus first saw the island, this was the day of a Spanish Martyr named St. Vincent, and so Columbus thought it only right to name the island for the Martyr. The Caribs were believed to have been on the island almost a hundred years before Columbus “discovered” (how you discover a place when people already live there is beyond me, but that’s another post), the island. These people were known to be hunter gathers and relied heavily on marine resources as well as the land to help them to survive. They were also known as fierce warriors and were able to fight off colonization long after other islands were colonized. The next inhabitants of St. Vincent’s were Africans who were on board a Dutch slave ship that sunk. The survivors of the ship wreck found their way to St. Vincent’s and over the next several years the two cultures co mingled and formed two sub cultures, the Black Caribs and the Yellow Caribs. The Yellow Caribs occupied the Leeward side of the island while the Black Caribs occupied the Winward side of the island. Over the next two years I will be living on the Winward side of the island with the ancestors of the Black Caribs. As my time in St. Vincent begins I look forward to learning more history and participating in the cultural exchange that is the Peace Corps.