Guadeloupe (France)

Guadeloupe (in French, Guadeloupe, in Creole, Gwadloup) is an archipelago of the Antilles, in the Caribbean Sea, which it forms an overseas region of France and an outermost region of the European Union. It is located 600 km north of the coasts of South America and northwest of Dominica. Formerly it was called Karukera, which meant "the island of beautiful waters". Christopher Columbus gave it its current name in honor of the Virgin Santa María de Guadalupe. Popularly, in the local Creole culture it is called Gwada.

Etymology

Before Christopher Columbus, the island now known as Guadalupe was called "Karukera" (Island of Beautiful Waters) by the Arawaks, a people who settled on the island in AD 300. Later, during the 8th century century, the Caribs arrived and prevailed over the existing population of indigenous people on the island. It has not yet been possible to determine if this occupation had a peaceful assimilation character or if it was violent, or a mixture of both.

During his second voyage to the Americas, in search of fresh water in November 1493, Christopher Columbus became the first European to land on Guadalupe. He named it Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the image of the Virgin Mary, venerated in the Spanish Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe, in Guadalupe, Extremadura. The expedition landed south of Capesterre and left no settlers ashore.

History

Pre-Columbian Petroglyph in Baillif.

Pre-Columbian period

Like other islands in the Lesser Antilles, Guadalupe was probably occupied by the Antillean Amerindians, known as Pre-Pottery groups, beginning around 3000 BCE. C., as the recent discovery of vestiges of the slash-and-burn culture on the island of Marie-Galante seems to indicate. This period is called the Archaic Age in American archaeological nomenclature. Towards the beginning of the first millennium, Amerindian agroceramic groups migrated from northern Venezuela to the entire Caribbean arc.

This period, the Early Neo-Indian or Early Ceramic Age, includes two cultures clearly identifiable by the style of their ceramic production: Huecan and Cedrosan Saladoide (formerly called Arawak by archaeologists).

Around the 9th century, they gave way to the Troumassoid culture, which inaugurated the recent Neo-Indian period, from which found vestiges in the Patate refuge, in Moule. These groups do not come from a migration, but from an in situ transformation of the previous groups, a profound mutation still poorly explained but in which the climate, demography and social changes could have intervened.

Troumassoid ceramics derive from Cedrosian Saladoid ceramics, with an extreme simplification of the decorative register that almost completely disappears. It was probably late, perhaps around the 15th century, when a new population migrated to the Antillean arc from the Guiana plateau.

These peoples, the Kalinagos or island Caribs described by the Spanish upon their arrival in the Antilles, could correspond to the cultures called Suazoid and Cayo by archaeologists. This late period is marked by evidence of contact with the Tainos of the Greater Antilles. According to a thesis now refuted by various scientific studies, the "Arawaks" They were massacred upon the arrival of the Kalinagos, a people described by Spanish chroniclers as bellicose and practicing cannibalism.

The Kalinagos were the main occupants of the area until the mid-17th century, shortly after the arrival of the French in 1635, but well after the arrival of the first Europeans.

Spanish colonization

Guadalupe's modern history began in November 1493, when Christopher Columbus sighted Dominica on his second voyage, and then Marie-Galante, where he landed on November 3, 1493.

He arrived on the island of Basse-Terre in November 460, at the mouth of the current Grand-Carbet river. He points out the importance of the presence of water, in particular when viewing the Carbet falls. He named the island Santa María de Guadalupe de Extremadura after the Spanish monastery where Christopher Columbus made a pilgrimage after his first voyage to the New World in 1492 and came to give thanks for this discovery.

The Archipelago receives its name for the Virgin Mary, in her advocation of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

As early as 1502, the Guadeloupe archipelago is accurately indicated in all its components (the five islands) on the Cantino planisphere, indicating the importance and knowledge of the place by early European navigators. Guadeloupe was then inhabited by the Caribs, an Amerindian people present on the island since the VII century.

The Guadalupe archipelago was a Spanish colony for about 130 years, until 1635.

French colonization

Upon landing at Pointe Allègre in 1635, Charles Liénard de L'Olive and Jean du Plessis d'Ossonville took possession of Guadeloupe on behalf of the Compagnie des îles d'Amérique, created on February 12 of 1635 by Cardinal de Richelieu to expand the field of intervention of the Compagnie de Saint-Christophe, in order to develop the cultivation of tobacco for export to France. This was the beginning of the colonization of the archipelago.

These beginnings are difficult. A famine decimated part of the colonists in 1635, and relations between the Amerindians of the Caribbean, who provided them with food, and the French quickly became tense as the latter expanded their lands to the detriment of the indigenous populations, turning into open warfare. In 1641, the war between the colonists and the Caribbean ended. The latter, already diminished by disease and massacres, were sent to the island of Dominica.

The depreciation of tobacco has been noticeable since the beginning of colonization: four commercial companies went bankrupt trying to colonize the Guadeloupean islands, due to falling prices and the cost of the wars against the Caribbean. However, the population increased rapidly and slavery developed. In 1656, there were already more than 3,000 slaves working in the archipelago, for a population of 15,000 people.

In 1664, Guadeloupe and Martinique came under the direct authority of the King of France, Louis XIV, who then decided to develop the cultivation of sugar cane. This required more expensive investments than tobacco, but it was much more profitable. The edict of May 1664 created the French West India Company, which received a forty-year concession over all French possessions in the Caribbean under royal suzerainty. Senior officers were granted land, who were encouraged to import slaves to exploit sugar cane; however, the slave population decreased in Guadeloupe between 1664 and 1671 (from 6,323 to 4,627 people).

In 1671, the monopoly of the French West India Company was abolished to open competition to all French ports in the slave trade, whose massive development, by the French and English, caused the price of slaves to rise. slaves soar but cheapens their transportation and satisfies the sugar planters. Guadalupe is still inhabited by many white settlers who grow tobacco on plantations that require little capital.

After 1671, the number of white planters dwindled rapidly, and in 1674, the creation of the tobacco farm led to their ruin. Tobacco produced in Virginia by Jacobite planters was less taxed and took advantage of smuggling.

The rapid increase in the slave population also corresponds to the creation in 1673 of the Senegal Company, predecessor of the Guinea Company, in the wake of the Royal African Company, founded in 1672. Faced with this competition, the Company French West Indies dissolved in 1674.

However, the growth of slavery in Guadeloupe is less rapid than in Martinique, where the slave trade reserves the most resistant and where Louis XIV has installed more high-ranking nobles and where the black population doubles between 1673 and 1680.

In 1700, the slave population in Guadeloupe numbered 6,076, much less than in Martinique. This difference also explains why a century later, in 1794, Victor Hughes was able to seize control of Guadeloupe in the name of the French Revolution, while Martinique remained under the rule of the large sugar planters allied with the English under the Treaty of Whitehall.

Siege of Guadalupe and English occupation (1759-1763)

After unsuccessful attempts in 1666, 1691 and 1703, the British took Guadeloupe for the first time in 1759. They held it for only four years, until 1763 (Treaty of Paris).

Since 1757, French forces have been commanded by Nadeau du Treil, governor of the colony: 250 soldiers and between 200 and 3,000 militiamen. The main bastions are:

• Fort Saint-Charles in Basse-Terre;
• Fort Louis in Petit Cul-de-sac;
• the reducts of Dos-d'âne and Trou-au-Chien (Trois Rivières).

The English squadron was led by Commodore Moore and numbered 8,000 men.

The English fleet attacked the colony of Martinique first, but was repulsed (January 15). He arrived off Basse-Terre on the night of January 21. Operations begin on January 23; the city of Basse Terre is bombed, all the warehouses are destroyed. Fort St Charles was evacuated on January 25. The French forces took refuge in the reduction of Dos-d'âne. The colony awaits reinforcements from Martinique and the metropolis. A relief squad is announced, commanded by Bompar.

The English continued their conquest and besieged Fort Louis at Petit Cul-de-sac (February 8 and 14). They occupied the entire eastern part of the island (Saint-Anne and Saint-François) from 29 May. The last attacks took place in mid-April, taking the fort of Dos-d'âne in reverse: Petit-Bourg fell on April 13, Goyave was abandoned on April 15, and Capesterre surrendered on April 20. Faced with the destruction, the settlers called for an end to the fighting and on May 1 they signed the surrender. With no word from the French fleet, with no hope of help, Nadeau must capitulate the next day.

Battle of the Saints on April 12, 1782, near Guadalupe.

This period is characterized by a strong development of the island's economy through the reconstruction of the bombed neighborhoods, the massive importation of black slaves: 40,525 in 1753 and 77,957 in 1773, a strong increase in the export of sugar, coffee, cotton and cocoa, the foundation of the port of Pointe-à-Pitre to promote trade (a hundred ships each year compared to the previous ten)

Faced with this economic expansion, the white colonists were in favor of an annexation to England. But the English colonies in the region (Barbados, Jamaica) feared competition from Guadeloupean products. They militate to return Guadeloupe to France. In exchange, the English got Canada and India.

From 1775, Guadeloupe ceased to be attached to Martinique and came under the authority of the Governor of the Windward Islands.

First Abolition of Slavery

In April 1794, taking advantage of the problems caused by the French Revolution, the British briefly retook possession of the island, following the defeat of Basse-Terre on April 20 and the surrender of the general and governor since 1792, Georges -Henri-Victor Collot.

Victor Hughes, appointed National Commissioner in Guadeloupe, expelled them in May 1794, helped by the slaves, to whom he had promised freedom. On June 7, 1794, he announced the abolition of slavery (adopted by the National Convention in February by the law of 16 Pluviôse Year II).

Victor Hughes, known as "Le Terrible," puts into motion the laws of the Convention and, consequently, the revolutionary tribunal. Planters (some of whom supported England) who did not submit to the new regime were brought before this court. The repression of the commissioner of the Convention will extend to the "old men" slaves who rebelled because they were not paid. In 1798, the Directory called him to France.

He was replaced by General Edme Étienne Desfourneaux, but despite his willingness to reform local management, he was also questioned by the population and by part of the army. It is also the time of the expansion of the Guadalupano corsairs.

Reinstatement of Slavery

Map of the Guadalupe Archipelago in 1854, Colony of France in America, by Victor Levasseur

In 1801, after the death of General Antoine de Béthencourt, the first consul appointed Jean-Baptiste de Lacrosse Captain General of Guadeloupe. On November 1, 1801, he was captured during a reconnaissance he was conducting outside the town of Pointe-à-Pitre. The mulatto officer Magloire Pélage forced him to board a Danish ship. His aide-de-camp Louis Delgrès, a mixed-race, joined the rebels.

Rear Admiral de Lacrosse was taken to Dominica, where he awaited the expedition commanded by General Antoine Richepanse, who had been commissioned by First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte to restore slavery. He then returned with him to Guadeloupe, and on Richepanse's death in 1802, he assumed the post of commander-in-chief, succeeding in subduing the rebels and restoring order.

In 1802, the first consul Bonaparte appointed Jean-Baptiste de Lacrosse as governor. The latter tried to expel from the army the black officers who had joined after the abolition of slavery. A revolt of these officers rises. Louis Delgrès became one of the leaders of this rebellion with Joseph Ignace and the slave Solitude.

Bonaparte then sent an expedition of 4,000 men led by General Richepanse to put down the rebellion. After a heroic defense, many of the rebels preferred suicide rather than surrender, but not before they had uttered their last cry of Innocence and Despair, heard throughout the universe.

The law of 16 Pluviôse Year II, which had abolished slavery, was annulled on July 16, 1802 by Bonaparte. Its first article clearly establishes the exclusive and exceptional character of French citizenship in the colony, henceforth restricted only to whites: "until otherwise ordered, the title of French citizen shall be carried [in the colony] only by the whites. No other person may use this title or exercise the functions or jobs that are their own" Law of May 20, 1802. For Jean-François Niort and Jérémy Richard, in their article published in the Bulletin de la Société d'Histoire de la Guadeloupe, the consular decree, after the fierce repression of the rebellion led by Louis Delgrès, establishes a "segregationist order".

English occupation and possession of Sweden

In 1808, the British led a new invasion campaign in the Antilles, taking Marie-Galante and Désirade, and then, in 1809, the Saintes. Between January 28 and February 6, 1810, British troops, 6,700 strong and led by George Beckwith, and supported by the Royal Navy under Admiral Alexander Cochrane, invaded the island, landing on the beaches of Gosier, Sainte -Marie and Capesterre.

The British then headed for Basse-Terre, where the few French troops (between 3,000 and 4,000 soldiers), poorly equipped and commanded by Governor Ernouf, quickly found themselves caught in a pincer movement after a new landing at Vieux -Habitants, and were forced to capitulate on February 5, 1810. The eagle of the Imperial 66th Regiment is a trophy that was brought to London, along with many captured troops.

Great Britain integrates Guadeloupe into its colonial possessions in the West Indies as war escalates in Europe (Spanish War of Independence, War of the Sixth Coalition) and in North America (War against the United States, June from 1812 to February 1815). To ensure Sweden's integration into the Sixth Coalition, the British signed a treaty with Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Sweden's new crown prince, on March 3, 1813: Guadeloupe was ceded to him and his descendants as compensation for the effort. war that Sweden had to make to overthrow Napoleon and to compensate Bernadotte for having relinquished his titles in the French Empire.

Church of Saint John the Baptist (Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Moule) completed by the French in 1850

In response, the French Empire promulgated a Sénatus-see October 14, 1813 "relating to the French island of Guadeloupe": "no peace treaty shall be concluded between the French Empire and Sweden without Sweden having previously relinquished possession of the French island of Guadeloupe". The rapid collapse of Napoleon's empire a few months later and the Paris peace treaty of May 30, 1814 did not give the Swedes time to replace the British on the island: Article 9 of the treaty confirmed that Sweden would leave Guadeloupe to France.

The Hundred Days Episode brought Guadeloupe back under British occupation, and the Second Treaty of Paris in November 1815 restored French sovereignty over Guadeloupe. Great Britain compensated Sweden for these setbacks with a sum of 24 million francs to the Swedish treasury, paid in the form of an annuity in perpetuity to the monarchs (Guadeloupefonden), an annuity that was closed following an agreement between the parliament and the king of Sweden.

Departmentalization and regionalization

On March 19, 1946, the former colonies of the French Empire became part of the French Union, but the French Antilles approached the status of metropolitan France and became overseas departments: Guadeloupe and Martinique (the department of Guadalupe will also include San Bartolomé and San Martín in a special district).

With the arrival of the socialists in power in France, the decentralization law was approved in 1982 and the Guadeloupe region was created, joining the 22 regions of metropolitan France. As a result of this, the Guadalupe Regional Council was created in 1983.

Social conflicts and independence movements

On February 14, 1952, in the commune of Le Moule, the workers of the Gardel factory organized a strike due to the delay in the application of the increase in the guaranteed minimum wage. The strikers put up barricades. The tension increased and, finally, the gendarmes and the CRS present at the scene fired into the crowd. The official communiqué at the time, published by the Ministry of the Interior in the metropolitan press four days later, spoke of self-defense after the forces of order received "shots that wounded an officer and several gendarmes and C.R.S. (...) and incendiary bombs". The balance is four dead, all on the side of the protesters, and fourteen injured. Locally, these events were called the San Valentin massacre.

On May 25, 26 and 27, 1967, new riots broke out during worker demonstrations for a 2.5% wage increase. These demonstrations led to clashes with the CRS, who opened fire on the crowd, resulting in the deaths of between 5 and 87 people, according to the sources, including Jacques Nestor, a famous GONG activist, and several wounded. The detainees were released by the court.

Long struggles followed, including the iconic big strike that blocked the 1971 harvest. Two years later, the Guadalupe General Union of Workers (UGTG) was founded.

In 2009, all economic sectors on the island were paralyzed by a general strike that lasted a month and a half, in which strikers denounced the prices of basic consumer goods.

Referendum on the project for a Collectivity

On December 1, 1999, the "Declaration of Basse-Terre" was signed. The regional presidents of the ADF proposed to the President of the Republic and the Government a legislative or even constitutional amendment aimed at creating a new Overseas Region statute with a special fiscal and social regime for Guadeloupe, Guyana and Martinique, within the framework of the French Republic, on the one hand, and the European Union, on the other (Article 299-2 of the Treaty of Amsterdam).

Lighthouse of Vieux-Fort

Equal social rights in the overseas territories were a long time coming. For example, Guadeloupeans did not receive the minimum wage and minimum income benefit (RMI) in metropolitan France until 1996 and 2002.

On December 7, 2003, the voters of Guadeloupe rejected by 73% the project to create a single local entity that would replace the department and the region that coexist in the same territory. That same day, the voters of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin voted in favor of the autonomy of their municipalities, which became two Overseas Collectivities (COM) separated from the other dependencies and from Guadeloupe, by the organic law of 21 February 2007.

On January 20, 2009, the general strikes of the L.K.P Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon (Union Against Speculators) began, lasting until March 4. This group brings together 48 unions, associations and political organizations. It is the first time that a civil society union of this type has been presented, which elaborates a platform of demands that sweeps away all the problems of the island. Up to 100,000 people, that is, 1/4 of the population, demonstrated in the streets. The LKP then publicly accused the French state by dissecting the mechanisms of an inegalitarian system. These 44 days of paralysis weakened Guadeloupe's economy and revealed deep social unrest against the backdrop of the economic crisis.

In April 2009, to find answers to the social crisis overseas, Nicolas Sarkozy opened the Estates General; in numerous workshops, including governance, a project for autonomous statutory changes (art. 74 of the Constitution) and a project for institutional changes (administrative simplification) based on legislative assimilation (art. 73 of the Constitution) were proposed. which were submitted to a referendum, following the example of Martinique and French Guiana. The populations of these last two countries voted in two referendums in January 2010, rejecting autonomy in favor of administrative simplification (merger of departmental and regional assemblies).

At the request of the president of the region, Victorin Lurel, Guadalupe decided to postpone the popular consultations for eighteen months, given the proximity of the regional elections and the plurality of statutory changes requested by itself and its latest dependencies. But in the end, Guadalupe and its dependencies will be part of the national reform of the territorial communities.

Politics

Guadeloupe is both an administrative region and an overseas department of the French Republic whose prefecture is Basse-Terre. As such, it is an outermost region of the European Union. It is represented by four deputies in the French National Assembly, and three senators.

Town Hall or City Hall of the commune of Goyave

In 2003, the merger of regional and departmental institutions was proposed in a new form of organization. This proposition has been rejected by referendum. However, the islands of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin accepted the reform, which proposed making each one of them a separate territorial community from Guadeloupe. These two islands were no longer attached to Guadeloupe when the reform went into effect on February 22, 2007.

There are several political parties: Guadeloupe Unie Socialisme et Réalités, Guadeloupe Federation of the Socialist Party, Guadeloupe Federation for the Meeting of the Republic, Guadeloupe Federation for the Union for French Democracy, Guadeloupean Communist Party, Guadeloupean Democratic Party, Popular Union for the Liberation of Guadalupe and the Caribbean Revolutionary Alliance, the last three mentioned being those that call for the independence of the island.

Although the symbols of the French Republic are official in Guadeloupe, there is a flag and a coat of arms, unofficially used, which is a banner that contains the elements of the Pointe-à-Pitre coat of arms, a of the most important cities on the island, as a symbol that represents the entire island.

Geopolitics

From a geostrategic point of view, Guadeloupe is located in a central area of the Caribbean archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. This location in the region allows France to reach a large part of the eastern coast of the American continent. The exclusive economic zone formed by Guadeloupe and Martinique covers just over 126,146 square kilometers. In 1980 France established its marine limits in the area by signing a Treaty with Venezuela.

This offers France important fishing resources and independence to develop a sovereign underwater research and protection policy (protection of humpback whales, Cousteau reserve, protection of coral reefs). Due to its geographical position, Guadeloupe allows France to participate in political and diplomatic dialogues both at the regional (Little and Greater Antilles) and continental (Latin and North America) levels.

Islands and communes of Guadalupe.

The signing of the Regional Agreement for the Internationalization of Companies (CRIE), adhesion to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and membership of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) are milestones that have allowed Guadeloupe to develop its bilateral or multilateral relations within the framework of international agreements or institutions. The development of bilateral and multilateral economic associations with other Caribbean and American States is based on the modernization of the autonomous port of Guadeloupe and the importance of the international airport Guadeloupe-Caribbean Pole.

Cassié Général de la Securité Sociale de la Guadeloupe is a member of the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS).

Territorial organization

For its administration, Guadalupe is divided into districts, cantons, and communes. The two districts are:

1. District of Basse-Terre (prefecture of the department of Guadalupe: Basse-Terre) with seventeen cantons and eighteen communes.
2. Pointe-à-Pitre District (subprefecture: Pointe-à-Pitre) with twenty-three cantons and fourteen communes.

Geography

Located at 16° 17' North latitude and 61° 29' West longitude, the Department of Guadalupe is an insular group of the Lesser Antilles. As already stated, the islands are named after him after the arrival of Christopher Columbus on his second voyage. After the long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the expedition reached La Deseada (in French, La Désirade), giving it that name due to the sailors' desire to set foot on dry land.

The department is made up of the following islands:

Islands of Saints (Iles des Saintes), Guadalupe

• Guadalupe itself said that it is composed of two distinct islands, separated by a narrow sea arm, called the Rivière Salée, but connected between them by two bridges. These two islands are the Basse-Terre (848 km2), the largest and mountainous of the two that is of volcanic origin and whose highest point is the active volcano of La Soufrière (1467 m) and the second, the Grande-Terre (588 km2), of calcareous substrate, composed of a dry plain of rocky and wild coasts. It is on the southern coast of the Grande-Terre where most tourist centers are located, with white sand beaches and coral reefs. This area is known as the Riviera. 1438 km2 Capital Basse-Terre
• Marigalante: 158 km2 Capital Grand Bourge
• La Deseada: 20,64 km2 Capital Grande-Anse
• Los Santos: 12.8 km2 Capital Terre-de-Haute 9 islands and islets, 2 of them inhabited, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas.
• Petite Terre 1.7 km2 2 islets.

The island of Saint Bartholomew (25 km², capital Gustavia), as well as the northern part of the Island of Saint Martin (53 km², capital Marigot), administratively depended on Guadeloupe, from which they separated to become separate communities overseas in February 2007. They are located further north-west and separated from the rest of Guadeloupe by Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, and Antigua and Barbuda. The islands of Los Santos also have projects to separate but are waiting for a referendum to be held.

Climate

The islands are part of the Leeward Archipelago, named for being in the lee of the prevailing trade winds, which blow from the northeast, which was important in the days of sailing ships. Grande-Terre is so named because it is on the eastern, or windward, side, exposed to the Atlantic winds. Basse-Terre is so called because it is on the southwest side, leeward, and protected from the winds. Guadeloupe has a tropical climate tempered by maritime influences and trade winds. There are two seasons, the dry season, called "cuaresma", from January to June, and the wet season, called "invierno", from July to December.

A blue guacamaya in Guadalupe.

The island is vulnerable to hurricanes; Among the storms that have made landfall on the islands are: Hurricane Cleo in 1964, Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Average climate parameters of Guadalupe
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	29.1	29.1	29.4	30.1	30.7	31.3	31.5	31.6	31.5	31.2	30.5	29.6	30.5
Average temperature (°C)	24.5	24.5	24.9	25.9	26.9	27.5	27.6	27.7	27.4	27.0	26.3	25.2	26.3
Temp. medium (°C)	19.9	19.9	20.4	21.7	23.1	23.8	23.8	23.7	23.3	22.9	22.1	20.9	22.1
Total precipitation (mm)	84	64	73	123	148	118	150	198	236	228	220	137	1779
Days of precipitation (≥)	15.0	11.5	11.5	11.6	13.6	12.8	15.4	16.2	16.6	18.1	16.6	15.7	174.6
Hours of sun	235.6	229.1	232.5	240.0	244.9	237.0	244.9	248.0	216.0	217.0	207.0	223.2	2775.2
Source: Hong Kong Observatory

One of the differences of this island with respect to the other lesser Antilles are the river courses and the waterfalls. One of the most famous is the Acomat waterfall.

Geology

Gueule Grand Gouffre, a geomorphological complex that includes a littoral motto and a natural arch in Saint-Louis de Marie-Galante, Guadalupe.

Basse-Terre is a volcanic island. The Lesser Antilles lie on the outer edge of the Caribbean Plate, and Guadeloupe forms part of the outer arc of the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc. Many of the islands were formed as a result of the subduction of the oceanic crust of the Atlantic Plate under the Caribbean Plate in the subduction zone of the Lesser Antilles. This process continues and is responsible for the volcanic and seismic activity of the region. Guadeloupe formed from multiple volcanoes, of which only La Grande Soufrière is not extinct. Its last eruption took place in 1976 and caused the evacuation of the southern part of Basse-Terre. 73,600 people were displaced during the three and a half months following the eruption.

K-Ar dating indicates that the three massifs in the north of the island of Basse-Terre are 2.79 million years old. Some sections of the volcanoes have collapsed and eroded in the last 650,000 years, after which the Sans Toucher volcano grew in the collapsed area. The volcanoes north of the island of Basse-Terre produced mainly andesite and basaltic andesite. There are several dark or "black" sand beaches.

La Désirade (La Desired), to the east of the main islands, has a Mesozoic basement, overlying thick Pliocene to Quaternary limestone.

Grande-Terre and Maria Galante have basements probably composed of Eocene to Oligocene volcanic units, but no outcrops are visible. At Grande-Terre, the overlying carbonate shelf is 120 meters thick.

Landscapes and the environment

Playa de Grande Anse

The island of Basse-Terre is the highest mountain massif in the Lesser Antilles and has the Soufrière volcano, also called the Old Lady, the highest point in the Lesser Antilles. It is full of waterfalls, rivers, golden or black sand beaches, and a tropical forest covers its mountain range.

The island of Grande-Terre is made up (to the west) of a mangrove-fringed plain that thickens from Gosier to Port-Louis, the Grands Fonds region (in the center) and an arid plateau, indented with rocky and wild coasts (from north to east). The southern coast of Grande-terre, dotted with white sand beaches sheltered by coral reefs, concentrates the large seaside resorts of Gosier, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François.

The island of Marie-Galante is characterized in the north by the presence of a calcareous cliff and then, in the east and south, by a plateau that becomes "mornes" to incline on steep slopes towards a coastal plain. This plain borders the Atlantic Ocean, protected by a coral reef. To the west of the island, facing Basse-Terre, beaches and mangroves stretch along the Caribbean Sea, and a natural coastal wetland stretches to Folle-Anse Bay.

Guadeloupe and the West Indies are a hotbed of biodiversity. Like the other Lesser Antilles, Guadalupe emerged from the ocean less than five million years ago and its isolation has favored the appearance of a high rate of endemism. The archipelago was completely covered in forests before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, and this arrival was accompanied by invasions biological and clearings that had a serious impact on biodiversity. Many species have disappeared from the island, such as the Guadeloupean amazon, the mondoungue rat, the Caribbean manatee, the Caribbean monk seal and the Guadeloupean améive. According to a report from the DEAL of Guadeloupe and Martinique: 1,260 vascular plants, eight mammals, 14 birds, 11 reptiles, four amphibians and four freshwater fish species have been introduced into the French Antilles. Among them, the Miconia calvescens, the rat, the mongoose, the lionfish and the yucca ant are considered invasive species.

Terrestrial and aquatic flora

Chrysothemis in the botanical garden of Deshaies

Between 300 and 1,000 m above sea level, the tropical forest develops, covering a large part of the island of Basse-Terre. There are the white gum tree, the acomat-boucan or chestnut, the marbri or bois-bandé or the oleander; shrubs and herbaceous plants such as the mountain palm, the balisier or the ferns; many epiphytes: bromeliads, philodendrons, orchids and lianas. Above 1,000 m, the humid savannah develops, made up of mosses, lichens, sphagnum or more vigorous plants such as mountain mangrove, highland violet or mountain thyme.

Dry forest occupies a large part of the islands of Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, Les Saintes, La Désirade and also develops on the leeward coast of Basse-Terre. The coastal forest is more difficult to develop due to the nature of the soil (sandy, rocky), salinity, insolation and wind, and it is the environment where sea grapes and mancenilla grow (a highly toxic tree whose trunk is marked with a red line), the icaquier or the coconut tree. Cacti such as the cigar cactus (Cereus), the prickly pear, the chestnut cactus, the "Tête à l'anglais" and the aloes.

The mangrove that borders some coasts of Guadalupana is structured in three levels, which go from the closest to the sea to the furthest away. In the first level are the red mangroves; in the second, about ten meters from the sea, the black mangroves form the shrub mangrove; in the third level the white mangroves form the tall mangrove. Behind the mangrove, where the tide and salt do not penetrate, a swamp forest sometimes develops, unique in Guadeloupe. The representative species of this environment is the Mangle-medaille.

A DEAL report states that in 2020 Guadeloupe has:

• 256 threatened plant species, such as Brassavola cucullata, also called Bois baguette or Bois café
• 110 other almost threatened species, such as Courbaril (classified as "vulnerable"), Gaïac (classified as "at risk"), Cactus Tête (classified as "critical danger")
• five extinct species (including four orchids).

Seagrass beds, such as those bordering the Grand Cul-de-sac marin lagoon, are true underwater grasslands that constitute an ecosystem and a transition zone between mangrove swamps and coral reefs. Four species of flowering marine plants can be found, of which Thalassia testudinum is the most widespread.

Terrestrial and aquatic fauna

Myrichthys ocellatus of Guadalupe

Guadeloupe has numerous species of insects ranging from butterflies, the phasmids locally called devil's horse, to an endemic species of spider: Holothele sulfurensis. The island also has large beetles, such as the Hercules Dynaste.

There are reptiles such as the red-footed tortoise or molokoi, two species of snakes: Alsophis antillensis and Alsophis sanctonum, a small worm-like snake: Typhlops guadeloupensis, two species of iguanas: Iguana delicatissima and Iguana iguana, a gecko called locally mabouia and small lizards called anolis. Two frogs are endemic to Basse-Terre: the Pinchon hylode and the Barlagne hylode.

The archipelago also has a great diversity of birds, such as the crested hummingbird, the Guadalupe woodpecker (an endemic bird classified as "near threatened"), the kestrel, the brown pelican and the frigate bird.

It is estimated that 13 species of bats live in Guadeloupe, from the Dominica myotis (4 grams) to the great fishing noctilion (more than 70 grams). The territory also has an endemic bat: the Guadalupe great brown bat. Finally, among the mammals, let us mention the raccoon (pet of the Guadeloupe national park) and the golden agouti (protected animal in danger of extinction).

Guadeloupe is fringed with coral reefs and the one located in the Grand Cul-de-sac Marin, at 29 km in length, is the longest in the Lesser Antilles. This area is home to 50 species of coral, including gorgonians. Since 2017, 16 corals have been protected in the French West Indies.

Some watercourses are sometimes populated by ouassous (local freshwater shrimp).

The waters of Guadeloupe are also rich in animal species ranging from invertebrates (sponges, Caribbean coins, sea anemones, starfish) to large mammals (sperm whale or humpback whale), including reef fish (parrotfish, lionfish, boxfish, conger eel, diodont), coastal and oceanic fish (garfish, exocet, dolphinfish, sharks, marlin, swordfish), and reptiles (loggerhead sea turtle, olive ridley sea turtle, karate turtle, green turtle)

Preservation of the environment

In recent decades, Guadeloupe's natural environments have been affected by hunting and fishing, forest retreat, urbanization, and suburbanization. They also suffer from the development of intensive crops (bananas and sugar cane, in particular), which reached their peak in the years 1955-75. This has led to the following situation: seagrass beds and reefs have been degraded by up to 50% around large islands; mangroves and mantas have almost disappeared in Marie-Galante, Les Saintes and La Désirade; the salinity of the fresh water table has increased due to "the intensity of use of the table"; and pollution of agricultural origin (pesticides and nitrogenous compounds).

Grand Etang, Guadalupe

In addition, the ChlEauTerre study, unveiled in March 2018, concludes that 37 different anthropogenic molecules (more than half of which come from residues of now-banned pesticides such as chlordecone) were found in "79 % of the river basins analyzed in Grande-Terre and 84 % in Basse-Terre." A report from the Guadalupe Water Office indicates that in 2019 there is a "generalized degradation of water masses."

Despite everything, there is a will to preserve these environments whose vegetation and landscape are preserved in some parts of the islands and constitute a sensitive asset for tourism. These areas are partially protected and classified as ZNIEFF, sometimes with nature reserve category, and several caves are home to protected bats.

In this sense, the national park of Guadeloupe was created on February 20, 1989. In 1992, under the auspices of UNESCO, the Guadeloupe Archipelago Biosphere Reserve (Réserve de biosphère de l'archipel de la Guadeloupe). And as a result of this, on December 8, 1993, the Grand Cul-de-sac marine site was listed as a wetland of international importance. The island thus became the overseas department with the most protected areas.

Natural hazards

Tropical Cyclones and Storm Surges

Located in a highly exposed region, Guadeloupe and its dependencies have to deal with many cyclones. The deadliest hurricane to hit Guadeloupe was the Pointe-à-Pitre hurricane of 1776, which killed at least 6,000 people.

On September 16, 1989, Hurricane Hugo caused severe damage to the islands of the archipelago and left a deep mark on the memory of the local inhabitants. In 1995, three hurricanes (Iris, Luis and Marilyn) hit the archipelago in less than three weeks.

Some of the deadliest hurricanes to hit Guadeloupe include:

In the 20th century: September 12, 1928: Hurricane Okeechobee; August 11, 1956: Hurricane Betsy; August 22, 1964: Hurricane Cleo; September 27, 1966: Hurricane Inez; September 16–17, 1989: Hurricane Hugo; September 14–15, 1995: Hurricane Marilyn.

In the 21st century: September 6, 2017: Hurricane Irma; September 18 and 19, 2017: Hurricane Maria.

The crater of Volcano la Soufrière and its Smoking.

Earthquakes and Tsunamis

The archipelago is crossed by numerous geological faults such as those of La Barre or La Cadoue, while in depth, opposite Moule and La Désirade, the Fault of La Désirade begins, and between the north of María Galante and the south of Grande -Terre begins the Falla de María Galante. And it is because of these geological characteristics that the islands of the department of Guadeloupe are classified in zone III according to the French seismic zoning and are subject to a specific risk prevention plan.

The 1843 earthquake in the Lesser Antilles is, to this day, the most violent known. It caused the death of more than a thousand people, as well as extensive damage in Pointe-à-Pitre.

On November 21, 2004, the islands of the department, particularly the Los Santos archipelago, were shaken by a violent earthquake that reached a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter scale and caused the death of one person, as well as numerous material damages.

Economy

World Trade Center de Guadalupe

Guadeloupe's economy depends mainly on tourism and agriculture. Its Gross Domestic Product per inhabitant is half that of metropolitan France. For this reason, Guadeloupe benefits from the structural funds granted by the European Union to less favored economic areas. The current currency is the euro, which in 2002 replaced the Guadeloupe Franc.

Economic indicators, employment and cost of living

The Guadeloupe region is globally under-resourced in terms of infrastructure, social housing, digital technology and energy networks. And the coverage rate of imports by exports was 6% in 1996. In addition, according to the Budget Office, the average state investment per capita is 116.29 euros overseas, compared to a national average of 176.40 euro. However, despite its economic situation, Guadeloupe is one of the richest and most stable islands in the Caribbean.

The difficult economic situation of Guadeloupe is reflected in two significant figures: the unemployment rate (23.7% of the active population in 2015) and the second place among the regions most affected by unemployment in the European Union. In addition, one in two young Guadeloupeans is unemployed. In 2017, the unemployment rate in Guadeloupe was 22%, down from 24% from 2014 to 2016.

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), food prices in Guadeloupe are 42% higher than in mainland France.

Economic sectors

Agriculture (sugar cane, banana, melon, coffee, vanilla), once the economic engine of the island, only survives thanks to subsidies from the State and local authorities.

Pointe-à-Pitre Tourist Office

And the island's two largest crops, sugar cane and bananas, are in crisis. "Guadalupeans are used to saying that sugar cane is our steel industry, and rightly so, the industries, which are few, essentially belong to the agri-food sector (sugar refineries, rum factories, canneries). As for fruit and vegetable crops, they fail to cover the needs of the 400,000 inhabitants. For this reason, every year Guadeloupe must import more than ten thousand tons of fruits and vegetables.

According to INSEE, industry accounted for 5.4% of the department's total added value in 2006 (compared to 6.5% in 1993) and 6.9% of jobs. Its development is due in part to the tax exemption laws. Guadeloupe has a dozen industrial zones spread throughout the territory. These activities are mainly concentrated in the Point agglomeration, on the Jarry site (325 hectares) in Baie-Mahault. This industrial area (one of the top three industrial areas in France) has been responsible for 80% of the jobs created in the last ten years.

Tourism is the only economic sector that maintains a certain dynamism and the good results of 2007 confirm the favorable orientation of the sector. Passenger traffic at the Pôle Caraïbes airport (excluding transit) increased by 6.2%, mainly due to the development of cruise tourism, which increased by 26.9% in the year; excluding cruise passengers, the number of passengers arriving in the archipelago increased by 3.6%. Classified hotels have also benefited from increased visitor numbers; Guadeloupe is mostly visited by travelers from metropolitan France (92% of flows), ahead of those from Italy and Belgium.

Communications and transportation

Boats in Terre-de-Haut, Guadalupe

Roads

In 2013, the department of Guadalupe had 80 kilometers of highways.

Ports

The department's ports include Pointe à Pitre (in Grande-Terre), Les Saints (in Terre De Haut), Grand Bourg (in Marie Galante) and Saint Louis (in Marie Galante).

Airports

The department's main airport is Pointe à Pitre International Airport, which has flights to other Caribbean islands, as well as the United States, Canada, France, and French Guiana.

Other airports in the department are: Saint François Airport in Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante Airport on the island of the same name, Les Saintes Airport in Terre de Haut, La Désirade Airport on the island of the same name and Baillif Aerodrome in Basse-Terre.

Demographics

Evolution of the population of Guadalupe between 1961 and 2003.

Guadalupe's population, largely mixed race, is the product of the meeting of Amerindians, Europeans, Africans and Hindustanis, who together over time developed a culture called Creole. 71% of the population belongs to this Creole/Afro-descendant/multiracial group, 15% are of Indian descent (highlighting those of Tamil origin), 9% belong to the group of white European origin (mostly of French origin, descendants of Norman and Breton fishermen, especially in the dependencies) -colloquially called "békés" in Guadeloupean Creole-, 2% are of Syrian and Lebanese origin and 3% are of Chinese and other origins.

90% of people over the age of 15 in 1982 could read and write. Life expectancy at birth is 76.99 years, men: 73.82 years and women: 80.3 years (2000 estimate).

Languages

99% of Guadeloupeans speak French (official language). They also speak the so-called patois creole, which is a French-based creole also called Antillean creole.

Poster written in the Creole of Guadalupe

Guadalupe Creole arose as a result of the need for all ethnic groups (Europeans, mainly French, Africans and Amerindians) to be able to understand each other. This language is therefore the result of a mixture created in the 17th century in response to a communication emergency. Unlike the Spanish, and the English, the French did not have a unified language at the time of the colonization of Guadeloupe. The Normans spoke Norman, the Bretons spoke Breton, and for this reason they could not impose their language.

In addition, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas, in the Saintes archipelago, due to their history of settlement (Breton, Norman and Poitevin settlers), have their own Creoles that differ from the Guadeloupean Creole by their pronunciations in French, their particular expressions, their syntax and their sonorities. Although not transcribed, these islanders describe their Creole as "patois" or "language of Saint Martin" and they actively watch over its transmission and perpetuation by their descendants in a vernacular way.

Creole was first written by a Guadeloupean béké in the late 17th century century. And he had transcribed it, at the time, from the French spelling.

As Guadeloupe is a French department, French is the official language. However, Guadeloupean French (in contact with Creole) has certain linguistic characteristics that differ from those of standard metropolitan French. However, this regional French has been little studied and most of the descriptions made refer to its lexicon and morphosyntax. However, there is now a very detailed study on the phonetic aspect of Guadeloupan French (it would be the first study to address both the acoustic and the phonological and perceptual aspects of Guadeloupan French in particular and Antillean French in general). He also deals with the lectal varieties of Guadeloupe French (acrolect, mesolect and basilect).

Since the return to the roots of a part of the Guadeloupean population, a real interest in Creole has been created through the appearance of books of stories and poetry that have been published in Creole and French for the last ten years. In this context, Hector Poullet is a pioneer of mediated dictations in Creole. Creole is also a very colorful language and very philosophical in its expressions and phrases, which, literally translated into French, can be confusing. The representatives of the older generations are not always fluent in French, but in Guadeloupean Creole.

Religion

As far as religion is concerned, the majority of the population is Catholic and there are religious minorities of African, Hindu, Protestant, Jewish and Jehovah's Witness beliefs. In 1685, the Black Code announced the Christian religion in its Catholic form as the only one authorized in the French Antilles, thus excluding Jews and the various Protestant groups from practicing their beliefs, and imposing the forced conversion of newly arrived slaves and the baptism of the oldest.

This was followed by a rapid fashion among the slaves, as this religion offered them a spiritual refuge and allowed them to safeguard some of their African beliefs and customs, thus marking the beginning of a religious syncretism. Since the 1970s, new Religions and groups compete with the Catholic Church, such as the Evangelical Pentecostal Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Bible Students or Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Mormon Church.

Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Administratively, the territory of Guadeloupe is part of the Diocese of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre, attached to the Catholic Church in France. The diocese includes the territories of Guadalupe, San Bartolomé and San Martín and the number of faithful is estimated at 400,000. As of 2020 there were 59 active priests in the diocese. The episcopal seat is in Basse-Terre, in the Notre-Dame-de-Guadeloupe cathedral.

Hinduism, which accompanied the Indians who came to work in Guadalupe in the mid-19th century, has spread since the 80s. The Indian community has its own tradition that comes from India. It is the mayé men, a distorted pronunciation of the name of the Tamil Indian goddess Mariamman. There are no less than 400 temples in the archipelago. Islam made its appearance in the French West Indies in the 1970s, first in Martinique.

According to the president of the Guadeloupe Muslim Association, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 Muslims in the department. The island has two mosques. Judaism has been present in Guadeloupe since the arrival of Dutch settlers expelled from northeastern present-day Brazil in 1654. There is a synagogue and an Israelite cultural community. Guadeloupeans of Syrian and Lebanese origin practice Catholicism in its Maronite form. Rastafarianism has been attractive to a certain part of young people since the 1970s after its appearance in the United States and Jamaica. The quimbois or kenbwa, practiced in Guadeloupe, refer to magical-religious practices derived from Christian and African syncretism.

Immigration

The relative wealth of Guadeloupe contrasts with the extreme poverty of several islands in the Caribbean region, making the community an attractive place for the populations of some of these territories. In addition, other factors, such as instability politics and natural catastrophes explain this immigration. Already in the 1970s, the first illegal immigrants of Haitian origin arrived in Guadeloupe to satisfy a need for labor in the agricultural sector; Along with this Haitian immigration, more visible because it is more numerous, Guadeloupe has also seen the arrival and settlement of populations from the island of Dominica and the Dominican Republic. In 2005, the prefecture, which represents the state in Guadeloupe, reported figures of between 50,000 and 60,000 foreigners in the department.

Guatemalan women recruited as domestics who recalate in Ellis Island for Montreal, 1911

Migration

Created in 1963 by Michel Debré, the objective of Bumidom was "[...] to contribute to the solution of demographic problems in the overseas departments". And for this, its missions were multiple: information to future emigrants, vocational training, family reunification and management of reception centers. At the time, this project was also seen as a means to lessen the influence of the Antillean independence movements, which were gaining strength in the 1960s.

Between 1963 and 1981, an estimated 16,562 Guadeloupeans immigrated to metropolitan France via Bumidom. And the miniseries Le Rêve français (The French dream) intends to relate some of the consequences of the emigration of the Antilleans and the Reunionenses to France.

It is estimated that some 50,000 Guadeloupeans and Martinicans participated in the construction of the Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914. In 2014, it was estimated that there were between 60,000 and 70,000 descendants of these West Indians living in Panama. 20th century saw other waves of migration to North America, especially to Canada.

Education

The Guadalupe academic region includes only the Guadalupe academy. It employs 9,618 people and its operating budget was 714.3 million euros for the year 2018-2019. The territory has 300 primary schools, including 1 private contract kindergarten and 14 private contract primary schools. It also has 52 secondary schools, including 6 private under contract. And finally it has 38 institutes of which 13 are private under contract.

View of the University of Antilles and Guayana, Saint-Claude, Guadalupe

During the 2018-2019 school year, the following were enrolled in the Academia de Guadalupe:

• 45 510 students in primary education;
• 45 626 pupils in secondary education;
• 2718 graduate students in high school.
• Since 2014, the Academy has 12 districts divided into 5 poles:
• The Pôle Îles du Nord (San Martín and San Bartolomé);
• The Polo Basse-Terre Nord (Baie-Mahault, Capesterre-Belle-Eau and Sainte-Rose);
• The South Pole of Basse-Terre: Basse-Terre and Bouillante (including the islands of Les Saintes);
• The North Pole of Grande-Terre: Grande-Terre Norte, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François (including the islands of La Désirade and Marie-Galante);
• The South Pole of Grande-Terre: Les Abymes, Gosier and Pointe-à-Pitre.

The islands of Guadeloupe are also home to two local campuses of the University of the West Indies (Fouillole and Camp Jacob), a "city of knowledge" which includes a health and social campus, a "university of trades" which includes an apprenticeship training center (CFA), a regional arts and entertainment center, a student residence and, finally, three sites of the regional deuxième chance school.

Health and social protection

Guadeloupe has a university hospital (CHU) in Pointe-à-Pitre, a regional hospital (CHR) in Basse-Terre, five hospitals in Capesterre-Belle-Eau, Pointe-Noire, Bouillante, Saint-Claude and Grand -Bourg, six clinics in Baie-Mahault, Le Gosier, Le Moule, Trois-Rivières, Gourbeyre and Saint-Claude, a polyclinic in Grand-Bourg and the Pasteur Institute of Guadeloupe.

The island is considered a medical desert (an area with difficulties in accessing healthcare). While in Paris there are 246 general practitioners for every 100,000 inhabitants, this figure drops to 140 in Guadeloupe. As for dental surgeons, while in the Bouches-du-Rhône department there are an average of 88 per 100,000 inhabitants, in Guadeloupe there are only 45.

Energy

The island has great potential for solar, wind and marine energy, but by 2018, energy from biomass and coal and hydrocarbons from petroleum remain the most widely used.

Geothermal centre of Bouillante, Guadalupe

The Energy Transition Law (TECV) provides for 50% renewable energy by 2020 in the territory. And the Guadeloupe EPP plans to develop an additional 66 MW of biomass capacity between 2018 and 2023, including 43 MW to replace coal. For example, the Albioma Caraïbes (AC) coal-fired power plant will be converted to biomass to help increase the percentage of renewable energy in Guadeloupe's energy mix from 20.5% to 35%, thereby mitigating dependence on island from fossil fuels and reduce acid air pollution and toxic and bottom ash production.

This 34 MW plant, which produces 260 GWh/year of electricity in 2018 (ie 15% of the island's needs), should reduce 265,000 t of CO2 equivalent/year in the whole chain (-87% once converted to biomass compared to the previous situation, coal).

Guadeloupe has an electricity production plant, in Le Moule, which is based on the sugarcane agricultural sector and which recovers the waste from sugarcane crushing (bagasse) to produce energy; 12 wind farms, such as in Désirade, Le Moule or Marie-Galante; a geothermal power plant in Bouillante, which uses the energy of the water vapor produced by volcanic activity (the power output of the power plant ranks it first nationwide); a project to use the energy of waves and marine currents; photovoltaic installations that contribute to the operation of solar water heaters for homes and to the development of the electric vehicle sector.

Electricity produced by hydropower, which represents 2.2% of total production, comes from dams built in the bed of some rivers.

Drinking water supply

The water distributed by the drinking water network of Guadeloupe comes mainly from Basse Terre, 70% of the water intakes from rivers and 20% of the catchments from springs. The remaining 10% comes from test pits that tap groundwater from Grande Terre and Marie-Galante.

Access to water and sanitation is problematic due to the deteriorating state of the network, which causes many losses in the water supply system. For years, water cuts have been recurring and make it necessary to carry out "water shifts", mainly in the municipalities of Grande-Terre, which are the most affected, with consequences for individuals and agricultural activities.

According to the statistics of the Water Office (2020 data), 61% of drinking water production is wasted, that is, almost 50 million cubic meters of water per year, due to pipes in poor condition. Additionally, 70% of wastewater treatment plants are not compliant.

Culture

Guadalupe Group during the 2014 Tropical Carnival in Paris.

It was on this island that Columbus first encountered the pineapple, or pineapple, which he called "piña de Indias".

The culture of Guadeloupe is probably best known for the literary achievements of its inhabitants, particularly the poet Saint-John Perse, a pseudonym used by Alexis Léger. Perse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1960 & # 34; for the immense flight and evocative images of his poetry, which, in a visionary way, reflects the conditions of our times. & # 34; Guadeloupe has always had a highly diverse literary heritage, maintained by various writers, poets, novelists, essayists, and journalists, including Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, and Ernest Pépin.

Music and Dance

Music and dance are also very popular art forms, and the extensive interplay between African, French and Indian cultural elements gave rise to new genres unique to the archipelago. Guadeloupeans enjoy many styles of dance locals such as zouk, zouk-love, konpa, as well as contemporary and international styles such as hip-hop, among others.

The music and dances that characterize Guadalupana culture are the gwoka (or gwo ka) which, since 2014, has been registered in the French Intangible Heritage Inventory by Unesco. The bouladjel which is, since 2013, registered in the inventory of the intangible heritage of France in Unesco. The quadrille, which is originally a European dance introduced in the Antillean colonies during the century caps;text-transform:lowercase">XVIII. The biguine, which is a music and dance of West Indian origin that originated before the abolition of slavery in the first half of the XIX< century. The wabap, which is a variation of biguine music, is influenced by Afro-Cuban music such as mambo, jazz, and bebop.

You can also listen to the kadans, a music of Haitian origin that appeared in Guadeloupe in the 1960s and gave rise to local groups such as Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe, Les Aiglons and Expérience 7. Konpa, music also of Haitian origin, which appeared in the 1960s and was popularized in Guadeloupe by legendary groups such as Les Frères Déjean (1963) and Les Shleu-Shleu (1965).

Kadans lypso or cadence lypso, which is a musical genre created in the 70s by mixing kadans and kompa with Dominican calypso music. It was popularized in Guadeloupe by Gordon Henderson (inventor of the music) and the Exil One group, as well as by Jeff Joseph and the Gramacks group. Also the zouk, which is originally a derivation of the rhythm of the kadans and the rhythm of the drums of the biguine, and whose name originally refers to a popular dance. This style was popularized by groups and singers such as Kassav' (which included Patrick Saint-Eloi), Zouk Machine, Expérience 7, Gilles Floro and Francky Vincent.

The Guadalupeño Zeno Oreno Bildnis des Zeno Oreno von Guadeloupe. Made by Ferdinand Fagerlin, 1854, Kunstpalast Museum.

The gwada style, represented by a Guadeloupean youth concerned about their cultural heritage, giving rise to this new trend that takes the diminutive name that young people give to the island, the "Gwada". This expression is often found in reggae/dancehall music, very popular musical genres in the Antilles (Admiral T, Missié GG). Creole Jazz, kako gwada and rock gwada, such as artists like Alain Jean-Marie, Sonny Troupé and Jacques Schwarz Bart for Creole Jazz. And Dominik Coco, Soft, Exxòs Mètkakola, Erik, Florence Naprix, G'Ny, The Bolokos, Stevy Mahy, representing the "new Creole scene" that creatively combines traditional sounds and rhythms with the musical trends of the underground scene (neo soul, acoustic, rock, electro, hip-hop).

Every year the Marie-Galante Terre de Blues festival is held, uniting the three Saint-Louis: Saint Louis, famous stronghold of blues in the United States in the 1930s, Saint Louis of Senegal, symbol of ancestry African, and San Luis de Marie-Galante, a Creole city, which gather around the music born from this crossroads. In 2013 it hosted 13,000 festival goers.

The Saint-Georges International Music Festival celebrates the life and work of Joseph Bologne.

Visual arts

Some historical personalities, models, historical events or landscapes of Guadeloupe have been immortalized over time and are now the subject of national or even international fame. In addition, many local artists have left their mark in the field of plastic arts, both locally, nationally or internationally, such as Guillaume Guillon Lethière (Paris School of Fine Arts and second prize in Rome in 1784), Pierre-Jérôme Lordon, Évremond de Bérard or Jean-Baptiste Gibert (Rome Prize for Historic Landscape, second prize in 1825 and first grand prize in 1829).

Museums and monuments

Fort Napoleon in the Les Saintes Islands

• Pointe-à-Pitre: The ACT Memorial, opened on May 10, 2015, is a monument that addresses the issue of the slave trade and slavery in the world context although focused on the Guadalupeño archipelago and its Caribbean environment, from antiquity to contemporary times; The Schœlcher Museum; The L'Herminier Pavilion Old Museum of Natural History; The Museum of Creole Suits known as the Saint-John-Perse Museum; The Pointe-à-Pitre Central Market.

• In Le Moule: The Edgar-Clerc Museum.

• In Marie-Galante: The Ecomuseum of Popular Arts and Traditions installed in the old Murat house of Grand-Bourg.

• In Basse-Terre: Gerty-Archimède Museum; Guadalupe Museum.

• In Les Saintes: The Napoleonic Fort of Les Saintes, located on the island of Terre-de-Haut.

Clothing

Traditional clothing, inherited today, is the result of a long cultural mix involving Africa, Asia and Europe. This cultural mix was based initially on the triangular trade and later on a more globalized trade that included the import of textiles from the Orient. For example, in the traditional Guadalupan costume, we find Asian influences with the use of Indian madras cloth, African and European influences (Spanish in this case) with the use of the headscarf to cover oneself, and again European influences (French in this case) in adopting the lace petticoat from Brittany.

The clothing worn in Guadalupe has mutated over the centuries, undergoing changes that reflect social conditions and the evolution of society, from the time of slavery to the present day. During the second half of the 17th century, slaves arriving in Guadeloupe were naked or nearly so. They were then forced to wear rags or the owner's worn clothing, which quickly fell apart, barely concealing their nudity. Or slaves working in the fields wore the "three-hole" dress, made of a vegetable fiber fabric in which three holes were made (two for the arms and one for the head). Under pressure from the Church and the authorities, slaves were forced to wear the "three-hole" dress.

Under pressure from the Church and as soon as the Black Code was applied in 1685, owners were required to provide "each slave with two cloth suits or four alders (about 7.5 m²) of fabric per year... art. 25" which only modestly improved their conditions. However, the poor quality of the clothing worn during slavery must be qualified, since it could vary depending on the day of the week (daily clothing, Sunday clothing, clothing for special occasions), or depending on the status of the slaves. household slaves.

Cooking party.

In fact, the latter could be dressed in clothes of different quality depending on the trade they performed on the property. In the case of the servants, for example, their clothes could be of better quality because they had to reflect the image of success and wealth that their master wanted to project.

Starting in the 17th century, the development of the Creole costume coincided with the desire of slave women to recover their dignity, with the evolution of their employment within the home or in Guadeloupean society (specialization in the trades of sewing and clothing), with the evolution of Guadeloupean society (free women of color, freed slaves, mulatto women) and with the influence of the European fashion dress, which the housewife represented.

After the abolition of slavery, the main periods of Guadalupana traditional dress were the following:

• 1848 to 1930, establishment of the use of the suit;
• From 1930 to 1950, significant decrease in the use of the traditional costume;
• From 1950 to 1960, when the costume becomes a "folk" garment;

From 1960 to the present, the traditional costume has been recovered and is valued both as a daily garment and as a sign of attachment to Guadalupana culture. Today, many designers are inspired by traditional clothing to make some of their his creations.

Fruit of this fusion of African and European dress codes throughout the centuries, including materials from distant origins, the Guadeloupean wardrobe includes Creole garments such as: the cozy dress or wòb ti-do, an everyday dress also called à corps because it fits the body like a corset; the skirt-shirt, in ceremonial dress (the shirt is made of very fine batiste edged with lace, which stops at the elbows and is buttoned with golden buttons. The skirt, full and very wide at the back with a train, is tied at the above the breasts); the full-bodied dress that stands out from the others for the quantity and richness of the fabric used (satin, brocaded satin, satin).

The traditional headdress, worn with or without the traditional dress of the women, is the subject of a precise codification:

• La tête chaudière is the ceremonial headdress in a round and flat form, with a bare knot.
• The four-pointed touch (touched with four knots) means "my heart has space for whoever wants it!"
• The three-point touch means "my heart is taken!"
• The two-point touch means "my heart is committed, but you can try luck."
• The touch of an end means "my heart is free!"

Gastronomy

Darse Market, Pointe-à-Pitre.

In terms of gastronomy, Guadeloupean cuisine is a mix of African, European and Asian influences. In the first place, it uses agricultural products such as poyo (plantain more commonly called green plantain or ti-nain), bread plantain, okra, cabbage, pigeon peas, cristofina, yam or sweet potato.

The sea and rivers provide rays, snappers, octopus (chatou), lambis, burgots (a type of large whale), sea urchins, and ouassous. The orchards provide fruits such as soursop, red jambosier, passion fruit (marakoudja), mango, quenette, and citrus. Seasonings that are sometimes added to dishes are habanero chili, cive (a kind of country onion) or roucou seeds that give sauces a red tint.

Cuisine, often spicy and seasoned, is the result of soaking meat or fish for hours before cooking, to enhance its flavor. Typical dishes are: fish blaff, dombrés, bébélé (from Marie-Galante), colombo (equivalent to Indian curry) and matété (cooked rice with crab). And as for appetizers or snacks, there are Creole blood sausages, accras, cassava cakes and bokit.

As for desserts, they offer manjar blanco, sorbets or various fruit salads. As for pastries, you can choose between pâtés con marmalade, tourment d'amour (at Les Saintes), caca bœuf (at Marie-Galante) or sacristain. The "pain natté", which is a local brioche bread, is often eaten.

There are local productions of candied fruits (elder, pineapple, carambola) and jams (guava, banana, coconut). They also consume sorbets such as coconut or snowball made with crushed ice to which a syrup (mint, grenadine) is added. And among the sweets we mention the sweet, the coconut sugar, the kilibibi and the konkada (of Beninese origin).

In the beverage category, the consumption of soft drinks is very important in Guadeloupe, as well as that of a drink locally nicknamed black beer. In addition, it is not uncommon to see sellers of sugarcane juice or coconut water along the roads. Chaudeau is consumed on special occasions (weddings, baptisms, communions) and is a Guadeloupean-style eggnog eaten with a whipped cake (génoise). The rum, whose consumption is culturally imbricated in Guadeloupean society, comes in particular from one of the ten distilleries distributed throughout the Guadeloupean territory and that produce the rums of Guadeloupe.

Festivities

Winter Carnival of Guadalupe

At Christmas, families and friends come together for the chanté Nwel, an opportunity to sing Christmas carols and celebrate. After the holidays, rehearsals for the Guadalupe carnival begin. The carnival groups parade through the streets every Sunday afternoon until the Carnival festivities, in February or March. Groups with skins, for example, the Akiyo group are groups composed only of large percussion and lambi shell instruments. They have the particularity of not having brass instruments in the band, nor choreography, they often parade without thematic costumes. Since 2014, the Carnival en kabwèt de Marie-Galante has been listed on the UNESCO Inventory of France's Intangible Heritage.

Shrove Tuesday is the big party in which the carnival groups compete in the main city, Basse-Terre, or in Pointe-à-Pitre, for the best costumes, the best music or the best choreography whose theme is imposed by the carnival committees. The next day, on Ash Wednesday, the day that ends the carnival, the mascot king of the carnival nicknamed Vaval is burned, which signals the end of the festivities, everyone parades in black and white (to mark the mourning of Vaval), and then the forty days of Lent begin. The majority of the population is Catholic and respects this period. But, given the great fondness for parties, on "Lenten Thursday" A red and black parade identical to that of the carnival is organized, with groups of musicians preceded by people parading.

After this period of deprivation, the Holy Week celebrations take place, during which families usually go camping on the beach and eat traditional and very popular dishes based on crabs: matété (cooked rice with crab), calalou (crabs with wooden leaves accompanied by white rice) or dombrés con cangrejos (small balls of flour cooked with crab).

Sports

Soccer is popular in Guadeloupe, and several notable footballers are of Guadeloupean origin, such as Marius Trésor, Stéphane Auvray, Ronald Zubar and his younger brother Stéphane Zubar, Miguel Comminges, Dimitri Foulquier, Bernard Lambourde, Thomas Lemar.

The national soccer team was a semifinalist in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, defeated by Mexico.

Basketball is also popular. The best-known NBA players are Rudy Gobert, Mickaël Piétrus, Johan Petro, Rodrigue Beaubois and Mickael Gelabale (now playing in Russia), who were born on the island.

Several track and field athletes, such as Marie-José Pérec, Patricia Girard-Léno, Christine Arron and Wilhem Belocian, are also Guadeloupean. Marie-José Pérec, triple Olympic champion, and Christine Arron, fourth fastest 100m runner.

Aerodrome Amédée Detraux in Guadalupe

The island has produced many world-class fencers. Yannick Borel, Daniel Jérent, Ysaora Thibus, Anita Blaze, Enzo Lefort and Laura Flessel were born and raised in Guadeloupe. According to Olympic gold medalist and world champion Yannick Borel, there is a good fencing school and fencing culture in Guadeloupe.

Although Guadeloupe is part of France, it has its own sports teams. Rugby union is a small but fast growing sport in Guadeloupe.

The island is also known internationally for hosting the Karujet Race - Jet Ski World Championship since 1998. This nine-stage, four-day event attracts competitors from all over the world (mainly Caribbean, American and European). The Karujet, usually made up of seven races around the island, has a reputation for being one of the toughest championships to compete in.

The Route du Rhum is one of the most prominent French nautical sporting events, held every four years.

Bodybuilder Serge Nubret was born in Anse-Bertrand, Grande-Terre, and represented the French state in various bodybuilding competitions throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest, taking third post each year from 1972 to 1974, and the second in 1975. Bodybuilder Marie-Laure Mahabir is also originally from Guadeloupe.

There are also cycling enthusiasts in the territory. It hosted the French Cycling Championship in 2009 and continues to host the Tour de Guadeloupe every year.

Christine Arron, became the fifth fastest woman in the world in the 100 meters (10.73 seconds)

Guadeloupe also continues to host the Orange Open de Guadeloupe tennis tournament (since 2011).

In boxing, the following athletes hail from the island of Guadeloupe: Ludovic Proto(amateur; competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics in the men's light-welterweight division), Gilbert Delé (professional; held the European boxing title light middleweight from 1989 to 1990, and then won the WBA light middleweight title in 1991, defeating Carlos Elliott via TKO), and Jean-Marc Mormeck (pro; former two-time unified cruiserweight champion; held the titles WBA, WBC and The Ring World Cups twice between 2005 and 2007).

• French footballer Thierry Henry is of Guadalupense descent from his father.
• French footballer Lilian Thuram was born in Pointe-à-Pitre but at an early age he moved to Paris.
• The footballer Thomas Lemar was born and grew up in the Guadalupense commune of Baie-Mahault.
• Soccer Selection of Guadalupe
• Guadalupense Football League
• Guadalupe's soccer team achieved a fourth place in the gold cup of Concacaf.

Delinquency and crime

Guadeloupe was the most violent department in France in 2015: 45 murders were recorded in Guadeloupe and Saint Martin. These results make the two islands the "department with the most murders in France, well ahead of Bouches-du-Rhône", with 8.4 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, that is, three times more than in the Marseille region. In addition to crime, according to the 2013 figures, there was a sharp increase in armed robberies against commercial premises (+63%), as well as robberies in these same premises (+31.5%).