It cannot be said enough, but Martinique is an island in the Caribbean. The Caribbean, a small archipelago located near the American continent, is a group of islands that is home to more than 44 million people (Worldometer 2023 figures) spread over 38 states. In this 2,754,000 square kilometers area, which includes large and small islands (Greater and Lesser Antilles), despite diverse populations and different languages, people live together with a history, a culture, and traditions that have many common points. We start this file with the history of the Caribbean by including Martinique.
If at first the history of the Caribbean islands seems fairly similar, with waves of immigration of indigenous peoples from the north of South America, the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the division of the islands between the European crowns, the exploitation of the territories leading to a new wave of arrivals, slaves from Africa will considerably change the history and face of these islands. Thereafter, the political upheavals will be numerous, leading more often to distended relations between the islands of this archipelago. However, the attempts at economic rapprochement and cooperation of all kinds that have been put in place augur a necessary collaboration in the future...
Pre-Columbian history of the Caribbean
The Caribbean, before being the name of a group of islands, was the name of a people from the northern part of South America who lived in the archipelago. The history of the Caribbean before Columbus is summarized in the settlement of two different groups, the Taino, a tribe of a larger group, the Arawak, who occupied the land for several centuries before the arrival of the Caribs.
The Taino, who settled in the Leeward Islands and a group of islands from Puerto Rico to Dominica, came from present-day Venezuela and are believed to have arrived around the fourth or fifth century BC. The word Taino, which means "peace" in the Arawak language, was attributed to these peaceful people who would have colonized the region several centuries before Christ. The Borinquans were in Puerto Rico, and the Lucayans lived in the Bahamas, while the Tainos lived in the islands of Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba.
The Taino slept in hammocks, held ritual ceremonies around a male and female icon, a wooden stone figure of their gods called the "zemis". In addition, they considered rain, wind, fire, and hurricanes as natural spiritual forces. For them, after death, there was a place called "cobaya", a sanctified place free of disease, storms, and hunger. Their main source of food was "land and ocean": fish, parrots, doves, and small land animals. To this, they added corn, cassava, and various wild fruits.
The Carib tribes arriving in the islands would have systematically forced the Tainos to leave the islands. However, it would be the Spanish explorers who would have definitively exterminated the Tainos. In their conquest of gold, the Spaniards eradicated the tribes in a little less than fifty years. The conquistadors sent the Tainos to work in gold and pearl mines in South Africa, but many of them, refusing this role, preferred to commit suicide rather than be enslaved. The race for gold continued until 1521, when larger reserves were discovered in Mexico.
On the other hand, the Caribs believed in superstitions, and most were not interested in religion. They were a warrior tribe with long black hair. Their main clothing consisted of parrot feathers, necklaces made from the teeth of their victims, and red paint on the body. While the men fished and hunted for food, the females made "carbets," a circular shelter with a thatched roof. Often, their wives were Arawak women whom they had captured in battle against their enemies who occupied the same territories. They spoke their native language among the Carib tribes.
The Caribs were also farmers. They cultivated the "yucca" (name given to the cassava) and sweet potatoes. Moreover, they were skilled hunters. The men were excellent shooters with the bows and arrows they used for this purpose, but their shooting accuracy was not limited to hunting. With dugouts that could hold up to a hundred men, they attacked the vessels present in the ocean waters. Very few Caribs survived the conquest of the islands by the Europeans.
As a result, they have completely disappeared from the Caribbean today. Suppose there's one important legacy of their history that can be found today in various museums on the different islands. In that case, it's the characteristics of the Arawak faces that can be found in some Cubans and Dominicans of our time.