Dominica

C

Natural Resources

Dominica is known as the Nature Island of the Caribbean and is a fine example of what volcanic islands in the east Caribbean looked like before the arrival of Europeans and plantation agriculture. The main resources of the island are timber, water (for hydropower), and fertile soil. Dominica has three national parks. The Morne Trois Pitons National Park was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997.

III

People and Culture

Dominica has a total population of 68,925 (2007 estimate). Despite a high birthrate and a long life expectancy (74 years), the population of Dominica has grown slowly, owing to emigration to other islands of the Caribbean and to Great Britain. More than 90 percent of the inhabitants are black, descendants of people brought from Africa in the 18th century. A small number of Carib Indians also live on Dominica, descendents of the inhabitants of the island when Europeans first arrived.

English is the official language and is used mainly in government and commerce. Most of the people speak a French-based creole. Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion, but there are also several large Protestant communities, including Seventh-day Adventists, Pentecostals, and Methodists. Roseau (population, 2003 estimate, 27,401) is the capital and chief port.

Education is free and compulsory in Dominica from the ages of 5 to 15. The literacy rate for adults is 94 percent. The best-known writers to come from the island are Jean Rhys and Phyllis Shand Allfrey. Rhys spent most of her life in Europe and wrote little about Dominica. However, in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), Rhys used her knowledge of the West Indies to imagine the early life of Antoinette Cosway, the first wife of Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte’s novel Jane Eyre. Allfrey devoted most of her time to the Dominica Labor Party and was a newspaper editor; her only published novel was The Orchid House (1953). See also Caribbean Literature.

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The main festival on Dominica is Carnival, which takes place on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It features street bands and masked and costumed dancers. A typical costume consists of layers of banana leaves or cloth, topped with a frightening mask with horns.

IV

Economy

Dominica had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $248 million in 2002, or $3,440 per person. GDP is a measure of all the goods and services a country produces. The island’s fertile volcanic soils provide a good basis for farming, and Dominica continued to have an economy based on agriculture into the 1990s. The main export product is bananas, the quantity and value of which fluctuate according to the weather. Hurricanes periodically wipe out much of the crop.

Banana producers suffered with the opening of the European Union (EU) market in 1992, which has forced them to compete with U.S. producers that have large plantations on mainland Latin America. Banana prices fell on the world market, and farmers in the Windward Islands found it impossible to match the economies of scale of multinational corporations on the mainland. The EU in 1993 imposed quotas on banana imports that were favorable to Caribbean producers, but the United States challenged the quotas through the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 1999 the WTO ordered the EU to end preferential quotas.

Coconuts are also grown on Dominica and used primarily to make soap and cooking oil. Coconut-based toiletries now account for over 20 percent of the island’s exports. Other crops are being promoted to diversify the economy away from reliance on bananas. They include coffee, cacao, mangoes, citrus fruit, and root vegetables.

Pumice is quarried and exported on Dominica. Manufacturing is on a small scale and largely limited to the processing of farm products. The main manufactured goods are fruit juices, alcoholic beverages, soap, and essential oils. The island also has electronic assembly plants, data-processing companies, and garment manufacturers.

The government promotes Dominica’s “nature island” image to attract tourists. Beaches are few, but the island’s wildlife and natural beauty bring ecotourists. Increasing numbers of visitors come for the rain forest, birding, hiking, scuba diving, and whale watching.

The currency is the East Caribbean dollar (2.70 East Caribbean dollars equal U.S.$1; 2005 average).

V

Government

Dominica is governed by a president, prime minister, and cabinet, who are responsible to the country’s legislature, the House of Assembly. The president is the head of state, a largely ceremonial role, and the prime minister, as the head of government, is in charge of governing. The president is elected by the House of Assembly for a term of five years and may not serve more than two terms. The president is obliged to choose the head of the majority party in the House of Assembly as prime minister. Elections must be held at least once every five years, but the prime minister may call elections at any time.

There are 30 members of the House of Assembly, 21 elected representatives and 9 appointed senators. The senators are usually nominated by the president, five on the advice of the prime minister and four on the advice of the leader of the opposition. However, the senators can also be elected, according to Dominica’s constitution. Every Dominican citizen over age 18 is entitled to vote.

VI

History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Arawak and Carib people inhabited Dominica. The Arawak, a peaceful people who lived in agricultural communities, were nearly eliminated by the Europeans, chiefly as a result of disease and enslavement. The more warlike Carib resisted the European settlers, and many more of them survived.

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