Republic of Trinidad & Tobago

The flag

Red: The warmth of the sun; the courage and friendliness of the people

White: The sea by which the islands are connected

Black:The strength, unity, and wealth of the land

Map of the IslandGeography • Southernmost islands

in Caribbean Sea. • Trinidad

1,864 miles² = 4,828 km² .

• Tobago 116 miles² = 300 km²

• Trinidad is +/- 7 miles from the coast of Venezuela on the South American mainland.

Geography• 3 mountain ranges,

east to west.

• The mountainous north coast heavily wooded.

• Central part more flat where sugar cane is grown.

• The East–West corridor is an urban–industrial

• Natural resources: petroleum, natural gas, asphalt, gypsum, coal, iron, limestone, sand, gravel, argillite, and fluorspar

• Exports: $9.161 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, steel products, fertilizer, sugar, cocoa, coffee, citrus, flowers

History

• 1st inhabitants Amerindians Arawaks; (Carib Indians) from South America +/- 100 years before Christopher Columbus

• European settlers bring (foreign diseases) native population greatly reduced

• Today few full-blooded descendants remain.

• Trinidad named by Christopher Columbus (3rd voyage to the New World) 31 July 1498.

• He saw a trinity of hills along the southeastern coast.

• The island was called Iere : "the land of the hummingbird," by its native Amerindian inhabitants.

• Tobago's name probably derived from tabaco (tobacco in Spanish).

Colonial times• Under colonial rule, slaves

shipped from Africa to work on sugar plantations.

• After abolition of African slave trade (1834) East Indian and Chinese peasants hired as indentured servants to work the fields.

• Many chose to stay and live in Trinidad and Tobago, even after the practice of indentured servitude ended in 1917

Present dayPopulation

• Trinidadians (not Tobagonians) refer to citizens of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago as: "Trinidadians“ or "Trinis,”

ColonializationMain influence on culture ofTrinidad and Tobago:

• Spain(300 years),France and Britain. (all 3 claimed islands during colonial history)

• Tobago passed between Britain and France several time

• In 1797, Trinidad under British control (Sir Ralph Abercromby) captured the island from Spain.

• In 1802, Trinidad and Tobago officially British colonies under the Treaty of Amiens

Medallion showing the Capture of Trinidad and Tobago by the British in 1797

Independance

• Monetary unit: Trinidad and Tobago dollar

• Head of State: President A.N.R. Robinson

• Head of Government: Prime Minister Basdeo Panday

• Partial self-government in 1925

• 1958 to 1962 part of the West Indies Federation.

• On Aug. 31, 1962 Independence

• Aug. 1, 1976, Trinidad and Tobago become republic (remaining within Commonwealth)

Language

1. English, official language in Trinidad & Tobago

2. Main spoken language by all Trinidadians regardless of ethnicity is: dialect/ creole (reflects the Spanish, Indian, African and European heritage)

3. The creole languages and other vernaculars are spoken in informal situations, and there is no formalized system of writing

4. Patois (a variety of French Creole) was once the most widely spoken language in Trinidad, and there are various remnants of the language in everyday vernacular.

5. Trinidadian English, largely influenced by French, French Creole, Spanish, and by Bhojpuri/Hindi.

Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)

Return to Spanish• Due to Trinidad's location on the coast of South America,

slowly redeveloping connection with the Spanish-speaking peoples

• In 2004 the government initiated the Spanish as a First Foreign Language (SAFFL) public launch in March 2005.

• Government regulations now require Spanish to be taught to everyone beginning at the primary school level

• The government announced that Spanish is to become the second official language of the country by 2020 alongside English.

A little talk.. • Langniappe a little extra

• Free up relax, let go

• Sock eye too easy for words

• Ole talk empty chatter

• Lime spend time talking/lauging and hanging out with your friends

• Long Eye envious

• Maco someone who minds the business of others

• Play mas : put on a costume and go to Carnival with a band

• While class and ethnic differences matter, as do contexts, sociability are highly valued, punctuality is not expected.

• "Trinidad time" refers to habitual lateness and "jus' now" means "in a little while" but in practice can mean hours.

• On city streets it is common for men to verbally harass women and women generally lose status if they reply.

• In country districts, it is expected that one salutes passers by with a "good morning" or "good aftimiernoon

Custom and Culture

• As a multi-cultural population, Trinidad and Tobago has embraced the customs, traditions, and folklore of many regions, including Africa, India, Europe, and the Far East.

• Religions: Roman Catholic 26%, Anglican 8%, Baptist 7%, Pentecostal 7%, Seventh-Day Adventist 4%, other Christian 6%, Hindu 22%, Islam 6%, none 2%

• There are followers of Sai Baba and Rastafarians. Afro-Christian forms of worship are prevalent (Orisha religion, Spiritual Baptists)

• There are folk beliefs in jumbies (ghosts, spirits).

Carnival• Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago

original roots in West African festivals and French Catholic carnival celebrations

• When drums and religious practices were prohibited, slaves found new ways to pass on their heritage (singing, dancing and music was added to transform Carnival into what we see today)

• Carnival is celebrated 2days before Ash Wednesday (begins the season of Lent)

• In the earliest times, similar celebrations were held at the end of harvest, hence the Crop Over celebrations in some other Caribbean islands.

• As harvest festivals were reduced, the festival time became the pre-Lent festival tied to the Roman Catholic carne vale (farewell to the flesh

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Typical T&T

• Birthplace of calypso music and the steelpan (claimed to be the only acoustic musical instrument invented during the 20th century)

Other indigenous art forms include: • Soca (a derivate of calypso),• Parang (Venezuelan-influenced

Christmas music)• Chutney, and Pichakaree

(musical forms which blend the music of the Caribbean and India)

• The famous Limbo dance.

Author: V.S. Naipaul• Born in Trinidad in 1932, the

descendant of indentured labourers shipped from India,

• educated at Queen's Royal College, Port of Spain, in 1950 won a scholarship to Oxford.

• From 1954 to 1956 Naipaul was a broadcaster for the BBC's Caribbean Voices

• Between the years 1957 and 1961 regular fiction reviewer for the New Statesman

• Since 1950 Naipaul has lived in Britain, but travelled extensively.

V.S Naipaul2001 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Sir V. S. Naipaul, displays his Nobel Prize Medal while Lady Naipaul beams with pride. Naipaul, who is a British citizen, was born in Trinidad.

• leading novelist of the English-speaking Caribbean.

• Winner of the Nobel Prize in literature 2001.

• Subsequent novels developed more political themes and he began to write about colonial and post-colonial societies in the process of decolonisation.

• V. S. Naipaul is also the author of a number of works of non-fiction including three books about India.

 

The novel: Miguel street

• Miguel Street is a semi- autobiographical novel by V.S Naipaul set in wartime Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

• written in 1959.

• presents a series of separate episodes of childhood experienced by an unnamed narrator, all happening in and around Miguel Street, a street in western Port of Spain

• The book is the story of great ambitions that never went anywhere.

 

Themes • values within a small community

• cruelty

• self-respect, beauty and imagination

• escape

Vocabulary 

Old fashioned English terms example: “ague”= Fever

Caribbean English example: Dolly ain’t have no mooma now! ( mother)