Grenada’s African History and Resistance to Slavery: Celebrating Grenada Independence Day
Feb 06, 2022 08:00AM ● By Oga Africa
(Grenada. Image via Canva )
Happy Independence Day, Grenada! On February 7th, 1974, this Caribbean country gained independence from the British. In honor of the country’s fight for freedom, we are examining the country’s African history, and resistance to slavery, including its creolized storytelling forms, and Fedon’s rebellion.
Grenada, a Caribbean country made up of 20 islands, is majority Black. In 2011, Britannica estimated its Black population to be 82.4%. The original inhabitants, the Awarak, preceded the Caribs, and the Caribs preceded the Europeans, who brought Africans to the islands for slave labor. Some tribes said to be taken to the country now known as Grenada include the Yoruba, Ga, Temne, Hausa, Akan, and more.
Akan culture is evident in the culture of Afro-Grenadians, including names, cuisine, and storytelling traditions. Anansi stories, tales told among the Akan tribes of Ghana that serve to instruct wisdom and entertainment for youth, survived in the Caribbean through the slave trade. In Grenada, Anansi, the spider, maintains his traditional name. In other parts of the Caribbean, Anancy has different names and manifestations, including Ti-Jean in St. Lucia, and Compere Lapin in parts of the French Caribbean.
Read ‘Celebrating Grenada Independence Day’
Celebrating Grenada Independence Day
Happy Independence Day, Grenada! Today in 1974, this beautiful country gained its independence from the British. Let’s take a journey inside this Caribbean country’s multicultural past an... Read More »
( Women pose at a Street Cruise in St. George’s, Grenada. Image by Ted McGrath via Flickr)
During the slave era in Grenada, some enslaved absconded to remote parts of the country and formed maroon towns. In the late 1700s, the governing British began to capture and execute them for stealing from slave owners. Other acts of resistance to slavery in Grenada, like ‘Fedon’s Rebellion’, illustrate the agency enslaved and freed Africans created during unimaginable circumstances.
‘Fedon’s Rebellion’ was an act of resistance to slavery that altered the path of colonial Grenada, and gave a voice to the enslaved. Julien Fedon, a Martinique-born free and prosperous mulatto who owned approximately 80 slaves in Grenada, led a March of 1795 rebellion that would last until June of 1796. This rebellion, initially carried out by about 100 freed people in Grenada, is said to have been inspired by the revolutions happening at that time, including the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Haitian Revolution, and occurred due to the marginalization of Black people on the island. Fedon’s Rebellion aimed to form a Black republic and put an end to slavery.
( A riot of the enslaved. Image by Washington Area Spark via Flickr )Grenada, which was a French and then a British colony, had a peculiar relationship with the global fights for freedoms happening at the time, as Blacks on the island most likely would have interacted with both French and British colonialism, and heard about the political reform happening for marginalized communities overseas. Almost a year into the rebellion, Fedon and his army, and French allies, had taken control of nearly the complete island. In the wake of the rebellion, over 30 of Fedon’s soldiers were killed, with over 50 tried and deemed guilty. Fedon was never captured. Through the ordeal, an estimated 7,000 slaves and over 48 British were killed. Slavery in the country would not be banned until 1834.
Which slave rebellion is most notable to you and why? Comment below!
Works Cited
https://www.britannica.com/place/Grenada
https://stlucia.loopnews.com/content/5-st-lucian-folklore-stories-our-childhood-part-2
https://www.caribbeanauthority.com/number-of-islands-in-grenada-including-the-tiny-ones/
https://journals.openedition.org/lrf/2017
