Bandariba (also: Banda'riba) is a district of the island of
Curaçao
Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela.
Curaçao includ ...
. It is one of the three districts and encompasses the south-eastern part of the island.
The name is Papiamentu and translates to "upside".
The district contains the towns and villages of
Santa Rosa,
,
Montaña,
Seru Grandi,
and
Oostpunt.
History
In 1634, Curaçao was conquered by the
Dutch West Indies Company
The Dutch West India Company () was a Dutch chartered company that was founded in 1621 and went defunct in 1792. Among its founders were Reynier Pauw, Willem Usselincx (1567–1647), and Jessé de Forest (1576–1624). On 3 June 1621, it was g ...
, and the city of
Punda was founded. In order to feed the population,
plantation
Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
s were established on the island.
The plantations were small-scale due to the infertile ground and produced
yams, mangos, oranges, or raised
livestock
Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...
.
Bandariba later attracted free and
freed slaves
A freedman or freedwoman is a person who has been released from slavery, usually by legal means. Historically, slaves were freed by manumission (granted freedom by their owners), emancipation (granted freedom as part of a larger group), or self- ...
who settled in the vacant land.
In the 19th century, the Roman Catholic church founded the villages of Santa Rose and Montaña in order to educate and convert the former slave population.
In 1875, a large-scale
phosphate mine
Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus.
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphor ...
was opened near the
Tafelberg, In 1927,
Royal Dutch Shell
Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...
built an oil terminal at Spaanse Water.
The current division of the island dates from 1930 when
Willemstad
Willemstad ( ; ; ; ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean Sea that is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was the cap ...
was extended to include most of the suburbs. During the late 20th century, tourism became important and Bandariba saw the development of tourist resorts.
The village of Oostpunt, the most eastern point of the island, is private property of the Maal family,
and most of the area surrounding the villages of Oostpunt, Sint Joris, and Santa Catharina is off limits. The village of Oostpunt is only inhabited by Willy Maal and his mother. Oostpunt covers about 10% of the island.
Villages
* Montaña Abou
* Montaña Rey
*
Nieuwpoort
*
Oostpunt
*
Santa Barbara
*
Santa Rosa
* Seru Grandi
*
Spaanse Water
References
Bibliography
*
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Districts of Curaçao