Grenada
Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...
's
French colonists brought their culture, as did the
African slaves they brought across the
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
for agricultural work.
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
ns have also influenced the island culture in more recent years.
With the passing of the
Slave Trade Act 1807
The Slave Trade Act 1807 ( 47 Geo. 3 Sess. 1. c. 36), or the Abolition of Slave Trade Act 1807, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom prohibiting the Atlantic slave trade in the British Empire. Although it did not automatica ...
by the British Parliament and the subsequent abolishing of slavery,
indentured labor from India was procured at a very large scale.
The first ship, named the ''Maidstone'', departed from
Calcutta
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
, India on January 27, 1857, and arrived a few months later on May 1. In all, 3,206 East Indians arrived in Grenada by 1885. Only 380 of them returned to India. The Indians made many contributions to Grenada.
Indian Arrival Day
Indian Arrival Day is a holiday celebrated on various days in the nations of the Caribbean, Fiji, South Africa and Mauritius, commemorating the arrival of people from India and the wider subcontinent to their respective nations as indentured l ...
was celebrated in 2007 on the 150th anniversary, for the first time since the centenary celebration in 1957.
The Indians later on assimilated with the existing Africans, Europeans and other ethnicities intermarrying with each other. This very much influenced the culture and cuisine of Grenada.
Cuisine
The national dish,
oil down
Oil down is a salted meat and vegetable stew that is the national dish of Grenada.
Description
Oil down is a stew of breadfruit, salted meat, chicken, dumplings, callaloo, and other vegetables stewed in coconut milk, herbs, and spices. The na ...
, is a combination of
breadfruit
Breadfruit (''Artocarpus altilis'') is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family ( Moraceae) believed to have been selectively bred in Polynesia from the breadnut ('' Artocarpus camansi''). Breadfruit was spread into ...
,
coconut milk
Coconut milk is a plant milk extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of the milky-white liquid are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food ingred ...
,
turmeric
Turmeric (), or ''Curcuma longa'' (), is a flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. It is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and high ...
(misnamed
saffron
Saffron () is a spice derived from the flower of '' Crocus sativus'', commonly known as the "saffron crocus". The vivid crimson stigma and styles, called threads, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent ...
), dumplings,
callaloo
Callaloo ( , ; many spelling variants, such as kallaloo, calaloo, calalloo, calaloux, or callalloo) is a plant used in popular dishes in many Caribbean countries, while for other Caribbean countries, a stew made with the plant is called call ...
(
taro
Taro (; ''Colocasia esculenta'') is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a ...
leaves), and salted meat such as saltfish (
cod
Cod (: cod) is the common name for the demersal fish genus ''Gadus'', belonging to the family (biology), family Gadidae. Cod is also used as part of the common name for a number of other fish species, and one species that belongs to genus ''Gad ...
), smoked herring or salt beef. It is often cooked in a large pot, commonly referred to by locals as a karhee, or curry pot. Popular street foods include aloo pie, doubles, and dal puri served wrapped around a
curry
Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internatio ...
, commonly
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of Caprinae, goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
, and fried bakes and
fish cakes. Sweets include kurma,
guava cheese
Goiabada (; from ''Portuguese'' goiaba, guava) is a conserve made of red guavas and sugar, commonly found throughout the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world. It dates back to the colonial times of Brazil, where guavas were used as a su ...
, fudge or barfi,
tamarind
Tamarind (''Tamarindus indica'') is a Legume, leguminous tree bearing edible fruit that is indigenous to tropical Africa and naturalized in Asia. The genus ''Tamarindus'' is monotypic taxon, monotypic, meaning that it contains only this spe ...
balls, rum-raisin ice cream, currant rolls, and Grenadian spice cake.
Nutmeg
Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...
and
mace (spice)
Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...
are used in abundance.
Music and festivals
Music plays a significant part in Grenadian culture, with the annual
Carnival
Carnival (known as Shrovetide in certain localities) is a festive season that occurs at the close of the Christian pre-Lenten period, consisting of Quinquagesima or Shrove Sunday, Shrove Monday, and Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.
Carnival typi ...
competition generating new
soca and
calypso material in August. The rest of the time soca, calypso, and
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...
are popular.
Zouk
Zouk is a musical movement and dance pioneered by the French Antillean band Kassav' in the early 1980s. It was originally characterized by a fast tempo (120–145 bpm), a percussion-driven rhythm, and a loud horn section. Musicians from Mart ...
music has also been imported to Grenada from other French
Caribbean
The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...
islands recently. Other local celebrations include the National Dance Festival and
Independence Day
An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...
.
References
External links
The Division of Culture, Grenada- Official site
Grenadian Cuisine
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