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Wikipedia

Dominica

January 26, 2023

Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic.

Dominica (/ˌdɒmɪˈniːkə/[9][10][11] or /dəˈmɪnɪkə/ (listen);[12] Kalinago: Wai‘tu kubuli; French: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: Dominik), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean.[13] The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically situated as part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea. Dominica's closest neighbours are two constituent territories of the European Union, the overseas departments of France, Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south-southeast. Dominica comprises a land area of 750 km2 (290 sq mi), and the highest point is Morne Diablotins, at 1,447 m (4,747 ft) in elevation. The population was 71,293 at the 2011 census.[6]

Commonwealth of Dominica
Motto: "Apres Bondie, C'est La Ter"[1] (Dominican Creole French)
"Post Deum terra est" (Latin)
"After God is the earth"
Anthem: Isle of Beauty, Isle of Splendour
Location of Dominica (circled in red)

in the Western Hemisphere

Capital
and largest city
Roseau
15°18′N 61°23′W / 15.300°N 61.383°W / 15.300; -61.383
Official languagesEnglish
Vernacular
languages		Dominican Creole
Kokoy
Ethnic groups
(2014[2])
Religion
(2020)
Demonym(s)Dominican
(pronounced /ˌdɒmɪˈniːkən/)
GovernmentUnitary dominant-party parliamentary republic
• President
Charles Savarin
Roosevelt Skerrit
Joseph Isaac
LegislatureHouse of Assembly of Dominica
Independence 
from the United Kingdom
1 March 1967
• Sovereignty and current constitution
3 November 1978
Area
• Total
750 km2 (290 sq mi) (174th)
• Water (%)
1.6
Population
• 2021 estimate
72,412[4][5] (204th)
• 2011 census
72,000[6]
• Density
105/km2 (271.9/sq mi) (95th)
GDP (PPP)2018 estimate
• Total
$688 million[7]
• Per capita
$9,726[7]
GDP (nominal)2018 estimate
• Total
$485 million[7]
• Per capita
$7,860[7]
HDI (2019) 0.742[8]
high · 94th
CurrencyEast Caribbean dollar (XCD)
Time zoneUTC–4 (AST)
Driving sideleft
Calling code+1-767
ISO 3166 codeDM
Internet TLD.dm

The island was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the fifth century. The Kalinago displaced the Arawak by the 15th century. Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday, 3 November 1493. It was later colonised by Europeans, predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763. The French imported enslaved people from West Africa to Dominica to work on coffee plantations. Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years' War, and it gradually established English as its official language. The island gained independence as a republic in 1978.

Dominica has been nicknamed the "Nature Island of the Caribbean" for its natural environment.[14] It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles, and in fact it is still being formed by geothermal-volcanic activity, as evidenced by the world's second-largest hot spring, called Boiling Lake. The island has lush mountainous rainforests and is the home of many rare plants, animals, and bird species. There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions, but heavy rainfall occurs inland. The Sisserou parrot, also known as the Imperial amazon, is critically endangered and found only on Dominica. It is the island's national bird and is featured on the national flag, making Dominica one of only two sovereign nations whose official flag features the color purple.[15][16] The country is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, the Organization of American States, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Etymology

Dominica's name is locally pronounced with emphasis on the third syllable,[9][10] following the Spanish pronunciation of its name[17] given to it by Christopher Columbus.

History

Main article: History of Dominica

Geologic history

Dominica first emerged from the sea during the Oligocene era approximately 26 million years ago, making it one of the last Caribbean islands to be formed by volcanic activity.

Pre-colonial period and early European contact

Dominica's precolonial indigenous inhabitants were the Island Carib people, who are thought to have driven out the previous Arawak population.[18] The Caribs called the island Wai‘tu kubuli, which means "Tall is her body."[19]

Christopher Columbus, sailing for Spain, named the island as Dominica, after the Latin term dies Dominica for Sunday, the day on which the Spanish first saw it in November 1493.[18] Some Spanish colonisers settled here. But, as European explorers and settlers entered the region, indigenous refugees from surrounding islands settled Dominica and pushed out the Spanish settlers. The Spanish instead settled other areas that were easier to control.

French colony

Main article: French West Indies

Spain had little success in colonising Dominica. In 1632, the French Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique claimed it and other "Petites Antilles" for France, but no physical occupation took place.[18] Between 1642 and 1650, French missionary Raymond Breton became the first regular European visitor to the island.

In 1660, the French and English agreed that Dominica and St. Vincent should not be settled, but instead left to the Carib as neutral territory[18]—but its natural resources attracted expeditions of English and French foresters, who began harvesting timber.[20] In 1690, the French established their first permanent settlements. French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe began to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood, and they gradually became permanent settlers. They brought the first enslaved Africans from West Africa to Dominique, as they called it in French.

In 1715, a revolt of "poor white" smallholders in the north of Martinique, known as La Gaoulé,[21] caused settlers to migrate to southern Dominique, where they set up smallholdings. Meanwhile, French families and others from Guadeloupe settled in the north. In 1727, the first French commander, M. Le Grand, took charge of the island with a basic French government. Dominique formally became a colony of France, and the island was divided into districts or "quarters".[22] The French had already developed plantation agriculture on Martinique and Guadeloupe, where they cultivated sugarcane with enslaved African workers. In Dominique they gradually developed coffee plantations. Because of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the general population came to consist primarily of black-African slaves.

In 1761, during the Seven Years' War in Europe, a British expedition against Dominica led by Andrew Rollo conquered the island, along with several other Caribbean islands. In 1763, France had lost the war and ceded the island to Great Britain under the Treaty of Paris.[18] The same year, the British established a legislative assembly, with only European colonists represented. French remained the official language, but Antillean Creole, which had developed from it, was spoken by most of the population.

In 1778 the French, with the active co-operation of the population, began the re-capture of Dominica.[18] This was ended by the Treaty of Paris (1783), which returned the island to British control. But the island population, especially the class of free people of color, resisted British restrictions. The British retained control through French invasions in 1795 and 1805,[18][20] the first taking place during the period of the Haitian Revolution, which gained the independence of Haiti (formerly Saint-Domingue, France's richest Caribbean colony).

British colony

Main articles: British West Indies, British Leeward Islands, and British Windward Islands
 
A linen market in 1770s Dominica

Great Britain established a small colony in 1805. It used Dominica as part of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, by which slaves were imported and sold as labour in the islands as part of a trade that included producing and shipping sugar and coffee as commodity crops to Europe. The best documented slave plantation on the island is Hillsborough Estate, which had 71 male and 68 female slaves. The Greg family were notable: Thomas Hodgson, a brother-in-law, owned a slave ship, and Thomas Greg and his son John Greg were part-owners of sugar plantations on Dominica. In January 1814, 20 slaves absconded from Hillsborough. They were recorded as recaptured and punished with 100 lashes applied to the males and 50 for the females. The slaves reportedly said that one of their people had died in the plantation hospital, and they believed he had been poisoned.[23]

In 1831, reflecting a liberalisation of official British racial attitudes, the Brown Privilege Bill[24] conferred political and social rights on free blacks (mostly free people of colour, who generally were of mixed race, with African and European ancestry). With the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, Britain ended the institution of slavery throughout its empire, except in India.[25]

With freedom came enfranchisement. In 1835, the first three men of African descent were elected to the legislative assembly of Dominica. Many slaves from the neighbouring French colonial islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique fled to Dominica. In 1838, Dominica became the first colony of the British West Indies to have an elected legislature controlled by an ethnic African majority. Most of these legislators had been free people of colour and smallholders or merchants before the abolition of slavery. Their economic and social views were different from the interests of the small, wealthy English planter class. Reacting to a perceived threat to their power, the planters lobbied for more direct British rule.[20]

In 1865, after much agitation and tension, the colonial office replaced the elective assembly with one made up of one-half members who were elected and one-half who were appointed. Planters, who were allied with colonial administrators, outmanoeuvred the elected legislators on many occasions. In 1871, Dominica became part of the British Leeward Islands. The political power of the elected assembly progressively eroded. Crown colony government was re-established in 1896.

Early 20th century

See also: West Indies Federation
 
Dominica stamps with portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II

In World War I, many Dominicans, mainly the sons of small farmers, volunteered to fight in Europe for the British Empire. After the war, an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the Representative Government Association. Marshaling public frustration with the lack of a voice in governing Dominica, this group won one-third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924, and one-half in 1936. In 1940, administration of Dominica was transferred from the British Leeward Islands to the British Windward Islands.[20] During World War II, some Dominicans volunteered in British and Caribbean forces. Thousands of Free French refugees from Martinique and Guadeloupe escaped to Dominica from the Vichy-controlled French islands, staying in Roseau and other villages.

Until 1958, Dominica was governed as part of the British Windward Islands. Caribbean islands sought independence from 1958 to 1962, and Dominica became a province of the short-lived West Indies Federation in 1958.[18][20] After the federation dissolved in 1962, Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967, and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs.[18] On 3 November 1978, the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence as a republic, led by Prime Minister Patrick John.[18][20][26]

Post-independence

In mid-1979, political discontent with Founding Prime Minister Patrick John's administration climaxed in a civilian coup and ended in the passage of a Motion of No Confidence in the House of Assembly, Dominica's legislature, against John, collapsing the John administration. A new, so-called "Interim Government" was formed under Dominica's second Prime Minister Oliver Seraphin;[18] Seraphin's main task was to prepare the country for fresh general elections constitutionally due in 1980, hence the unofficial title "Interim" Prime Minister. Seraphin organized and led a splinter of the Dominica Labour Party called the Democratic Labour Party into the 1980 general election and lost mainly because his nearly 13 month-long premiership was dominated by the fallout from Category Five Hurricane David, which caused 56 deaths and untold damage across the island.[18][27] Hurricane Allen the following year caused further damage.[18] After the 1980 election, Seraphin's government was replaced by one led by the Dominica Freedom Party (DFP) under Prime Minister Eugenia Charles; she was the Caribbean's first female Prime Minister.[18][28]

In 1981, Charles's government was threatened with two attempted coups. The first was led by Frederick Newton, commander of the Military of Dominica, who organised an attack on the police headquarters in Roseau which resulted in the death of a police officer.[29] Newton and five other soldiers were found guilty in the attack and sentenced to death in 1983; the sentences of the five accomplices were later commuted to life in prison, but Newton was executed in 1986.[29] A second occurred later in the year when the country was threatened with a takeover by mercenaries[30] in Operation Red Dog, led by Mike Perdue and Wolfgang Droege. They tried to overthrow Charles as Prime Minister and reinstall ex-Prime Minister John in exchange for control over the country's development. The FBI was tipped off, and the ship hired to transport the mercenaries never left dock. The mercenaries lacked formal military experience or training, and most of the crew had been misled into joining by the ringleader Mike Perdue. White supremacist Don Black was also jailed for his part in the attempted coup, which violated US neutrality laws.[31]

 
Eugenia Charles, Prime Minister 1980–95, discussing the situation in Grenada in 1983 with US President Ronald Reagan

The Charles government supported the 1983 American Invasion of Grenada, earning Dominica praise from the Reagan administration and an increase in financial aid.[32]

By the middle of the 1980s, the economy had begun to recover,[18] before weakening again due to a decrease in banana prices. Eugenia Charles won the 1985 general election, becoming only the first incumbent Dominica Prime Minister to be popularly re-elected. The continuing downturn in the economy and the tight grip by Eugenia Charles on Dominica politics gave rise to a self-titled "Third Force" political formation in 1988, which disrupted the traditional two-party arrangement of governing DFP and opposition DLP. "Third Force" soon formalized as United Workers Party and selected as its leader Edison James, the former General Manager of the Dominica Banana Marketing Company. This was a strategic selection given James's prestige among banana farmers and his originating from the East or Atlantic Coast that had begun to feel alienated by the West or Caribbean Sea Coast elites in Roseau, Dominica's capital.[20] Eugenia Charles again won the 1990 general election, the first incumbent Dominica Prime Minister to win three consecutive general elections. However, Eugenia Charles's DFP had been pushed to within one seat of losing its majority in Parliament by the emergence of the UWP. It was, therefore, no great surprise when Eugenia Charles gave up political leadership of the Dominica Freedom Party in 1993 and did not contest the 1995 general election in any capacity. No longer benefiting from the veteran charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Eugenia Charles, the Dominica Freedom Party lost the 1995 election to the United Workers' Party (UWP), whose leader Edison James became Prime Minister.[18] James, former General Manager of the Dominica Banana Marketing Company attempted to diversify the Dominican economy away from over-reliance on bananas. The crop was largely destroyed by Hurricane Luis in 1995.[18] Further James was unable to restore banana to its former selling price and prestige. Moreover, the James administration became embroiled in Opposition charges of official corruption.

In the 31 January 2000 general election, the UWP were defeated by a coalition of the DLP, led by left-leaning Roosevelt B. "Rosie" Douglas and the Dominica Freedom Party led by former trade union leader, Charles Savarin. Douglas became Prime Minister. One UWP member of the House of Assembly crossed the floor, joining the DLP-DFP coalition government. However, Douglas died on 1 October 2000 after only a few months.[18][33][34] Prime Minister Douglas was replaced by Pierre Charles, who also died in office on 6 January 2004.[18][35] Roosevelt Skerrit, also of the DLP, replaced Pierre Charles as Prime Minister, becoming the world's youngest head of government at the age of 31.[18] Under Skerrit's leadership, the DLP won elections in May 2005 that gave the party 12 seats in the 21-seat Parliament, to the UWP's 8 seats. An independent candidate affiliated with the DLP won a seat as well. Later, the independent candidate joined the government.[20][36] With his 2005 election win, Skerrit became only the second incumbent Prime Minister of seven to be popularly re-elected.

In the 2009 election, the DLP won 18 of 21 seats. The UWP claimed campaign improprieties and embarked on a wide range of protest actions, including boycott of Parliament. UWP's boycott lasted at least three unauthorized absences from Parliament for two of their three Elected Representatives in Parliament in violation of Parliamentary procedure, leading to their two seats being declared vacant and by-elections being called to fill them; by-elections were conducted for those two vacant seats in July 2010, and the UWP again won both seats.[37] The DLP under Skerrit went on to win the 2014 Dominican general election.[38]

On 17 September 2012 Eliud Thaddeus Williams was sworn in as President (a largely ceremonial role), replacing Dr. Nicholas Liverpool who was reportedly removed from office due to ill health. On 30 September 2013 former Trade Union leader and former Dominica Freedom Party leader Charles Savarin was elected president having only days before resigned as a Minister of Government. He is Dominica’s eighth President.[39]

 
Damage in Roseau caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017

Tropical Storm Erika devastated the island in August 2015, killing 30 and causing severe environmental and economic damage.[18] Dominica was again struck on 18 September 2017, suffering a direct landfall from Category 5 Hurricane Maria.[18][40] Early estimates of damage suggested 90% of the buildings on the island had been destroyed, with infrastructure left in ruins.[41][42] The UK, France and the Netherlands set up shipping and air lifts to take aid to the island; the scale of destruction having left most people homeless.

Dominica won its first two Commonwealth Games medals in silver and bronze in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.[43]

President Charles Angelo Savarin was re-elected in 2018 for a new five-year term.[44]

 
The current Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit

In December 2019, incumbent Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit won his fourth consecutive general election eighteen seats to three, becoming the first Dominica Prime Minister ever to do so.[45]

Geography and climate

 
Dominica is an island in the Eastern Caribbean Sea, with the Republic of France to the north (as Guadeloupe), and to the south (as Martinique).
 
Map of Dominica.
Main article: Geography of Dominica

Dominica is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea, the northernmost of the Windward Islands (though it is sometimes considered the southernmost of the Leeward Islands). The size of the country is about 289.5 square miles (750 km2) and it is about 29 miles (47 km) long and 16 miles (26 km) wide.[18][46]

Known as "The Nature Island of the Caribbean" due to its lush scenery and varied flora and fauna, Dominica is largely covered by rainforest and is home to the world's second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake.[46][47][48] Within its borders lie two ecoregions: Windward Islands moist forests and Windward Islands xeric scrub.[49] The most mountainous of the Lesser Antilles, its volcanic peaks are cones of lava craters, the largest of these being (north-to-south) Morne aux Diables, Morne Diablotins (the highest on the island at 1,447 m),[46] Morne Trois Pitons and Morne Anglais. Morne Trois Pitons National Park is a tropical forest blended with volcanic features;[50] it was recognised as a World Heritage Site on 4 April 1995, a distinction it shares with four other Caribbean islands.[51] The Calibishie area in the country's northeast has sandy beaches.[52] Some plants and animals thought to be extinct on surrounding islands can still be found in Dominica's forests.[53] The island has several protected areas, including Cabrits National Park, as well as 365 rivers. For a few years the government sought to encourage the island as an ecotourism destination, although the hurricane of 2017 has since changed these plans.[46] The country had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 1.06/10, ranking it 166th globally out of 172 countries.[54]

There are two primary population centres: the capital Roseau (with 14,725 inhabitants in 2011) and Portsmouth (with 4,167 inhabitants in 2011). The main centres tend to be located around the coast, with the mountainous interior sparsely populated.[46]

Dominica is especially vulnerable to hurricanes as the island is located in what is referred to as the hurricane region.[46] In 1979, Hurricane David struck the island as a Category 4 hurricane, causing widespread and extreme damage. On 17 August 2007, Hurricane Dean, a Category 1 hurricane at the time, hit the island. A mother and her seven-year-old son died when a landslide caused by the heavy rains crushed their house.[55] In another incident two people were injured when a tree fell on their house.[56] Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit estimated that 100 to 125 homes were damaged, and that the agricultural sector was extensively damaged, in particular the banana crop.[57] In August 2015, Tropical Storm Erika caused extensive flooding and landslides across the island. Multiple communities were evacuated and upwards of 30 people were killed.[58] According to a Rapid Damage and Impact Assessment prepared for Dominica by the World Bank, the total damage and losses from the storm were US$484.82 million or 90% of Dominica's yearly GDP.[59] Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017 and caused losses of approximately US$930 million or 226% of GDP.[42]

Fauna

 
Imperial Amazon

The Sisserou parrot (Amazona imperialis) is Dominica's national bird and is endemic to its mountain forests.[18] A related species, the Jaco or red-necked parrot (A. arausiaca), is also a Dominican endemic.[18] Both birds are rare and protected, though some forest is still threatened by logging in addition to the long-standing threat of hurricanes.

Dominica has recorded at least four species of snakes and 11 species of lizards. Dominica is the last major stronghold of the critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana (Iguana delicatissima).[60]

Dominica is home to 195 species of birds, because of the isolated location of Dominica this is a lesser number compared to Trinidad which is located closer to mainland South-America with 472 bird species.

The Caribbean Sea offshore of the island of Dominica is home to many cetaceans. Most notably a group of sperm whales live in this area year-round. Other cetaceans commonly seen in the area include spinner dolphins, pantropical spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins. Less commonly seen animals include killer whales, false killer whales, pygmy sperm whales, dwarf sperm whales, Risso's dolphins, common dolphins, Atlantic spotted dolphins, humpback whales and Bryde's whales. This makes Dominica a destination for tourists interested in whale-watching.

Territorial disputes

The Commonwealth of Dominica is engaged in a long-running dispute with Venezuela over Venezuela's territorial claims to the sea surrounding Isla de Aves (literally Bird Island, but in fact called 'Bird Rock' by Dominican authorities),[46][61] a tiny islet located 140 miles (225 km) west of the island of Dominica.

Government

Main article: Politics of Dominica
See also: Foreign relations of Dominica

Dominica is a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth of Nations.[13] The capital is Roseau. The Commonwealth of Dominica is one of the Caribbean's few republics. The president is the head of state, while executive power rests with the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.[13] The unicameral parliament consists of the 30-member House of Assembly, which consists of 21 directly elected members and nine senators, who may either be appointed by the president or elected by the other members of the House of Assembly.[13]

Unlike other former British colonies in the region, Dominica was never a Commonwealth realm, instead becoming a republic on independence. Dominica is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).[18]

Dominica is also a member of the International Criminal Court, with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection with the US military, as covered under Article 98. In January 2008, Dominica joined the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.[18]

Human rights

Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Dominica.[62][63]

Administrative divisions

Dominica is divided into 10 parishes, given below with their 2011 Census populations:

Economy

Main article: Economy of Dominica

Dominica's currency is the East Caribbean Dollar. In 2008, Dominica had one of the lowest per capita gross domestic product (GDP) rates of Eastern Caribbean states.[64][65] The country nearly had a financial crisis in 2003 and 2004, but Dominica's economy grew by 3.5% in 2005 and 4.0% in 2006, following a decade of poor performance. Growth in 2006 was attributed to gains in tourism, construction, offshore and other services, and some sub-sectors of the banana industry. Around this time the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised the Government of Dominica for its successful macroeconomic reforms, but also pointed out remaining challenges, including the need for further reductions in public debt, increased financial sector regulation, and market diversification.[20]

Agriculture and especially bananas once dominated Dominica's economy,[46] and nearly one-third of the labour force worked in agriculture in the early 2000s. This sector, however, is highly vulnerable to weather conditions and to external events affecting commodity prices. In 2007, Hurricane Dean caused significant damage to the agricultural sector as well as the country's infrastructure, especially roads.[citation needed] In response to reduced European Union (EU) trade preferences for bananas from the former European colonies after the 2009 WTO decision,[66][67][68][69] the government has diversified the agricultural sector by promoting the production of coffee, patchouli, aloe vera, cut flowers, and exotic fruits such as mango, guava and papaya,[citation needed] while the economy has become increasingly dependent on tourism.[46]

The expected increase of Dominica's Citizenship by Investment (CBI) fees has been suspended with no implementation date in sight, as announced by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, in the 2016 budget speech.[70]

International trade

Dominica is a beneficiary of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) that grants duty-free entry into the United States for many goods. Dominica also belongs to the predominantly English-speaking Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).[20]

Financial services industry

The Commonwealth of Dominica is becoming in recent years[when?] a major international financial centre. The largest sectors are "offshore banking, payment processing companies, and general corporate activities". Regulation and supervision of the financial services industry is the responsibility of the Financial Service Unit of the Commonwealth of Dominica (FSU) under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance. There are a number of service providers. These include global financial institutions including Scotiabank, Royal Bank of Canada, Cathedral Investment Bank, First Caribbean International Bank, and The Interoceanic Bank of the Caribbean.

Starting in the mid-late 1990s, offshore financial centres, such as the Commonwealth of Dominica, came under increasing pressure from the OECD for their allegedly harmful tax regimes, where the OECD wished to prevent low-tax regimes from having an advantage in the global marketplace. The OECD threatened to place the Commonwealth of Dominica and other financial centres on a "black list" and impose sanctions against them. However, the Commonwealth of Dominica successfully avoided being placed on the OECD black list by committing to regulatory reform to improve transparency and begin information exchange with OECD member countries about their citizens.

Dominica supposedly offers tax-free status to companies relocating from abroad. It is not known how many companies benefit from the tax-free status because of the strict confidentiality the government enforces, although it is known many Internet businesses and hedge funds utilise Dominica for this reason. However, on 12 July 2012 Dominica signed an agreement with Poland to exchange tax information.[71]

Economic immigrants

Main article: Dominica citizenship by investment programme

The Commonwealth of Dominica offers an official and legally mandated economic citizenship to those seeking a valid second citizenship. The nationality law of Dominica authorises the government to waive the normal requirement of seven years of legal residence to acquire citizenship in exchange for an investment into their country's economy. The required contribution for a main applicant starts at US$100,000 through the Economic Diversification Fund.[72] Alternatively, since 2014, applicants can make a US$200,000 minimum investment in pre-approved real estate from island exclusive resorts or global brands like Marriott, Kempinski or Hilton.[73] According to officials, the citizenship by investment (CBI) programme was an economic and fiscal "lifeline" in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Erika in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017, and its new investment option had become the main source of Foreign Direct Investment into Dominica by early 2016.[74] Dominican citizens can travel without a visa, or obtain a visa upon entry, to nearly 140 countries and territories, including the United Kingdom and the Schengen Zone.[75] Applying for Dominica citizenship requires interacting with official Government Approved Economic Citizenship Agents as the first step in the application process.[76] This programme is currently valued at 16% of the government's total revenue.[77]

The government's management of the economic citizenship programme and an initial perceived lack of transparency in the use of the revenues generated are a frequent topic of heated domestic political controversy. Referring to the opposition, Prime Minister Skerrit in 2016 stated that "If they can discredit the Citizenship by Investment Program and make Dominica an unattractive place to obtain citizenship, then revenues would fall and the government would not be able to rebuild the country. Or, the government would then have to increase taxes on the people; making itself unpopular in their sight."[78] Since then, the Government of Dominica has improved transparency of CBI funds. According to Prime Minister Skerrit's 2018–2019 Budget Address,[79] the island's CBI Programme has helped develop a National Health Insurance pilot that provides Dominican children in critical medical conditions with overseas treatment. Because many residents were displaced by Hurricane Maria's impact on the small Caribbean island, the government pledged to build 5,000 hurricane-proof homes, of which the first batch of 125 houses were scheduled for occupancy in February 2019.[80] The CBI Programme has also significantly helped to develop and create jobs in the island's ecotourism sector.[81] Furthermore, the Skerrit administration set aside EC$5m every month for the construction of a new airport.[82][83]

The Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management publication ranked Dominica as the world's best citizenship by investment programme in its annual CBI Index.[84][85] According to the report, investors choose Dominica's citizenship because it has the most affordable investment threshold, the application process is straightforward and streamlined,[86] while the security checks each applicant is subjected to remain very strict.[87]

 
Batalie Bay, Dominica

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Dominica

Dominica is mostly volcanic and has few beaches; therefore, tourism has developed more slowly than on neighbouring islands. Nevertheless, Dominica's mountains, rainforests, freshwater lakes, hot springs, waterfalls, and diving spots make it an attractive ecotourism destination. Cruise ship stopovers have increased following the development of modern docking and waterfront facilities in Roseau, the capital.[20] Out of 22 Caribbean islands tracked, Dominica had the fewest visitors in 2008 (55,800 or 0.3% of the total). This was about half as many as visited Haiti.[88] The volcanic nature of the island has attracted scuba divers.

Infrastructure

Air

There are two airports on the island. The primary airport, Douglas-Charles Airport (DOM), now has direct flights from Miami on American Eagle. It is on the northeast coast and is about a 45-minute drive from Portsmouth (1 hour from Roseau). The second is Canefield Airport (DCF), about 15 minutes from Roseau on the southwest coast. Douglas-Charles Airport is suitable for limited use of commercial jets because of runway length. Douglas-Charles currently has regular service by Air Sunshine, Winair and Seaborne Airlines using twin turboprop aircraft like the ATR and Saab 340, as well as Conviasa and Amerijet, which, using Boeing 727 Freighters, is the only airline with jet service to the republic. A runway extension and service upgrade project began at Douglas-Charles Airport around 2006 and was finished in 2010. In March 2013, airline American Eagle halted flights to the island citing high labour costs.[89]

Roads

Dominica's road network runs primarily along the coastline and along river valleys. Major roads are two-lane highways which connect the capital, Roseau, with Portsmouth (Edward Oliver Leblanc Highway) and the Douglas Charles Airport (Dr. Nicholas Liverpool Highway). It takes about 45 minutes to drive from Portsmouth to Roseau. Private minibuses form the major public transport system. These major roads were reconstructed from the early 2010s to 2015 with assistance from the People's Republic of China and the European Union.[90][91]

Due to Tropical Storm Erika of 2015 several road surfaces and bridges were damaged by flooding and landslides, including on the just completed E.O. LeBlanc Highway (Roseau to Portsmouth) and Dr. Nicholas Liverpool Highway (Pont Cassé to Douglas Charles Airport). To alleviate this, the government announced that it intended to install emergency bridges in Roseau Valley near the Trafalgar Falls to Wotten Waven and in Emshall.[92] Hurricane Maria of 2017 also damaged the road network.

Green energy

Dominica's electricity sector includes power from hydroelectricity, solar energy, and geothermal energy.[93] Following on from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in September 2017, the Dominican government claimed it would invest in geothermal energy. In early March 2018 Dominica signed an International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement, in an attempt to exploit solar energy to power the country with a source of renewable energy.[94]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Dominica
Dominica
YearPop.±% p.a.
187127,178—    
188128,211+0.37%
189126,841−0.50%
190128,894+0.74%
191133,863+1.60%
192137,059+0.91%
194647,624+1.01%
196059,916+1.65%
197069,549+1.50%
198173,795+0.54%
199171,183−0.36%
200171,242+0.01%
201170,739−0.07%
[6]

The vast majority of Dominicans are of African descent. There is a growing mixed population along with a small European origin minority (descendants of French and British colonists along with some people of Irish descent from indentured servants) and there are small numbers of Lebanese, Syrians and East Asians. Dominica is also the only Eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre-Columbian native Kalinago (previously called Caribs), who were exterminated or driven from neighbouring islands. As of 2014 there are more than 3,000 Kalinago remaining. They live in eight villages on the east coast of Dominica. This special Kalinago Territory (previously Carib Reserve) was granted by the British Crown in 1903.[95]

 
Scotts Head, Dominica

The population growth rate of Dominica is very low, due primarily to emigration to other countries. In the early 21st century, emigrant numbers for the most popular countries are as follows: the United States (8,560), the United Kingdom (6,739), Canada (605), and France (394).

Dominica had a relatively large number of centenarians. In March 2007, there were 22 centenarians out of the island's 70,000 inhabitants —three times the average incidence of centenarianism in developed countries. The reasons for this were once the subject of a study that formerly had been undertaken at Ross University School of Medicine.[96]

Dominica was partially integrated into the federal colony of the Leeward Islands in 1832. Later, in 1871, it became a full part of the Federation of the Leeward Islands. From the start it was a peculiar relationship for previously Dominica had played no part in the political or cultural traditions of the other more Anglophone islands of the federation. Now, as a Leeward Island, this much larger territory, with thousands of acres of forested unclaimed land, was open to the people of Montserrat and Antigua. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Rose's Company, which produced Rose's lime juice, saw demand for its product outgrow its ability to supply the product from Montserrat. Their response to the situation was to buy land on Dominica and encourage Montserrat farm labourers to relocate. As a result, there came to be two linguistic communities in Dominica, Wesley and Marigot.

 
Charlotteville, Dominica

In 1902, on 8 May, the Mount Pelée volcano on Martinique erupted destroying the city of Saint-Pierre. Refugees from Martinique arrived in boats to the southern villages of Dominica and some remained permanently on the island.

Languages

English is the official language of Dominica and is universally spoken and understood. In addition, Dominican Creole, an Antillean Creole based on French, is widely spoken. This is due to French migration to the island starting in 1690, a majority French Creole-speaking population that resided on the island,[97] and its location between the two French-speaking departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe. Since 1979, Dominica has been a member of La Francophonie. Dominican Creole is particularly used among the older generation, which also speaks a patois language. Because of a decline in the use of Creole by the younger generation, initiatives have been set up in an effort to increase usage and promote this unique part of the nation's history and culture.

Along with Creole, a dialect known as Kokoy (or Cockoy) is spoken.[98] It is a type of pidgin English which is a mix of Leeward Island English Creole and Dominican Creole,[99] and is mainly spoken in the north-eastern villages of Marigot and Wesley, by the descendants of immigrants from Montserrat and Antigua. Over time there has been much intermarrying, but there are still traces of difference in origin.[100] As a result of this mixture of languages and heritage, Dominica is a member of both the French-speaking Francophonie and the English-speaking Commonwealth of Nations.

Island Carib, also known as Igneri (Iñeri, Igñeri, Inyeri), was an Arawakan language historically spoken by the Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. The Island Caribs lived throughout the southern Lesser Antilles such as Dominica, St Vincent and Trinidad, supposedly having conquered them from their previous inhabitants, the Igneri. Island Carib became extinct about 1920, but an offshoot survives as Garifuna, primarily in Central America.

Religion

Main article: Religion in Dominica
 
Roseau Cathedral in Dominica

61.4% of the population is Roman Catholic,[46] though in recent years a number of Protestant churches have been established.[citation needed] About 10–12% of the population belongs to one of the Seventh-Day (Saturday) denominations, which includes Yahweh Congregation, Church of God (Seventh-Day), and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.[101]

According to the Association of Religion Data Archives, in 2010 the World Christian Database reported that the largest non-Christian religious groups included: spiritualism followed by 2.6% of the population; Baháʼí followed by 1.7%; Agnosticism followed by 0.5%; Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam, each followed by 0.1%; and Chinese folk religion, Neoreligions, and Atheism each followed by non-negligible proportions (i.e., <0.1%) of the population.[102] The second largest town on the island, Portsmouth, is home to Al-Ansaar Masjid, the first mosque to be built in Dominica. The mosque was constructed with the help of Muslim students from the since relocated Ross University School of Medicine.[103]

Education

Main article: Education in Dominica

School in Dominica is mandatory up to secondary school. After pre-school, students attend primary school for six or seven years, and are admitted into secondary school on the basis of a Common Entrance Exam. After five years the students take the General Certificate of Education (GCE), widely replaced by the current Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate administered by the Caribbean Examination Council (a 15-member confederation of the Caribbean community (CARICOM)).[104] The more advanced version of this examination, CAPE, can be taken upon completion of two years of community college. The island has its own Dominica State College, formerly named Clifton Dupigny Community College.[105] Some Dominicans attend universities in Cuba on scholarships offered by its government; others go to the University of the West Indies or to universities in the United Kingdom, the United States, or other countries.

Archbold Tropical Research and Education Center, a biological field station owned by Clemson University, is located at Springfield Estate between Canefield and Pont Cassé.[106][107] In 2006 All Saints University School of Medicine opened in temporary facilities in Loubière,[108] it was later located in Roseau, Dominica. A marine biology institute in Mahaut, the Institute for Tropical Marine Ecology, closed in 2009.

Ross University School of Medicine was located at Portsmouth. Ross had been operating in Dominica since the 1980s.[109] There used to be a thousand medical students arriving annually from the United States and Canada who studied at Ross University, but the campus was permanently relocated to Barbados at the beginning of the 2019 Spring semester due to extensive hurricane damage suffered at the Dominican campus.[110][111]

The Dominica Library and Information Service serves an integral role in the education of the citizens of the country. The Dominica Library and Information Service (DLIS) is the island's main public sector responsible for library services, information service, and management. Today, it provides service for the population of Dominica through three components, public library services, documentation and research services, and archival services. Under the management of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development, the responsibilities of the institution were established in 1843 with the opening of reading rooms, or the first public library in Dominica, Victoria Memorial.[112] Dominica Library and Information Service serves an integral role in the education of the citizens of the country. The creation of a public library in Dominica did not come easily though the impetus was a noble one that would help "the coloured people... [improve] their lot as they moved along the path to complete freedom...” (Boromé, 203). The Dominican library began as a reading room that would evolve into a free and public library that wasn't fully free: patrons were required to pay a subscription fee. Surviving religious and political discord, the great depression, and two world wars, the library finally came under the care of the government where funds were set aside for its upkeep. Ironically, the early stages of the library's history were dedicated to remove the "uncouth", and "barbarous patois", which today is being preserved. However, it did achieve its goal of "diminishing the island’s very high percentage of illiteracy" (pg. 225).[113] However, the historical library was demolished in the wake of hurricane Maria in 2018, and slated to be rebuilt with a more modern outlook.

Culture

Main articles: Culture of Dominica and Music of Dominica
 
Dominica's east coast Carib Territory

Dominica is home to a wide range of people. Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes, the Arawaks (Tainos) and Carib (Kalinago) tribes occupied it at the time European settlers reached the island. "Massacre" is a name of a river dedicated to the mass murder of the native villagers by English settlers on St. Kitts -the survivors were forced into exile on Dominica.[114] Both the French and British tried to claim the island and imported slaves from Africa for labour. The remaining Caribs now live on a 3,700-acre (15 km2) territory on the east coast of the island. They elect their own chief. This mix of cultures has produced the current culture.[original research?]

Music and dance are important facets of Dominica's culture. The annual independence celebrations display a variety of traditional song and dance. Since 1997, there have also been weeks of Creole festivals, such as "Creole in the Park" and the "World Creole Music Festival".

Dominica gained prominence on the international music stage when in 1973, Gordon Henderson founded the group Exile One and an original musical genre, which he coined "Cadence-lypso". This paved the way for modern Creole music. Other musical genres include "Jing ping" and "Cadence". Jing ping features the accordion and is native to the island. Dominica's music is a mélange of Haitian, Afro-Cuban, African and European traditions. Popular artists over the years include Chubby and the Midnight Groovers, Bells Combo, the Gaylords (Dominican band), WCK, and Triple Kay.

The 11th annual World Creole Music Festival was held in 2007, part of the island's celebration of independence from Great Britain on 3 November. A year-long reunion celebration began in January 2008, marking 30 years of independence.

Dominica is often seen as a society that is migrating from collectivism to that of individualism. The economy is a developing one that previously depended on agriculture. Signs of collectivism are evident in the small towns and villages which are spread across the island.[clarification needed]

The novelist Jean Rhys was born and raised in Dominica. The island is obliquely depicted in her best-known book, Wide Sargasso Sea. Rhys's friend, the political activist and writer Phyllis Shand Allfrey, set her 1954 novel, The Orchid House, in Dominica.

Much of the Walt Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (the second in the series, released in 2006), was shot on location on Dominica (though in the film it was known as "Pelegosto", a fictional island), along with some shooting for the third film in the series, At World's End (2007).

Cuisine

Main article: Dominica cuisine

Dominica's cuisine is similar to that of other Caribbean islands, particularly Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. Like other Commonwealth Caribbean islands, Dominicans have developed a distinct twist to their cuisine. Breakfast is an important daily meal, typically including saltfish, dried and salted codfish, and "bakes" (fried dough). Saltfish and bakes are combined for a fast food snack that can be eaten throughout the day; vendors on Dominica's streets sell these snacks to passersby, together with fried chicken, fish and fruit and yogurt "smoothies". Other breakfast meals include cornmeal porridge, which is made with fine cornmeal or polenta, milk or condensed milk, and sugar to sweeten. Traditional British-influenced dishes, such as eggs and toast, are also popular, as are fried fish and plantains.

Common vegetables include plantains, tannias (a root vegetable), sweet potatoes, potatoes, rice and peas. Meat and poultry typically eaten include chicken, beef and fish. These are often prepared in stews with onions, carrots, garlic, ginger and herbs. The vegetables and meat are browned to create a rich dark sauce. Popular meals include rice and peas, brown stew chicken, stew beef, fried and stewed fish, and many different types of hearty fish broths and soups. These are filled with dumplings, carrots and ground provisions.

Sports

Cricket is a popular sport on the island, and Dominica competes in test cricket as part of the West Indies cricket team. In West Indies domestic first-class cricket, Dominica participates as part of the Windward Islands cricket team, although they are often considered a part of the Leeward Islands geographically. This is due to being part of the British Windward Islands colony from 1940 until independence; its cricket federation remains a part of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control.

On 24 October 2007, the 8,000-seat Windsor cricket stadium was completed with a donation of EC$33 million (US$17 million, €12 million) from the government of the People's Republic of China.

Netball, basketball, rugby, tennis and association football are gaining popularity as well.

International footballer Julian Wade, Dominica's all-time top goal scorer (as of 2021), currently plays for Brechin City F.C. in Scotland.[115]

During the 2014 Winter Olympics, a husband and wife team of Gary di Silvestri and Angela Morrone di Silvestri spent US$175,000 to register as Dominican citizens and enter the 15 km men's and 10 km women's cross-country skiing events, respectively. Angela did not start her race, and Gary pulled out several hundred meters into his race. To date, they are Dominica's only Winter Olympic athletes.[116]

Athlete Jérôme Romain won the bronze medal at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics triple jump competition. He also qualified for the finals at the 1996 Olympic Games; even though he had to pull out due to injury, his 12th position is the best performance of a Dominican ever at the Olympics.[117]

Sprinter Olympian Chris Lloyd won the bronze medal at the 2007 Pan American Games over 400m.[118]

Triple Jump Olympian Thea LaFond became the first athlete to ever win a medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.[119]

Media

Dominica has two major newspapers, The Sun and The Chronicle. There are two national television stations and a few radio stations, including Stations include: ZBC-AM 590, the first private local radio station is called Radio En Ba Mango 93.5/96.9FM in the Village of Berricoa Grand Bay and is owned by Urban Dangleben, ZGBC-AM 740, ZGBC-FM 90.7 (Portsmouth), ZGBC-FM 102.1 (Roseau) and ZGBC-FM 106.1 (Marigot), Q95 FM,[120] the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation, and Kairi FM.[121] Before 2004, there were two telecommunication companies Cable and Wireless and Marpin TV[122] founded by Dominican, Ronald Bernard Maroni Abraham. In 2005, Digicel and a UK-based company Orange started to offer service to the island. There are a number of mobile networks operating on the island; LIME and Digicel compete for most of Dominica's wireless customers. Orange shut down in 2010 and is no longer operating on the island of Dominica.

Historical newspapers include The Dominican, The Dominica Guardian 29 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine, and the Dominica Colonist, available for free in the Digital Library of the Caribbean.

Notable people

See also

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External links

Reference

Government

  • Official website Commonwealth of Dominica Government portal
  • Discover Dominica: Nature Island of the Caribbean, official government tourism website by the Discover Dominica Authority.
  • Statistics Commonwealth of Dominica
  • Invest Dominica Authority

Geography

  •   Wikimedia Atlas of Dominica
  •   Geographic data related to Dominica at OpenStreetMap
  • WikiSatellite view of Dominica at WikiMapia

Coordinates: 15°25′N 61°20′W / 15.417°N 61.333°W / 15.417; -61.333

January 26, 2023
dominica, confused, with, republic, listen, kalinago, kubuli, french, dominique, creole, french, dominik, officially, commonwealth, island, country, caribbean, capital, roseau, located, western, side, island, geographically, situated, part, windward, islands, . Not to be confused with the Dominican Republic Dominica ˌ d ɒ m ɪ ˈ n iː k e 9 10 11 or d e ˈ m ɪ n ɪ k e listen 12 Kalinago Wai tu kubuli French Dominique Dominican Creole French Dominik officially the Commonwealth of Dominica is an island country in the Caribbean 13 The capital Roseau is located on the western side of the island It is geographically situated as part of the Windward Islands chain in the Lesser Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean Sea Dominica s closest neighbours are two constituent territories of the European Union the overseas departments of France Guadeloupe to the northwest and Martinique to the south southeast Dominica comprises a land area of 750 km2 290 sq mi and the highest point is Morne Diablotins at 1 447 m 4 747 ft in elevation The population was 71 293 at the 2011 census 6 Commonwealth of DominicaFlag Coat of armsMotto Apres Bondie C est La Ter 1 Dominican Creole French Post Deum terra est Latin After God is the earth Anthem Isle of Beauty Isle of Splendour source source Location of Dominica circled in red in the Western HemisphereCapitaland largest cityRoseau15 18 N 61 23 W 15 300 N 61 383 W 15 300 61 383Official languagesEnglishVernacularlanguagesDominican CreoleKokoyEthnic groups 2014 2 75 African19 Multiracial4 Kalinago0 8 European or Other0 2 UnspecifiedReligion 2020 94 4 Christianity3 0 Folk religions1 7 Other0 9 None 3 Demonym s Dominican pronounced ˌdɒmɪˈniːken GovernmentUnitary dominant party parliamentary republic PresidentCharles Savarin Prime MinisterRoosevelt Skerrit Speaker of the House of AssemblyJoseph IsaacLegislatureHouse of Assembly of DominicaIndependence from the United Kingdom West Indies associated state1 March 1967 Sovereignty and current constitution3 November 1978Area Total750 km2 290 sq mi 174th Water 1 6Population 2021 estimate72 412 4 5 204th 2011 census72 000 6 Density105 km2 271 9 sq mi 95th GDP PPP 2018 estimate Total 688 million 7 Per capita 9 726 7 GDP nominal 2018 estimate Total 485 million 7 Per capita 7 860 7 HDI 2019 0 742 8 high 94thCurrencyEast Caribbean dollar XCD Time zoneUTC 4 AST Driving sideleftCalling code 1 767ISO 3166 codeDMInternet TLD dmThe island was settled by the Arawak arriving from South America in the fifth century The Kalinago displaced the Arawak by the 15th century Columbus is said to have passed the island on Sunday 3 November 1493 It was later colonised by Europeans predominantly by the French from the 1690s to 1763 The French imported enslaved people from West Africa to Dominica to work on coffee plantations Great Britain took possession in 1763 after the Seven Years War and it gradually established English as its official language The island gained independence as a republic in 1978 Dominica has been nicknamed the Nature Island of the Caribbean for its natural environment 14 It is the youngest island in the Lesser Antilles and in fact it is still being formed by geothermal volcanic activity as evidenced by the world s second largest hot spring called Boiling Lake The island has lush mountainous rainforests and is the home of many rare plants animals and bird species There are xeric areas in some of the western coastal regions but heavy rainfall occurs inland The Sisserou parrot also known as the Imperial amazon is critically endangered and found only on Dominica It is the island s national bird and is featured on the national flag making Dominica one of only two sovereign nations whose official flag features the color purple 15 16 The country is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations the United Nations the Organization of American States the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and the Non Aligned Movement Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 2 1 Geologic history 2 2 Pre colonial period and early European contact 2 3 French colony 2 4 British colony 2 5 Early 20th century 2 6 Post independence 3 Geography and climate 3 1 Fauna 3 2 Territorial disputes 4 Government 4 1 Human rights 5 Administrative divisions 6 Economy 6 1 International trade 6 2 Financial services industry 6 3 Economic immigrants 6 4 Tourism 7 Infrastructure 7 1 Air 7 2 Roads 7 3 Green energy 8 Demographics 8 1 Languages 8 2 Religion 8 3 Education 9 Culture 9 1 Cuisine 9 2 Sports 10 Media 11 Notable people 12 See also 13 References 14 External linksEtymology EditDominica s name is locally pronounced with emphasis on the third syllable 9 10 following the Spanish pronunciation of its name 17 given to it by Christopher Columbus History EditMain article History of Dominica Geologic history Edit Dominica first emerged from the sea during the Oligocene era approximately 26 million years ago making it one of the last Caribbean islands to be formed by volcanic activity Pre colonial period and early European contact Edit Dominica s precolonial indigenous inhabitants were the Island Carib people who are thought to have driven out the previous Arawak population 18 The Caribs called the island Wai tu kubuli which means Tall is her body 19 Christopher Columbus sailing for Spain named the island as Dominica after the Latin term dies Dominica for Sunday the day on which the Spanish first saw it in November 1493 18 Some Spanish colonisers settled here But as European explorers and settlers entered the region indigenous refugees from surrounding islands settled Dominica and pushed out the Spanish settlers The Spanish instead settled other areas that were easier to control French colony Edit Main article French West Indies Spain had little success in colonising Dominica In 1632 the French Compagnie des Iles de l Amerique claimed it and other Petites Antilles for France but no physical occupation took place 18 Between 1642 and 1650 French missionary Raymond Breton became the first regular European visitor to the island In 1660 the French and English agreed that Dominica and St Vincent should not be settled but instead left to the Carib as neutral territory 18 but its natural resources attracted expeditions of English and French foresters who began harvesting timber 20 In 1690 the French established their first permanent settlements French woodcutters from Martinique and Guadeloupe began to set up timber camps to supply the French islands with wood and they gradually became permanent settlers They brought the first enslaved Africans from West Africa to Dominique as they called it in French In 1715 a revolt of poor white smallholders in the north of Martinique known as La Gaoule 21 caused settlers to migrate to southern Dominique where they set up smallholdings Meanwhile French families and others from Guadeloupe settled in the north In 1727 the first French commander M Le Grand took charge of the island with a basic French government Dominique formally became a colony of France and the island was divided into districts or quarters 22 The French had already developed plantation agriculture on Martinique and Guadeloupe where they cultivated sugarcane with enslaved African workers In Dominique they gradually developed coffee plantations Because of the trans Atlantic slave trade the general population came to consist primarily of black African slaves In 1761 during the Seven Years War in Europe a British expedition against Dominica led by Andrew Rollo conquered the island along with several other Caribbean islands In 1763 France had lost the war and ceded the island to Great Britain under the Treaty of Paris 18 The same year the British established a legislative assembly with only European colonists represented French remained the official language but Antillean Creole which had developed from it was spoken by most of the population In 1778 the French with the active co operation of the population began the re capture of Dominica 18 This was ended by the Treaty of Paris 1783 which returned the island to British control But the island population especially the class of free people of color resisted British restrictions The British retained control through French invasions in 1795 and 1805 18 20 the first taking place during the period of the Haitian Revolution which gained the independence of Haiti formerly Saint Domingue France s richest Caribbean colony British colony Edit Main articles British West Indies British Leeward Islands and British Windward Islands A linen market in 1770s Dominica Great Britain established a small colony in 1805 It used Dominica as part of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade by which slaves were imported and sold as labour in the islands as part of a trade that included producing and shipping sugar and coffee as commodity crops to Europe The best documented slave plantation on the island is Hillsborough Estate which had 71 male and 68 female slaves The Greg family were notable Thomas Hodgson a brother in law owned a slave ship and Thomas Greg and his son John Greg were part owners of sugar plantations on Dominica In January 1814 20 slaves absconded from Hillsborough They were recorded as recaptured and punished with 100 lashes applied to the males and 50 for the females The slaves reportedly said that one of their people had died in the plantation hospital and they believed he had been poisoned 23 In 1831 reflecting a liberalisation of official British racial attitudes the Brown Privilege Bill 24 conferred political and social rights on free blacks mostly free people of colour who generally were of mixed race with African and European ancestry With the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 Britain ended the institution of slavery throughout its empire except in India 25 With freedom came enfranchisement In 1835 the first three men of African descent were elected to the legislative assembly of Dominica Many slaves from the neighbouring French colonial islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique fled to Dominica In 1838 Dominica became the first colony of the British West Indies to have an elected legislature controlled by an ethnic African majority Most of these legislators had been free people of colour and smallholders or merchants before the abolition of slavery Their economic and social views were different from the interests of the small wealthy English planter class Reacting to a perceived threat to their power the planters lobbied for more direct British rule 20 In 1865 after much agitation and tension the colonial office replaced the elective assembly with one made up of one half members who were elected and one half who were appointed Planters who were allied with colonial administrators outmanoeuvred the elected legislators on many occasions In 1871 Dominica became part of the British Leeward Islands The political power of the elected assembly progressively eroded Crown colony government was re established in 1896 Early 20th century Edit See also West Indies Federation Dominica stamps with portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II In World War I many Dominicans mainly the sons of small farmers volunteered to fight in Europe for the British Empire After the war an upsurge of political consciousness throughout the Caribbean led to the formation of the Representative Government Association Marshaling public frustration with the lack of a voice in governing Dominica this group won one third of the popularly elected seats of the legislative assembly in 1924 and one half in 1936 In 1940 administration of Dominica was transferred from the British Leeward Islands to the British Windward Islands 20 During World War II some Dominicans volunteered in British and Caribbean forces Thousands of Free French refugees from Martinique and Guadeloupe escaped to Dominica from the Vichy controlled French islands staying in Roseau and other villages Until 1958 Dominica was governed as part of the British Windward Islands Caribbean islands sought independence from 1958 to 1962 and Dominica became a province of the short lived West Indies Federation in 1958 18 20 After the federation dissolved in 1962 Dominica became an associated state of the United Kingdom in 1967 and formally took responsibility for its internal affairs 18 On 3 November 1978 the Commonwealth of Dominica was granted independence as a republic led by Prime Minister Patrick John 18 20 26 Post independence Edit In mid 1979 political discontent with Founding Prime Minister Patrick John s administration climaxed in a civilian coup and ended in the passage of a Motion of No Confidence in the House of Assembly Dominica s legislature against John collapsing the John administration A new so called Interim Government was formed under Dominica s second Prime Minister Oliver Seraphin 18 Seraphin s main task was to prepare the country for fresh general elections constitutionally due in 1980 hence the unofficial title Interim Prime Minister Seraphin organized and led a splinter of the Dominica Labour Party called the Democratic Labour Party into the 1980 general election and lost mainly because his nearly 13 month long premiership was dominated by the fallout from Category Five Hurricane David which caused 56 deaths and untold damage across the island 18 27 Hurricane Allen the following year caused further damage 18 After the 1980 election Seraphin s government was replaced by one led by the Dominica Freedom Party DFP under Prime Minister Eugenia Charles she was the Caribbean s first female Prime Minister 18 28 In 1981 Charles s government was threatened with two attempted coups The first was led by Frederick Newton commander of the Military of Dominica who organised an attack on the police headquarters in Roseau which resulted in the death of a police officer 29 Newton and five other soldiers were found guilty in the attack and sentenced to death in 1983 the sentences of the five accomplices were later commuted to life in prison but Newton was executed in 1986 29 A second occurred later in the year when the country was threatened with a takeover by mercenaries 30 in Operation Red Dog led by Mike Perdue and Wolfgang Droege They tried to overthrow Charles as Prime Minister and reinstall ex Prime Minister John in exchange for control over the country s development The FBI was tipped off and the ship hired to transport the mercenaries never left dock The mercenaries lacked formal military experience or training and most of the crew had been misled into joining by the ringleader Mike Perdue White supremacist Don Black was also jailed for his part in the attempted coup which violated US neutrality laws 31 Eugenia Charles Prime Minister 1980 95 discussing the situation in Grenada in 1983 with US President Ronald Reagan The Charles government supported the 1983 American Invasion of Grenada earning Dominica praise from the Reagan administration and an increase in financial aid 32 By the middle of the 1980s the economy had begun to recover 18 before weakening again due to a decrease in banana prices Eugenia Charles won the 1985 general election becoming only the first incumbent Dominica Prime Minister to be popularly re elected The continuing downturn in the economy and the tight grip by Eugenia Charles on Dominica politics gave rise to a self titled Third Force political formation in 1988 which disrupted the traditional two party arrangement of governing DFP and opposition DLP Third Force soon formalized as United Workers Party and selected as its leader Edison James the former General Manager of the Dominica Banana Marketing Company This was a strategic selection given James s prestige among banana farmers and his originating from the East or Atlantic Coast that had begun to feel alienated by the West or Caribbean Sea Coast elites in Roseau Dominica s capital 20 Eugenia Charles again won the 1990 general election the first incumbent Dominica Prime Minister to win three consecutive general elections However Eugenia Charles s DFP had been pushed to within one seat of losing its majority in Parliament by the emergence of the UWP It was therefore no great surprise when Eugenia Charles gave up political leadership of the Dominica Freedom Party in 1993 and did not contest the 1995 general election in any capacity No longer benefiting from the veteran charismatic leadership of Prime Minister Eugenia Charles the Dominica Freedom Party lost the 1995 election to the United Workers Party UWP whose leader Edison James became Prime Minister 18 James former General Manager of the Dominica Banana Marketing Company attempted to diversify the Dominican economy away from over reliance on bananas The crop was largely destroyed by Hurricane Luis in 1995 18 Further James was unable to restore banana to its former selling price and prestige Moreover the James administration became embroiled in Opposition charges of official corruption In the 31 January 2000 general election the UWP were defeated by a coalition of the DLP led by left leaning Roosevelt B Rosie Douglas and the Dominica Freedom Party led by former trade union leader Charles Savarin Douglas became Prime Minister One UWP member of the House of Assembly crossed the floor joining the DLP DFP coalition government However Douglas died on 1 October 2000 after only a few months 18 33 34 Prime Minister Douglas was replaced by Pierre Charles who also died in office on 6 January 2004 18 35 Roosevelt Skerrit also of the DLP replaced Pierre Charles as Prime Minister becoming the world s youngest head of government at the age of 31 18 Under Skerrit s leadership the DLP won elections in May 2005 that gave the party 12 seats in the 21 seat Parliament to the UWP s 8 seats An independent candidate affiliated with the DLP won a seat as well Later the independent candidate joined the government 20 36 With his 2005 election win Skerrit became only the second incumbent Prime Minister of seven to be popularly re elected In the 2009 election the DLP won 18 of 21 seats The UWP claimed campaign improprieties and embarked on a wide range of protest actions including boycott of Parliament UWP s boycott lasted at least three unauthorized absences from Parliament for two of their three Elected Representatives in Parliament in violation of Parliamentary procedure leading to their two seats being declared vacant and by elections being called to fill them by elections were conducted for those two vacant seats in July 2010 and the UWP again won both seats 37 The DLP under Skerrit went on to win the 2014 Dominican general election 38 On 17 September 2012 Eliud Thaddeus Williams was sworn in as President a largely ceremonial role replacing Dr Nicholas Liverpool who was reportedly removed from office due to ill health On 30 September 2013 former Trade Union leader and former Dominica Freedom Party leader Charles Savarin was elected president having only days before resigned as a Minister of Government He is Dominica s eighth President 39 Damage in Roseau caused by Hurricane Maria in 2017 Tropical Storm Erika devastated the island in August 2015 killing 30 and causing severe environmental and economic damage 18 Dominica was again struck on 18 September 2017 suffering a direct landfall from Category 5 Hurricane Maria 18 40 Early estimates of damage suggested 90 of the buildings on the island had been destroyed with infrastructure left in ruins 41 42 The UK France and the Netherlands set up shipping and air lifts to take aid to the island the scale of destruction having left most people homeless Dominica won its first two Commonwealth Games medals in silver and bronze in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast 43 President Charles Angelo Savarin was re elected in 2018 for a new five year term 44 The current Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica Roosevelt SkerritIn December 2019 incumbent Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit won his fourth consecutive general election eighteen seats to three becoming the first Dominica Prime Minister ever to do so 45 Geography and climate Edit Dominica is an island in the Eastern Caribbean Sea with the Republic of France to the north as Guadeloupe and to the south as Martinique Map of Dominica Main article Geography of Dominica Dominica is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea the northernmost of the Windward Islands though it is sometimes considered the southernmost of the Leeward Islands The size of the country is about 289 5 square miles 750 km2 and it is about 29 miles 47 km long and 16 miles 26 km wide 18 46 Known as The Nature Island of the Caribbean due to its lush scenery and varied flora and fauna Dominica is largely covered by rainforest and is home to the world s second largest hot spring Boiling Lake 46 47 48 Within its borders lie two ecoregions Windward Islands moist forests and Windward Islands xeric scrub 49 The most mountainous of the Lesser Antilles its volcanic peaks are cones of lava craters the largest of these being north to south Morne aux Diables Morne Diablotins the highest on the island at 1 447 m 46 Morne Trois Pitons and Morne Anglais Morne Trois Pitons National Park is a tropical forest blended with volcanic features 50 it was recognised as a World Heritage Site on 4 April 1995 a distinction it shares with four other Caribbean islands 51 The Calibishie area in the country s northeast has sandy beaches 52 Some plants and animals thought to be extinct on surrounding islands can still be found in Dominica s forests 53 The island has several protected areas including Cabrits National Park as well as 365 rivers For a few years the government sought to encourage the island as an ecotourism destination although the hurricane of 2017 has since changed these plans 46 The country had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 1 06 10 ranking it 166th globally out of 172 countries 54 There are two primary population centres the capital Roseau with 14 725 inhabitants in 2011 and Portsmouth with 4 167 inhabitants in 2011 The main centres tend to be located around the coast with the mountainous interior sparsely populated 46 Dominica is especially vulnerable to hurricanes as the island is located in what is referred to as the hurricane region 46 In 1979 Hurricane David struck the island as a Category 4 hurricane causing widespread and extreme damage On 17 August 2007 Hurricane Dean a Category 1 hurricane at the time hit the island A mother and her seven year old son died when a landslide caused by the heavy rains crushed their house 55 In another incident two people were injured when a tree fell on their house 56 Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit estimated that 100 to 125 homes were damaged and that the agricultural sector was extensively damaged in particular the banana crop 57 In August 2015 Tropical Storm Erika caused extensive flooding and landslides across the island Multiple communities were evacuated and upwards of 30 people were killed 58 According to a Rapid Damage and Impact Assessment prepared for Dominica by the World Bank the total damage and losses from the storm were US 484 82 million or 90 of Dominica s yearly GDP 59 Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017 and caused losses of approximately US 930 million or 226 of GDP 42 Fauna Edit Imperial Amazon The Sisserou parrot Amazona imperialis is Dominica s national bird and is endemic to its mountain forests 18 A related species the Jaco or red necked parrot A arausiaca is also a Dominican endemic 18 Both birds are rare and protected though some forest is still threatened by logging in addition to the long standing threat of hurricanes Dominica has recorded at least four species of snakes and 11 species of lizards Dominica is the last major stronghold of the critically endangered Lesser Antillean iguana Iguana delicatissima 60 Dominica is home to 195 species of birds because of the isolated location of Dominica this is a lesser number compared to Trinidad which is located closer to mainland South America with 472 bird species The Caribbean Sea offshore of the island of Dominica is home to many cetaceans Most notably a group of sperm whales live in this area year round Other cetaceans commonly seen in the area include spinner dolphins pantropical spotted dolphins and bottlenose dolphins Less commonly seen animals include killer whales false killer whales pygmy sperm whales dwarf sperm whales Risso s dolphins common dolphins Atlantic spotted dolphins humpback whales and Bryde s whales This makes Dominica a destination for tourists interested in whale watching Territorial disputes Edit The Commonwealth of Dominica is engaged in a long running dispute with Venezuela over Venezuela s territorial claims to the sea surrounding Isla de Aves literally Bird Island but in fact called Bird Rock by Dominican authorities 46 61 a tiny islet located 140 miles 225 km west of the island of Dominica Government EditMain article Politics of Dominica See also Foreign relations of Dominica Dominica is a parliamentary democracy within the Commonwealth of Nations 13 The capital is Roseau The Commonwealth of Dominica is one of the Caribbean s few republics The president is the head of state while executive power rests with the cabinet headed by the prime minister 13 The unicameral parliament consists of the 30 member House of Assembly which consists of 21 directly elected members and nine senators who may either be appointed by the president or elected by the other members of the House of Assembly 13 Unlike other former British colonies in the region Dominica was never a Commonwealth realm instead becoming a republic on independence Dominica is a full and participating member of the Caribbean Community CARICOM and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States OECS 18 Dominica is also a member of the International Criminal Court with a Bilateral Immunity Agreement of protection with the US military as covered under Article 98 In January 2008 Dominica joined the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas 18 Human rights Edit Both male and female same sex sexual activity is illegal in Dominica 62 63 Administrative divisions Edit Saint Andrew SaintPeter SaintJohn Saint Joseph Saint Paul Saint David Saint George SaintPatrick Saint Luke Saint Mark CARIBBEANSEA DOMINICADominica is divided into 10 parishes given below with their 2011 Census populations Saint Andrew Parish 9 471 Saint David Parish 6 043 Saint George Parish 21 241 Saint John Parish 6 561 Saint Joseph Parish 5 637 Saint Luke Parish 1 668 Saint Mark Parish 1 834 Saint Patrick Parish 7 622 Saint Paul Parish 9 786 Saint Peter Parish 1 430 Economy EditMain article Economy of DominicaDominica s currency is the East Caribbean Dollar In 2008 Dominica had one of the lowest per capita gross domestic product GDP rates of Eastern Caribbean states 64 65 The country nearly had a financial crisis in 2003 and 2004 but Dominica s economy grew by 3 5 in 2005 and 4 0 in 2006 following a decade of poor performance Growth in 2006 was attributed to gains in tourism construction offshore and other services and some sub sectors of the banana industry Around this time the International Monetary Fund IMF praised the Government of Dominica for its successful macroeconomic reforms but also pointed out remaining challenges including the need for further reductions in public debt increased financial sector regulation and market diversification 20 Agriculture and especially bananas once dominated Dominica s economy 46 and nearly one third of the labour force worked in agriculture in the early 2000s This sector however is highly vulnerable to weather conditions and to external events affecting commodity prices In 2007 Hurricane Dean caused significant damage to the agricultural sector as well as the country s infrastructure especially roads citation needed In response to reduced European Union EU trade preferences for bananas from the former European colonies after the 2009 WTO decision 66 67 68 69 the government has diversified the agricultural sector by promoting the production of coffee patchouli aloe vera cut flowers and exotic fruits such as mango guava and papaya citation needed while the economy has become increasingly dependent on tourism 46 The expected increase of Dominica s Citizenship by Investment CBI fees has been suspended with no implementation date in sight as announced by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit in the 2016 budget speech 70 International trade Edit Dominica is a beneficiary of the Caribbean Basin Initiative CBI that grants duty free entry into the United States for many goods Dominica also belongs to the predominantly English speaking Caribbean Community CARICOM the CARICOM Single Market and Economy CSME and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States OECS 20 Financial services industry Edit The Commonwealth of Dominica is becoming in recent years when a major international financial centre The largest sectors are offshore banking payment processing companies and general corporate activities Regulation and supervision of the financial services industry is the responsibility of the Financial Service Unit of the Commonwealth of Dominica FSU under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance There are a number of service providers These include global financial institutions including Scotiabank Royal Bank of Canada Cathedral Investment Bank First Caribbean International Bank and The Interoceanic Bank of the Caribbean Starting in the mid late 1990s offshore financial centres such as the Commonwealth of Dominica came under increasing pressure from the OECD for their allegedly harmful tax regimes where the OECD wished to prevent low tax regimes from having an advantage in the global marketplace The OECD threatened to place the Commonwealth of Dominica and other financial centres on a black list and impose sanctions against them However the Commonwealth of Dominica successfully avoided being placed on the OECD black list by committing to regulatory reform to improve transparency and begin information exchange with OECD member countries about their citizens Dominica supposedly offers tax free status to companies relocating from abroad It is not known how many companies benefit from the tax free status because of the strict confidentiality the government enforces although it is known many Internet businesses and hedge funds utilise Dominica for this reason However on 12 July 2012 Dominica signed an agreement with Poland to exchange tax information 71 Economic immigrants Edit Main article Dominica citizenship by investment programme The Commonwealth of Dominica offers an official and legally mandated economic citizenship to those seeking a valid second citizenship The nationality law of Dominica authorises the government to waive the normal requirement of seven years of legal residence to acquire citizenship in exchange for an investment into their country s economy The required contribution for a main applicant starts at US 100 000 through the Economic Diversification Fund 72 Alternatively since 2014 applicants can make a US 200 000 minimum investment in pre approved real estate from island exclusive resorts or global brands like Marriott Kempinski or Hilton 73 According to officials the citizenship by investment CBI programme was an economic and fiscal lifeline in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Erika in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017 and its new investment option had become the main source of Foreign Direct Investment into Dominica by early 2016 74 Dominican citizens can travel without a visa or obtain a visa upon entry to nearly 140 countries and territories including the United Kingdom and the Schengen Zone 75 Applying for Dominica citizenship requires interacting with official Government Approved Economic Citizenship Agents as the first step in the application process 76 This programme is currently valued at 16 of the government s total revenue 77 The government s management of the economic citizenship programme and an initial perceived lack of transparency in the use of the revenues generated are a frequent topic of heated domestic political controversy Referring to the opposition Prime Minister Skerrit in 2016 stated that If they can discredit the Citizenship by Investment Program and make Dominica an unattractive place to obtain citizenship then revenues would fall and the government would not be able to rebuild the country Or the government would then have to increase taxes on the people making itself unpopular in their sight 78 Since then the Government of Dominica has improved transparency of CBI funds According to Prime Minister Skerrit s 2018 2019 Budget Address 79 the island s CBI Programme has helped develop a National Health Insurance pilot that provides Dominican children in critical medical conditions with overseas treatment Because many residents were displaced by Hurricane Maria s impact on the small Caribbean island the government pledged to build 5 000 hurricane proof homes of which the first batch of 125 houses were scheduled for occupancy in February 2019 80 The CBI Programme has also significantly helped to develop and create jobs in the island s ecotourism sector 81 Furthermore the Skerrit administration set aside EC 5m every month for the construction of a new airport 82 83 The Financial Times Professional Wealth Management publication ranked Dominica as the world s best citizenship by investment programme in its annual CBI Index 84 85 According to the report investors choose Dominica s citizenship because it has the most affordable investment threshold the application process is straightforward and streamlined 86 while the security checks each applicant is subjected to remain very strict 87 Batalie Bay Dominica Tourism Edit Main article Tourism in Dominica Dominica is mostly volcanic and has few beaches therefore tourism has developed more slowly than on neighbouring islands Nevertheless Dominica s mountains rainforests freshwater lakes hot springs waterfalls and diving spots make it an attractive ecotourism destination Cruise ship stopovers have increased following the development of modern docking and waterfront facilities in Roseau the capital 20 Out of 22 Caribbean islands tracked Dominica had the fewest visitors in 2008 55 800 or 0 3 of the total This was about half as many as visited Haiti 88 The volcanic nature of the island has attracted scuba divers Infrastructure EditAir Edit There are two airports on the island The primary airport Douglas Charles Airport DOM now has direct flights from Miami on American Eagle It is on the northeast coast and is about a 45 minute drive from Portsmouth 1 hour from Roseau The second is Canefield Airport DCF about 15 minutes from Roseau on the southwest coast Douglas Charles Airport is suitable for limited use of commercial jets because of runway length Douglas Charles currently has regular service by Air Sunshine Winair and Seaborne Airlines using twin turboprop aircraft like the ATR and Saab 340 as well as Conviasa and Amerijet which using Boeing 727 Freighters is the only airline with jet service to the republic A runway extension and service upgrade project began at Douglas Charles Airport around 2006 and was finished in 2010 In March 2013 airline American Eagle halted flights to the island citing high labour costs 89 Roads Edit Dominica s road network runs primarily along the coastline and along river valleys Major roads are two lane highways which connect the capital Roseau with Portsmouth Edward Oliver Leblanc Highway and the Douglas Charles Airport Dr Nicholas Liverpool Highway It takes about 45 minutes to drive from Portsmouth to Roseau Private minibuses form the major public transport system These major roads were reconstructed from the early 2010s to 2015 with assistance from the People s Republic of China and the European Union 90 91 Due to Tropical Storm Erika of 2015 several road surfaces and bridges were damaged by flooding and landslides including on the just completed E O LeBlanc Highway Roseau to Portsmouth and Dr Nicholas Liverpool Highway Pont Casse to Douglas Charles Airport To alleviate this the government announced that it intended to install emergency bridges in Roseau Valley near the Trafalgar Falls to Wotten Waven and in Emshall 92 Hurricane Maria of 2017 also damaged the road network Green energy Edit Dominica s electricity sector includes power from hydroelectricity solar energy and geothermal energy 93 Following on from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in September 2017 the Dominican government claimed it would invest in geothermal energy In early March 2018 Dominica signed an International Solar Alliance Framework Agreement in an attempt to exploit solar energy to power the country with a source of renewable energy 94 Demographics EditMain article Demographics of Dominica DominicaYearPop p a 187127 178 188128 211 0 37 189126 841 0 50 190128 894 0 74 191133 863 1 60 192137 059 0 91 194647 624 1 01 196059 916 1 65 197069 549 1 50 198173 795 0 54 199171 183 0 36 200171 242 0 01 201170 739 0 07 6 The vast majority of Dominicans are of African descent There is a growing mixed population along with a small European origin minority descendants of French and British colonists along with some people of Irish descent from indentured servants and there are small numbers of Lebanese Syrians and East Asians Dominica is also the only Eastern Caribbean island that still has a population of pre Columbian native Kalinago previously called Caribs who were exterminated or driven from neighbouring islands As of 2014 update there are more than 3 000 Kalinago remaining They live in eight villages on the east coast of Dominica This special Kalinago Territory previously Carib Reserve was granted by the British Crown in 1903 95 Scotts Head Dominica The population growth rate of Dominica is very low due primarily to emigration to other countries In the early 21st century emigrant numbers for the most popular countries are as follows the United States 8 560 the United Kingdom 6 739 Canada 605 and France 394 Dominica had a relatively large number of centenarians In March 2007 there were 22 centenarians out of the island s 70 000 inhabitants three times the average incidence of centenarianism in developed countries The reasons for this were once the subject of a study that formerly had been undertaken at Ross University School of Medicine 96 Dominica was partially integrated into the federal colony of the Leeward Islands in 1832 Later in 1871 it became a full part of the Federation of the Leeward Islands From the start it was a peculiar relationship for previously Dominica had played no part in the political or cultural traditions of the other more Anglophone islands of the federation Now as a Leeward Island this much larger territory with thousands of acres of forested unclaimed land was open to the people of Montserrat and Antigua At the beginning of the 20th century the Rose s Company which produced Rose s lime juice saw demand for its product outgrow its ability to supply the product from Montserrat Their response to the situation was to buy land on Dominica and encourage Montserrat farm labourers to relocate As a result there came to be two linguistic communities in Dominica Wesley and Marigot Charlotteville Dominica In 1902 on 8 May the Mount Pelee volcano on Martinique erupted destroying the city of Saint Pierre Refugees from Martinique arrived in boats to the southern villages of Dominica and some remained permanently on the island Languages Edit English is the official language of Dominica and is universally spoken and understood In addition Dominican Creole an Antillean Creole based on French is widely spoken This is due to French migration to the island starting in 1690 a majority French Creole speaking population that resided on the island 97 and its location between the two French speaking departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe Since 1979 Dominica has been a member of La Francophonie Dominican Creole is particularly used among the older generation which also speaks a patois language Because of a decline in the use of Creole by the younger generation initiatives have been set up in an effort to increase usage and promote this unique part of the nation s history and culture Along with Creole a dialect known as Kokoy or Cockoy is spoken 98 It is a type of pidgin English which is a mix of Leeward Island English Creole and Dominican Creole 99 and is mainly spoken in the north eastern villages of Marigot and Wesley by the descendants of immigrants from Montserrat and Antigua Over time there has been much intermarrying but there are still traces of difference in origin 100 As a result of this mixture of languages and heritage Dominica is a member of both the French speaking Francophonie and the English speaking Commonwealth of Nations Island Carib also known as Igneri Ineri Igneri Inyeri was an Arawakan language historically spoken by the Island Caribs of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean The Island Caribs lived throughout the southern Lesser Antilles such as Dominica St Vincent and Trinidad supposedly having conquered them from their previous inhabitants the Igneri Island Carib became extinct about 1920 but an offshoot survives as Garifuna primarily in Central America Religion Edit Main article Religion in Dominica Roseau Cathedral in Dominica 61 4 of the population is Roman Catholic 46 though in recent years a number of Protestant churches have been established citation needed About 10 12 of the population belongs to one of the Seventh Day Saturday denominations which includes Yahweh Congregation Church of God Seventh Day and the Seventh day Adventist Church 101 According to the Association of Religion Data Archives in 2010 the World Christian Database reported that the largest non Christian religious groups included spiritualism followed by 2 6 of the population Bahaʼi followed by 1 7 Agnosticism followed by 0 5 Buddhism Hinduism and Islam each followed by 0 1 and Chinese folk religion Neoreligions and Atheism each followed by non negligible proportions i e lt 0 1 of the population 102 The second largest town on the island Portsmouth is home to Al Ansaar Masjid the first mosque to be built in Dominica The mosque was constructed with the help of Muslim students from the since relocated Ross University School of Medicine 103 Education Edit Main article Education in Dominica This section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed February 2016 Learn how and when to remove this template message School in Dominica is mandatory up to secondary school After pre school students attend primary school for six or seven years and are admitted into secondary school on the basis of a Common Entrance Exam After five years the students take the General Certificate of Education GCE widely replaced by the current Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate administered by the Caribbean Examination Council a 15 member confederation of the Caribbean community CARICOM 104 The more advanced version of this examination CAPE can be taken upon completion of two years of community college The island has its own Dominica State College formerly named Clifton Dupigny Community College 105 Some Dominicans attend universities in Cuba on scholarships offered by its government others go to the University of the West Indies or to universities in the United Kingdom the United States or other countries Archbold Tropical Research and Education Center a biological field station owned by Clemson University is located at Springfield Estate between Canefield and Pont Casse 106 107 In 2006 All Saints University School of Medicine opened in temporary facilities in Loubiere 108 it was later located in Roseau Dominica A marine biology institute in Mahaut the Institute for Tropical Marine Ecology closed in 2009 Ross University School of Medicine was located at Portsmouth Ross had been operating in Dominica since the 1980s 109 There used to be a thousand medical students arriving annually from the United States and Canada who studied at Ross University but the campus was permanently relocated to Barbados at the beginning of the 2019 Spring semester due to extensive hurricane damage suffered at the Dominican campus 110 111 The Dominica Library and Information Service serves an integral role in the education of the citizens of the country The Dominica Library and Information Service DLIS is the island s main public sector responsible for library services information service and management Today it provides service for the population of Dominica through three components public library services documentation and research services and archival services Under the management of the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development the responsibilities of the institution were established in 1843 with the opening of reading rooms or the first public library in Dominica Victoria Memorial 112 Dominica Library and Information Service serves an integral role in the education of the citizens of the country The creation of a public library in Dominica did not come easily though the impetus was a noble one that would help the coloured people improve their lot as they moved along the path to complete freedom Borome 203 The Dominican library began as a reading room that would evolve into a free and public library that wasn t fully free patrons were required to pay a subscription fee Surviving religious and political discord the great depression and two world wars the library finally came under the care of the government where funds were set aside for its upkeep Ironically the early stages of the library s history were dedicated to remove the uncouth and barbarous patois which today is being preserved However it did achieve its goal of diminishing the island s very high percentage of illiteracy pg 225 113 However the historical library was demolished in the wake of hurricane Maria in 2018 and slated to be rebuilt with a more modern outlook Culture EditMain articles Culture of Dominica and Music of Dominica Dominica s east coast Carib Territory Dominica is home to a wide range of people Although it was historically occupied by several native tribes the Arawaks Tainos and Carib Kalinago tribes occupied it at the time European settlers reached the island Massacre is a name of a river dedicated to the mass murder of the native villagers by English settlers on St Kitts the survivors were forced into exile on Dominica 114 Both the French and British tried to claim the island and imported slaves from Africa for labour The remaining Caribs now live on a 3 700 acre 15 km2 territory on the east coast of the island They elect their own chief This mix of cultures has produced the current culture original research Music and dance are important facets of Dominica s culture The annual independence celebrations display a variety of traditional song and dance Since 1997 there have also been weeks of Creole festivals such as Creole in the Park and the World Creole Music Festival Dominica gained prominence on the international music stage when in 1973 Gordon Henderson founded the group Exile One and an original musical genre which he coined Cadence lypso This paved the way for modern Creole music Other musical genres include Jing ping and Cadence Jing ping features the accordion and is native to the island Dominica s music is a melange of Haitian Afro Cuban African and European traditions Popular artists over the years include Chubby and the Midnight Groovers Bells Combo the Gaylords Dominican band WCK and Triple Kay The 11th annual World Creole Music Festival was held in 2007 part of the island s celebration of independence from Great Britain on 3 November A year long reunion celebration began in January 2008 marking 30 years of independence Dominica is often seen as a society that is migrating from collectivism to that of individualism The economy is a developing one that previously depended on agriculture Signs of collectivism are evident in the small towns and villages which are spread across the island clarification needed The novelist Jean Rhys was born and raised in Dominica The island is obliquely depicted in her best known book Wide Sargasso Sea Rhys s friend the political activist and writer Phyllis Shand Allfrey set her 1954 novel The Orchid House in Dominica Much of the Walt Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man s Chest the second in the series released in 2006 was shot on location on Dominica though in the film it was known as Pelegosto a fictional island along with some shooting for the third film in the series At World s End 2007 Cuisine Edit Main article Dominica cuisine Dominica s cuisine is similar to that of other Caribbean islands particularly Jamaica Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago Like other Commonwealth Caribbean islands Dominicans have developed a distinct twist to their cuisine Breakfast is an important daily meal typically including saltfish dried and salted codfish and bakes fried dough Saltfish and bakes are combined for a fast food snack that can be eaten throughout the day vendors on Dominica s streets sell these snacks to passersby together with fried chicken fish and fruit and yogurt smoothies Other breakfast meals include cornmeal porridge which is made with fine cornmeal or polenta milk or condensed milk and sugar to sweeten Traditional British influenced dishes such as eggs and toast are also popular as are fried fish and plantains Common vegetables include plantains tannias a root vegetable sweet potatoes potatoes rice and peas Meat and poultry typically eaten include chicken beef and fish These are often prepared in stews with onions carrots garlic ginger and herbs The vegetables and meat are browned to create a rich dark sauce Popular meals include rice and peas brown stew chicken stew beef fried and stewed fish and many different types of hearty fish broths and soups These are filled with dumplings carrots and ground provisions Sports Edit Cricket is a popular sport on the island and Dominica competes in test cricket as part of the West Indies cricket team In West Indies domestic first class cricket Dominica participates as part of the Windward Islands cricket team although they are often considered a part of the Leeward Islands geographically This is due to being part of the British Windward Islands colony from 1940 until independence its cricket federation remains a part of the Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control On 24 October 2007 the 8 000 seat Windsor cricket stadium was completed with a donation of EC 33 million US 17 million 12 million from the government of the People s Republic of China Netball basketball rugby tennis and association football are gaining popularity as well International footballer Julian Wade Dominica s all time top goal scorer as of 2021 currently plays for Brechin City F C in Scotland 115 During the 2014 Winter Olympics a husband and wife team of Gary di Silvestri and Angela Morrone di Silvestri spent US 175 000 to register as Dominican citizens and enter the 15 km men s and 10 km women s cross country skiing events respectively Angela did not start her race and Gary pulled out several hundred meters into his race To date they are Dominica s only Winter Olympic athletes 116 Athlete Jerome Romain won the bronze medal at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics triple jump competition He also qualified for the finals at the 1996 Olympic Games even though he had to pull out due to injury his 12th position is the best performance of a Dominican ever at the Olympics 117 Sprinter Olympian Chris Lloyd won the bronze medal at the 2007 Pan American Games over 400m 118 Triple Jump Olympian Thea LaFond became the first athlete to ever win a medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games 119 Media EditDominica has two major newspapers The Sun and The Chronicle There are two national television stations and a few radio stations including Stations include ZBC AM 590 the first private local radio station is called Radio En Ba Mango 93 5 96 9FM in the Village of Berricoa Grand Bay and is owned by Urban Dangleben ZGBC AM 740 ZGBC FM 90 7 Portsmouth ZGBC FM 102 1 Roseau and ZGBC FM 106 1 Marigot Q95 FM 120 the Dominica Broadcasting Corporation and Kairi FM 121 Before 2004 there were two telecommunication companies Cable and Wireless and Marpin TV 122 founded by Dominican Ronald Bernard Maroni Abraham In 2005 Digicel and a UK based company Orange started to offer service to the island There are a number of mobile networks operating on the island LIME and Digicel compete for most of Dominica s wireless customers Orange shut down in 2010 and is no longer operating on the island of Dominica Historical newspapers include The Dominican The Dominica Guardian Archived 29 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine and the Dominica Colonist available for free in the Digital Library of the Caribbean Notable people EditDavid Jno Baptiste aka Ras Jumbo bass guitar player Jerelle Joseph scientist and academicSee also Edit Caribbean portal Islands portalIndex of Dominica related articles List of people from Dominica Outline of DominicaReferences Edit Coat of Arms Government of the State of Dominica www dominica gov dm DOMINICA NATIONAL CENSUS REPORT 2000 ROUND OF POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS SUB PROJECT PDF Caricomstats org Archived from the original PDF on 5 February 2018 Retrieved 29 August 2017 Religions in Dominica PEW GRF World Population Prospects 2022 population un org United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division Retrieved 17 July 2022 World Population Prospects 2022 Demographic indicators by region subregion and country annually for 1950 2100 XSLX population un org Total Population as of 1 July thousands United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division Retrieved 17 July 2022 a b c 2011 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS PDF Dominica gov dm Retrieved 29 August 2017 a b c d Dominica International Monetary Fund Human Development Report 2020 The Next Frontier Human Development and the Anthropocene PDF United Nations Development Programme 15 December 2020 pp 343 346 ISBN 978 92 1 126442 5 Retrieved 16 December 2020 a b Monkey 12 November 2014 One woman s fight to get David Dimbleby to correctly pronounce Dominica The Guardian Retrieved 31 August 2020 a b Learn about Dominica A Virtual Dominica n d Retrieved 31 August 2020 Dominica pronunciation of Dominica Macmillan Dictionary Retrieved 31 August 2020 Dominica Pronunciation in English Cambridge Dictionary Retrieved 29 October 2019 a b c d Dominica s Constitution of 1978 with Amendments through 1984 Constitute Retrieved 20 July 2016 P C Evans amp L Honychurch Dominica Nature Island of the Caribbean Hansib 1989 Country Flags With Purple World Atlas 18 December 2018 Retrieved 3 April 2019 The Real Reason Purple Isn t Used on Many National Flags TipHero 20 November 2017 Retrieved 29 November 2021 Whitley David 29 January 2016 The 22 places you re probably pronouncing incorrectly Stuff Retrieved 31 August 2020 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Encyclopedia Britannica Dominica Retrieved 29 June 2019 Discover Dominica an introduction to our Caribbean island Dominica dm Archived from the original on 23 September 2010 Retrieved 27 June 2010 a b c d e f g h i j k Background note Dominica U S Department of State July 2008 This article incorporates text from this source which is in the public domain P C Emmer amp BW Highman 1999 General History of the Caribbean Methodology and Historiography of the Caribbean volume 6 p 637 Important Dates in Dominica s History Lennox Honychurch 5 July 1990 Archived from the original on 30 August 2013 Retrieved 29 September 2013 Janus Dominica Estate documents janus lib cam ac uk London Society for the Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions 1831 Anti Slavery Monthly Reporter volume 3 London Society for the Mitigation and Abolition of Slavery in the British Dominions p 211 Slavery Abolition Act 1833 Section LXIV 28 August 1833 Retrieved 3 June 2008 The Dominica Termination of Association Order 1978 www legislation gov uk Lawrence Miles 1979 Hurricane David Preliminary Report Page 3 National Hurricane Center Retrieved 5 October 2010 Goldman Lawrence 2013 Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2005 2008 Oxford University Press p 210 ISBN 9780199671540 a b Ex Commander Hanged For Dominica Coup Role The New York Times 9 August 1986 Retrieved 26 August 2009 Caribbean Islands Regional Security Threats 1970 81 Country data com Retrieved 27 June 2010 Stewart Bell Bayou of Pigs presents the story of the planned coup Woodward Bob Veil the Secret Wars of the CIA 1981 1987 New York Simon and Schuster 1987 pp 290 300 www mathaba net www mathaba net Retrieved 12 May 2018 Ellsworth Carter Dominica Leader Douglas Dies Mathaba net When Prime Minister Pierre Charles died The Sun IFES Election Guide Elections Dominica Parliamentary May 5 2005 www electionguide org U S Department of State Background Note on Dominica State gov 7 February 2013 Retrieved 29 September 2013 General Election Results 8 December 2014 Caribbean Elections Charles Angelo Savarin sworn in as Dominica s 8th President GIS Dominica news gov dm Hurricane Maria devastates Dominica PM BBC News 19 September 2017 Retrieved 19 September 2017 Dominica devastation emerges with fatalities and 90 of buildings destroyed WIC News 19 September 2017 Retrieved 19 September 2017 a b Handy Gemma 25 September 2017 Dominica grieves after Hurricane Maria BBC News DOC President Billy Doctrove says he is pleased with the National Team Commonwealth Games performance Q95FM DOMINICA Savarin re elected President opposition stages walkout Antigua News Room 2 October 2018 Sorhaindo Rupert 10 December 2019 Reflections on Dominica 2019 general election results Caribbean News Global a b c d e f g h i j The World Factbook Dominica CIA gov 22 September 2022 Retrieved 22 September 2022 Between Two Reunions Boiling Lake 1988 to 2008 The Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica s Official Website Retrieved 27 June 2010 Thompson Keith 2010 Life in the Caribbean New Africa Press p 288 ISBN 978 9987160150 ASIN 9987160158 p 173 Dinerstein Eric Olson David Joshi Anup Vynne Carly Burgess Neil D Wikramanayake Eric Hahn Nathan Palminteri Suzanne Hedao Prashant Noss Reed Hansen Matt Locke Harvey Ellis Erle C Jones Benjamin Barber Charles Victor Hayes Randy Kormos Cyril Martin Vance Crist Eileen Sechrest Wes Price Lori Baillie Jonathan E M Weeden Don Suckling Kieran Davis Crystal Sizer Nigel Moore Rebecca Thau David Birch Tanya Potapov Peter Turubanova Svetlana Tyukavina Alexandra de Souza Nadia Pintea Lilian Brito Jose C Llewellyn Othman A Miller Anthony G Patzelt Annette Ghazanfar Shahina A Timberlake Jonathan Kloser Heinz Shennan Farpon Yara Kindt Roeland Lilleso Jens Peter Barnekow van Breugel Paulo Graudal Lars Voge Maianna Al Shammari Khalaf F Saleem Muhammad 2017 An Ecoregion Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm BioScience 67 6 534 545 doi 10 1093 biosci bix014 ISSN 0006 3568 PMC 5451287 PMID 28608869 Morne Trois Pitons National Park by World Heritage Sites Whc unesco org 7 December 1997 Retrieved 27 June 2010 St Lucia 2004 Saint Kitts 1999 Hispaniola Dominican Republic 1990 Haiti 1982 and Cuba multiple A Photo Tour of the Calibishie Coast Calibishiecoast com Archived from the original on 27 May 2017 Retrieved 29 September 2013 Stephen Durand and Bertrand Jno Baptiste Dominica Forestry Wildlife and Parks Division Grantham H S Duncan A Evans T D Jones K R Beyer H L Schuster R Walston J Ray J C Robinson J G Callow M Clements T Costa H M DeGemmis A Elsen P R Ervin J Franco P Goldman E Goetz S Hansen A Hofsvang E Jantz P Jupiter S Kang A Langhammer P Laurance W F Lieberman S Linkie M Malhi Y Maxwell S Mendez M Mittermeier R Murray N J Possingham H Radachowsky J Saatchi S Samper C Silverman J Shapiro A Strassburg B Stevens T Stokes E Taylor R Tear T Tizard R Venter O Visconti P Wang S Watson J E M 2020 Anthropogenic modification of forests means only 40 of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity Supplementary Material Nature Communications 11 1 5978 Bibcode 2020NatCo 11 5978G doi 10 1038 s41467 020 19493 3 ISSN 2041 1723 PMC 7723057 PMID 33293507 Jonathan Katz 18 August 2007 Hurricane Dean Gains Caribbean Strength Forbes Associated Press Retrieved 18 August 2007 dead link Hurricane claims one life in St Lucia and possibly two in Dominica CBC 17 August 2007 Archived from the original on 28 August 2007 Retrieved 17 August 2007 Dominica Badly Affected CBC 17 August 2007 Archived from the original on 28 August 2007 Retrieved 17 August 2007 Dominica pleads for help as storm death toll tops 30 Yahoo News 1 September 2015 Retrieved 4 October 2015 Rapid Damage and Impact Assessment Tropical Storm Erika PDF Government of Dominica 25 September 2015 Retrieved 4 October 2015 van den Burg Matthijs P Brisbane Jeanelle L K Knapp Charles R 14 October 2019 Post hurricane relief facilitates invasion and establishment of two invasive alien vertebrate species in the Commonwealth of Dominica West Indies Biological Invasions 22 2 195 203 doi 10 1007 s10530 019 02107 5 eISSN 1573 1464 ISSN 1387 3547 S2CID 204460134 Carlyle L Mitchell Edgar Gold Dalhousie Ocean Studies Programme 1983 Fisheries Development in Dominica An Assessment of the New Law of the Sea Implications and Strategies Dalhousie Ocean Studies Programme Dalhousie University p 41 ISBN 978 0 7703 0280 1 Avery Daniel 4 April 2019 71 Countries Where Homosexuality is Illegal Newsweek State Sponsored Homophobia International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association 20 March 2019 Dominica U S Department of State Retrieved 4 August 2020 World Bank At A Glance PDF Barkham Patrick 5 March 1999 The banana wars explained Retrieved 4 August 2020 via www theguardian com Banana war ends after 20 years BBC News 8 November 2012 Retrieved 4 August 2020 Schwartz Elaine 26 June 2018 How the EU and the U S Fought a Banana Trade War Econlife Archived from the original on 23 March 2019 Retrieved 16 July 2021 Ending the banana wars Who wins and who loses News European Parliament www europarl europa eu 24 January 2011 Retrieved 4 August 2020 No Fee Increase for Dominica CIP Archived 17 September 2017 at the Wayback Machine ntltrust com 2016 7 28 Ministerstwo Finansow Mf gov pl Retrieved 29 September 2013 Economic Diversification Fund Dominica Dominica Retrieved 30 November 2018 Dominica Citizenship by Investment Unit Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica Archived from the original on 24 January 2015 Retrieved 16 July 2021 Dominica s Citizenship Programme Main Source of FDI Officials Say Archived 13 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine Dominica News Online 16 February 2016 Dominica Passport Visa Free Travel Dominica Visa Free Countries www goccp com Retrieved 30 November 2018 Authorised CBIU Agents Government Approved CBIU Agents Selling citizenship is big business and controversial The Economist 29 September 2018 Full speech of PM Skerrit at DLP meeting in St Joseph Archived 16 January 2017 at the Wayback Machine Dominica News Online 3 February 2016 Full budget speech of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit Dominica News Online dominicanewsonline com 26 July 2018 Retrieved 30 November 2018 First phase of CBI funded housing projects ready for occupation in February 2019 Dominica News Online dominicanewsonline com 23 November 2018 Retrieved 30 November 2018 How Dominica s CBI is Changing the Lives of its Citizens Dominica 6 August 2018 Retrieved 30 November 2018 Land acquisition begins for international airport PM Skerrit Dominica News Online dominicanewsonline com 16 October 2018 Retrieved 30 November 2018 Getting over Hurricane Maria The Economist 30 August 2018 Retrieved 30 November 2018 CBI Index Rankings of the Best Programmes cbiindex com Retrieved 30 November 2018 Dominica named best country for 2nd citizenship www tradearabia com 26 August 2018 Retrieved 4 August 2020 CBI Index Research Team 20 August 2018 The CBI Index key findings Caribbean continues to dominate www pwmnet com Retrieved 30 November 2018 Gunning Heyrick Bond 20 August 2018 The CBI Index the due diligence process in the Caribbean www pwmnet com Retrieved 30 November 2018 DeLollis Barbara Hansen Barbara 19 January 2009 Bookings started to fall along with stock market USA Today American Eagle worries Dominica News Online 19 October 2012 Retrieved 29 September 2013 Completion ceremony of Edward Oliver Leblanc Highway Friday Dominica News Online 20 April 2012 Retrieved 29 September 2013 Dr Nicholas Liverpool Highway Officially Commissioned Dominica Government Information Service Retrieved 4 October 2015 Emergency bridges being developed PM says Dominica News Online 8 September 2015 Retrieved 4 October 2015 Emergency Bridges Being Developed PM Says Dominica News Online 8 September 2015 Caribbean Renewable Energy 24 August 2018 Dominica cementing its position as a renewable energy trailblazer Retrieved 4 August 2020 The Carib Indians Avirtualdominica com Retrieved 27 June 2010 Pickford John From Our Own Correspondent BBC Radio 4 First broadcast 31 March 2007 Dominica report 17 49 22 55 Honychurch Lennox 1995 The Dominica story a history of the island 3rd ed London Macmillan pp 49 60 ISBN 978 0333627761 Schreier D et al 2010 Lesser known varieties of English Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521710169 Creole for Beginners Avirtualdominica com Retrieved 27 June 2010 Honychurch Lennox 14 November 2003 Inter Island Migration and Cultural Change The Impact of Montserratians on Dominica Lennoxhonychurch com Archived from the original on 11 May 2011 Retrieved 27 June 2010 Tropical Islam Arabwashingtonian org Archived from the original on 5 September 2009 Retrieved 27 June 2010 The Association of Religion Data Archives National Profiles www thearda com Retrieved 16 October 2017 home Muslim Community of Dominica Retrieved 1 December 2022 Dominica Education System www scholaro com Retrieved 12 November 2022 About Us Dominica State College Retrieved 12 November 2022 Clemson University ATREC 2012 Retrieved 7 October 2012 Clemson University Clemson edu 8 January 2010 Archived from the original on 22 August 2018 Retrieved 27 June 2010 All Saints University School of Medicine Dominica Retrieved 7 October 2012 Ross University School of Medicine Dominica Rossu edu Archived from the original on 4 December 2011 Retrieved 29 September 2013 Medical school relocates to Barbados after hurricane washingtonpost com Archived from the original on 21 April 2019 Retrieved 3 August 2018 Adtalem Global Education Announces Barbados as New Location for Ross University School of Medicine Adtalem Global Education Retrieved 3 August 2018 About DLIS dlis gov dm Retrieved 1 December 2022 Borome Joseph A 1970 Origin and Growth of the Public Libraries of Dominica The Journal of Library History 5 3 200 236 ISSN 0022 2259 JSTOR 25540240 Hubbard Vincent 2002 A History of St Kitts Macmillan Caribbean p 17 ISBN 9780333747605 Smith Ewan 12 August 2021 Dominica international striker Julian Wade gives up Caribbean sunshine to hit Brechin City goal trail The Courier McKenna Dave 24 February 2014 Dominica s Fake Ski Team Scammed The Olympics and the Press Deadspin Retrieved 25 February 2014 WORLD BRONZE MEDALLIST ROMAIN REFLECTS ON DOMINICA S OLYMPIC DEBUT trackalerts com 15 August 2016 Retrieved 14 February 2022 Dominica s Participation at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games dominicaweekly Retrieved 14 February 2022 Thea Lafond Records World Leading Jump dominicaathleticsassociation org 24 January 2021 Retrieved 14 February 2022 Q95 FM Wiceqfm com Archived from the original on 27 July 2017 Retrieved 27 June 2010 Kairi FM Kairi FM Retrieved 27 June 2010 Account Suspended www marpin2k4 com Retrieved 4 August 2020 External links EditDominica at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons News from Wikinews Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Travel information from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity Reference Country profile Government portal Commonwealth of Dominica The World Factbook Central Intelligence Agency Dominica entry at Encyclopaedia Britannica Dominica at UCB Libraries GovPubs Dominican creole or Kweyol presentation vocabulary and conversation guide Dominica at Curlie Country Profile from BBC NewsGovernment Official website Commonwealth of Dominica Government portal Discover Dominica Nature Island of the Caribbean official government tourism website by the Discover Dominica Authority Statistics Commonwealth of Dominica Invest Dominica AuthorityGeography Wikimedia Atlas of Dominica Geographic data related to Dominica at OpenStreetMap WikiSatellite view of Dominica at WikiMapia Coordinates 15 25 N 61 20 W 15 417 N 61 333 W 15 417 61 333 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Dominica amp oldid 1135621553, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, 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