Barbuda: Mandinka Territory
you can't buy land, but you'll definitely want to stay
2007-07-23
Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

When I stepped off the plane into the dusty roads of Barbuda, it felt like a Mississippi Delta town with palm tress.  Only 62-square miles long and home to just 1,500 residents, everybody knows everybody and any new face stands out.  In fact, the one-room airport serves as the social center of Barbuda. Women lounge in the courtyard, watching for new arrivals or family members, while children run around playing cricket with homemade bats. Sassy little girls questioned me about where I came from; from the teen-aged boys I got whistles.  The faces and mannerisms were all very familiar -- a particular Barbudian sensibility drawing from an unquestionably African identity.
 
Although the nature preserves and animals steal most of the attention, Barbuda’s people have an interesting history of their own. Port authority and tour guide Lynton Thomas gave me the rundown: Barbuda was a former breeding colony, where tall, muscular Africans from the Mandinka tribe were kept to sleep with enslaved women brought over from other islands.  Consequently, Barbuda has always had a small population, and a lot of the people stand over six feet tall (Jimmy the Greek has been vindicated!). 
 
In 1834, when the British granted emancipation to the enslaved Africans on Antigua and Barbuda, a nominal fee was offered to them for their service.  Barbudians turned it down, requesting the land instead.  In 1904 the Barbudian Land Act provided legislation for the people to own the land in common.  And the legislation is clear: non-Barbudians can only rent.  Land, a 150 x150 plot decreed, can only be owned by Barbudians, defined as someone whose grandfather or grandmother was born on the island.  A child of a non-Barbudian born on Barbuda does not qualify and if you marry a Barbudian, land rights do not go into effect until after five years.  Divorce wipes out everything, so Barbuda is totally owned by descendents of the original enslaved Mandinkas. Gives real meaning to the term reparations. 
 
So, that’s the cultural history. What about the sights?  The Frigate Bird Sanctuary is one of the best.  Accessible only by boat, the sanctuary, in addition to 170 different species of birds, offers up-close views of the frigate bird, with its eight-foot wing span and, in an impressive display of mating-season machismo, a pouch that turns crimson and blows up like a balloon.  The blush-colored, sand beaches are another must-see.  The pink shells that wash ashore in various coves gives some of the beaches a positively rosy glow.  My favorite souvenir from the island is a bottle of soft pink sand and seashells that I scooped up on Palmetto Point Beach.  Most beaches are unpopulated and the longest one stretches 12 miles so you can bask in a real-world paradise.  I enjoyed lolling around and watching for Barbudian wildlife-- brown pelicans, ibis, tropical mockingbirds, deer and red-footed tortoises.

After all that sightseeing, it’s time to get around to eats. Barbuda may be small but a rich variety of food is everywhere you look.  From fig (banana) and sea grape trees, to the Caribbean staple of coconut and brown sugar burned into a candy called sugar cake, there’s always something to munch on – if you can find a source. Much of the food is sold informally. I got my batch of pink and brown sugar cakes from “Maggie Broomstick’s” house, after directions were provided about who had sugar cake that day.  Along many roads, you’ll find women cooking yabba dumplings.  The yabba is a clay pot heated over a charcoal stove and the savory dumpling is served with chicken.  

For a full-fledged meal, I loved Wa ‘omoni’s Best, a storefront eatery with batik covered walls and upholstered chairs.  Wa’omoni is the Aarwak name for Barbuda and they do their culture proud.  Sample the local lobster, goat water, a spicy stew with goat, hot peppers, clove and cinnamon or the national dish of fungi and pepperpot stew, a heaping dish filled with pumpkin, yams, green figs (bananas), plantains and okra as well as pig feet, salt pork and beef.  My personal favorite is the saltfish with duccana, a sweet accompaniment of grated sweet potato, coconut and cornmeal, steamed in a banana leaf.  Top it off with a slice of the indigenous black pineapple, said to be the sweetest in the world and there’s no place else on earth you’d rather be.

(Writer Rosalind Cummings-Yeates is a Chicago-based freelance writer who specializes in African and Caribbean culture.) 

Links:
For more information, visit www.antigua-barbuda.org.