$Unique_ID{COW00146} $Pretitle{233A} $Title{Antigua and Barbuda Chapter 2A. General Information} $Subtitle{} $Author{Karen Sturges-Vera} $Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army} $Subject{antigua barbuda percent industry island islands government sugar tourism local} $Date{1987} $Log{Tower*0014601.scf Figure 14.*0014602.scf Tourist Views*0014603.scf Table A.*0014601.tab } Country: Antigua and Barbuda Book: Caribbean Commonwealth, An Area Study: Antigua and Barbuda Author: Karen Sturges-Vera Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army Date: 1987 Chapter 2A. General Information [See Tower: Courtesy Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda, Washingon DC.] [See Table A.: Country Profile] The islands of Antigua and Barbuda form a small nation whose strategic importance is greater than its size. Located at the outer curve of the Leeward Islands, Antigua and Barbuda are well placed for strategic defense of the Caribbean against outside forces. The natural harbors along Antigua's indented coast also offer havens for naval forces (see Current Strategic Considerations, ch. 7). By the eighteenth century B.C., Antigua and Barbuda had been settled by their first inhabitants, the Ciboney (or Guanahuatebey) Indians. They were followed by the Arawaks, a peaceful Indian tribe that migrated from northern South America through the Caribbean islands and arrived on Antigua around A.D. 35. They began slash-and-burn cultivation of the island and introduced such crops as corn, sweet potatoes, beans, pineapples, indigo, and cotton. The Arawaks were uprooted by the Carib Indians around A.D. 1200; however, the Caribs did not settle on Antigua but used it as a base for gathering provisions (see The Pre-European Population, ch. 1). In 1493, on his second voyage, Christopher Columbus sighted the island of Antigua and named it after Santa Maria de la Antigua. Early settlement, however, was discouraged by insufficient water on the island and by Carib raids. Europeans did not establish settlements on Antigua until the English claimed the island in 1632. Antigua fell into French hands in 1666 but was returned to the English the following year under the Treaty of Breda. Antigua remained under British control from 1667 until independence was granted in 1981. From the start, Antigua was used as a colony for producing agricultural exports. The first of these were tobacco, indigo, and ginger. The island was dramatically transformed in 1674 with the establishment by Sir Christopher Codrington of the first sugar plantation. Only four years later, half of Antigua's population consisted of black slaves imported from the west coast of Africa to work on the sugar plantations. Antigua became one of the most profitable of Britain's colonies in the Caribbean (see The Sugar Revolutions and Slavery, ch. 1). In 1685 the Codrington family leased the island of Barbuda from the English crown for the nominal price of "one fat pig per year if asked." The Codringtons used Barbuda as a source of supplies--such as timber, fish, livestock, and slaves--for their sugar plantations and other real estate on Antigua. This lease continued in the Codrington family until 1870. Barbuda legally became part of Antigua in 1860. Although the British Parliament enacted legislation in 1834 abolishing slavery throughout the empire, it mandated that former slaves remain on their plantations for six years (see The Post-Emancipation Societies, ch. 1). Choosing not to wait until 1840, the government on Antigua freed its slaves in August 1834. This was done more for economic than for humanitarian reasons, as the plantation owners realized that it cost less to pay emancipated laborers low wages than to provide slaves with food, shelter, and other essentials. The plantation owners continued to exploit their workers in this way into the twentieth century. The workers perceived little opportunity to change the situation, and sugar's dominance precluded other opportunities for employment on the island. The Antigua sugar industry was severely jolted in the 1930s, as the dramatic decline in the price of sugar that resulted from the Great Depression coincided with a severe drought that badly damaged the island's sugar crop. Social conditions on Antigua, already bad, became even worse, and the lower and working classes began to protest to the point that law and order were threatened. The Moyne Commission was established in 1938 to investigate the causes of the social unrest in Antigua and elsewhere in the Caribbean (see Labor Organizations, ch. 1). In 1940, in response to the situation, the president of the British Trades Union Congress recommended that the workers on Antigua form a trade union. Two weeks later, the Antigua Trades and Labour Union (ATLU) was created. The union soon began to win a series of victories in the struggle for workers' rights. Despite these victories, the ATLU recognized the need to participate in the political life of the island, as the plantation owners still held all political power. Thus, in 1946, the union established a political arm, the Antigua Labour Party (ALP), and ran five parliamentary candidates who met the qualification of being property owners. All were elected; in addition, one of the five, Vere Cornwall Bird, Sr., was selected to serve on the government's Executive Council. Bird and the ATLU continued to push for constitutional reforms that would give the lower and working classes more rights. Largely because of these efforts, Antigua had full adult suffrage by 1951, unrestricted by minimum income or literacy requirements. With each general election, the union and the ALP put forth more candidates and won more seats in the Antiguan Parliament. In 1961 Bird was appointed to fill the newly created position of chief minister. Five years later, he led a delegation to London to consider the issue of Antiguan independence. Following a constitutional conference, Antigua became an associated state (see Glossary) in February 1967, with Barbuda and the tiny island of Redonda as dependencies. Antigua was internally independent, but its foreign affairs and defense still were controlled by Britain. During the period of associated statehood (1967-81), Antigua saw the rise of a second labor union and its affiliated political party and the beginnings of a secessionist movement in Barbuda, as well as the replacement of sugar by tourism as the dominant force in the economy. In 1978 Deputy Prime Minister Lester Bird (younger son of Vere Cornwall Bird, Sr.) and other like-minded political leaders called for full independence. Following their return to office in the 1980 general election, which was regarded as a popular mandate on independence, another constitutional conference was held in London in December 1980. An obstacle to achieving independence was the issue of Barbudan secession; this barrier was overcome when a compromise was reached that made Barbuda relatively autonomous internally. Complete independence was granted to the new nation of Antigua and Barbuda in 1981. Geography [See Figure 14.: Antigua and Barbuda, 1987] [See Tourist Views: Courtesy Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda, Washingon DC.] Antigua and Barbuda lies in the eastern arc of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, separating the Atlantic Ocean from the Caribbean Sea. Antigua is 650 kilometers southeast of Puerto Rico. Barbuda lies forty-eight kilometers due north of Antigua, and the uninhabited island of Redonda is fifty-six kilometers southwest of Antigua (see fig. 14). The largest island, Antigua, is 21 kilometers across and 281 square kilometers in area, or about two-thirds the size of New York City. Barbuda covers 161 square kilometers, while Redonda encompasses a mere 2.6 square kilometers. The capital of Antigua and Barbuda is St. John's, located at St. John's Harbour on the northwest coast of Antigua. The principal city of Barbuda is Codrington, located on Codrington Lagoon. Antigua and Barbuda both are generally low-lying islands whose terrain has been influenced more by limestone formations than volcanic activity. The highest point on Antigua, however, is Boggy Peak, the remnant of a volcanic crater rising 399 meters. This mountain is located amid a bulge of hills of volcanic origin in the southwestern part of the island. The limestone formations in the northeast are separated from the southwestern volcanic area by a central plain of clay formations. Barbuda's highest elevation is 44.5 meters, part of the highland plateau east of Codrington. The shorelines of both islands are greatly indented, with beaches, lagoons, and natural harbors. The islands are rimmed by reefs and shoals. There are few streams, as rainfall is slight. Both islands lack adequate amounts of fresh groundwater. The islands' tropical climate is moderated by fairly constant northeast tradewinds, with velocities ranging between thirty and forty-eight kilometers per hour. There is little precipitation, however, because of the islands' low elevations. Rainfall averages ninety-nine centimeters per year, but the amount varies widely from season to season. In general, the wettest period is September through November. The islands generally experience low humidity and recurrent droughts. Hurricanes strike on an average of once a year. Temperatures average 27C, with a range from 23C in the winter to 30C in the summer and fall; the coolest period is December through February. Population In mid-1985 the population of Antigua and Barbuda was about 80,000, of which 78,500 lived on Antigua and 1,500 on Barbuda. The annual growth rate was 1.3 percent, based on a crude birth rate of 15 births per 1,000 inhabitants and a crude death rate of 5 deaths per 1,000. Infant mortality was twice that for the population as a whole, at 10 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 1981 about 34 percent of Antigua's population was classified as urban. This segment was almost completely concentrated in the capital, St. John's. Rural settlements tended to be compact villages of varying sizes, concentrated along major or secondary roadways. Nearly all of the population of Barbuda lived in the town of Codrington; the island of Redonda was uninhabited. The people of Antigua and Barbuda were mostly black, descendants of African slaves. But the population also included some whites, descendants of British, Spanish, French, or Dutch colonists or of Portuguese, Lebanese, or Syrian immigrants. An exchange of residents had occurred between Antigua and Barbuda on the one hand and Europe and North America on the other hand as job seekers emigrated from, and retirees immigrated to, the Caribbean islands. About 75 percent of the population belonged to the Anglican Church in the mid-1980s. The Anglican Church was acknowledged as the official church, but church and state were legally separated. The remaining 25 percent of the population included members of different Protestant denominations--Methodist, Presbyterian, and fundamentalist--as well as Roman Catholics and Rastafarians (see Glossary). In the colonial era, Antiguan society was stratified on the basis of race. Europeans and those of European descent held the respected positions in society, They were the plantation owners and the political elites. On the other end of the spectrum were the black slaves or those of African ancestry, who lacked both political leverage and economic independence. The middle class was composed of mulattoes, who participated in commerce as merchants yet had little political clout. The abolition of slavery did little to change the class structure; nevertheless, the trade union movement and the associated transfer of political and economic power into workers' hands did much to weaken class barriers. In the late 1980s, society was divided along flexible class lines based on economic standing rather than the rigid racial criteria of the previous century. The upper class in the late 1980s consisted mostly of foreigners but also included local investors or businessmen from the private sector. The higher positions in the party system, the civil service, the state-run enterprises, and the private sector professions were filled by the upper middle class, while the lower middle class consisted of other professionals, party functionaries, technicians, and skilled laborers. The lower class encompassed the rest of society. Education The education system in Antigua and Barbuda followed the British pattern and included public and private schools. Preprimary school was available for children from ages three to six. Primary education, compulsory for all children up to age twelve, was provided for five or six years. Secondary education, lasting four or five years, was offered upon the successful completion of a qualifying examination; private schools had their own qualifying examinations, while public schools used a standard test. Postsecondary education was offered at the Antigua State College and at the local branch campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI). The Antigua State College offered a two-year program in five departments: teacher training, the advanced level in general education, commercial, engineering, and hotel and catering. Upon completion of the program, students took exams to earn certificates from external institutions, such as the UWI, Cambridge University, and the Royal Arts Society of London. Students attending the local branch campus of the UWI completed one year of studies and then continued their studies at another campus in Jamaica, Trinidad, or Barbados. The 90-percent literacy rate indicated that the education system was reasonably successful in imparting basic skills. Despite this achievement, substantial problems remained in the late 1980s. Educational supplies and facilities were inadequate; in addition, there existed a high percentage of untrained teachers at all levels. These instructional deficiencies contributed to a national shortage of skilled labor. In the 1980-81 school year, primary-school enrollment was 10,211 students, 78 percent of whom were in public schools. Of a total of 436 primary-school teachers, 82 percent were in the public system. Secondary schools had a total of 5,687 students and 321 teachers; 66 percent of the students and 71 percent of the teachers were in the public system. The state college consisted of 329 students; although most were from Antigua and Barbuda, some students also came from Anguilla, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Montserrat. The two special education schools had a combined enrollment of thirty-seven students, instructed by thirteen teachers. Health and Welfare In the late 1980s, Antigua and Barbuda had a fairly healthy population, primarily as a result of the relatively high level of protein in the diet. Life expectancy at birth was seventy-two years. Primary causes of sickness and death, especially among children, were gastroenteritis and dysentery, both of which are caused by poor sanitary conditions and therefore are avoidable. Many parts of the islands, especially rural areas, did not have sufficient amounts of safe drinking water or adequate waste- disposal facilities. Other causes of death were heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, cancer, and influenza or pneumonia. Pertussis, yaws, and leprosy also presented health problems. Moreover, the kind of mosquito that spreads dengue and yellow fever inhabited Antigua and Barbuda. There were some cases of child malnutrition and failure to immunize children against common diseases. Diabetes and high blood pressure were common in adults. As of 1987, Antigua and Barbuda had two reported cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The main health facility, the Holberton Hospital, had a staff of full- time doctors and offered specialist services in surgery, opthamology, radiology, and psychiatry. A smaller hospital, with 230 beds, was located on Barbuda. Antigua also had a 160-bed mental hospital and a 40-bed leprosy hospital. In 1982 there were four health centers, supervised by district health nurses, and twenty-five multipurpose satellite health clinics. There were 30 doctors and 130 nurses and midwives; most nurses had completed a three-year training program at the Holberton Hospital. The government played an active role in providing for the social welfare of the nation's citizens. Seen as an "employer of last resort," the government occasionally purchased failing enterprises in an effort to prevent increased unemployment. The government also provided social security, medical benefits, and subsidized health care. Retired civil servants received pensions, and compensation was paid to dismissed public employees. Economy The economy underwent a substantial transformation in the twentieth century as tourism replaced sugar as the principal earner of foreign exchange and the primary source of employment. Like the previously dominant sugar industry, tourism was controlled primarily by foreign capital. This control was in part the result of insufficient domestic capital, the local upper class having made more of its investments in commerce than in entrepreneurship. In an attempt to fill the local void, the government established state enterprises. Their specific purpose was to develop areas where foreigners were hesitant to invest, such as infrastructure or the faltering sugar industry, or to create domestic competition with foreign-owned enterprises, such as those in the tourist industry. The other major sectors of the economy, especially agriculture, were not strong enough to support the tourist industry; as a consequence, many items had to be imported. Macroeconomic Overview Economic growth in the early 1980s slowed after the relatively rapid expansion of the 1970s. This retardation was the result of several factors: recession in the industrial countries, trade problems within the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom--see Appendix C), and a severe drought that reduced agricultural output in 1984. Increased tourism brought a slight recovery in 1985, as the gross domestic product (GDP-- see Glossary) reached US $180.3 million, or US $2,273 per capita. In 1986 GDP fell again, however, to US $109 million, or US $1,346 per capita. This represented a decline of 16 percent from the 1982 GDP of US $129.5 million and a 20-percent drop from the 1982 per capita GDP of US $1,682. Antigua and Barbuda faced a debt situation in the mid-1980s; this was partly the result of the recession of the early 1980s, which did not support the national outlays on infrastructure and other items. In 1983 the current account deficit of the central government reached 3.8 percent of GDP, with a gross external debt of 16.3 percent of GDP. By the end of 1984, debt had reached close to US $100 million. Servicing the debt cost more than US $7.4 million per year, which represented 16 percent of government revenues. Import expenses were expected to fall in the late 1980s, and tourism revenues were expected to increase, thereby helping to narrow the balance of payments gap. The central government was reducing public expenditures and state investment because of the fiscal difficulties created by the debt problem. The Barbudan economy differed slightly from that of Antigua proper in the late 1980s because tourism was relatively less important to the smaller island's economy. Barbuda's largest source of income was remittances from relatives working in the United States or Britain. The second largest source was a subsidy from the Antiguan government, budgeted and distributed by the warden of Barbuda, the person selected to administer Barbudan economic matters. Economic activity and employment were concentrated in fishing, followed by agriculture (especially the raising of livestock) and tourism. Other sources of income included charcoal manufacturing and salt mining. Development of peanut farming and the exploitation of the island's coconut trees offered potential. The labor force in Antigua and Barbuda consisted of 31,500 workers in 1984. In the mid-1980s, these workers were divided fairly equally among three trade unions: the ATLU, the Antigua Workers Union (AWU), and the Antigua Public Service Association. The first two were affiliated with the two main political parties, the ALP and the Progressive Labour Movement (PLM), respectively. Workers were free to choose the union to which they wanted to belong. Hence, each industry employed members of two or three labor unions. The labor union represented by the simple majority (50 percent plus one) of workers was designated to represent all of the workers in that industry during contract negotiations. Wage contracts normally were valid for three years. Foreign nationals were allowed work permits only if there were no local applicants qualified for a specific position. Work permits generally were granted, however, for those who were involved either directly or via their companies in an investment project considered to be important to the country. Citizens of the United States, Canada, and Britain did not need visas. Communications on Antigua were modern and adequately served all parts of the island. On Barbuda, however, communications consisted of only a few telephones, mostly in the village of Codrington. The telephone system was well maintained, fully automatic, and had over 6,700 telephones. Radio-relay links from Antigua to Saba and Guadeloupe, a submarine cable, and a ground satellite station all provided excellent international service to both islands. Antigua had three AM radio stations broadcasting on medium wave: the government-owned Antigua Broadcasting Service on 620 kilohertz, a commercial station on 1100 kilohertz, and the religious Caribbean Radio Lighthouse on 1165 kilohertz. Two shortwave stations reached points throughout the Western Hemisphere from transmitters on the island; the British Broadcasting Corporation and Deutsche Welle of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) shared one transmitter, and the other relayed programs from the Voice of America. St. John's also had two small FM transmitters on 99.0 and 90.0 megahertz and television service on Channel 10. The Workers' Voice and the Outlet were the two main local newspapers. The Herald was a new third newspaper. The transportation system was well developed on Antigua but practically nonexistent on Barbuda. About 240 kilometers of paved or gravel roads connected all areas of Antigua. V.C. Bird International Airport, east of St. John's, had a paved runway and handled international flights. A small, unpaved strip at the southern tip of Barbuda could accommodate only small aircraft. St. John's was the main port for the islands, but smaller vessels could also dock at English Harbour on the south side of Antigua. More than seventy-five kilometers of narrow-gauge railroad track extended south and east from St. John's. These lines, however, were used almost exclusively to transport sugarcane. Neither island had significant inland waterways. Sectoral Performance Sea, sun, and sand are so much a part of Antigua that they have been incorporated into the national flag. Tourism was the dominant industry in the late 1980s. It accounted directly or indirectly for 40 percent of GDP and 60 percent of employment in 1984 and was responsible for 21 percent of all foreign exchange earnings. Direct revenues from tourism were accrued by restaurants, duty-free shops, boutiques, entertainment and gambling establishments, car rental agencies, taxis, and miscellaneous other businesses. At the same time, agriculture, manufacturing, construction, public utilities, communication, trade, and banking and insurance received indirect revenues from tourism. Despite tourism's many areas of direct or indirect contact with the domestic economy, the links in the late 1980s were weak, and many tourist dollars leaked back to the outside world. This leakage was primarily a result of the tourist industry's heavy reliance on foreign investment. Foreign investment dominated the larger resort complexes that accounted for the great majority of hotel room capacity. In many cases, the large resorts were built as self-sufficient enclaves, isolated from the rest of the island and offering all-inclusive vacations so that tourists did not need to have contact with other elements of the economy. As a consequence, much of the profit from tourism was expatriated. The weakness of other sectors also affected links between tourism and the domestic economy. Because foreign businesses chose not to invest in areas such as agriculture and manufacturing and because local investors were also lacking, the entrepreneurial role was left to the government or else was not filled. Because of the resulting low level of productivity, the tourist industry had to import goods, such as food, that the local market could not provide. Ironically, many tourist dollars were lost in importing items purchased by the tourists. The sector most significantly affected by tourism was construction; its growth was positively related to that of investment in the tourist industry. The nature of ownership in the tourist industry created a dilemma for the government. Since foreign-owned hotels and entertainment establishments expatriated much of tourism's financial benefits, the government encouraged national ownership of the industry. Local investors did not have sufficient capital, however, to support the large luxury resorts that were critical to employment. As a consequence, the government was forced to modify nationalistic tendencies and encourage foreign investment. Still, most of the jobs available to Antiguans and Barbudans were minimum-wage service positions; senior-level management posts in the tourist industry were held primarily by foreign nationals. The manufacturing sector accounted for about 8 percent of GDP and 14 percent of employment in 1984. Manufacturing also represented 85 percent of total domestic exports in 1983. Despite government diversification efforts, the sector was dominated by light manufacturing. Cotton textiles and garments, distilled liquors such as rum, and pottery were the major industries in the sector; each of these was oriented toward exports. Other items manufactured in Antigua and Barbuda included paints, furniture, mattresses, metal and iron products, household appliances, electronic components, and masonry products, produced for both the local and the export (mainly Caricom) markets. The textiles and garment industry accounted for 47 percent of the manufacturing work force. The food and beverages and fabricated wood products industries accounted for 21 and 12 percent, respectively, of the sectoral work force. Once the mainstay of the economy, agriculture has declined in importance since the collapse of the sugar industry. Agriculture generated only 7.5 percent of GDP and 12 percent of employment in 1984. Small farmers replaced the large plantation owners as the dominant producers in the agricultural sector. Production tended away from plantation crops of sugar and cotton--although sea island cotton remained an important supplier of the textile industry--and toward a varied system of fruits and vegetables to reduce food imports for the local market and tourist industry. The main crops were carrots, onions, eggplants, pumpkins, corn, cassavas, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes, and yams. The livestock industry was also managed on a smaller scale and contributed to agriculture's increased relative importance in terms of GDP in the 1973-80 period. Livestock included cattle, sheep, and goats. Despite the partial revival of the agricultural sector, however, several barriers to expansion remained. The most basic of these was the scarcity of fresh water, which limited irrigation. A second obstacle was the governmental land tenure system, covering 60 percent of arable land in Antigua, through which land was leased on a short-term basis. As a consequence, productive investment in the land was discouraged. Other constraints affecting agriculture included limited farm credit, deficient domestic marketing arrangements, a lack of effective agricultural information systems, and difficulties on the part of small farmers in obtaining basic agricultural services.