The island, with its fine natural harbor at Castries and burgeoning sugar industry, was contested by England and France throughout the 17th and early 18th centuries (changing possession 14 times); it was finally ceded to the UK in 1814 and became part of the British Windward Islands colony. Even after the abolition of slavery on its plantations in 1834, Saint Lucia remained an agricultural island, dedicated to producing tropical commodity crops. In the mid-20th century, Saint Lucia joined the West Indies Federation (1958–1962) and in 1967 became one of the six members of the West Indies Associated States, with internal self-government. In 1979, Saint Lucia gained full independence.

Economy

Upper middle-income, tourism-based Caribbean island economy; environmentally fragile; energy import-dependent; major banana producer; well-educated labor force; key infrastructure, IT, and communications investments.

Population

The population is 167,591 (2023 est.) which consists of Black/African descent 85.3%, mixed 10.9%, East Indian 2.2%, other 1.6%, unspecified 0.1% (2010 est.)

Afro-Saint Lucians or West African-Saint Lucians, are Saint Lucians whose ancestry lies within West and Central Africa. However, many Afro-Saint Lucians also have small amounts of non-African ancestry such as Arawak, Carib, European and Indian.

As of 2013, people of West and Central African descent are the majority in Saint Lucia, accounting for 82.5% of the country’s population. An additional 11.9% of the country is multiracial, predominantly of Afro-European descent (mixture of various West and Central African ethnic groups and European groups) and Afro-Indian descent (mixture of African and Indian/South Asian).

H. H. Breen, one of the earliest writers to write a detailed study of Saint Lucia, noted during his period little was known about the Island.  In its early French colonial period, the African slave population was imported from Martinique, or, during bouts of British rule, supplemented by slaves from Barbados. This dominance of Martinique merchants in monopolizing the slave imports into the Island has raised the reasonable inference, supported statistically, that most slaves shared a common origin from the Senegambian coast. According to Dalphinis, the majority of slaves from 1695 onwards were indisputably from Senegambia, comprising mainly Wolof and Mandingo ethnic groups. As a British possession, however, at the end of the eighteenth century, Saint Lucia increasingly imported large numbers of slaves from Akan and Igbo groups.

Consequently, the slave population, diverse but distinct, is shaped over the course of two centuries by Senegambian slaves (including slaves from the Malian hinterland, Fulani, Dyula, Bambara etc.) and Akan (Gold Coast slaves) and Igbo slaves (Bight of Biafra: roughly 3,000 slaves, or 53% of the slaves enter Saint Lucia before the end of Slavery). As to Yoruba, they constitute a strong cultural influence on the Island. In many areas, their cultural impact has left the strongest legacy since many Yoruba came as ‘indentured servants’ after slavery, introducing the Kele and Ogun ritual rites. Also present in big numbers were the Ambundus Central Africans slaves (more than 1,000 slaves, or 22%).

Between 1600 and 1700, most of the slaves, as noted, came from Senegambia. These slaves were mainly used as servants. Meanwhile, Ewe and Fon slaves, from the Slave Coast, exerted as rural slaves.

The ethno-linguistic dominance of specific groups in certain areas of work, had a great importance in the origin of Creole identity.

In 1763, when the British acquired the island by the Treaty of Paris, they imported enslaved Africans as workers. Caribbean conditions were harsh, and many African slaves, like the Caribs (also used as slaves in the island), died, requiring continued importation of new captives. The British continued to import slaves until they abolished the trade in 1808. By that time, people of ethnic African and less so Carib descent greatly outnumbered those of ethnic European background.

On February 21, 1795, an army of French and African freedom fighters led by Goyrand defeated a battalion of British troops. For the next four months, a united front of recently freed slaves and freedom fighters known as the Brigands (also ex-slaves, who instigated revolt across the region) forced out not only the British army, but many of the slaveholders who had been loyal to the British. Just under a year later, the British Army returned, with many more troops than the freedom fighters could manage, and eventually re-imposed slavery until 1807, when the African slave trade was abolished (although it was not until 1834 that they abolished the institution of slavery).

In 1814, the British regained control of the island, many of those freed had escaped into the thick rainforests.

Even after abolition, all former slaves had to serve a four-year “apprenticeship” which forced them to work for free for their former masters for at least three-quarters of the work week. They achieved full freedom in 1838.