The Victoria Memorial Building by Dr.Lennox Honychurch
The Victoria Memorial Building on Victoria Street Roseau was constructed shortly after the death of the Queen Empress of the British Empire in 1901 as a memorial to her reign. As in many other colonies of the Empire, Queen Victoria, was seen in Dominica as an icon of ‘her people', a figure that inspired loyalty and commitment to the union of thousands of cultures and ethnic groups around the world under the banner of her sovereignty. It is difficult to understand this today but the mass propaganda of empire had its effect into the farthest reaches of her domain.
As Heskeith Bell, the Administrator of Dominica at the time commented on 22nd January 1901, "News has just come of the great and good Queen's death. A great shock to us all...The people of this island, coloured as well as white, are immensely loyal to the British Crown, and the aged Queen's death is being felt as a personal bereavement. She has always been idealized as ‘Mother of her People'".
Queen Street, which had been named in the 18th century for Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III was then renamed Victoria Street in her honour. Elsewhere in Dominica, in the community of Delices, there is a hamlet called Victoria.
Money was raised for the construction of the building through public subscription and donations from the humblest market vendor up to the leading planters and commercial companies of the period. The government also voted a sum towards the project. It was also a means of providing Dominica with its first public library building. It was often described as a ‘reading room' for it was exactly that: a room entirely surrounded by a wide veranda on which people could sit and read newspapers, periodicals and books.
Dominica's original settlers were Amerindians from the South American continent. They were very accomplished fishermen and sea-farers, sometimes travelling long distances in their dug-out canoes to catch fish and crustaceans. From the 18th century West African slaves combined their own traditions with the influences of their European masters and developed a new culture of their own. French Creole is a fusion of Africa, the Caribbean and France, and still thrives in Dominica today. It manifests itself in language, costume, music, dance, food and drink.
The Cabrits Garrison and Fort Shirley, Dominica by Dr.Lennox Honychurch
The Cabrits headland is made up of the remains of a volcanic crater on the north-west coast of Dominica that protects Prince Rupert's bay, the best anchorage on the island. The Cabrits derives its name from the Spanish, Portuguese and French names for goat. Sailors would leave pigs and goats to go wild on the headland so as to multiply to provide fresh meat on future visits to the bay. Later it was also called Prince Rupert's Head after Prince Rupert of the Rhine who used the bay to repair and refresh his sailing ships in the 1650s.
Ma Pampo and the Centenarians of Dominica by Gwenith M. Whitford, BMUS, MLS
‘Longevity' is a household word on the Nature Island of Dominica. Twenty or so centenarians thrive in a population of about 70,000. There are actually three seniors over the age of 100 for every 10,000 residents, which is about three times the norm of any other developed western country.
Take for example Elizabeth "Ma Pampo" Israel, who passed away in Dominica on October 14, 2003 at the exceptional age of 128 years. In 1999, a curious caregiver found a copy of her baptismal certificate in local Roman Catholic Church records. It indicated that her birth date was January 27, 1875. Shortly thereafter, a Dominican broadcast journalist announced this amazing piece of news to the media. Then she achieved international notoriety in various publications including Time Magazine, as well as mentions on some popular television programs, such as Oprah.
