Nevis
Encyclopedia : N : NE : NEV : Nevis
- For other uses, see Nevis (disambiguation)}}}.
Main Street, Charlestown, Nevis.
Nevis is an island in the Caribbean near the top of the Lesser Antilles archipelago, about 220 miles (350 km) southeast of Puerto Rico and 50 miles (80 km) west of Antigua. The 36 square-mile (93 km²) island is part of the Leeward Islands and is located at latitude 17.15°N and longitude 62.58°W. The capital of Nevis is Charlestown. Together with Saint Kitts, Nevis constitutes the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The two islands are separated by a 2-mile wide channel.
Nevis is conical in shape, with a volcanic peak at the centre. The island is fringed by long strands of golden sand beaches and has a coastline intermittently protected by coral reefs. The colour of the sand is a result of the mixture of coral, foraminifera and volcanic sand. The most famous beach is the 4-mile long Pinneys Beach on the west coast. In the lush interior, rivers and ponds fill up seasonally, and the gently sloping coastal plain (0.6 miles/1 km wide) also has natural fresh water springs, especially along the west coast. The island was named Oualie ("Land of Beautiful Waters") by the Caribs and Dulcina ("Sweet Island") by the early British settlers.Hubbard, Vincent K. (2002). Swords, Ships & Sugar: History of Nevis. Corvallis, Oregon, pp. 20-23 (Captain Gilbert, Captain Smith), 25 (pearl diving), 41-44 (name Dulcina, treaty with Spain, first settlement), 69-70 (privateers, Captain Francis), 79-82 (slave trade, Royal African Company), 86-102 (Caribs), 113-120 (d'Iberville, buccaneers), 138-139 (Great Britain's wealth derived from West Indian sugar and slave trade). The name Nevis is derived from Spanish, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves ("Our Lady of the Snows"), a name given the island in 1493 by Christopher Columbus who thought the clouds over Nevis Peak made the island resemble a snow-capped mountain.
The majority of the approximately 12,000 inhabitants of Nevis are of African descent. English is the official language and the literacy rate, 98 percent, is one of the highest in the Western Hemisphere. The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) Conference paper presented at The St. Kitts and Nevis Country Conference, University of the West Indies, Barbados, May 2000 and the Cambridge General Certificate of Education Examination (GCE) results of students in Nevis are consistently among the highest in the English-speaking Caribbean.Brown, Janet (2000). ["Early Childhood Investment in St. Kitts and Nevis: A Model for the Caribbean?"] ["Minister of Education to GSS 2005 graduands: The future of Nevis depends on you"]. SKN Vibes, 24 Nov. 24, 2005.
History
Early history
When Nevis was spotted by Columbus in 1493, the island had already been settled for more than 2,000 years by Caribbean Amerindian populations. During the last 15 years, artefacts from three major prehistoric periods have been discovered at excavation sites in Nevis.See for example [Nevis Heritage excavation reports, 2000-2002], Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton The indigenous people of Nevis during these periods belonged to the Leeward Island Amerindian groups popularly referred to as Arawaks and Caribs, a complex mosaic of ethnic groups with similar culture and language.Wilson, Samuel (1990). The Prehistoric Settlement Pattern of Nevis, West Indies. University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Lennox Honychurch from Dominica (D. Phil. in Anthropology and one of the world's leading scholars in the history and culture of Island Caribs) traces the European use of the term "Carib" for the Leeward Island aborigines to Columbus, who picked it up from the Tainos on Hispaniola. It was not a name the Island Caribs called themselves.Honychurch, Lennox (1997). "Crossroads in the Caribbean: A Site of Encounter and Exchange on Dominica". World Archaeology Vol. 28(3): 291-304. The Spanish used the term to clarify which native groups were officially available for enslavement. "Carib Indians" was the generic name used for all groups allegedly involved in war rituals of a cannibalistic nature, namely the consumption of parts of a killed enemy's body. The Spanish law permitted and encouraged the enslavement of all such "cannibals" or "Caribs". Nevis was part of the Spanish claim to the Caribbean islands, a claim pursued until 1671, even though there were no Spanish settlements on the island. According to Vincent Hubbard, author of Swords, Ships & Sugar: History of Nevis, the Spanish ruling caused many of the Arawak groups who were not ethnically Caribs to "be redefined as Caribs overnight". Records indicate that the Spanish enslaved large numbers of the native inhabitants on the more accessible of the Leeward Islands and sent them to Cubagua, Venezuela to dive for pearls. Hubbard suggests that the reason the first European settlers found so few "Caribs" on Nevis is that they had already been rounded up by the Spanish and shipped off to be used as slaves.The structure of the Island Carib language has been linguistically identified as Arawakan. This is used as an argument to support the Arawakan Continuity Model for the Leeward Islands. According to the continuity model, the many ethnic groups of the Leeward Islands lived side by side through the centuries before the Europeans arrived, becoming multilingual because of intense inter-island trade. The suggestion that a natural merging of languages and cultures occurred over the centuries is in sharp contrast with the invasion and displacement model which has previously been the dominant model in Caribbean scholarship. The displacement model suggests that the Cariban speaking groups killed off the Arawakan groups, but that the Arawakan language survived because the Carib warriors spared the Arawak women and the women then passed Arawakan on to their children. Many scholars now subscribe to moderated continuity models, considering the Caribbean to have been a site of encounter and exchange throughout history.
In spite of the Spanish claim, Nevis continued to be a popular stop-over point for English and Dutch ships on their way to the North American continent. Captain Bartholomew Gilbert of Plymouth visited the island in 1603, spending two weeks to cut twenty tons of lignum vitae wood. Gilbert sailed on to Virginia to seek out survivors of the Roanoke settlement in what is now North Carolina. Captain John Smith visited Nevis also on his way to Virginia in 1607. This was the voyage which founded the Jamestown Settlement, the first permanent English settlement in the New World.
On August 30, 1620, James I of England asserted sovereignty over Nevis by giving a Royal Patent for colonisation to the Earl of Carlisle. However actual European settlement did not happen until 1628 when Anthony Hilton moved from nearby Saint Kitts following a murder plot against him. He was accompanied by 80 other settlers, soon to be boosted by a further 100 settlers from London who had originally hoped to settle Barbuda. Hilton became the first Governor of Nevis. After the 1671 peace treaty between Spain and England, Nevis became the seat of the British colony and the Admiralty Court sat in Nevis. Between 1675 and 1730, the island was the headquarter for the slave trade for the Leeward Islands, with approximately 6,000-7,000 enslaved West Africans passing through on route to other islands each year. The Royal African Company brought all its ships through Nevis.
Colonial history
Nevis, due to the high quality of its sugar cane and the introduction of the Triangular trade, was once a dominant source of wealth for Great Britain, so much that the exports from West Indian colonies like Nevis were worth more than all of those from the mainland Thirteen colonies of North America at the time of the American Revolution. The great wealth generated by the colonies of the West Indies led to wars between Spain, Britain, and France, and the formation of the United States can be said to be a partial by-product of these wars whose strategic trade aims often ignored North America.
By the end of the 17th century, the population of Nevis consisted of a small, rich planter elite in control, a marginal population of poor whites, a great majority of enslaved families of African descent, and an unknown number of maroons, people who had freed themselves from the exploitation and escaped. The enslaved families formed the large labour force and were forced to perform the monotonous and dangerous work of the sugar plantations. After the 1650s the supply of white indentured servants began to dry up due to increased wages in England and less incentive to migrate to the colonies. Additionally, the plantation owners considered lifelong enslavement a better long-term investment for their owners than indentured servants who could leave after four to seven years. They also considered it easier to control persons in a workforce that had been removed from their homelands and separated from their kin by brute force and who were easily discerned by their skin colour should they try to escape. Of the 1780 population of 10,000 in Nevis, 90 percent were black.
A series of earthquakes during the 18th century laid most of the colonial era stone buildings of Charlestown in ruins. The Georgian stone buildings of today are reconstructions, built on the ruins. The destruction also led to a new architectural style, consisting of wooden upper floors over a ground floor built of stone.
Two famous Nevisian buildings from the 18th century are Hermitage Plantation, built of lignum vitae wood in 1740, the oldest surviving wooden house still in use in the Caribbean today, and Bath Hotel, the first hotel in the Caribbean, a luxury hotel and spa built by John Huggins in 1778. The soothing waters of the hotel's hot springs lured many famous Europeans, including Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Antigua-based Admiral Nelson and his friend Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence and future King William IV of the United Kingdom, partied here. Today, the building serves as the government headquarters and the hot springs are open to the public.
An often repeated myth indicates that a massive 1690 earthquake and tsunami destroyed the buildings of the original capital Jamestown, a town on the west coast. However, recent research has found no basis for the claim and archaeologists from the University of Southampton who have done excavations in the area state that the myth may be the result of an over-excited Victorian letter writer, sharing accounts of his exotic life in the tropical colony with a British audience back home.Machling, Tessa (2002). "Jamestown, Morton's Bay and James Fort: Myth, Port and Fort". Interim Report for the 2002 Season, Theme Two. University of Southampton. Available online in pdf format. [link]. One such letter recounts that so much damage was done to the town that it had to be completely abandoned, and that the whole town sank into the sea. Early maps do not show Jamestown, only Morton's Bay, and later maps show that all that was left of Jamestown/Morton's Bay in 1818 was a building labelled "Pleasure House". Since then, the land has moved over at least 100 yards to the west, which means that anything left of Jamestown would now be underground.
Emancipation
During the 17th century the French, based on Saint Kitts, launched many attacks on Nevis, sometimes assisted by the Island Caribs, who in 1667 sent a large fleet of canoes along in support. The English on Nevis hated and feared the Amerindians, and even sent troops to assist in the slaughter of the Island Caribs in Dominica and St. Vincent in 1674 and 1683 without official approval from The Crown. Some of the maroons joined with the few remaining Caribs in Nevis to form an ever present resistance force in the mountainous regions of the island. Memories of the Nevisian resistance against the injustices suffered under the plantation system are evident in place names such as Maroon Hill, an early centre of resistance.
During this era, three privateers were employed by the British Crown to help protect ships in Nevis' waters. One of them, Captain Frances, was of African descent. He commanded 100 men and a 20-gun ship. In 1706, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville, the French Canadian founder of Louisiana in North America, decided to drive the English out of Nevis and thus also stop pirate attacks on French ships; he considered Nevis the region's headquarter for piracy in the Caribbean against French trade. During d'Iberville's invasion of Nevis, French buccaneers were used in the front line, infamous for being ruthless killers after the pillaging during the wars with Spain where they gained a reputation for torturing and murdering non-combatants. In the face of the invading force, the English militiamen of Nevis fled. Some planters burned the plantations, rather than letting the French have them, and hid in the mountains. It was the enslaved Africans who held the French at bay by taking up arms to defend their families and the island. The slave quarters had been looted and burned as well, as the main reward promised the men fighting on the French side in the attack was the right to capture as many slaves as possible and resell them in Martinique.
During the fighting, 3,400 enslaved Nevisians were captured and sent off to Martinique, but about 1,000 more, poorly armed and militarily untrained, held the French troops at bay, by "murderous fire" according to an eyewitness account by an English militiaman. He wrote that "the slaves' brave behaviour and defence there shamed what some of their masters did, and they do not shrink to tell us so." After 18 days of fighting, the French were driven off the island. Among the Nevisian men, women and children carried away on d'Iberville's ships, six ended up in Louisiana, the first persons of African descent to arrive there.
On August 1, 1834, slavery was abolished in the British Empire. In Nevis, 8,815 slaves were freed. The first Monday in August is celebrated as Emancipation Day and is part of the annual Nevis Culturama festival.
Recent history
Nevis was united with Saint Kitts and Anguilla in 1882, and they became an associated state with full internal autonomy in 1967, though Anguilla seceded in 1971. Together, Saint Kitts and Nevis became independent on September 19, 1983. On August 10, 1998, a referendum on Nevis to separate from Saint Kitts had 2,427 votes in favour and 1,498 against, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed.
Simeon Daniel, Nevis' first Premier and former leader of the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP) and Vance Amory, former Premier and leader of the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM), made sovereign independence for Nevis from the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis part of their parties' agenda. ["Independence for Nevis still on the agenda, says premier."] Caribbean Net News, 16 Jun. 2006.
Politics
The political structure for the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis is based on the Westminster Parliamentary system, but it is a unique structure in that Nevis has its own unicameral legislature, consisting of Her Majesty's representative (the Deputy Governor General) and members of the Nevis Island Assembly. Nevis has considerable autonomy in its legislative branch. The constitution actually empowers the Nevis Island Legislature to make laws that cannot be abrogated by the National Assembly. In addition, Nevis has a constitutionally protected right to secede from the federation, should a two-third majority of the island’s population vote for independence in a local referendum. Section 113.(1) of the constitution states: "The Nevis Island Legislature may provide that the island of Nevis shall cease to be federated with the island of Saint Christopher and accordingly that this Constitution shall no longer have effect in the island of Nevis."See section 3 and 4 about Nevis Island Legislature and Administration in The Saint Christopher and Nevis Constitution Order 1983. Published online by [Georgetown University] and also by [University of the West Indies].
Nevis has its own premier, its own government, the Nevis Island Administration, and the island collects its own taxes and has a separate budget. The Administration has managed to produce a balanced budget and a current account surplus, even with an ambitious infrastructure development programme in progress, including a transformation of the Charlestown port, construction of a new deep-water harbour, resurfacing and widening the Island Main Road, a new airport terminal and control tower, and a major airport expansion, which required the relocation of an entire village in order to make room for the runway extension. Nevis has also managed to produce one of the highest growth rates in gross national product and per capita income in the Caribbean. Nevis Island Administration - Ministry of Finance (2005). [Quick Facts]. About Nevis. Tax and Economic System.
Secession movement
Since independence from the United Kingdom in 1983, the Nevis Island Administration and the Federal Government have been involved in several conflicts over the interpretation of the new constitution which came into effect at independence. During an interview on Voice of America in March 1998, repeated in a government issued press release headlined "PM Douglas Maintains 1983 Constitution is Flawed", Prime Minister Denzil Douglas called the constitution a "recipe for disaster and disharmony among the people of both islands".Office of the Prime Minister (1998). ["PM Douglas Maintains 1983 Constitution is Flawed."] Media Release, 11 Mar. 1998.A crisis developed already in 1984 when the People's Action Movement (PAM) won a majority in the Federal elections and temporarily ceased honouring the Federal Government's financial obligations to Nevis. Consequently, cheques issued by the Nevis Administration were not honoured by the Bank, public servants in Nevis were not paid on time and the Nevis Island Administration experienced difficulties in meeting its financial obligations.The Concerned Citizens Movement (1996). ["The Way Forward For The Island Of Nevis." Nevis, Queen of the Caribees.] Nevis Island Administration, September 1996. A copy of the original document is published online at Nevis Independence Movement.
Legislative motivation
In 1996, four new bills were introduced in the National Assembly in Saint Kitts, one of which made provisions to have revenue derived from activities in Nevis paid directly to the treasury in Saint Kitts instead of to the treasury in Nevis. Another bill, The Financial Services Committee Act, contained provisions that all investments in Saint Kitts and Nevis would require approval by an investment committee in Saint Kitts. This was controversial, because ever since 1983 the Nevis Island Administration had approved all investments for Nevis, on the basis that the constitution vests legislative authority for industries, trades and businesses and economic development in Nevis to the Nevis Island Administration. All three representatives from Nevis, including the leader of the opposition in the Nevis Island Assembly, objected to the introduction of these bills into the National Assembly in Saint Kitts, arguing that the bills would affect the ability of Nevis to develop its offshore financial services sector and that the bills would be detrimental to the Nevis economy. All the representatives in opposition in the National Assembly shared the conviction that the bills, if passed into law, would be unconstitutional and undermine the constitutional and legislative authority of the Nevis Island Administration, as well as result in the destruction of the economy of Nevis.
The constitutional crisis initially developed when the newly appointed Attorney General refused to grant permission for the Nevis Island Administration to assert its legal right in the Courts. After a decision of the High Court in favour of the Nevis Island Administration, the Prime Minister gave newspaper interviews stating that he "refused to accept the decision of the High Court".St. Kitts and Nevis Observer July 16-22, 1995. Qtd. in The Concerned Citizens Movement (1996). ["The Way Forward For The Island Of Nevis." Nevis, Queen of the Caribees.] Due to the deteriorating relationship between the Nevis Island Administration and the Federal Government, a Constitutional Committee was appointed in April 1996 to advise on whether or not the present constitutional arrangement between the islands should continue. Nevis has continued developing its own legislation, such as The Nevis International Insurance Ordinance and the Nevis International Mutual Funds Ordinance of 2004,As reported by the Premier at the official Web site for [Nevis Financial Services Departments and the Ministry of Finance, Nevis]. but calls for secession are often based on concerns that the legislative authority of the Nevis Island Administration might be challenged again in the future.
Since 2005, Nevis has its first Resident Judge, Her Ladyship Justice Ianthea Leigertwood-Octave.
Fiscal motivation
Political dissension between Saint Kitts and Nevis has made the movement for Nevis secession a constant presence in the island's political arena, with many articles appearing in the press expressing concerns such as those compiled by Everton Powell in "What Motivates Our Call for Independence".Powell, Everton (Ed.) (2006). ["What Motivates Our Call for Independence"]. Nevis Independence. The issues of dissension are mainly economical in nature:- Many of the businesses that operate in Nevis are headquartered in Saint Kitts and pay the corporate taxes to Saint Kitts, despite the fact that profits for those businesses are derived from Nevis.
- The vast majority of Nevisians and residents of Nevis depart the Federation from Saint Kitts. This meant that departure taxes are paid in Saint Kitts.
- The bulk of cargo destined for Nevis enters the Federation through Saint Kitts. Custom duties are therefore paid in Saint Kitts.
- The largest expenditure for Nevis, approximately 29 percent of the Nevis Island Administration’s recurrent budget, is education and health services, but the Nevis Island Legislature has no power to legislate over these two areas.
- Police, defence and coast guard are a federal responsibility. Charlestown Police Station, which served as the Headquarters for police officers in Nevis, was destroyed by fire in December 1991. Police officers initially had to operate out of the ruin, until the Nevis Island Administration managed to raise the resources to re-house the police.
- Nevis experiences an economic disadvantage because of preferential treatment by the federal government for development of Saint Kitts. The prime minister answers to the voters of Saint Kitts, not to the voters of Nevis. The division of foreign aid and various forms of international assistance toward development and infrastructure are especially contentious issues. Lists showing the disparities in sharing have been compiled by Dr. Everson Hull, a former Economics professor of Howard University, and are available online.Hull, E. ["Part I: Grabbing the Forgiven-debt Money."] Online at Nevis Independence, and ["On the Money Trail – PART II"]. Online at Nevis Independence. See also Powell, Everton (2006). ["Disparities in sharing"]. Nevis Independence.
Elections
- More information on politics and government of Saint Kitts and Nevis can be found at the Politics and government of Saint Kitts and Nevis series.
The federal prime minister, Denzil Douglas, is the leader of the majority party of the federal House of Representatives in Saint Kitts, and his cabinet conducts the affairs of state. The Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis has a 14 or 15-member bicameral legislature or parliament: A Senate, with three or four members appointed by the governor general on the advice of the prime minister and the leader of the opposition; and a popularly elected House of Representatives with 11 members, eight Saint Kitts seats and three Nevis seats. The prime minister and the cabinet are responsible to the Parliament.
In the federal election of 2004, CCM won two of the three Nevis assigned Federal seats, while the NRP secured one. Malcolm Guishard of the CCM, the opposition party in the Nevis Island Assembly, is the leader of the opposition in the federal assembly. Of the eight Saint Kitts assigned federal seats, the St Kitts-Nevis Labour Party won seven and the People's Action Movement (PAM) one.["Opposition senator accuses PAM Leader Lindsay Grant of insulting and disrespecting Nevisians"] (2005). Press release, Government of St Christopher and Nevis, 6 Feb. 2005.
Parishes
The island of Nevis is divided into five administrative subdivisions called parishes. Each parish has an elected representative in the Nevis Island Assembly.
- Saint George Gingerland
- Saint James Windward
- Saint John Figtree
- Saint Paul Charlestown
- Saint Thomas Lowland
Geography
During the last Ice age when the sea level was 200 feet lower, Saint Kitts and Nevis were one island together with Saint Eustatius (also known as Statia) and Saba. In its early history, Nevis is thought to have been home to at least thirteen volcanoes. Nevis Peak (985 m /3,232 ft) is the dormant remnant of one of these ancient stratovolcanoes. The last activity took place in 1692, but active fumaroles and hot springs are still found on the island, the most recent formed in 1953.["Nevis Peak"] (2006). Global Worldwide Holocene Volcano and Eruption Information. Global Volcanism Program, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, 2006. The composite cone of Nevis volcano has two overlapping summit craters that are partially filled by a lava dome, created in recent, pre-Columbian time. Pyroclastic flows and mudflows were deposited on the lower slopes of the cone simultaneously. Nevis Peak is located on the outer crater rim. Four other lava domes were constructed on the flanks of the volcano, one on the northeast flank (Madden's Mount), one on the eastern flank (Butlers Mountain), one on the northwest coast (Mount Lily) and one on the south coast (Saddle Hill).
The climate is tropical with little variation, tempered from December through February by the steady, mild north-easterly breezes called the alizés or trade winds, followed by a somewhat hotter and rainier season from May to November. Nevis lies in the track of tropical hurricanes, developing between August and October. This period has the heaviest rainfall of the year.
Economy
The major source of revenue for Nevis is tourism. During the 2003-2004 season, approximately 40,000 tourists visited Nevis.[CIA Factbook] (2006). The island focuses on an upscale market in order to keep the island uncrowded. A five star hotel, three exclusive, restored plantation inns and a couple of smaller hotels are currently in operation. Larger developments along the west coast have recently been approved and are in the process of being developed.The introduction of new legislation has made offshore financial services a rapidly growing economic sector in Nevis. Incorporation of companies, international insurance and reinsurance, as well as several international banks, trust companies, asset management firms, have created a boost in the economy. The growing employment and economic activity on Nevis are reflected in the latest numbers presented by the minister of finance. During 2005, the Nevis Island Treasury collected $94.6 million in annual revenue, compared to $59.8 million during 2001.["Employment on Nevis increases"] (2006). Nevis Island Government Press Release, May 2006.
The official currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC$), which is shared by eight other territories in the region.
Culture
Culturama, the annual cultural festival of Nevis, is celebrated during the Emancipation Day weekend, the first week of August. The festivities include many traditional folk dances, such as the masquerade, the Mocko-Jumbies on stilts, Cowboys and Indians, and Plait the Ribbon, a May pole dance. The celebration was given a more organized form in 1974, including a Miss Culture Show and a Calypso Competition, as well as drama performances, old fashion Troupes (including Johnny Walkers, Giant and Spear, Bulls, Red Cross and Blue Ribbon), arts and crafts exhibitions and recipe competitions. According to the Nevis Department of Culture, the aim is to protect and encourage indigenous folklore, in order to make sure that the uniquely Caribbean culture can "reassert itself and flourish".Nevis Department of Culture (2006). [Nevis Culturama]. 8 May 2006.
Famous Nevisians
Alexander Hamilton, the statesman and founding father of the United States was born on Nevis around 1755. His father was a trader from Scotland, his mother from Nevis. The place of his birth currently holds the Nevis Island Assembly Chambers and the Museum of Nevis History.Duchess of Bronte Francis Fanny Nisbet, wife of British hero 1st Viscount Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson of Battle of Trafalgar fame, was a planter's daughter from Nevis, whose rich and influential uncle, John Herbert, was the President of the Council of Nevis.White, Colin (2003). ["The Wife's Tale: Frances, Lady Nelson and the break-up of her marriage"]. Journal for Maritime Research, Oct. 2003 issue. ISSN: 1469-1957. Online at JMR, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. She married Lord Nelson on Nevis in 1787. A copy of the marriage certificate is on display at the St. John's Anglican Church in Nevis.
Eulalie Spence (1894-1981), pioneer playwright of the Harlem Renaissance, was born on Nevis on 11 Jun. 1894. She and her family moved to New York in 1902. She wrote fourteen plays, including "Fools Errand" which ran on Broadway in 1927. Her three act play, "The Whipping" was optioned by Paramount Studios, but never made into a film. Spence is famous for having introduced an affirming image of black women into early American drama, using her unique mix of folk art and political race drama. Several of her plays won awards.
Elquemedo Willett, born 1 May, 1953, another famous Nevisian cricket player, a former Leeward Islands and West Indies left-arm spinner, was the first Leeward Islander to play Test cricket for the West Indies in 1973, when he was 19 years old. He was inducted into the Nevis Sports Museum Hall of Fame in 2005. CMC (2005). ["Willett for Nevis Sports Hall of Fame"] West Indies Cricket Board, 27 Feb. 2005.
Cicely Tyson, born on 19 December, 1933, Oscar-nominated in 1972, former wife of Miles Davis and winner of multiple Emmy Awards, is of Nevisian descent. Both her parents emigrated from Nevis to New York.
Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005), who as a young lawyer represented Martin Luther King Jr. and who was the first African-American woman appointed as a United States Federal judge, the first African-American woman elected to the New York State Senate, the first woman to serve as Manhattan borough president, the first African-American woman to serve on the federal judiciary (1966), the first African-American and the first woman to become Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (1982), has Nevisian heritage. Both her mother and father emigrated from Nevis. She owned a home in Brown Hill, Nevis, near her ancestral home.Baker Motley, Constance (1998). Equal Justice Under Law. An Autobiography. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0-374-14865-1. An excerpt from the autobiography, describing her search in Nevis church records for her family's history during the era of slavery, is available online at [The New York Times Book Review].
Melanie Brown, the former "Scary Spice" of Spice Girls, born on 29 May, 1975 in Leeds, has a Nevisian father.
|
| 
|
|
|
|
|
References and notes
Further reading
- Michener, James, A. 1989. Caribbean. Secker & Warburg. London. ISBN 0-436-27971-1 (Especially Chap. VIII. "A Wedding on Nevis", pp. 289-318). Some of it is fictionalised, ". . . but everything said about Nelson and his frantic search for a wealthy life is based on fact."
- Hubbard, Vincent K. 2002. Swords, Ships & Sugar. Premiere Editions International, Inc. ISBN 1-891519-05-0. A complete history of Nevis.
External links
Official Government sites
- [Nevis Island Administration].
- [Nevis Tourism Authority].
- [Nevis Financial Services and Ministry of Finance].
- [Nevis Culturama].
- [Nevis Heritage and Conservation Society].
Organisations
- [The Alexandra Foundation]. A non-profit Nevisian organisation in support of health care and education.
- [Medical University of the Americas, Nevis].
- [Nevis Independence].
Media
- [VON Radio]. Radio broadcast from Nevis.
- [The Observer]. Weekly newspaper.
Tourism
- [Exploring Nevis]. Official Site of the St. Kitts & Nevis Department of Tourism.
- [- The Non-Tourist Trap Guide to Nevis]. Personal homepage of a Nevis visitor from Ohio.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.