Saint Lucia

The Kalinago inhabited the island, which then changed hands between France and Britain fourteen times — earning the nickname "the Helen of the West Indies" — before being ceded to Britain in 1814. A sugar and later banana plantation economy was worked by enslaved Africans until emancipation in 1834, and then by indentured labour.

Saint Lucia joined the short-lived West Indies Federation, became a British associated state, and gained independence in 1979. Politics has since alternated between the Saint Lucia Labour Party and the United Workers Party. From a population of under 200,000, the island has produced two Nobel laureates — the economist Sir Arthur Lewis and the poet Derek Walcott — a fact of great national pride.

Bananas were the mainstay of the economy until the loss of European trade preferences in the 2000s gutted the industry, and tourism, along with some offshore finance and a citizenship-by-investment programme launched in 2015, has taken over.

Saint Lucian culture blends African, French, and British inheritances. It is strongly Roman Catholic, a French legacy, and Kwéyòl — the French-based creole — is the everyday language of most people, celebrated each October on Jounen Kwéyòl with food, dress, and music in villages across the island.

The flower societies of La Rose and La Marguerite, with their feast days and friendly rivalry, are a distinctive tradition, alongside string-band music, calypso and soca, and a July Carnival. Cricket and, increasingly, football are the sporting passions, and the Nobel laureates are honoured with their own week in January.

Most Saint Lucians live in and around Castries in the north and along the west coast, with the interior mountainous and forested. Tourism dominates the economy — cruise calls and stay-over resorts, with the north around Rodney Bay for nightlife and Soufrière and Marigot Bay for scenery and luxury — supplemented by small-scale agriculture, light manufacturing, and finance.

High public debt, hurricane vulnerability, and youth unemployment are the standing challenges, and a geothermal power project is planned to cut reliance on imported fuel.

Saint Lucian cooking is Creole. The national dish is green figs (green bananas) and saltfish, and bouyon, a hearty one-pot soup of provisions, dumplings, and meat, is the Saturday standard. Callaloo soup, lambi (conch), grilled and stewed fresh fish, breadfruit, and plenty of plantain and root vegetables round out the table.

Cocoa is grown on the island, and cocoa tea, along with sorrel, seamoss, and fresh juices, is a common drink, with Piton, the local beer, and rum for the evening.

The Pitons, the twin volcanic spires rising from the sea near Soufrière, are the national emblem and a World Heritage Site, with Gros Piton offering a strenuous guided climb. Soufrière also has the Sulphur Springs, a collapsed caldera of boiling mud and steam billed as a "drive-in volcano", along with botanical gardens and waterfalls and, offshore, a marine reserve for diving and snorkelling.

Marigot Bay, a deep, sheltered inlet ringed by forest, and Anse Chastanet's dark-sand cove are among the most photographed spots on the west coast. In the north, Rodney Bay and Reduit Beach are the resort and nightlife hub, and Pigeon Island National Landmark preserves the fortifications from which the British navy watched French Martinique. The Atlantic east coast is wilder, with the surf and mangroves around Praslin and the fishing town of Dennery.