Genetic Caribbean History (Jan. 7, 2021)

The DNA of pre-Colombian inhabitants remains present throughout the Caribbean, along with traces of their traditions and languages. A new study shows that, on average, about 14 percent of people’s ancestry in Puerto Rico can be traced back to the Taino. In Cuba it is about four percent while in the Dominican Republic it is more like six percent.

The study found that most of the Caribbean’s original inhabitants may have been wiped out by South American newcomers a thousand years before the Spanish invasion that began in 1492. Also, that indigenous populations of islands like Puerto Rico and Hispaniola were likely far smaller at the time of the Spanish arrival than previously believed, reports National Geographic.

The same research also found surprisingly close familial ties across the Caribbean during the Ceramic Age. They found 19 pairs of people on different islands who shared identical segments of DNA — a sign that they were fairly close relatives. In one case, they found long-distance cousins from the Bahamas and Puerto Rico, separated by over 800 miles, reports the New York Times.

"Colonization resulted in such immense destruction that the rich cultures of the pre-contact Caribbean can be reconstructed only through a blend of oral traditions and scientific study, including the new insights provided by ancient DNA analysis," write David Reich and Orlando Patterson in a New York Times op-ed on the study.

News Briefs

Tourism and Covid-19

• Jamaican entrepreneur Gordon "Butch" Stewart, founder of the popular Sandals and Beaches holiday resorts throughout the Caribbean, died at 79. (Washington Post) He had a passion for "the people and possibility of the Caribbean," writes Emma Lewis at Global Voices.

• "Even as Caribbean authorities wrestle with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, legislators have been scrambling to formulate appropriate responses to an accompanying growth in unlawful pyramid and Ponzi schemes marketed as financial solutions to the impact of restrictive pandemic measures," reports the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network.

• Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the country could not handle the economic pressure of another coronavirus shutdown, even as Covid-19 cases rise. (Loop) She also criticized the practice of deducting sick days from workers who take time off to get tested for Covid-19, and hinted at the possibility of tax relief to compensate employers. (Barbados Today)

• Covid-19 shutdowns have hit the British Virgin Islands' Filipino expat community particularly hard, reports the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network.

• Tourism-related changes to fishing in the Bahamas' Andros island helped fuel environmental degradation and changed the culture in line with a theory called the "treadmill of production," wherein faster and faster environmental exploitation is required to fuel economic growth, according to a new study on fishing practices. (Phys.org)

Migration and Human Rights

• Venezuelans are risking their lives to flee to Trinidad and Tobago, or just to buy food, reports AFP.

• The Dominican Republic outlawed child marriage. (Dominican Today)

• Sixteen British parliamentarians have nominated Cuba's Henry Reeve International Contingent of Doctors for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. (Loop News)

Climate Justice

• Coral reefs will soon disappear if current levels of inaction persist, according to a recent report by the United Nations Environment Program. (Caribbean News Service)

• British-owned Bahamas Petroleum Company (BPC) began drilling an exploratory offshore well -- a big mistake according to ocean conservation advocate Alexandra Cousteau. "Oil is toxic to ocean wildlife, and a spill in Bahamian waters could destroy its pristine coral reefs and fisheries. These natural resources are the foundation of the Bahamian economy." (CNN)

Economics

• Madan Sara, a documentary in Kreyol with English subtitles, highlights women at “the forefront of a battle for a more robust and inclusive economy in Haiti" who buy, distribute, and sell food and other essentials in markets throughout the country. (Repeating Islands)

• The Bahamas central bank issued a new digital currency, the Sand Dollar, an experiment eyed by major central banks around the world, reports Reuters.

Anti-Colonialism and Reparations

• The Dominican Republic has a long, but hidden, Black history. The DR was home to the first Black people in the Americas, it is where the Atlantic slave trade started, and it was the second nation to abolish African slavery in 1801 (after Haiti) -- but Black legacies have been written out of mainstream history. (BBC)

• And a new documentary on the exile experience of Marie-Louise Christophe, first Queen of Haiti, who immigrated to Britain in 1821 with her two daughters. (Repeating Islands)

Culture Corner

• In "Becoming Kwame Ture" Journalist Amandla Thomas Johnson follows the changing shape of Kwame Ture’s Pan-African politics in the years after he had left the US for Guinea and had, amongst other things,  co-founded the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party alongside Kwame Nkrumah. (Decolonizing the Archive)

• "100 Caribbean Books that Made Us" -- crowdsourced by Trinidad and Tobago's  Bocas Lit Fest. (Global Voices)