In Antigua and Barbuda, the CHOGM 2026 (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting) is bringing restorative justice back to the forefront of the debate. Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia and current chair of CARICOM, is calling for a dialogue that goes beyond expressions of regret regarding slavery.
From November 1 to 4, 2026, Commonwealth leaders will gather in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda. On the agenda for this 28th meeting are trade, investment, and climate resilience. But behind the diplomatic exchanges, one question looms large in the discussions: How can we acknowledge the consequences of the transatlantic slave trade without limiting ourselves to mere words?
The Commonwealth has 56 member states, including several Caribbean nations directly affected by the history of British colonization. For Philip J. Pierre, who is leading the Saint Lucian delegation, the issue extends beyond the borders of his island. He also carries the expectations of the member states of the Caribbean Community ( CARICOM), which have for years been calling for a collective response to the injustices inherited from slavery.
CHOGM 2026: Philip J. Pierre Speaks on Behalf of CARICOM
On October 31, on the eve of the summit’s opening, Philip J. Pierre issued a statement on behalf of CARICOM. He welcomed the British government’s willingness to engage in a structured dialogue with the countries concerned and to consider issuing a formal apology.
This openness is important, but in his view, it is not enough. CARICOM refuses to allow reparations to be ruled out from the outset of the discussions. It believes that historical responsibilities also extend to states and institutions, beyond the generations directly involved. Pierre’s message echoes a long-standing demand by Caribbean governments. Acknowledging the past must pave the way for a discussion of its consequences, which are still visible in the region’s societies.
Why CARICOM Won't Settle for Apologies
Restorative justice is not limited to compensation. CARICOM is guided by a ten-point plan that links historical recognition to concrete needs. It includes, among other things, official apologies, initiatives in health and education, the restitution of cultural heritage, and rehabilitation measures. It also addresses debt and financial compensation.
Cultural heritage holds a special place here. The artifacts, archives, and traces of societies shaped by slavery are not merely witnesses to the past. Restoring or highlighting them can help convey a history that has long been told from an external perspective. CARICOM calls for the injustices suffered by Indigenous peoples to be taken into account. For CARICOM, full reparations require examining the various legacies of colonization without conflating them.
A British overture—but what concrete progress has been made?
At the 2026 CHOGM, the British position has shifted on one point. London accepts the principle of a structured, time-bound dialogue conducted in good faith with the parties concerned. This openness is reflected in the communiqué issued during the summit. However, it does not amount to an official apology—which has already been offered—nor to an agreement on compensation. The British government has shown itself to be open to discussing a form of apology, while maintaining its opposition to financial reparations.
On November 3, Charles III also addressed the transatlantic slave trade during the opening ceremony. The king expressed his deep sadness over this past, but did not offer a formal apology. Between the royal speech, the British government’s position, and Caribbean expectations, the disagreement therefore remains very real. The announced dialogue is a step forward, not a resolution.
A matter of memory that concerns the entire Caribbean
The debate is not limited to relations between Saint Lucia and the United Kingdom. It concerns the way Caribbean societies teach their history, preserve their memories, and view their relationships with former colonial powers. For the region, the restitution of heritage, the passing down of family stories, and the acknowledgment of the social consequences of slavery all raise the same question: Who can tell this story, and with what means?
CHOGM 2026 opens a dialogue, though it does not guarantee reparations. It remains to be seen whether the announced discussions will make it possible to transform this recognition into concrete commitments, defined in consultation with the affected peoples.
Frequently asked questions
CHOGM stands for Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. The 2026 meeting will take place from November 1 to 4 in St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda. It brings together Commonwealth leaders to discuss major economic, climate, and political issues.
CARICOM believes that the consequences of slavery and colonization continue to affect Caribbean societies. Its ten-point plan calls for, among other things, an official apology, educational and health measures, the restitution of cultural heritage, and financial compensation.
The United Kingdom has agreed in principle to a structured dialogue with the parties affected by transatlantic slavery. However, it has not announced any agreement on financial reparations. The British government remains opposed to this form of compensation.
Every October 28, International Creole Day appears on calendars once again. Behind the date lies a story more beautiful than just another annual event. It began on the radio in Saint Lucia in 1983, the day an island decided to speak Kwéyòl on the air.
Radio St. Lucia opens its airwaves to Kwéyòl, the Creole language that St. Lucians speak in their daily lives. The programs flow one after another for hours on end. For two hours, the station broadcasts live from DBS Radio in Dominica, the neighboring island, which is also a Creole-speaking island. Earl Huntley, creator of the show “Radio-a se sanou,” is interviewed. Voices travel from one island to the other over the airwaves. It is the first International Creole Day.
The gesture is by no means insignificant. As early as 1980, during a national consultation in Saint Lucia, Lawrence Carrington observed that the rejection of Creole went far beyond the issue of the media. Going on the air was, in itself, a response.
From the studio to the village
The following year, the festival moved out of the studios. In 1984, it was held in Mon Repos, a small village on the east coast. It opened with a Mass in Kwéyòl, celebrated by Father Patrick Anthony, founder of the Folk Research Centre. Traditional singer Sesenne Descartes was honored. In 1985, the event moved to Fond Assau, in the northeast of the island, with a theme that summed it all up: “Kwéyòl, an lang, an pèp, an mòd lavi.” A language, a people, a way of life.
Starting in 1985, coordination was taken over by the Folk Research Centre. International Creole Day has become a permanent fixture on the Saint Lucian calendar. It has even given rise to an entire month, Mwa Éwitaj Kwéyòl (Creole Heritage Month), which extends the celebration of Jounen Kwéyòl. What began as a radio broadcast has become a village tradition, and then a season-long celebration.
Who established International Creole Day?
Neither a decree nor a large organization. A network of islands, Bannzil Kréyol. Creole-speaking territories that have decided to communicate with one another and act together, including Saint Lucia, one of the founding members. Their idea can be summed up in just a few words. To defend the language, showcase Creole culture, and keep it alive as a language of communication. October 28 became the shared date. International Creole Day then spread to other places. It took root in Haiti, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, and Réunion, and then in the diasporas of Paris, London, Montreal, and New York.
One Creole, Many Creoles
There isn’t just one Creole language, but many. The Kwéyòl of Saint Lucia is not spoken the same way as the Creole of Martinique, Haiti, or the Seychelles. They share a history, not a dictionary. In Haiti, Creole has been an official language since 1987. International Creole Day celebrates this entire family of languages, with their distinct accents, words, and sources of pride.
October 28, island by island
The day is celebrated differently in different places. In Saint Lucia, Jounen Kwéyòl is held on the Sunday closest to October 28. This year, it was on the 25th. In Dominica, October is Creole Month, leading up to Independence Day on November 3. In Martinique, the Bannzil Kréyol association and Yves-Marie Séraline’s OMDAC long championed International Creole Day before it expanded into a week, then a month, Creole Month, which has been observed since 2001.
The 17th International Symposium on Creole Studies is also being held there from October 26 to 30. In mainland France, Mois Kréyol is celebrating its tenth edition, from September 22 to December 6. Same date, a thousand ways to experience it, and one thing in common: the language you hear at home, at the market, and on the radio.
After October 28
That leaves the question raised by writer Raphaël Confiant. He fears that the day will devolve into “commemorationism” and that, the very next day, “the defense and promotion of the Creole language will fall by the wayside.” On October 29, who is still writing, teaching, and disseminating in Creole? Perhaps that is the real question raised by International Creole Day.
Frequently Asked Questions
It takes place every year on October 28. It has been held since 1983, when it was launched in Saint Lucia as a radio link between Creole-speaking islands.
It was launched by Bannzil Kréyol, a network of Creole-speaking islands of which Saint Lucia is a founding member. Its goal is to promote the language, showcase Creole culture, and keep it alive as a language of communication.
It is celebrated in Haiti, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Réunion, as well as among the diasporas in Paris, London, Montreal, and New York. In Saint Lucia, it is known as Jounen Kwéyòl and is held on the Sunday closest to October 28.
Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison wins the 2026 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry with Dante’s Inferno. Her Inferno begins in Halfway Tree, a major intersection in Kingston. She has chosen Miss Lou as her guide, a poet who wrote her poems in the language Jamaicans speak every day.
“I burst into tears. I knew that was where the poem had to begin.” Lorna Goodison describes the moment she found her starting point. The place is called Halfway Tree. It’s a major transportation hub in St. Andrew, in the Kingston metropolitan area. She made it the gateway to Dante’s Inferno.
The book, Dante’s Inferno, has just been awarded the Walcott Prize. It was published in London by Carcanet on April 24, 2025, and later in Canada under the title The Inferno. Goodison retains Dante’s structure, with its 34 cantos and nine circles. But she writes in free verse, without set rhymes, and in the Jamaican vernacular. The gate of hell opens with “I am the way into the city of deep downpression.” “Downpression” is a word from Rastafarian slang meaning “oppression.”
Lorna Goodison, a painter who became a poet
Lorna Goodison was born in Kingston on August 1, 1947, Emancipation Day. She first trained as a painter at the Jamaica School of Art and then in New York. “Since I studied painting, I see things visually first,” she says. Her mother, a seamstress, plays a central role in her work.
Her poetry collection Oracabessa won a major Caribbean poetry prize,the OCM Bocas Prize, in 2014. In 2017, she became Jamaica’s first woman Poet Laureate, a position she held until 2020. She received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2019. In 2025, Dante’s Inferno was also a finalist for the Governor General’s Award, a major Canadian literary prize. Lorna Goodison now lives in British Columbia, but her book looks toward Kingston.
Miss Lou Takes Virgil's Place
In Dante’s work, it is the Latin poet Virgil who accompanies the traveler. In Goodison’s work, it is Louise Bennett-Coverley, known in Jamaica as Miss Lou. Born in Kingston in 1919 and died in 2006, she was a poet, folklorist, and broadcaster. She wrote in Patois, the language Jamaicans speak every day. Her poems helped establish this language as a true literary language.
“I couldn’t go through Jamaican hell with anyone other than a Jamaican woman,” explains Goodison. Her Miss Lou speaks like a mother, with proverbs and little admonitions. Everyday words weave their way through the circles, such as “bambye” (later) or “duppy” (spirit, ghost). Hell takes on the colors of the island. The red streams are a reminder of bauxite mining, the ore from which aluminum is extracted. In Limbo, the first circle of hell, Nanny of the Maroons, heroine of the resistance to slavery, and Marcus Garvey occupy the places that Dante reserved for the great minds of antiquity.
Derek Walcott was supposed to be the guide
The prize is named after Derek Walcott, who was born in Castries, Saint Lucia, on January 23, 1930, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. In Omeros, published in 1990, he had already adapted Homer’s epic to the Caribbean setting.
However, in an early draft of the first canto, Goodison had chosen him as her guide. “Derek wasn’t going to help me at that point,” she says today. In the final version of the book, Walcott finds himself in limbo. The poet who settled Homer in Saint Lucia thus meets the woman who settles Dante in Kingston.
2026 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry: What the Prize Honors
Established in 2019, the prize is awarded by Arrowsmith Press, in collaboration with the Derek Walcott Estate and the Derek Walcott Festival in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. It honors a complete collection by a living, non-American poet, published in English or translated into English in the previous year. The prize is worth $2,000. Judge Rosanna Warren says that Lorna Goodison “has expanded and electrified the English language.”
Why This Victory Matters for Caribbean Literature
This prize is open to poets from around the world who write in English, and fifteen books were finalists this year. The winner is from Kingston, and it speaks like Kingston. This book takes one of the most famous texts in world literature and sets it in a Jamaican crossroads.
This is a move that Caribbean writers know well. Walcott set Homer in Saint Lucia. Goodison sets Dante in Jamaica. The Caribbean does not merely welcome the world’s great texts; it rewrites them with its own places, heroes, and language. This victory is also about language. Miss Lou has spent her life defending patois as a language of poetry. Today, a book in which her words resurface at every turn has been published in the United Kingdom and Canada, was a finalist for a major Canadian award, and went on to win an international prize.
Finally, the award itself tells the story of the region. A Jamaican book has won an award in the name of a Saint Lucian, with the support of a festival in Trinidad and Tobago. Three islands come together in a single story of poetry. Lorna Goodison is aiming to cover all three parts of the Divine Comedy, and a canto from Purgatory has already been published. It remains to be seen who will guide the traveler beyond Hell.
Frequently Asked Questions
Jamaican poet Lorna Goodison wins the prize with Dante’s Inferno, published in London by Carcanet on April 24, 2025, and released in Canada under the title The Inferno. The prize is worth $2,000.
The book keeps the structure of Dante’s Inferno, with its 34 cantos and nine circles, but is written in free verse and in the language of Jamaica. The Inferno begins at Halfway Tree, a major intersection in Kingston, and Miss Lou takes Virgil’s place as the guide.
The prize honors a complete collection by a living, non-American poet, published in English or translated into English during the previous year. It is awarded by Arrowsmith Press, in collaboration with the Derek Walcott Estate and the Derek Walcott Festival in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
In Saint Lucia, the “fig” is a green banana. Cooked with salt cod, it becomes green fig and saltfish, the island’s national dish, where two histories meet: that of salt from the north and that of the export banana.
At the end of a muddy track, in the village of Desrameaux, the villagers gather in a large clearing. It is Jounen Kwéyòl, the Creole festival. Women take turns showing how cassava flour is prepared using traditional methods. On the tables are crayfish, green figs with dumplings in a red bean broth, salt cod with cucumber, and soups served in calabashes. A report published in 2008 describes this scene. It already says the essential about Saint Lucia: a cuisine of roots, bananas and salted fish.
A fig that isn’t a fig
On the island, bananas are called “figs.” “Green figs” are green bananas, picked before they ripen: firm, delicate and unsweetened. Green fig and saltfish pairs them with salt cod, slowly cooked with onions, tomatoes and peppers. On the plate, the banana takes the place the potato holds elsewhere. It provides the substance; the cod provides the salt and the flavor. The dish is eaten at breakfast as well as at lunch. On Saturday mornings, at the market in Castries, where the stalls open around six o’clock, it is served right beside the pot.
Salt cod, from the north
It does not come from Caribbean waters but from the North Atlantic. In the early 19th century, Newfoundland shipped more than 150,000 quintals of salt cod a year to the British colonies of the Caribbean, including Saint Lucia, in 1810 and 1811. Between 1817 and 1833, the annual average remained around 127,000 quintals. Jamaica, Barbados, British Guiana, Trinidad, Grenada, Dominica and Saint Vincent appear on the same list of colonies.
Behind this cod lies the sugar economy, which then relied on enslaved labor. Planters wanted a cheap, long-lasting source of protein. It fed enslaved people first, then free workers. The British colonies even asked for the cheapest grades. Dried and salted, cod travels well, which mattered on islands without refrigeration. The salt crossed the ocean before reaching the pot.
Bananas, an export crop
In the 1950s, the banana became an export crop in Saint Lucia. The island was then billed as the leading producer in the English-speaking Caribbean. The British market was protected by an agreement formalized in 1975 by the first Lomé Convention. In 1992, the island exported 132,000 tonnes of bananas. From 1993, the European Union restricted preferential access to its market, and Chiquita challenged the regime before the WTO. That same year, growers’ strikes left two people dead from gunshots. According to a BBC report, the number of growers fell from 10,000 to 1,800. On the world market, the banana lost ground. In the pot, the green fig stayed.
On the plate, the two histories meet. On one side, a salted fish from a colonial system of provisions. On the other, a fruit that became an export product for Europe. Saint Lucia’s national dish brings them together without explaining them.
Green fig and saltfish, a dish with many faces
The green fig is not confined to a single recipe. In the Desrameaux report, it is served with dumplings in a red bean broth, and the cod arrives on the side, with cucumber. On Friday nights in Gros Islet, green fig salad comes with grilled meats and bakes. Cod fritters and bouyon, a thick soup of red beans, meat and root vegetables, round out the repertoire. Green fig and saltfish is the best-known face of a family of dishes.
See also: Ackee and Saltfish: Jamaican Culinary Treasures, the Caribbean’s other great salt cod dish.
Jounen Kwéyòl, the last Sunday of October
This Sunday, October 25, Saint Lucia celebrates Jounen Kwéyòl. The festival is led by the Folk Research Centre, founded in 1973 by Monsignor Patrick Anthony and young students, in the wake of the Black Power movement. Born in the 1980s, it gives Kwéyòl a public place again, with music, crafts, storytelling and food. Schools, associations and cultural groups take part, and the streets are draped in madras. This year it is held in places including La Clery Playing Field, Dennery South and Vieux Fort.
The language we speak is answered by the one we eat. The banana fields have lost thousands of growers. The green fig, for its part, has stayed in the pot. What the island will put in it tomorrow remains to be seen.
Frequently asked questions about green fig and saltfish
Green fig and saltfish is the national dish of Saint Lucia. It pairs green bananas, called “figs” on the island, with salt cod slowly cooked with onions, tomatoes and peppers. It is eaten at breakfast as well as at lunch.
On the island, bananas are called “figs.” “Green figs” are green bananas, picked before they ripen: firm, delicate and unsweetened. On the plate, they take the place the potato holds elsewhere.
The cod comes from the North Atlantic, not from Caribbean waters. In 1810 and 1811, Newfoundland shipped more than 150,000 quintals a year to the British colonies of the Caribbean, including Saint Lucia, to feed first enslaved people and then free workers. Dried and salted, it travels well, which mattered on islands without refrigeration.
Sir Arthur Lewis, born in Castries, Saint Lucia, on January 23, 1915, was the economist who received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979 for his research on development. He began working as a clerk at age 14, became a professor at the University of Manchester at age 33, and served as the first president of the Caribbean Development Bank beginning in 1970. He died in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 15, 1991.
In August 1952, on a street in Bangkok, Thailand, Sir Arthur Lewis realized he could abandon the idea of a limited labor force. This insight solved two puzzles: the relative prices of steel and coffee, and the fact that British wages had remained nearly stable during the early days of the Industrial Revolution. The story begins much earlier, in Castries.
Sir Arthur Lewis, a boy from Castries who became a clerk at age 14
Sir Arthur Lewis was born on January 23, 1915, in Castries, Saint Lucia. His parents were schoolteachers who had arrived from Antigua about a dozen years earlier. At age seven, an illness kept him at home. His father tutored him and taught him in three months what school taught in two years. The boy skipped from fourth to sixth grade.
His father died that same year, leaving behind a widow and five sons. He would always remember his mother as the most disciplined and hardworking person he had ever known. At age 14, he left school and became an administrative clerk. The job taught him how to write, type, and file. In 1932, he won a scholarship from the government of St. Lucia to study at a British university.
From the London School of Economics to a professorship at Manchester
Sir Arthur Lewis dreamed of becoming an engineer. In the British colonies at the time, neither the government nor white-owned companies would hire a Black engineer. So he chose business and enrolled in 1933 at the London School of Economics in London. He admits that at the time, he didn’t know what economics was. He graduated in 1937 with first-class honors.
In 1938, he became the first Black scholar at the London School of Economics. Friedrich Hayek, who was then acting head of the economics department, asked him to teach the interwar period. Sir Arthur Lewis replied that he did not know what had happened. Friedrich Hayek replied that the best way to learn a subject is to teach it. That course would result in a book, published in 1949. In January 1948, Sir Arthur Lewis was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom. He was 33 years old.
The Dual Economy: The Concept of Bangkok Explained Simply
Its model is based on two sectors. The first is traditional subsistence agriculture, which employs the majority of the population. The second is a modern, market-oriented sector that drives growth. This modern sector draws on an almost unlimited labor force from rural areas. Wages remain close to rural levels. Profits are turned into savings, which finance factories and machinery.
He published this idea in 1954 in the journal *The Manchester School*, under the title “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labor.” The article drew both praise and outrage. Over the next twenty-five years, other researchers devoted five books and numerous articles to it.
From the University of the West Indies to the Caribbean Development Bank
In 1957, Sir Arthur Lewis became economic advisor to the Prime Minister of Ghana. Beginning in 1959, he headed the University College of the West Indies—the first Caribbean to hold that position—and later became vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies. In 1963, he joined Princeton University in the United States, where he taught until 1983.
He temporarily left Princeton to join the Caribbean Development Bank, which was established on January 26, 1970, and is headquartered in Barbados. He became its first president. Under his leadership, the bank focused on education and training. Sir Arthur Lewis also encouraged Caribbean countries to cooperate and to make joint use of the institution’s resources.
Sir Arthur Lewis's 1979 Nobel Prize in Economics
In 1979, Sir Arthur Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, which he shared with Theodore W. Schultz of the University of Chicago. The prize recognized his pioneering research on economic development. On December 8, 1979, at the Nobel Lecture, Sir Arthur Lewis presented “The Slowing Down of the Engine of Growth.” He explored a scenario in which wealthy economies slow down. According to his analysis, developing countries could maintain a growth rate of about six percent by increasing trade among themselves. He presented this calculation as a possibility, not as a prediction.
Sir Arthur Lewis's Legacy to Saint Lucia
He is buried in Saint Lucia, on the campus of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in Morne Fortune, alongside Derek Walcott, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. The college opened on June 1, 1986, and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2026, featuring his likeness at the center of its anniversary logo. In March 2023, the London School of Economics renamed its economics building the Sir Arthur Lewis Building. Every January 23, his birthday, Saint Lucia celebrates Nobel Laureate Day.
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced on Monday, October 12, in Stockholm. One question remains—the same one Sir Arthur Lewis posed in his 1979 lecture. Can developing countries continue to grow when wealthy economies are slowing down? For the latest news from the island, read our article on Jounen Kwéyòl 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sir Arthur Lewis
Sir Arthur Lewis was an economist born in Castries, Saint Lucia, on January 23, 1915, and died in Bridgetown, Barbados, on June 15, 1991. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979 and served as the first president of the Caribbean Development Bank beginning in 1970.
Sir Arthur Lewis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979 for his pioneering research on economic development. He shared the prize with Theodore W. Schultz of the University of Chicago.
This model, published in 1954, contrasts subsistence agriculture with a modern sector. This modern sector draws on a nearly unlimited labor force at wages close to rural levels and converts its profits into savings for investment.
On September 30, at the Laborie market, Saint Lucia kicked off its Kwéyòl Heritage Month. Jounen Kwéyòl 2026 will take place on October 25 in three villages. But one issue looms large over the celebration: how to pass the language on to children.
At the Laborie Market, a language speaks out
On Wednesday, September 30, in the late afternoon, the Laborie Market will host the launch of the Mwa Ewitaj Kwéyòl. The event is organized by the Folk Research Centre (FRC), in partnership with the government and the Events Company of Saint Lucia. The program features folk dance and music. Monsignor Patrick Anthony, founder of the FRC, takes the floor. “Kwéyòl is our culture, kwéyòl is our identity, and every Saint Lucian should understand that if I don’t know my language, I’m missing out on a lot about myself,” he said (translation of remarks made in English). He adds that “we created it, we shaped it, we formed it,” and that it is “the foundation of everything that is Saint Lucian.”
FRC Executive Director Melchoir Henry declared the month open and announced the three host communities for Jounen Kwéyòl. This year’s theme can be summed up in one sentence: “Kwéyòl-la Sé Sa Nou Tout”: Kwéyòl belongs to everyone.
Jounen Kwéyòl 2026: Three Villages and a Sunday at 5 a.m.
The big event is scheduled for Sunday, October 25. The festivities begin at 5 a.m. at three locations. La Clery, in North Castries; Level Grounds, in La Caye (Dennery); and the Vieux Fort Recreation Park. In Dennery, the festival’s theme is “From the Field to the People.”
The month has its highlights. A dawn walk, Douvan Jou, connects Belle Vue to Choiseul on October 5. The Wènn Kwéyòl, the election of the Creole queen, is held on October 10 at the National Cultural Centre. On the 28th, International Creole Day, a conference wraps up the month’s events. On the 25th, people wear madras. They eat green figs with salted cod, accras, and callaloo. You can hear drums, shak-shaks, a banjo, a cuatro, and a violin.
Nearly fifteen hours of radio, then a village
It all began in 1983, under the banner of Bannzil Kréyòl, a coalition of Creole-speaking islands. In Saint Lucia, the first International Creole Day was celebrated on the radio. Radio St. Lucia broadcast nearly fifteen hours of Kwéyòl, starting at 8 a.m., including a two-hour live link with Dominica. In Laborie, a public debate drew a crowd. At the Fond Assau school, a morning assembly kicked off a cultural program.
The following year, in 1984, the festival opened its doors to the entire community. In Mon Repos, the day began with a Mass in Kwéyòl led by Father Patrick Anthony. Sesenne Descartes, a figure in Saint Lucian folklore, was honored. Creole meals were served, walaba was played, and folk groups performed. According to the Saint Lucia Star, hundreds more people attended than expected.
More than forty years later, the FRC describes Jounen Kwéyòl as the country’s largest cultural event. Communities, schools, churches, businesses, and government agencies all participate. The FRC hopes this will lead to a greater appreciation of the value of Kwéyòl, the connections between social classes, and the local economic benefits. Last year, our article on Mwa éwitaj Kwéyòl 2025 already highlighted how deeply rooted the initiative is in communities.
A Language in Decline Among Children
According to the FRC, Kwéyòl emerged from the interaction between speakers of French and West African languages in plantation society. It remains present in conversations, proverbs, and songs. English is the island’s official language. Linguist Hubert Devonish documented this decline in 2022. In 1980, he explained, the majority of children entered school with Kwéyòl as their first language. By then, that number had fallen to less than 20 percent. He warned that schools could become “the graveyard of the language” if families stopped using it at home (Global Voices, translation by RK).
Schools have nonetheless begun to respond. Since the 2024–2025 school year, Kwéyòl has been taught in fifteen pilot schools. Education Minister Shawn Edward announced the initiative on September 4, 2024, after four decades of advocacy. Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre had promised it on Emancipation Day in August 2022. The announcements do not specify which grade levels are involved or what the initial results are.
What Jounen Kwéyòl 2026 Means for Saint Lucia
In the face of this decline, the festival plays a specific role. The FRC has set three goals for it: to demonstrate the strength of the language, to bridge the gap between social classes, and to create economic opportunities based on cultural resources. It also connects Saint Lucia with other territories. On October 28, International Creole Day brings together, according to the FRC, nine Creole-speaking territories, Saint Lucia included, among them Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, French Guiana, Mauritius, the Seychelles, and Réunion. Each retains its own language and history.
The theme for 2026 emphasizes the word “everything.” Kwéyòl belongs neither to a single generation nor to a single village. For Minister John Paul Estephan, it is a matter of responsibility. “If Kwéyòl belongs to us, its future belongs to us as well,” he said at the launch, according to the St. Lucia Times. On October 25, three villages will respond in their own way. Ten years from now, what will the children of these three villages be speaking?
Photo credit: © Travel Saint Lucia.
Frequently Asked Questions
Jounen Kwéyòl 2026 takes place on Sunday, October 25, starting at 5 a.m. It will be held in La Clery (North Castries), at Level Grounds (La Caye, Dennery), and in Vieux Fort. The event is part of Kwéyòl Heritage Month, which kicked off on September 30 in Laborie.
According to the Folk Research Centre, it was created to highlight the strength and value of Kwéyòl. It began in 1983 as a radio program centered around International Creole Day on October 28, before evolving into a community festival in Mon Repos in 1984.
No, English is the official language of Saint Lucia. Kwéyòl, a French-based Creole, remains widely used in everyday life and has been taught in fifteen pilot schools since the 2024–2025 school year.
In Saint Lucia, during the 51st meeting of CARICOM heads of government, Dr. Hyginus “Gene ” Leon, executive director of DBRP/The Nature Bank, presented an ambitious idea during a side event on reparations: using restorative justice to rethink Caribbean development. Here, the term does not refer solely to financial compensation. It aims to acknowledge the consequences of slavery and colonization, to redress the harm caused, and to transform the mechanisms that continue to perpetuate them.
Four Measures of Development
Development is often measured in terms of growth, investment, and infrastructure. This perspective is incomplete. An economy can build roads, ports, or hotels while at the same time undermining its natural resources, its population, or its institutions. This discussion is based on four forms of wealth. Productive capital includes infrastructure, businesses, and financial resources. Natural capital encompasses soil, forests, water, reefs, and the climate. Human capital encompasses health, education, skills, and dignity. Finally, societal capital relates to institutions, social cohesion, and trust.
Progress requires that these four forms of wealth advance together. When one form of capital develops at the expense of the others, growth becomes fragile. A region can achieve strong economic performance while simultaneously depleting the very foundations that make that prosperity possible.
A Five-Century-Old Economic Error
Restorative justice takes on a broader dimension here. It stems from a historical observation: for centuries, the economic system has assigned a price to produced goods while reducing people and nature to mere resources. The British Emancipation Act of 1833 illustrates this logic. More than 800,000 enslaved people were freed. Yet the 20 million pounds allocated compensated the slaveowners, while the freed people received no compensation. The financial value of property was recognized; the value of human life remained absent from the balance sheet.
This extractive model has not entirely disappeared. Cocoa produced in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire fuels a global industry, while producers and the regions of origin retain only a small share of the value created. Incomes remain low, forests are shrinking, and the bulk of the profits are concentrated elsewhere.
Reparations, Climate, and Inequality: A Common Root
Reparations for slavery, climate-related losses and damages, and the fight against inequality are often addressed separately. Yet these issues stem from the same mistake: counting only part of the actual wealth. In the Caribbean, this contradiction is evident. A mangrove forest may be destroyed to make a project profitable in the short term. Its ability to protect coastlines, limit storm damage, or support fisheries is not always factored into the initial calculations. When disaster strikes, the region must finance reconstruction, often through debt. The value of nature is ignored at the outset, and then its absence becomes a collective burden.
Restorative justice thus links memory, the economy, and the environment. It raises a concrete question: How can we redress a historical injustice without reproducing the same imbalances in current decisions?
Rescue, Rebuild, and Transform
Restorative justice is structured around three stages: relief, reconstruction, and repositioning. The first addresses immediate emergencies. The second restores what has been lost. The third transforms the rules so that the harm is not repeated. This final stage is crucial. Rebuilding a house on the same fault line is tantamount to setting the stage for its next collapse. Similarly, compensation scattered across isolated projects may produce temporary results without addressing the root causes of vulnerability.
Restorative justice could therefore fund additional investments: education, health care, ecosystem protection, resilient infrastructure, strong institutions, and economies capable of retaining more value within the Caribbean region. The goal would be to compensate for a loss while making its recurrence less likely.
Three Possible Changes for CARICOM
Restorative justice offers three avenues for the region. First, every major public or financial decision could assess what it creates and what it destroys in terms of the four forms of wealth. Second, reparations could be organized as a coherent portfolio of reconstruction and transformation. Finally, human and environmental costs could be incorporated into the evaluation of projects, loans, and investments.
Restorative justice would thus shift the focus of the debate. For the Caribbean, making amends for the past could become a way to protect the future, by finally treating people, nature, institutions, and infrastructure as equally valuable.
In this context, restorative justice refers to an approach aimed at acknowledging and addressing the lasting consequences of slavery and colonization. It is not limited to the payment of financial compensation; it also seeks to invest in communities, institutions, the environment, and the economy to ensure that the same inequalities do not continue to be perpetuated.
The four forms of capital are productive capital, which includes infrastructure and businesses; natural capital, such as forests, reefs, and water; human capital, which encompasses health, education, and skills; and societal capital, based on institutions, trust, and social cohesion. Sustainable development requires advancing these four forms of capital together, without enriching one at the expense of the others.
It could help fund a coherent set of initiatives in education, health, ecosystem protection, climate resilience, and infrastructure. It also involves factoring human and environmental costs into financial decisions and assessing what each project creates or destroys. These guidelines were presented to CARICOM as proposals, not as decisions that have already been adopted.
From July 1 to 22, the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival marks one of the island’s most eagerly anticipated cultural events. For three weeks, the island builds up to the big parade days, but the carnival is about more than just the final spectacle of costumes in the streets. It takes shape beforehand, through rehearsals, competitions, neighborhood celebrations, and the voices that bring Castries to life.
Even before the bands take to the streets, the carnival makes itself heard. A soca track drifts from a cell phone to a bus. Artists test out their songs. Groups fine-tune the final details. In Saint Lucia, the carnival doesn’t happen all at once. It builds until it becomes a collective voice.
A cultural season—not just a parade
The official program for the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival announces a full season, featuring calypso and soca competitions, community events, Junior Carnival, J’Ouvert, King and Queen of the Bands, and the National Parade of the Bands. Young people take center stage with Junior Carnival. Calypsonians carry on a tradition of social commentary. Soca artists seek the chorus that will stick in people’s minds. The bands transform costumes into a visual language. In this spirit, Carnival becomes a space not only for dancing, but also for finding a sense of belonging.
That’s where the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival really comes into its own. The event isn’t just a series of parties. It’s a cultural celebration. It showcases an English-speaking island steeped in a strong Creole heritage.
A Memory Born on the Street
The history of the Lucian Carnival reminds us that the first recorded celebration in Saint Lucia dates back to 1947. According to the official account, a small group is said to have paraded through Castries in worn-out clothes, beating out rhythms on bottles and pieces of steel. By 1948, steel bands, calypso musicians, and costumed groups were already part of the festivities. This detail changes our understanding of the carnival. It didn’t arise solely from a program or a poster. It came from a grassroots movement. From a city. From an improvised sound. From a need to take to the streets in a different way.
Today, the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival continues this momentum. When Castries hosts the parades and major events, the capital serves as more than just a backdrop. It once again becomes the place where history, music, and people come together.
When Kwéyòl Hits the Road
St. Lucia’s uniqueness is expressed through its language. St. Lucia is an English-speaking country, but its cultural identity is strongly rooted in Kwéyòl, the St. Lucian Creole. During Carnival, this coexistence becomes audible. Calypso conveys social commentary. Soca provides the collective momentum. Dennery Segment brings a more recent, more direct sound that is distinctly Saint Lucian in its energy. Born in Dennery in the 2010s, this genre blends soca, dancehall, and zouk. Its lyrics are often delivered in Saint Lucian Creole.
At the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival, Kwéyòl is more than just a folkloric element. It becomes a living force. It bursts forth in the choruses, brings the street to life, and reminds us that Saint Lucian identity is also passed down through the way people speak, respond, sing, and dance.
Music as a Matter of Identity
This year, Listwa Kannaval 2026 added a special depth to the calendar. This cultural event posed a powerful question: Does music merely reflect who we are, or does it also shape the way we understand ourselves?
This question sheds light on the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival. Behind the feathers, sequins, and sound trucks lies a conversation about memory, language, and transmission. What becomes of a song when it moves from the studio to the streets? What becomes of a language when it is taken up by a crowd? What does a parade convey when several generations march together? In Saint Lucia, Carnival provides the answer. It does not separate celebration from memory. It does not separate music from identity. It keeps both moving in the same rhythm.
A Voice from Lucien in the Caribbean
The Caribbean is home to major carnivals, each with its own traditions, sounds, and schedules. Saint Lucia’s strength does not lie in imitating Trinidad, Barbados, Saint Vincent, or Grenada. Its strength lies in asserting its own unique blend: a capital steeped in carnival history, an English-speaking culture enriched by Kwéyòl, a vibrant calypso tradition, and a contemporary sound known as Dennery. It is this uniqueness that gives Saint Lucia Carnival 2026 its value. It doesn’t just say, “Look at our carnival.” Rather, it says, “Listen to our way of being Lucians.”
When the bands enter Castries, all eyes will naturally turn to the costumes. But perhaps what matters most will be the choruses sung in unison, the Kwéyòl in the music, and the memory of 1947 that continues to pulse beneath today’s sounds. With the 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival, Saint Lucia isn’t just putting on a parade. For 22 days, it’s making the voice of Saint Lucia heard loud and clear.
The 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival takes place from July 1 to 22, 2026, in Saint Lucia. The carnival spans several weeks, featuring music competitions, community events, Junior Carnival, J’Ouvert, and the grand final parades. The most anticipated days are July 20 and 21, when the bands take to the streets of Castries for the National Parade of the Bands.
The 2026 Saint Lucia Carnival is significant because it is more than just a street party. It showcases Saint Lucian identity through music, language, costumes, and collective memory. The carnival gives voice to the diverse cultural expressions of Saint Lucia: calypso, soca, Kwéyòl, and the Dennery Segment. It is a time when the island asserts its uniqueness within the broader family of Caribbean carnivals.
Kwéyòl, the Saint Lucian Creole language, lends the carnival a unique cultural depth. It appears in songs, choruses, and popular expressions. The Dennery Segment, which originated in Dennery in the 2010s, brings a more recent, fast-paced, and highly expressive musical style. In Saint Lucia Carnival 2026, these elements demonstrate that the Saint Lucian carnival is not just a visual spectacle: it is also a voice, a language, and a way of telling the story of Saint Lucia.
In the Caribbean, a high energy bill can slow down a business. A storm can cut off a road, block a port, or jeopardize a harvest. A security crisis can also extend beyond the borders of a single country. It is against this daily reality that the Canada-CARICOM dialogue is taking on a new dimension today.
Meeting in Panama City on the sidelines of the 2026 General Assembly of the Organization of American States, the foreign ministers of Canada and CARICOM sought to reinvigorate their strategic partnership. At the heart of their discussions was an action plan focused on three major priorities for the region: security, climate, and the economy.
Cooperation Aimed at Achieving Concrete Results
The Canada-CARICOM partnership builds on the strategic agreement launched in 2023. But the 2026 meeting marks an important milestone: both parties now want to move forward with a plan that is more specific, clearer, and more measurable.
The goal is not merely to demonstrate diplomatic closeness. It is to establish priorities, timelines, and funding mechanisms capable of producing results. For Caribbean countries, this clarity matters. The region faces a range of interrelated challenges: energy costs, climate-related disasters, maritime security, financial vulnerability, and the crisis in Haiti. The Caribbean is not merely asking for aid. It is seeking partners capable of understanding its realities and working alongside it for the long term.
Security: A Regional Emergency
Security is central to this new Canada-CARICOM plan. The ministers discussed transnational crime, gangs, irregular migration, maritime security, and illicit flows. For the region, these issues are not isolated. The sea serves as a link, but it is also an area of vulnerability. Trafficking, criminal networks, cyberthreats, and political crises sometimes spread faster than institutional responses can keep up.
Canada already supports certain regional initiatives through capacity building, targeted interventions, and operational partnerships. The new challenge is to move toward a more coordinated response: better protecting maritime areas, strengthening institutions, sharing relevant information, and limiting the influence of criminal networks.
Haiti: A Crisis That Affects the Entire Caribbean
Haiti is a major focus of the discussions. The political, security, and humanitarian crisis the country is facing has direct consequences for the region. In particular, the ministers highlighted the risks associated with drug and arms trafficking. Support for the Gang Suppression Force was among the topics discussed. This force is intended to help restore security on the ground, with a mandate set to be renewed by the United Nations Security Council.
But the response cannot be limited to security measures alone. The ministers also reaffirmed the right of Haitians to choose their own government. They support the holding of credible elections as soon as conditions permit, as well as efforts to combat corruption and impunity. Haiti serves as a powerful reminder: no lasting stability in the Caribbean can be achieved by leaving a country to face such a profound crisis on its own.
Climate and the Economy: Two Sides of the Same Challenge
The new Canada-CARICOM plan also clearly links climate and the economy. In the Caribbean, a natural disaster is never just a weather event. It affects families, businesses, roads, schools, ports, and public finances. Access to reliable and affordable energy is once again a priority. Overly expensive energy stifles innovation and puts a strain on households. A more stable energy supply can support industry, services, investment, and the transition to more sustainable models.
Trade is also part of the equation. The CARIBCAN program, which grants duty-free access to the Canadian market for most products originating in 18 Caribbean Commonwealth countries and territories, remains an important tool. It serves as a reminder that the Canada-CARICOM partnership is not just about diplomacy. It also encompasses economic opportunities, supply chains, and the ability of Caribbean businesses to expand beyond their local markets.
Greater Attention to the Caribbean's Vulnerability
Another key aspect of the Canada-CARICOM partnership concerns financing. Several Caribbean states are considered middle-income countries. Yet their vulnerability to climate-related disasters, economic shocks, and supply disruptions remains very high. This is one of the region’s major paradoxes. On paper, some countries appear too “advanced” to easily access concessional financing. In reality, a single crisis can undermine years of progress.
The ministers therefore emphasized the need to reform the international financial architecture. The idea is simple: the actual vulnerability of small states must be taken into account more fully—not just their average income.
A plan to follow closely
The coming months will be crucial. Officials still need to finalize the details of the action plan, identify priority initiatives, develop an implementation schedule, and strengthen monitoring efforts. A dialogue among senior officials is scheduled for the fall to advance this work.
The Canada-CARICOM partnership alone will not solve the Caribbean’s challenges. But it says something about the current moment: the region wants to be heard as a strategic area, not just as a vulnerable one. Now the real question remains: Will this new plan bring about visible changes for Caribbean people, businesses, and territories?
The new Canada-CARICOM plan is a roadmap designed to strengthen cooperation between Canada and the Caribbean Community. It is based on three priorities: more resilient economies, climate action, and regional security. The goal is to move from a diplomatic partnership to more concrete actions, with timelines, measurable results, and sustainable financing mechanisms.
Haiti is a key focus because its political, security, and humanitarian crises have repercussions for the entire region. The ministers discussed drug and arms trafficking, support for the Gang Suppression Force, and the right of Haitians to choose their own government. For CARICOM, Haiti’s stability therefore remains a regional issue, not just a national one.
The Canada-CARICOM Partnership directly links climate and the economy. It emphasizes access to reliable and affordable energy, the development of trade, the strengthening of supply chains, and access to financing tailored to the vulnerabilities of small Caribbean states. The goal is to enable the region to better withstand natural disasters, economic shocks, and international crises.
Organized by the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce in Europe (CCCE), the second edition of Caribbean Days brought together various expressions of Caribbean culture at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Over the course of four days, the event provided a forum for dialogue on regional cooperation, sustainable tourism, and economic relations between the Caribbean and Europe.
A Caribbean-style restaurant with a view of Paris
On the roof of UNESCO, Caribbean chefs from the association Les Toques françaises are preparing a three-course Caribbean menu. From the restaurant, guests can see the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides, and the Left Bank. This scene captures the spirit of the Caribbean Days : to showcase the Caribbean through its creative works and craftsmanship, and then use this cultural presence to foster broader exchanges.
The Caribbean Chamber of Commerce in Europe (CCCE) organized this second edition as part of Latin American and Caribbean Week. Under the theme “Peace, Diversity, and Sustainability,” the event brought together representatives from the cultural, institutional, diplomatic, and economic sectors.
Over the course of four days, the program featured the visual arts, gastronomy, fashion, film, literature, poetry, music, and dance. These disciplines showcased various facets of Caribbean creativity in a venue dedicated to education, science, culture, and heritage.
Creative Industries Take Center Stage
The Caribbean Days highlighted the creative industries as one of the region’s strengths. Cuisine, fashion, film, storytelling, music, and dance served as points of connection between different regions and sectors.
This diversity brought together Caribbean ambassadors, other diplomats, representatives from the public sector, and private-sector stakeholders. Culture thus provided a common framework for discussions on development, investment, and partnerships.
Founded in November 2019, the CCCE’s mission is to facilitate exchanges between the Greater Caribbean and Europe. It also seeks to encourage European investment in the region’s sustainable economic development. In Paris, this mission has taken the form of meetings between institutions, businesses, and Caribbean representatives.
Regional Cooperation Over Lunch
A luncheon discussion focused on cooperation between France’s overseas territories in the Caribbean and CARIFORUM member states. Representatives from the Bank of France, Expertise France, and the OECD gave presentations.
The remarks by French Senator Micheline Jacques, who supports an economic partnership between France’s overseas territories and Haiti, refocused the debate on a concrete question: How can we strengthen ties among the various parts of the Caribbean region?
Through this event, the Caribbean Days brought culture, diplomacy, and the economy closer together. Gastronomy was not merely a backdrop; it served as a framework for dialogue on potential areas of cooperation and on the Caribbean’s role in its relations with Europe.
Sustainable Tourism in the Face of Climate Change
A roundtable discussion was held on sustainable tourism. Geoffrey Lipman, former president of the World Travel and Tourism Council and former deputy secretary-general of the World Tourism Organization, participated alongside Florian Valmy-Desvillers, director of business development for the Caribbean Tourism Organization in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Jo Spalburg, Secretary General of the CCCE, summarized the main message of these discussions. According to him, the acceleration of climate change makes it necessary to develop tourism that is more sustainable and more beneficial to local communities. These communities play a direct role in protecting the region’s natural and cultural heritage for future generations.
This reflection gives the Caribbean Days a specific scope. It links the promotion of Caribbean destinations to the responsibility of preserving what attracts visitors: landscapes, cultural heritage, cultural practices, and local knowledge.
From Cultural Visibility to Partnerships
As this second edition comes to a close, the CCCE is highlighting a collective goal: to transform cultural visibility into collaborations, innovation, and sustainable growth for the region.
The Caribbean Days have shown that culture can foster dialogue among diplomats, institutions, businesses, and creative professionals. What happens next will depend on the ability of the partners gathered in Paris to turn these exchanges into concrete partnerships that benefit Caribbean regions and communities.
Caribbean Days, also known as Journées des Caraïbes, is an event organized by the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce in Europe at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Over the course of four days, the second edition of the event showcased the visual arts, gastronomy, fashion, film, literature, poetry, music, and dance. The event took place under the theme “Peace, Diversity, and Sustainability,” as part of Latin American and Caribbean Week.
Caribbean Days is organized by the Caribbean Chamber of Commerce in Europe (CCCE). Founded in November 2019, this organization seeks to facilitate exchanges between the Greater Caribbean and Europe, while encouraging European investment in the region’s sustainable economic development. In Paris, the CCCE brought together representatives from the cultural, diplomatic, institutional, and economic sectors to discuss Caribbean culture and challenges.
Caribbean Days combined the promotion of creative industries with discussions on regional cooperation and sustainable tourism. A luncheon forum focused on relations between France’s overseas territories in the Caribbean and CARIFORUM member states. A roundtable discussion also addressed the effects of climate change and the need to develop more sustainable tourism that better benefits local communities working to protect the region’s natural and cultural heritage.
