Island Info St. Kitts Nevis
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ABOUT NEVIS
Nevis is a friendly little island with a rural character, green and serene, a haven for nature lovers from the peak of its mountain to the reefs offshore. There are many remains of the island’s history on the land – old sugar plantations, windmills, and churches. Visitors come for its peace, quiet, and tranquil beauty. But the natural wonders and historic areas can become exciting adventures, whether out on the reefs, exploring the rainforest, or finding out more about the history of the island through its ruins.
On Nevis, you can see the springs and the ruins of the Bath Hotel, built in 1778 for wealthy visitors – the resort’s bath houses were positioned on a fault over a hot spring, and a soak in the thermal mineral water brought relief from arthritis. Today you can still take a mineral bath in the stream that runs below the Bath House, and tour the reconstructed hotel. Or you could visit the Horatio Nelson Museum, containing memorabilia relating to Lord Nelson, who married one of the island girls, Fanny Nisbet, the niece of the island’s governor. A record of their marriage is registered at St John’s Church in Fig Tree Village. Many of the old plantation estates have been turned into inns and resorts, some with their original windmills, stone towers from old sugar mills, etc., and some of them feature fine restaurants as well.
In Charlestown is found the Museum of Nevis History at the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton was the illegitimate son of a Scotsman, James Hamilton, and Rachel Fawcett, a Nevisian of Huguenot ancestry. He made his way to the North American colonies where he became the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury – his picture appears of the $10 bill. In addition to portraits of Hamilton, this pleasant little museum has period photos with interpretive captions and other bits and pieces of Nevis culture and history.
The Nevis Botanical Gardens has natural lagoons, streams, and waterfalls, in addition to terraced gardens and arbors. There is a great rose garden, orchids and bromeliads, cacti, and flowering trees and shrubs, and even a bamboo garden.
The best beach on Nevis is the reef-protected Pinney’s Beach, which has clear water, golden sands, and gradual slope, and is just north of Charlestown on the west coast. You can snorkel easily here and see damselfish, tangs, grunts, blue-headed wrasses and parrotfish. There are numerous places to scuba dive, including Monkey Shoals, a beautiful reef starting at 40 feet, with dives up to 100 feet in depth. Other good scuba sites are The Caves, Champagne Garden, and Coral Garden.
In Charlestown, the capital, the shopping includes the Island Hopper, with hand-painted or tie-dyed cotton and batiks, Nevis Handicraft Cooperative Society, with locally made gift items, including home grown hot pepper sauce, guava cheese, jams and jellies. And don’t forget the Nevis Philatelic Bureau, for the avid stamp collector – the postage stamps here feature butterflies, shells, birds, and fish.
On the way up to Nevis Peak is the tropical rain forest Even when it’s dry down at sea level, it may be raining up there, creating a damp, greenhouse environment, where the tropical vegetation thrives. The forest is the home of the green vervet monkey, as well as exotic plants like orchids, elephant ear plants, and palms.
Horse racing in Nevis dates back to the earliest colonial days, when competition was keen and enthusiasts took their racing seriously. It has become a passion for many local horse owners and trainers. Most of the horses are thoroughbreds, often imported from Puerto Rico by the owners. Usually scheduled around holidays, the races are a popular draw for local people and visitors, including Nevisians coming back home to visit. Race days offer more than competition: they’re also popular social events, with a carnival-like atmosphere, and vendors selling BBQ chicken and ribs, beer and snacks.
The islands of St Kitts and Nevis are very proud of their masquerade traditions. The liveliest time to visit St Kitts is for the carnival held over Christmas and the New Year. It gets bigger and better every year with parades, food festivals, calypso competitions and street dancing. On Nevis, the annual equivalent is Culturama, held in the end of July and finishing on the first Monday in August There is a Queen show, arts and crafts displays, calypso competition, local bands and guest bands and many “street jams”.
OUR HISTORY
The peaceful calm of St Kitts suggests nothing of the extraordinary history of the island. For centuries, St Kitts occupied a critical position in the European struggle for the West Indies, combining exceptional wealth as sugar colonies with a vital strategic position as gateways to the Caribbean. As a result, the struggles and conflicts that marked their history are among the most decisive episodes in Caribbean history.
St Kitts is a volcanic island, a fact to which it owes its dramatic central mountains, its rather unpredictable geologic history, and its lush tropical vegetation. In fact, St Kitts' pre-Columbian Carib inhabitants knew their island as Liamuiga, or "fertile land," a reference to the island's rich and productive volcanic soil. Today that name graces St Kitts' central peak, a 3,792-foot extinct volcano.
The recorded history of St Kitts begins with the second voyage in 1493 of Christopher Columbus who sailed past the island but did not land. There is some doubt as to whether it is this island that Columbus gave the name St Christopher (after himself ). In any case, by the time the Englishman Thomas Warner arrived with fourteen other settlers in 1624 to found the first non-Spanish European colony in the Caribbean, the island was known as St Christopher's.
Thomas Warner chose St Christopher for it's abundant forests and fresh water, it's fertile easily worked soil, it's accessible physical structure, and the presence of salt.
In 1625, a French settlement was established as a result of a chance landing by a pirate ship that had been worsted in an engagement with a Spanish galleon. The English allowed the French to repair their ship and, recognizing the security in numbers, agreed to share the island.
The introduction of sugar cane cultivation brought about fundamental changes in land management and ownership and on the demography and social structure of the island. Most of the land below 300 metres was deforested and planted in cane, and small holdings gave way to large estates owned by a relative few. Africans had already been imported as slave labourers within the first decade of European settlement, and by 1700 they far outnumbered Europeans in St Kitts. The English bought or captured their slaves mainly from the area stretching from present day Senegal to Nigeria on the upper western coast of Africa. French slaves came mainly from the area of present day Congo and Angola further south. This infamous trade and exploitation of human beings persisted for over three hundred years.
The past hundred years have seen great changes come to St Kitts and the sister island of Nevis which now comprise an independent country. This milestone was attained in September 1983 during the administration of Dr. Kennedy Simmonds who became the first Prime Minister. Beginning in the 1970's there has been a progressive development in the tourism infrastructure. The natural beauty and physical endowments combined with its history, old world architectural structures, as well as its friendly and educated people, make St Kitts an ideal vacation destination.
GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis is a constitutional monarchy. The British monarch, represented by a Governor-General, is head of state and of the executive. In practice, executive power lies in the Cabinet headed by a prime minister. The single-chamber legislature, the National Assembly, has 15 members, 11 of whom are elected by universal adult suffrage for terms of up to five years. Three members represent Nevis constituencies and eight represent St Kitts. Of the four non-elected members, one is the speaker of the Assembly and the other three, known as senators, are appointed – two on the advice of the prime minister and one on the advice of the leader of the opposition. Under the terms of the 1983 constitution Nevis has full internal self-government and its legislature is subordinate to the National Assembly only with regard to external affairs and defence. The constitution allows for the secession of Nevis from the federation, provided, first, that full and detailed proposals for a new constitution for Nevis are put to the island assembly at least six months before the proposed date of secession; and, second, that after the assembly has passed the motion for secession it is supported by a two-thirds majority in a referendum. In late 1996 and again in 1997 legislation was debated in the Assembly for the secession of Nevis, and in October 1997 the Nevis Island Assembly voted unanimously for secession. In the August 1998 referendum on secession a majority of voters in Nevis chose independence from St Kitts, but the required two-thirds majority needed to proceed with the action was not attained. The main political parties are the Peoples’ Action Movement (PAM), the St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party, the Nevis Reformation Party (NRP), and the Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM).
Incidentally, the federation of St Kitts & Nevis forms the smallest nation in the Western Hemisphere. As it’s part of the British Commonwealth, however, it’s not considered the smallest independent country – Grenada has that title.
Economy: The fertile soil on St Kitts supported three centuries of sugar cane crops and showed no signs of exhaustion until the 20th century, when modern methods of cultivation initially doubled the yield per acre, followed by a marked decrease. Total output has been halved in the last twenty years, but agriculture is still the island’s major export, and accounts for 25% of the work force. Small scale garment manufacturing, electronic assembly and a brewery and bottling plant account for 15% of St Kitts’ labour force, while tourism, which is being actively promoted by the government, accounts for 12%. On Nevis, where the economy is more sluggish, sugar has long been abandoned, but honey and some vegetables are produced, as is sea-island cotton, the main crop today. Tourism is Nevis’ largest employer; the Four Seasons Resort employs more than 600 people – roughly a quarter of the island’s labour force.
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