800 years ago,  several groups of South American Indians from the mouth of the Orinocco River came to this country.  They were the callina people, called Callina-go.  (Their enemies called them "Caribs" - a name which they rejected).  A fighting nation, they took full control, calling their new home Youlou (meaning "rainbow").  For 300 years, they lived without outside interference, fishing in the rich waters around the coast of the island and doing a little gardening.  Around the year 1500, they were discovered by the Europeans who used the island over the following decade for water, wood, and other essentials.

 

For the next 200 years, the callina-go continued to control the island.  Attempts by the Europeans, mainly British , to capture the country, failed.

During this time, however, there were changes among the callina-go.  Firstly, as a result of a punitive expedition (1654) by the French, following the killing of two french priests, the numbers of the callina-go were drastically reduced.  In addition, African slaves who escaped to the island from St. Lucian and Barbadian plantations, and some from a shipwreck off the coast of Bequia in 1675, began to have children with the women - giving rise to the Afro-Callina-go (often referred to as the "Black Caribs").

 

The Afro-Callinago were destined to play a vital role in St. Vincent and the Grenadines for the next 100 years or so.  Under threat of being captured and made slaves on plantations, they were determined to resist any effort to seize their homeland by Europeans.  To them, it was a clear case of FREEDOM or DEATH!

 

By 1763 when the island was "granted" to Britain and under the treaty of Paris, the British colonizers found a resolute nation of Afro-Callinago. At that time CHATOYER was living at Grand Sable which was described as the richest and principal "settlement" of the Afro-Callina-go.  He was the leading figure in the nation.

 

When in 1768, he was told that the island was bought under the rule of the English king, CHATOYER, with utter contempt asked "What king?"  This signaled his intended oppostition and that of his people to the British colonizers.  In 1772, he led the Afro-Callinago in a war of resistance to the seizure of their lands.  Six years after the signing of the 1773 Treaty between the British and the Afro-Callinago, he joined forces with the French to throw out the British opressors (1779).  In 1783, the Treaty of Versailles returned the island to British and, for several years, a brittle peace existed during which time, more and more Callinago lands were seized.

It led to the famous war of 1795-1796 in which paramount chief Joseph Chatoyer died - on march 14th, 1795.

 

Our nation does not know of any other idividual who resisted British colonization for as long - some 30 straight years- or as resolutely as chief CHATOYER.  At no time was he willing to compromise the nation's sovereignty with the British colonizers, fully aware of their intention of enslaving the nation. That he paid the supreme price of his life in defending our independence nearly 200 years ago should inspire generations to come against attempts by modern - day colonizers to control and exploit us.