1:02

Welcome to Strictly Facts , a guide to Caribbean

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history and culture , hosted by me

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, alexandra Miller . Strictly

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Facts teaches the history , politics and

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activism of the Caribbean and

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connects these themes to contemporary music

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and popular culture . Hello

1:21

, hello , mokwon Ketal

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, welcome back

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to another episode of Strictly Facts , a guide

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to Caribbean history and culture , and I'm

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your host , alexandra Miller . Fresh

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off the heels of Carnival celebrated

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in the Twin Islands of Trinidad

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and Tobago , and after being

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a recent guest on the Impostrix

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podcast and the episode will

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debut soon where we talked

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briefly about Caribbean geography

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, there are so many interesting facts

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that really came to my mind in thinking

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about the Caribbean landscape . Like

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Trinidad and Tobago , we have quite a few

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Twin Islands in the region , like

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Antigua and Barbuda , St

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Kitsa , nevis , just to name a few

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. In addition to Twin Islands

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, though , we also have

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several island chains , otherwise

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known as Archipelagos , and

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so you could think of the Bahamas or

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the Grenadines , part of St Vincent

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and the Grenadines , and then there

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are also nations and islands

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comprised of several other smaller

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islands and caves , and it

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becomes a whole thing when we think about the

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size of the land mass . And

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so , for instance , the Goat Islands

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and Meaden Bay are part of Jamaica

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, and Sauna and Biatta

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are part of the largest islands

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that make up the Dominican Republic's

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territory . What I found

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interesting in looking into our

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geography and the facts surrounding

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it is just how nations

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were named and how , yet

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again , we see geography bleeding

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into our politics and political nature

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. And so , for the most part

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, some of these smaller islands

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and caves are uninhabited . They

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might serve varying purposes

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. For the case of Sauna

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Island in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica's

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Goat Islands , they are protected

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areas and nature reserves

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in their respective governments . But

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in this way I could understand

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, for instance , why Jamaica isn't

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named . Jamaica and the Goat Islands right

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, but that isn't always the

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case . There are definitely some instances

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that these nations

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have names and have other islands

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that you know are not incorporated in these

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names . So you may remember

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back to our episode on

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Grenada Spice Mass , where

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we briefly delved into talking

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about the festival , culture and traditions

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of Caracou . So , for

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those who might not remember , the nation of

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Grenada is made up

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of Grenada itself , as well as two

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smaller islands , caracou and

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Petit Martinique , as well as several

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smaller islands and caves . Both

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Caracou and Petit Martinique

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are inhabited islands in this case

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, and in researching the country's

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names , I learned that Caracou

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and Petit Martinique are dependencies

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of Grenada and have been

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ever since Grenada became

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independent in 1974 . So

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also definitely have to give

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a big shout out to the Spice Isle for

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celebrating 50 years of independence

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. So this reminded me of

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the political case of the Cayman Islands

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and Turks and Caicos that we talked about some

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time ago . There are , however

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, some situations where this

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dependency thing gets a little bit more complicated

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right , and so I immediately

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looked into Barbuda , of

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Antigua and Barbuda , which originally

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and technically was a dependency

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of Antigua . This stemmed

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back to colonial times , where

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Barbuda became a dependency

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of Antigua in 1859

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. And so very similar

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situation to Jamaica , turks and

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Caicos and the Cayman Islands . However

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, differently though , barbuda was

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granted the status of autonomy in

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1956 , while

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this is again still amidst and

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at the height of our independence movements

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throughout the region , right . So , as many

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might remember , we had the West Indian

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Federation that ultimately did

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not work to join all of our islands

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, and

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so each nation well colony at the time , you know , was experiencing

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different levels of how to transition

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out of colonial status

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, and so at this time

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, antigua became known as the

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associated state of Antigua , briefly

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, from 1967

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to 1981 , at which

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point they got independence , joining

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together with Barbuda . So

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it seemed in my research

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that political status is really the culprit

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behind how we named each other

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. I don't think if Barbuda

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had gotten that autonomous status

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after being a dependency of

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Antigua , had they not secured

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that autonomous status in 1976

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, we would have the country known as

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Antigua and Barbuda today . But

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you know , feel free to let me know your thoughts on that

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. So , otherwise , you know , I really

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think that , again , that is

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the major deciding factor

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between these names and impacting

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the nations and how they are and

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have since been named . And so

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, overall , I just wanted to share a little piece

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of Caribbean geography and history

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with you all today . What are your

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thoughts about our islands and nations

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names ? For any listeners

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from Petit Martinique or somewhere

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of the similar situation , do

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you wish your island was included

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in the national name ? And

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for everyone else , be sure to let

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me know if you enjoyed this what's in a Name

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episode and I'll be sure to

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explore some other interesting facts

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and things moving forward from here . Otherwise

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, till next time , little more . Thanks

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for tuning in to Strictly Facts . Visit

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StrictlyFactsPodcastcom for

7:14

more information from each episode . Follow

7:17

us at Strictly Facts Pod on

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7:21

Facts PD on Twitter .