Guadeloupe

Predominantly Catholic, the island nation of Guadeloupe in the eastern Caribbean is a former French Antillean colony that has been considered an overseas department (département d'outremer) of France since 1946. The island's residents are French citizens with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of French nationals, including military duties. Guadeloupeans have stressed that French influences often overpower their African, East Indian, and Amerindian heritage, making their affiliation with France potentially tenuous in the long term. The nation is mostly populated by citizens of African (70%), East Indian (15%), and European (9%) descent, with approximately 400,000 permanent residents. Religiously, Guadeloupeans today are mostly Roman Catholic, with only 10% of the population practicing Protestant, African, or Hindu forms of worship. In Guadeloupe, Catholic practitioners may also adhere to other available religious traditions, including taking African-derived healing remedies and attending Hindu celebrations.

Guadeloupe is an archipelago that includes the outlying islands of La Désirade, Marie-Galante, and Îles les Saintes, as well as the larger Guadeloupe two-part island Grand-Terre and Basse-Terre, which is separated by the Rivière Salée body of water. From 1963 to 2007, the French Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy islands were considered arrondissements (French subdivisions) of Guadeloupe, but today the islands are considered regionally and departmentally separate. France took control of Guadeloupe in 1635. Within a decade, the French had both suppressed the local Amerindians and established a thriving plantation economy. The French saw Guadeloupe as a New World cash crop resource, transporting thousands of enslaved Africans to the region for sugarcane labor production. Though slavery was abolished in the French colonies during the French Revolution, white planters called békés sought to reestablish it, and under Napoleon, slavery was reinstated. After emancipation was reestablished through the 1848 revolution, contracted immigration of predominantly Hindu, East Indian laborers was used to aid in sugarcane production. The island department of France produces bananas, rum, and sugarcane for export and partially relies on tourism for income. At the beginning of the 21st century, a fusion of Afro-Indian, Afro-French, and Afro-Caribbean cultural influences can be seen in food culture, religion, music, art, and dance.