The Caribbean Beat Archive

Caribbean Beat was launched in January 1992 as the inflight magazine of BWIA (British West Indian Airways), the Trinidad-based airline founded in November 1940. The magazine partnered with BWIA for 15 years and 82 issues. On 31 December, 2006, BWIA was wound up and replaced by Caribbean Airlines. Caribbean Beat is now the inflight magazine of the new airline, and continues to publish every two months as before.

We get requests all the time from people looking for archive material from Caribbean Beat, which sometimes is the only trusted source for a range of West Indian and Caribbean subjects and material – personalities, culture, music, sports, history, business, arts, and more.

We recognise how important these archives are, particularly as Caribbean pioneers and personalities pass on, often before their life and work has been properly documented. As a result, over the past few years, we've been painstakingly digitising and uploading back issues – scanning photos and text, proofing, treating photos, laying out, and finally bringing it all online.

The archive currently extends back from our current edition to most issues through #60 (March/April 2003) and between #1 (March 1992) and #40 (1992–1997). In between print issues, we are slowly working to add text, photos and more from the archives. Many of the early editions are not available in digital format, so it takes some time to prepare them for the website. You can subscribe to our newsletter or our blog to keep abreast of progress with the archives.

If you require material from a back issue urgently, please contact us with your request.