Author: James Ferguson

Engage, History, Sports, Haiti

Football holiday | On this day

When two English football clubs toured the Caribbean fifty-five years ago, local teams in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados were no competition. Haiti was a different story, writes James Ferguson

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Engage, History, Anguilla

A flag on the island | On this day

When a British military force landed in Anguilla fifty years ago, it was a strangely anachronistic moment in Caribbean colonial history — but one that Anguillans welcomed with open arms, suggests James Ferguson

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Engage, History, Haiti

“Papa Doc” Duvalier: When the bogeyman is real | On this day

Sixty years ago, Haitian dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier set up a fearsome paramilitary corps to dispatch political opposition. James Ferguson looks back at the sinister history of the Tontons Macoutes

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Engage, History

The war after the war | On this day

Thousands of men from the British West Indies enlisted in the armed forces during the First World War, playing a crucial but often thankless role in the Allied victory. And when the fighting was over, another struggle for respect and recognition began — feeding a new wave of self-determination in the Caribbean. James Ferguson remembers the events of a century ago that set it all in motion

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Engage, Environment, History

A plague from above | On this day

It’s not just a story from the Bible: thirty years ago, thanks to unprecedented weather conditions, a massive swarm of locusts crossed the Atlantic and ended up in the Caribbean. James Ferguson investigates how, and what became of them

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Engage, History, People, Sports, Jamaica

Arthur Wint: long before Bolt | On this day

Usain Bolt may be Jamaica’s most famous Olympic medallist — but he was far from the first. James Ferguson looks back at the life of Arthur Wint and his extraordinary achievements both on and off the track

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Immerse, Sports

FIFA World Cup: Caribbean footballers by proxy | Snapshot

For sports fans around the world, the arrival of June means the start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals. No Caribbean team qualified this year, James Ferguson writes, but that doesn’t mean our region won’t be represented

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Engage, History, Jamaica

Sin city: Jamaica’s Port Royal | On this day

It was once known as “the Sodom of the New World” — until a catastropic earthquake sent it tumbling into the sea. On the 500th anniversary of its founding, James Ferguson recalls the history of Jamaica’s infamous Port Royal

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Funding provided by the 11th EDF Regional Private Sector Development Programme Direct Support Grants Programme.
The views expressed on this website are those of the the authors and do not reflect those of the Direct Support Grants Programme.

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