The Eastern Caribbean lies northeast of South America. Once inhabited by Carib Indian tribes, European colonialists took over the islands in the 1600s bringing in African slaves to work their plantations. Today the population reaches nearly 3 million, these islands are a hybrid of African, English and French heritage.
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Rum is the lubricant of social interaction in the Caribbean; not much goes on that doesn’t involve this popular drink. And for centuries it’s been the same; from marauding pirates threatening unsuspecting shores to African slaves in need of relaxation to the patrons of hole-in-the-wall rum shops nowadays.
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Frequently improvised, the words of calypso songs are witty and humorous and convey popular attitudes on social, political, or economic problems.
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The Egyptians mummified their dead with cumin, the Chinese burnt cloves to commune with the spirit world, and some medieval Europeans believed nutmeg was the only cure for the Plague…
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Spices conjure images of tempting culinary art, fascinating travels and bitter struggles for supremacy. Expressions like variety are the spice of life and sugar and spice and all that is nice illustrate how spellbound were people of letters about the fascination of spices.
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