Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe (

Like the other overseas departments, it is an integral part of France. As a constituent territory of the European Union and the Eurozone, the euro is its official currency and any European Union citizen is free to settle and work there indefinitely, but is not part of the Schengen Area. It included Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin until 2007, when they were detached from Guadeloupe following a 2003 referendum.

Christopher Columbus visited Guadeloupe in 1493 and gave the island its name. The official language is French; Antillean Creole is also spoken.^[4][5]

The archipelago was called Karukera (or "The Island of Beautiful Waters") by the native Arawak people.^[4]

The islands were first populated by indigenous peoples of the Americas, possibly as far back as 3000 BC.^[7][8][9] The Arawak people are the first identifiable group, but they were later displaced c. 1400 by Kalina-Carib peoples.^[4]

Christopher Columbus was the first European to see Guadeloupe, landing in November 1493 and giving it its current name.

During the Seven Years' War, the British captured and occupied the islands until the 1763 Treaty of Paris.^[4] During that time, Pointe-à-Pitre became a major harbour, and markets in Britain's North American colonies were opened to Guadeloupean sugar, which was traded for foodstuffs and timber. The economy expanded quickly, creating vast wealth for the French colonists.^[15] So prosperous was Guadeloupe at the time that, under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, France forfeited its Canadian colonies in exchange for the return of Guadeloupe.^[11][16] Coffee planting began in the late 1720s,^[17] also worked by slaves and, by 1775, cocoa had become a major export product as well.^[11]

The

In 1802, the

An independence movement grew in the 1970s, prompting France to declare Guadeloupe a French region in 1974.[4] The Union populaire pour la libération de la Guadeloupe (UPLG) campaigned for complete independence, and by the 1980s the situation had turned violent with the actions of groups such as Groupe de libération armée [es; fr] (GLA) and Alliance révolutionnaire caraïbe (ARC).

Greater autonomy was granted to Guadeloupe in 2000.^[4] Through a referendum in 2003, Saint-Martin and Saint Barthélemy voted to separate from the administrative jurisdiction of Guadeloupe, this being fully enacted by 2007.^[4]

In January 2009, labour unions and others known as the Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon went on strike for more pay.^[31] Strikers were angry with low wages, the high cost of living, high levels of poverty relative to mainland France and levels of unemployment that are amongst the worst in the European Union.^[32] The situation quickly escalated, exacerbated by what was seen as an ineffectual response by the French government, turning violent and prompting the deployment of extra police after a union leader (Jacques Bino) was shot and killed.^[33] The strike lasted 44 days and had also inspired similar actions on nearby Martinique. President Nicolas Sarkozy later visited the island, promising reform.^[34] Tourism suffered greatly during this time and affected the 2010 tourist season as well.

This article or section may need to be cleaned up or summarized because it has been split from/to Geography of Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe is an archipelago of more than 12 islands, as well as islets and rocks situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean.^[4] It is located in the Leeward Islands in the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, a partly volcanic island arc. To the north lie Antigua and Barbuda and the British Overseas Territory of Montserrat, with Dominica lying to the south.

The two main islands are Basse-Terre (west) and

Basse-Terre is a volcanic island.^[36] The Lesser Antilles are at the outer edge of the Caribbean Plate, and Guadeloupe is part of the outer arc of the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc. Many of the islands were formed as a result of the subduction of oceanic crust of the Atlantic Plate under the Caribbean Plate in the Lesser Antilles subduction zone. This process is ongoing and is responsible for volcanic and earthquake activity in the region. Guadeloupe was formed from multiple volcanoes, of which only La Grande Soufrière is not extinct.^[37] Its last eruption was in 1976, and led to the evacuation of the southern part of Basse-Terre. 73,600 people were displaced throughout three and a half months following the eruption.

Grande-Terre and Marie-Galante have basements probably composed of volcanic units of Eocene to Oligocene, but there are no visible outcrops. On Grande-Terre, the overlying carbonate platform is 120 metres thick.^[39]

The islands are part of the

Located in a very exposed region, Guadeloupe and its

In 1989, Hurricane Hugo caused severe damage to the islands of the archipelago and left a deep mark on the memory of the local inhabitants. In 1995, three hurricanes (Iris, Luis and Marilyn) hit the archipelago in less than three weeks. Other notable hurricanes include Okeechobee in 1928, Betsy in 1965, Cleo in 1964, Inez in 1966, and Irma and Maria in 2017.

With fertile volcanic soils, heavy rainfall and a warm climate, vegetation on Basse-Terre is lush.

However, by studying 43,000 bone remains from six islands in the archipelago, it was found that 50 to 70% of snakes and lizards on the Guadeloupe Islands became extinct after European colonists arrived; they had brought with them mammals such as cats, mongooses, rats, and raccoons, which might have preyed upon the native reptiles.^[43]

In recent decades, Guadeloupe's natural environments have been affected by hunting and fishing, forest retreat, urbanization and suburbanization. They also suffer from the development of intensive crops (banana and

In addition, the ChlEauTerre study, unveiled in March 2018, concludes that 37 different anthropogenic molecules (more than half of which come from residues of now-banned pesticides, such as chlordecone) were found in "79% of the watersheds analyzed in Grande-Terre and 84% in Basse-Terre." A report by the Guadeloupe Water Office notes that in 2019 there is a "generalized degradation of water bodies."

Despite everything, there is a will to preserve these environments whose vegetation and landscape are preserved in some parts of the islands and constitute a sensitive asset for tourism. These areas are partially protected and classified as ZNIEFF, sometimes with nature reserve status, and several caves are home to protected chiropterans.

The Guadalupe

The archipelago is crossed by numerous geological faults such as those of la Barre or la Cadoue, while in depth, in front of Moule and La Désirade begins the Désirade Fault, and between the north of Maria-Galante and the south of Grande-Terre begins the Maria Galante Fault. And it is because of these geological characteristics, the islands of the department of Guadeloupe are classified in zone III according to the seismic zoning of France and are subject to a specific risk prevention plan.^[46]

The 1843 earthquake in the Lesser Antilles is, to this day, the most violent earthquake known. It caused the death of more than a thousand people, as well as major damage in Pointe-à-Pitre.

On 21 November 2004, the islands of the department, in particular

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

The population of Guadeloupe was estimated to be 378,561 on 1 January 2024.

The population of Guadeloupe has been decreasing by 0.8% per year since 2013.[50] In 2017 the average population density in Guadeloupe was 240 inhabitants per square kilometre (620/sq mi), which is very high in comparison to metropolitan France's average of 119 inhabitants per square kilometre (310/sq mi).^[51] One third of the land is devoted to agriculture and all mountains are uninhabitable; this lack of space and shelter makes the population density even higher.

The most populous urban unit (agglomeration) is Pointe-à-Pitre-Les Abymes, which covers 11 communes and 65% of the population of the department.^[52] The three largest urban units are:^[53]

In 2011, life expectancy at birth was recorded at 77.0 years for males and 83.5 for females.^[54]

Medical centres in Guadeloupe include: University Hospital Centre (CHU) in Pointe-à-Pitre, Regional Hospital Centre (CHR) in Basse-Terre, and four hospitals located in Capesterre-Belle-Eau, Pointe-Noire, Bouillante and Saint-Claude.^[55]

The Institut Pasteur de la Guadeloupe, is located in Pointe-à-Pitre and is responsible for researching environmental hygiene, vaccinations, and the spread of tuberculosis and other mycobacteria.^[56]

The relative wealth of Guadeloupe contrasts with the extreme poverty of several islands in the Caribbean region, which makes the community an attractive place for the populations of some of these territories.^[57] In addition, other factors, such as political instability and natural disasters, explain this immigration. As early as the 1970s, the first illegal immigrants of Haitian origin arrived in Guadeloupe to meet a need for labour in the agricultural sector; alongside this Haitian immigration, which is more visible because it is more numerous, Guadeloupe has also seen the arrival and settlement of populations from the island of Dominica and the Dominican Republic. In 2005, the prefecture, which represents the State in Guadeloupe, reported figures of between 50,000 and 60,000 foreigners in the department.^[58]

Created in 1963 by Michel Debré, Bumidom's objective was to "[...] contribute to the solution of demographic problems in the overseas departments". To this end, its missions were multiple: information for future emigrants, vocational training, family reunification and management of reception centres. At the time, this project was also seen as a means to diminish the influence of the West Indian independence movements, which were gaining strength in the 1960s.^[59]

Between 1963 and 1981, an estimated 16,562 Guadeloupeans emigrated to metropolitan France through Bumidom. And the miniseries Le Rêve français (The French Dream) sets out to recount some of the consequences of the emigration of West Indians and Reunionese to France.

An estimated 50,000 Guadeloupeans and Martinicans participated in the construction of the Panama Canal between 1904 and 1914. In 2014, it was estimated that there were between 60,000 and 70,000 descendants of these West Indians living in Panama.^[60] Other waves of migration to North America, especially to Canada, occurred at the beginning of the 20th century.

Together with

Legislative powers are centred on the separate departmental and regional councils.^[4] The elected president of the Departmental Council of Guadeloupe is currently Guy Losbar (1 July 2021); its main areas of responsibility include the management of a number of social and welfare allowances, of junior high school (collège) buildings and technical staff, and local roads and school and rural buses. The Regional Council of Guadeloupe is a body, elected every six years, consisting of a president (currently Ary Chalus) and eight vice-presidents. The regional council oversees secondary education, regional transportation, economic development, the environment, and some infrastructure, among other things.

Guadeloupe elects one deputy from one of each of the

The prefecture (regional capital) of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre. Local services of the state administration are traditionally organised at departmental level, where the prefect represents the government.^[4]

For the purposes of local government, Guadeloupe is divided into 32 communes.^[4] Each commune has a municipal council and a mayor. Revenues for the communes come from transfers from the French government, and local taxes. Administrative responsibilities at this level include water management, civil register, and municipal police.

Name	Area (km2)	Population (2019)[61]	Arrondissement	Map
Les Abymes	81.25	53,514	Pointe-à-Pitre
Anse-Bertrand	62.5	4,001	Pointe-à-Pitre
Baie-Mahault	46	30,837	Basse-Terre
Baillif	24.3	5,203	Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre	5.78	9,861	Basse-Terre
Bouillante	43.46	6,847	Basse-Terre
Capesterre-Belle-Eau	103.3	17,741	Basse-Terre
Capesterre-de-Marie-Galante	46.19	3,298	Pointe-à-Pitre
Deshaies	31.1	3,998	Basse-Terre
La Désirade	21.12	1,419	Pointe-à-Pitre
Le Gosier	45.2	26,489	Pointe-à-Pitre
Gourbeyre	22.52	7,760	Basse-Terre
Goyave	59.91	7,621	Basse-Terre
Grand-Bourg	55.54	4,870	Pointe-à-Pitre
Lamentin	65.6	16,354	Basse-Terre
Morne-à-l'Eau	64.5	16,495	Pointe-à-Pitre
Le Moule	82.84	22,149	Pointe-à-Pitre
Petit-Bourg	129.88	24,753	Basse-Terre
Petit-Canal	72	8,203	Pointe-à-Pitre
Pointe-à-Pitre	2.66	15,181	Pointe-à-Pitre
Pointe-Noire	59.7	6,031	Basse-Terre
Port-Louis	44.24	5,618	Pointe-à-Pitre
Saint-Claude	34.3	10,466	Basse-Terre
Saint-François	61	11,689	Pointe-à-Pitre
Saint-Louis	56.28	2,397	Pointe-à-Pitre
Sainte-Anne	80.29	24,151	Pointe-à-Pitre
Sainte-Rose	118.6	17,985	Basse-Terre
Terre-de-Bas	6.8	975	Basse-Terre
Terre-de-Haut	6	1,519	Basse-Terre
Trois-Rivières	31.1	7,862	Basse-Terre
Vieux-Fort	7.24	1,842	Basse-Terre
Vieux-Habitants	58.7	7,110	Basse-Terre

From a

The signing of the Regional Convention for the Internationalisation of Enterprise (CRIE), membership of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and membership of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) are milestones that have enabled Guadeloupe to develop its bilateral or multilateral relations within the framework of international agreements or institutions.11 The development of bilateral and multilateral economic partnerships with other Caribbean and American states is based on the modernisation of the autonomous port of Guadeloupe and the importance of the Guadeloupe-Polo Caribe international airport.

As a part of France, Guadeloupe uses the French tricolour as its flag and La Marseillaise as its anthem.^[65] However, a variety of other flags are also used in unofficial or informal contexts as the flag of Guadeloupe, most notably the sun-based flag.^[66] Independentists also have their own flag suggested by the People's Union for the Liberation of Guadeloupe.^[67]

• 
  National flag of France
• 
  Colonial flag of Guadeloupe
• 
  Red variant of the colonial sun flag
• 
  Flag used by the independence and the cultural movements
• 
  Logo of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe

The economy of Guadeloupe depends on tourism, agriculture,

Tourism is one of the most prominent sources of income, with most visitors coming from France and North America.[5] An increasingly large number of cruise ships visit Guadeloupe, the cruise terminal of which is in Pointe-à-Pitre.^[69]

The traditional

Of the various light industries, sugar and rum production, solar energy, cement, furniture and clothing are the most prominent.^[4] Most manufactured goods and fuel are imported.

Guadeloupe's official language is

Guadeloupean Creole emerged as a result of the need for all ethnic groups (French, African and Amerindian) to be able to understand each other.^[71] This language is therefore the result of a mixture created in the 17th century in response to a communicative emergency. At the time of the colony's foundation, a majority of the French population did not speak the standard French language but local dialects and languages, such as Breton and Norman, while the Africans came from a variety of West and Central African ethnic groups and lacked a common language themselves. The Creole language emerged as a lingua franca and ultimately became the native language of much of the population.

Moreover, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas, in the Saintes archipelago, due to their settlement history (Breton, Norman and Poitevin settlers), have their own Creoles which differ from Guadeloupean Creole by their French pronunciations, their particular expressions, their syntax and their sonorities. Although it is not transcribed, these islanders call their Creole "patois" or "language of St. Martin" and actively ensure its transmission and perpetuation by their descendants in vernacular form.

A Guadeloupean béké first wrote Creole at the end of the 17th century, transcribing it using French orthography.

As Guadeloupe is a French department, French is the official language. However, Guadeloupean French (in contact with Creole) has certain linguistic characteristics that differ from those of standard metropolitan French. Recently, a very detailed study of the phonetic aspect of Guadeloupean French has been undertaken (this would be the first study to deal with both the acoustic and the phonological and perceptual aspects of Guadeloupean French in particular and West Indian French in general). It is also concerned with the reading varieties of Guadeloupean French (acrolect, mesolect and basilect).

In recent decades there has been a revival of Creole, which has stimulated the appearance of books of short stories and poetry published in Creole and French over the last ten years. In this context, Hector Poullet is a pioneer of Creole-mediated dictation. Creole is also a very colourful language and very philosophical in its expressions and phrases, which, translated literally into French, can be confusing. The representatives of the older generations are not always fluent in French, but in Guadeloupean Creole.

Today, the question as to whether French and Creole are stable in Guadeloupe, i.e. whether both languages are practiced widely and competently throughout society, remains a subject of active research.^[72]

Figures in 2020 state that 96% of the population was

In 1685, the Black Code announced the Christian religion in its Catholic form as the only authorized religion in the French West Indies, thus excluding Jews and the various Protestant groups from practicing their beliefs, and imposed the forced conversion of the newly arrived slaves and the baptism of the older ones. Guadeloupe adopted the code on 10 December 1685.^[76]

This was followed by a rapid fashion among the

Administratively, the territory of Guadeloupe is part of the Diocese of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre, attached to the Catholic Church in France.[79] The diocese includes the territories of Guadeloupe, St. Barthélemy and St. Martin and the number of faithful is estimated at 400,000. In 2020 there were 59 priests active in the diocese.^[80] The episcopal see is located in Basse-Terre, in the cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Guadeloupe.^{[81][citation needed]}

Hinduism, which accompanied the Indians who came to work in Guadeloupe in the mid-19th century, has expanded since the 1980s. The Indian community has its own tradition that comes from India. It is the mayé men, a distorted pronunciation of the name of the Tamil Indian goddess Mariamman. There are no less than 400 temples in the archipelago.

Islam was first Institutionalized in the French West Indies by the 1970s, first in Martinique.^[82] According to the president of the Muslim association of Guadeloupe, there are between 2,500 and 3,000 Muslims in the department. The island has two mosques.^[82] Judaism has been present in Guadeloupe since the arrival of Dutch settlers expelled from the northeast of present-day Brazil in 1654. There is a synagogue and an Israelite cultural community.^[83] Guadeloupeans of Syrian and Lebanese origin practice Catholicism in its Maronite form. Rastafari has been attractive to some young people since the 1970s following its emergence in Jamaica. The quimbois or kenbwa, practiced in Guadeloupe, refer to magical-religious practices derived from Christian and African syncretism.^[84]

Guadeloupe has always had a rich literary output, with Guadeloupean author Saint-John Perse winning the 1960 Nobel Prize in Literature. Other prominent writers from Guadeloupe or of Guadeloupean descent include Maryse Condé, Simone Schwarz-Bart, Myriam Warner-Vieyra, Oruno Lara, Daniel Maximin, Paul Niger, Guy Tirolien and Nicolas-Germain Léonard.

Music and dance are also very popular, and the interaction of African, French and Indian cultures

Traditional Guadeloupean music includes biguine, kadans, cadence-lypso, and gwo ka. Popular music artists and bands such as Experience 7, Francky Vincent, Kassav' (which included Patrick St-Eloi, and Gilles Floro) embody the more traditional music styles of the island, whilst other musical artists such as the punk band The Bolokos (1) or Tom Frager focus on more international genres such as rock or reggae. Many international festivals take place in Guadeloupe, such as the Creole Blues Festival on Marie-Galante.^{[citation needed]} All the Euro-French forms of art are also ubiquitous, enriched by other communities from Brazil, Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Lebanon, Syria who have migrated to the islands.

Classical music has seen a resurgent interest in Guadeloupe. One of the first known composers of African origin was born in Guadeloupe, Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a contemporary of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and a celebrated figure in Guadeloupe. Several monuments and cites are dedicated to Saint-Georges in Guadeloupe, and there is an annual music festival, Festival International de Musique Saint-Georges, dedicated in his honour.^[87] The festival attracts classical musicians from all over the world and is one of the largest classical music festivals in the Caribbean.^[88]

Another element of Guadeloupean culture is its dress. A few women (particularly of the older generation) wear a unique style of traditional dress, with many layers of colourful fabric, now only worn on special occasions.^{[citation needed]} On festive occasions they also wore a madras (originally a "kerchief" from South India) headscarf tied in many different symbolic ways, each with a different name. The headdress could be tied in the "bat" style, or the "firefighter" style, as well as the "Guadeloupean woman".^{[citation needed]} Jewellery, mainly gold, is also important in the Guadeloupean lady's dress, a product of European, African and Indian inspiration.^{[citation needed]}

Traditional dress,^[89] inherited today, is the result of a long cultural mix involving Africa, Asia and Europe. This cultural mix was initially based on triangular trade and later on a more globalized trade that included importing fabrics from the Orient. For example, in the traditional Guadeloupean costume, we find Asian influences with the use of madras cloth from India, African and European influences (Spanish in this case) with the use of the headscarf for covering and again European influences (French in this case) in the adoption of the lace petticoat from Brittany.

The clothing worn in Guadeloupe has mutated over the centuries and has undergone changes that reflect the social conditions and the evolution of society, from the time of slavery to the present day. During the second half of the 17th century, slaves arriving in Guadeloupe were naked or nearly

Under pressure from the church and as soon as the Black Code was enforced in 1685, owners were required to provide "each slave with two suits of cloth or four alders [about 7.5 m²; 81 sq ft] of cloth a year... art.25" which only modestly improved their conditions. However, the poor quality of the clothing worn during slavery must be qualified, as it could vary according to the day of the week (daily clothing, Sunday clothing, clothing for special occasions), or according to the status of the slaves employed in the houses.

In fact, the latter could be dressed in clothes of different quality according to the job they performed on the property. For example, in the case of the maids, their clothes could be of better quality because they had to reflect the image of success and wealth that their master wanted to project.

From the 17th century onwards, the development of the Creole costume coincided with the desire of slave women to regain their dignity, with the evolution of their employment within the household or Guadeloupean society (specialization in the sewing and dressmaking trades), with the evolution of Guadeloupean society (free women of colour, freed slaves, mulatto women) and with the influence of the European fashionable costume, which the housewife represented.

After the abolition of slavery, the main periods of traditional Guadeloupean dress were the following:

• 1848 to 1930, establishment of the use of the costume;^[90]
• From 1930 to 1950, significant decrease in the use of the traditional costume;
• From 1950 to 1960, period in which the traje becomes a "folkloric" garment;
• From 1960 to the present, the traditional costume has been recovered and is valued both as an everyday garment and as a sign of attachment to the culture of Guadalupe.53 Today, many designers are inspired by the traditional costume to make some of their creations.^[90]

As a result of this fusion of African and European dress codes over the centuries, including materials from distant origins, the Guadeloupean wardrobe includes Creole garments such as: the cozy dress or wòb ti-do, an everyday dress also called "à corps" because it fits the body like a corset; the skirt-shirt, in ceremonial dress (the shirt is made of very fine batiste trimmed with lace, which stops at the elbows and is buttoned with golden buttons. The skirt, full and very wide in the back with tail, is knotted above the breasts); the bodice dress which is distinguished from the others by the quantity and richness of the fabric used (satin, brocade satin, satin).

• The traditional headdress, worn with or without the women's traditional costume, is the subject of a precise codification:^[91]
• The "tête chaudière" is the ceremonial headdress with a round, flat shape, topped with a spiked knot;

  

• The four-pointed headdress (headdress with four knots) means "my heart has room for whoever wants it!";
• The three-pointed headdress means "my heart is taken!";
• The two-pointed headdress means "my heart is compromised, but you can try your luck!";
• The one-ended headdress means "my heart is free!"^[91]

Guadeloupean cuisine is a mixture of African, European and Asian influences.^[92] It uses first of all agricultural products such as poyo (plantain more commonly called green plantain or ti-nain), bread plantain, okra, cabbage, pigeon peas, cristofina, yam or sweet potato.

The sea and rivers provide rays, snappers, octopus (chatou), lambis, burgots (a type of large whelk), sea urchins and ouassous. Orchards provide fruits such as soursop, red jambosier, passion fruit (marakoudja), mango, quenette, and citrus. Condiments sometimes added to dishes are habanero chili, cive (a kind of onion from the country) or roucou seeds that give a red tint to sauces.

The cooking, often spicy and seasoned, results from soaking meat or fish for hours before cooking, to enhance its flavour. Typical dishes are: fish blaff, dombrés, bébélé (from Marie-Galante),^[92] colombo (equivalent to Indian curry) and matété (rice cooked with crab). As for appetizers or snacks, there are morcillas criollas, accras, cassava cakes and bokit.

As for desserts, there are blancmange, sorbets or various fruit salads. Pastries include pâtés with jam, tournament d'amour (in Les Saintes), caca bœuf (in Marie-Galante)^[93] or sacristain. Pain natté, a local brioche bread, is often eaten.

There are local productions of candied fruits (elderberry, pineapple, carambola) and jams (guava, banana, coconut). Sorbets such as coconut sherbet or snowball made with crushed ice to which a syrup (mint, grenadine) is added are also consumed. Sweets include coconut sugar, kilibibi and konkada (of Beninese origin).

In the category of beverages, the consumption of soft drinks is very important in Guadeloupe, as well as that of a drink locally nicknamed black beer. In addition, it is not uncommon to see vendors of sugar cane juice or coconut water on the roads. Chaudeau is consumed on special occasions (weddings, baptisms, communions) and is a Guadeloupean-style eggnog eaten with a whipped cake (génoise). The rum, whose consumption is culturally imbricated in the Guadeloupean society, comes in particular from one of the ten distilleries distributed in the Guadeloupean territory and that produce the rums of Guadeloupe.

At Christmas, families and friends gather during the chanté Nwel, an opportunity to sing carols and celebrate. After the vacations, rehearsals begin for the Guadeloupe carnival. Carnival groups parade through the streets every Sunday afternoon until the Carnival festivities in February or March. For example, the groups with skins, the Akiyo group are groups composed only of large percussion and lambi shell instruments. They have the particularity of having no brass instruments in the band, no choreography, they often parade without themed costumes. Since 2014, the Carnival in kabwèt of Marie-Galante has been registered in the inventory of the intangible heritage of France at UNESCO.^[94]

Shrove Tuesday is the big party where carnival groups compete in the main town, Basse-Terre, or in Pointe-à-Pitre, for the best costumes, the best music or the best choreography whose theme is imposed by the carnival committees. The next day, on Ash Wednesday, the day that ends the carnival, the mascot king of the carnival nicknamed Vaval is burned, which signals the end of the festivities, everyone parades in black and white (to mark Vaval's mourning), and then the forty days of Lent begin. Most of the population is Catholic and respects this period. But, given the great fondness for festivities, on the "Thursday of Lent" a parade is organized in red and black identical to that of Carnival, with groups of musicians preceded by people parading.

After this period of deprivation, the Easter celebrations take place, during which families usually go camping on the beach and eat traditional and very popular dishes based on crabs: matété (rice cooked with crab), calalou (crabs with wooden leaves accompanied by white rice) or dombrés with crabs (small balls of flour cooked with crab).

Football is popular in Guadeloupe, and several notable footballers are of Guadeloupean origin, including

Even though Guadeloupe is part of France, it has its own sports teams. Rugby union is a small but rapidly growing sport in Guadeloupe.

The island is internationally known for hosting the Karujet Race – Jet Ski World Championship since 1998. This nine-stage, four-day event attracts competitors from around the world (mostly Caribbeans, Americans, and Europeans). The Karujet, generally made up of seven races around the island, has an established reputation as one of the most difficult championships in which to compete.

The Route du Rhum is one of the most prominent nautical French sporting events, occurring every four years.

Bodybuilder

The country has a passion for cycling. It hosted the French Cycling Championships in 2009 and continues to host the Tour de Guadeloupe every year.

Guadeloupe continues to host the Orange Open de Guadeloupe tennis tournament (since 2011).

The Tour of Guadeloupe sailing, which was founded in 1981.

In boxing, Ludovic Proto – as an amateur, he competed in the 1988 Summer Olympics in the men's light welterweight division. As a professional, he was a former French and European welterweight champion;

Gilbert Delé – as a professional, he was a former French and European light-middleweight champion, then he won the WBA world light-middleweight title in 1991;

Jean-Marc Mormeck – as a professional, he was a former French light heavyweight champion and two-time unified world cruiserweight champion—held the WBA, WBC, and The Ring titles twice between 2005 and 2007).

Guadeloupe is served by a number of airports; most international flights use Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport.^[4] Boats and cruise ships frequent the islands, using the ports at Pointe-à-Pitre and Basse-Terre.^[4]

On 9 September 2013 the county government voted in favour of constructing a tramway in Pointe-à-Pitre. The first phase will link northern Abymes to downtown Pointe-à-Pitre by 2019. The second phase, scheduled for completion in 2023, will extend the line to serve the university.^[97]

The Guadeloupe academic region includes only the Guadeloupe academy. It employs 9,618 people and its operating budget was €714.3 million for 2018–2019. The territory has 300 elementary schools, including 1 private kindergarten under contract and 14 private elementary schools under contract. It also has 52 middle schools, including 6 private under contract. And finally, it has 38 high schools, 13 of which are private under contract.^[98]

During the 2018–2019 school year were enrolled at Guadeloupe Academy:

• 45,510 students in primary education;^[99]

• 

  45,626 students in secondary education;^[99]
• 2,718 graduate students in high school.^[99]
• Since 2014, the academy has 12 districts divided into 5 poles:^[100]
• The Pôle Îles du Nord^[100] (St. Martin and St. Barthélemy);
• The Basse-Terre Nord Pole^[100] (Baie-Mahault, Capesterre-Belle-Eau and Sainte-Rose) ;
• The South Pole of Basse-Terre:^[100] Basse-Terre and Bouillante (including the islands of Les Saintes);
• The North Pole of Grande-Terre:^[100] Grande-Terre Nord, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François (including the islands of La Désirade and Marie-Galante);
• The South Pole of Grande-Terre:^[100] Les Abymes, Gosier and Pointe-à-Pitre.

The islands of Guadeloupe are also home to two campuses of the University of the French Antilles, Camp-Jacob in Saint-Claude and Fouillole in Pointe-à-Pitre, the latter being the headquarters of the institution.^[101] Student residences are located around each campus. Furthermore, a satellite campus dedicated to healthcare is located in the vicinity of the University Hospital Centre of Pointe-à-Pitre [fr], many schools for apprentices are located throughout the archipelago, an Arts and Crafts Centre acting as local school for fine art is located in Bergevin, Pointe-à-Pitre, and, finally, three sites of the regional second chance school are implanted in various high schools.^[101]

The island has great potential for solar, wind and marine energy, but by 2018, biomass and coal energy and petroleum hydrocarbons are still the most used.

The Energy transition Law (TECV) provides for 50% renewable energy by 2020 in the territory. And the Guadeloupe EPP plans to develop 66 MW of additional biomass capacity between 2018 and 2023, including 43 MW to replace coal.

For example, the Albioma Caraïbes (AC) coal-fired power plant will be converted to biomass to help increase the share of renewables in Guadeloupe's energy mix from 20.5% to 35%, thereby mitigating the island's dependence on fossil fuels and reducing acidic air pollution and the production of toxic and bottom ash.^[102]

This 34 MW power plant, producing 260 GWh/year of electricity in 2018 (i.e. 15% of the island's needs), should reduce 265 000 t of CO₂ equivalent/year throughout the chain (−87% once converted to biomass compared to the previous situation, coal).

Guadeloupe has an electricity production plant, in Le Moule, based on the sugar cane agricultural sector, which recovers the residues from sugar cane crushing (bagasse) to produce energy; 12 wind farms, such as in Désirade, Le Moule or Marie-Galante; a geothermal power plant in Bouillante, which uses the energy of water vapor produced by volcanic activity (the plant's electricity production ranks it first nationally); a project to harness the energy of waves and ocean currents; photovoltaic installations that contribute to the operation of solar water heaters for homes and to the development of the electric vehicle sector.^[103]

Electricity produced by hydropower, which represents 2.2% of total production, comes from dams built on the beds of certain rivers.

The water distributed by Guadeloupe's drinking water network comes mainly from Basse Terre, 70% from river intakes and 20% from spring catchments. The remaining 10% comes from boreholes tapping the groundwater of Grande Terre and Marie-Galante.

Access to water and sanitation is problematic due to the deteriorated state of the network, which causes many losses in the water supply system. For years, water shortages have been recurrent and have forced "water shifts", mainly in the municipalities of Grande-Terre, which are the most affected, with consequences for private individuals and agricultural activities.

According to statistics from the Water Office (2020 data), 61% of drinking water production is wasted, i.e., almost 50 million cubic metres of water per year, due to pipes in poor condition. In addition, 70% of wastewater treatment plants do not meet standards.^[104]

Although Guadeloupe is one of the safest islands in the Caribbean,^[105] it was the most violent overseas French department in 2016.^[106] The murder rate is significantly higher than that of Paris, at 8.2 per 100,000. The high level of unemployment caused violence and crime to rise, especially in 2009 and 2010, the years following the Great Recession.^[107] Residents of Guadeloupe describe the island as a place with little everyday crime, and most violence is caused by the drug trade or domestic disputes.^[105] In 2021, additional police officers were deployed to the island in the face of rioting arising out of COVID-19 restrictions.^[108]

Normally, about 2,000 police officers are present on the island including some 760 active National Gendarmerie of the COMGEND (Gendarmerie Command of Guadeloupe) region plus around 260 reservists. The active Gendarmerie include three Mobile Gendarmerie Squadrons (EGM) and a Republican Guard Intervention Platoon (PIGR).^[109] The Maritime Gendarmerie deploys the patrol boat Violette in the territory, which is planned for replacement by a new PCG-NG patrol boat in about 2025–2026.^[110][111]

• Bibliography of Guadeloupe
• Index of Guadeloupe-related articles
• List of colonial and departmental heads of Guadeloupe
• Dependencies of Guadeloupe
• Overseas departments and territories of France
• Slavery in the Caribbean

Further reading

• Haigh, Sam – An Introduction to Caribbean Francophone Writing: Guadeloupe and Martinique.
• Jennings, Eric T. – Vichy in the Tropics: Petain’s National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940–1944.
• Noble, G. K. – The Resident Birds of Guadeloupe.
• Paiewonsky, Michael – Conquest of Eden, 1493–1515: Other Voyages of Columbus; Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Virgin Islands.
• Roche, Jean-Claude – Oiseau des Antilles. Vol. 1, The Lesser Antilles from Grenada to Guadeloupe.

External links

The Wikibook Geography of France has a page on the topic of: Guadeloupe

• Prefecture website (in French)
• Regional Council website (in French)
• Departmental Council website (in French)