Cayman Islands

On 7 July the Cayman Islands celebrate Constitution Day—the Caymans are a British Overseas Territory (and a tax haven, in case that’s important to any of you, my dear readers).

The islands were spotted—as, it seems, were most islands in the Caribbean—by Columbus in 1503. He was impressed enough with the number of sea turtles (sea turtles!) to be found there that he called the islands Las Tortugas. Twenty years later they appeared on a map as Lagartos—which apparently means (I’m expanding my vocabulary-in-translation as we speak) alligators or large lizards. But by 1530 they were know as the Caymanes—it’s a Carib word for the marine crocodile that lived in the islands. What a wonderfully animal-ful naming process! (Oh, and if you look carefully at the flag you'll see a turtle. More flags should have turtles on them.)

There were no permanent inhabitants until Isaac Bodden was born on Grand Cayman around 1700. So it took some time. And then there was the usual 18th century Caribbean ragtag bunch: pirates. Shipwrecked sailors. People fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. So I guess the islands must have been a real party spot with that mix. And of course slavery reared its ever-ugly head too.

Before Isaac Bodden was born there, however, Britain had taken control of the islands. Attempts at formal settlement were unsuccessful for the first 60 years or so from when they took over in 1670, but the 1730s saw settlements cropping up.

Oh, and there’s a legend about the tax-haven status of the islands: in 1794 ten vessels were wrecked on the reef of Gun Bay (this is part of Grand Cayman)—but the locals pitched in, and no lives were lost. Now this event is know as “The Wreck of the Ten Sail” and the story goes that there was a member of the royal family on one of the ships. King George III was so pleased with the Caymanians that he decreed they should never be conscripted for war, and that they should never be taxed. Nice story—and I’m not declaring it untrue, but I’m sad to say that apparently there’s no real evidence to support it.

For a long time the Caymans were either effectively or officially administered as a dependency of Jamaica, but when Jamaica gained independence in 1962, the Caymans broke away, opting for direct dependency on the United Kingdom. Slightly before that, 1959 saw the first written constitution come into being—and, coming late to the game of women’s suffrage—this was the first time women were allowed to vote in the Caymans.

Incidentally, I happened to meet a girl at a party in the past week who had been to the islands last year—she reported that she was surprised at how desolate the region was. That surprises me—but then the Caymans, I have just learned, have experienced the most hurricane strikes in history. I imagine that can’t have helped—Hurricane Ivan had a huge impact in 2004, though infrastructure was quickly rebuilt. And the beaches look, as ever in the Caribbean, picture-perfect.

Looking for a poem by a Caymanian poet, what I found was an excerpt of the poem “Mama Duppy Tips” by the poet Rita Estevanovich—the excerpt comes from here. What I particularly like is that it uses the Cayman dialect—I’m a big fan of dialect. Enjoy!


from Mama Duppy Tips

“My mama Gwendolyn say dat duppies don’t humbug ya now

like how dey used-ta in her days

Da ‘ka’ e’rybody gaw ‘lectricity ya see

And by-passes tekin’ grape bush place

My mama say dat duppies was as t’ick as misquitas in the month of May!

But b’cause some chilrin is so bad nowadays

It da duppies dat hides away!

My mama learned me all about ’um,

‘ka’ she say some-a-um still ‘rooms’ da place

Like dah same wery one with the rancid breath 

An’ da fiery red eyes in he face

Some people say duppies is the spirits of enemies;

Hungry souls ‘wundrin’ the Earth night and day

Some ewen say dey come straight outta Hell,

An’ I don’t mean down Wes’ Bay!


—Rita Estevanovich