FAQ: Antigua & Barbuda

Where is Antigua & Barbuda located?

Antigua (pronounced An-tee-ga) is located in the Eastern Caribbean. It sits in the middle of the Leeward Islands, roughly 17 degrees north of the equator.

How big is it?

Antigua is 108 square miles while its sister island Barbuda is 62 square miles.

What language do you speak?

The official language is English. There is also an Antiguan dialect, which has elements of both the country’s African and British influences.

While Antigua is predominantly black or Afro Caribbean – a legacy of its hundreds of years of slavery, a period during which enslaved Africans were brought by the shipload to work the sugar plantations owned by British colonizers – its migrant population includes people of East Indian descent, largely from Guyana; the Spanish speaking people of the Dominican Republic; the French Creole speaking people of Dominica; Chinese; and a sizable Lebanese and Syrian population.

Is Antigua still a British Colony?

No. Antigua and Barbuda achieved political Independence from Britain in 1981.

What’s your national dish?

The national dish is Fungi (pronounced foongee) and Pepperpot. Fungi is made of cornmeal and okra and can be served with fish or other sea food, meat or chicken.

Pepperpot is a thick soup of greens and various meats. They can be served separately or together, and are filling either way.

Are there any famous Antiguans?

Of course! Antiguans have excelled in many areas on the international scene. Bert Williams, one of the top performers on the U.S. vaudeville scene, as one half of the popular Williams and Walker pairing, was later part of the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as a Broadway and film pioneer.

Both Shermain Jeremy and Kai Davis have distinguished themselves in international pageantry – the former as the Most Talented Ms. World contender of 2004 and the latter as Ms. Congeniality in the 2003 Ms. Universe Pageant.

Sir Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Curtley Ambrose, and other Antiguans have risen above the competition on the cricket field with bat and with ball. In fact, in 2000, Richards was selected as one of Wisden’s top five cricketers of the century. Another sporting notable is former world junior middleweight boxing champion Maurice Hope.

In the literary arts, Jamaica Kincaid has been the most prolific and most internationally acclaimed among Antigua’s still emerging crop of novelists. She is the author of Annie John and other award winning works. This is but a handful.