Trinidad & Tobago (English)

Good morning everyone ! We're still in the Caribbean and the island we're going to talk about today is Trinidad & Tobago. It's a twin island country, located at the northern edge of South America,lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela. Since August, 31, 1962, Trinidad & Tobago became an independent country from United Kingdom and is a Republic since 1976. The current president is Anthony Carmona. Its capital is Port of Spain. The official language is English, and Trinidad and Tobago has two local languages : Trinidadian Creole and Tobagonian Creole, influenced by lots of origins as French Creole (Patois) for Trinidadian Creole. Spanish is also spoken by 5% of the polupation.  1,223,916 people live in Trinidad and Tobago.

 

Trinidad & Tobago Flag

 

Trinidad & Tobago Map

 

Let's take a look at Trinidad and Tobago Culture. First of all let's talk about Food. The Island national dish is Pelau, which is Pigeon peas and rice cooked with meat, sometimes flavoured with coconut milk . Lots of other local dishes exist as :

-Buljol: Salted codfish shredded and seasoned with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and olive oil, often served in coconut bake.

-Souse: Pig trotters boiled and served cold with a salty sauce of lime, cucumber, pepper and onions.

- Pastelles : Meat-filled corn dumplings cooked in banana leaves. Vegetarian variations are filled with soya or lentil peas.

Moreover, Trinidad and Tobago has its local fruits as mangoes, passion fruit or breadfruit.

 

                                                                     Pelau

 

Then we'll talk about Music. The main music genres here in Trinidad and Tobago are Calypso, Steelpan, Soca music or Parang. Concerning artists, the best known artist is Nicki Minaj, born at Port Of Spain, Edmundo Ros, "The King of Latin American Music" was also born in Trinidad and Tobago. Furthermore, Trinidad and Tobago is known for its Carnival, held on Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.

Trinidad and Tobago have also distinctions in acting : Three characters from the well known Will Smith's sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, are Trinidadian descendant :  Tatyana Ali and Alfonso Ribeiro were series regulars as Will's cousins Ashley and Carlton, respectively, while Nia Long played Will's girlfriend Lisa.

Trinidad and Tobago is the smallest country to have two  Miss Universe titleholders:

-Janelle Commissiong in 1977, the first black woman to ever win

-Wendy Fitzwilliam in 1998

                                                                 

                                                                     Carnival

                                                                        

                                                                          

Janelle Commissiong Miss Universe 1977 To finish this article we'll focus on Sports. Trinidad & Tobago is very known at the Olympic Games : -Dash : Hasely Crawford won Trinidad and Tobago first Gold medal in the men's 100 m dash in the 1976 Summer Olympics. -Javelin Throw : Recently Keshorn Walcott won a gold medal in the men's javelin throw in 2012 -Athletism : Ato Boldon has won the most Olympic and World Championship medals for Trinidad and Tobago, 8 in total : 4 in Olympics and 4 in World Championships. Sprint : Richard Thompson is from Trinidad and Tobago.  He came second place to Usain Bolt in the Beijing Olympics in the 100m with a time of 9.89s. Cricket is one of the Most popular sports of Trinidad and Tobago. Like Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago co-hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup. Brian Lara, world record holder for the most runs scored both in a Test and in a First Class innings and other records is from Trinidad and Tobago. Football is also very popular, and the national football team qualified for the first time in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, making them the smallest country country ever (in terms of population) to qualify. 

Brian Lara   Ato Boldon     As a conclusion, Trinidad and Tobago is a very wonderful and impressive country. Indeed this small country has acomplished great things so far. I advice y'all to visit it.   Peace !   More articles coming soon.