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The Snake King of the Kalinago
This delightful children’s book – the first to be written by local children in Dominica – tells the story of the myth of the Kalinago snake. Like all myths it has changed down the centuries and this version is an adaptation by a primary school class who, from their own knowledge and their own imaginations, came up with this lively tale.
The book has already been seen by the John Burns primary school in south London. One pupil said: “This is the best book that I have read in ages.”
Dominican historian Lennox Honychurch said, “This charming story is retold with refreshing liveliness.”
The Kalinago people live in the Commonwealth of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. They were the island’s first inhabitants and arrived in their canoes from South America many hundreds of miles away. The Kalinago (also known as Caribs) were farmers and fishermen but after Europeans arrived more than 500 years ago they gradually lost their land. Now they live by the sea in a mountainous and rainforested part of the islands known as the Carib Territory.
If you visit the Carib Territory, you will see a rocky “staircase” coming out of the sea. It is called L’Escalier tête chien – it means “the staircase of the snake” in the Dominican Creole language. This is where, according to the myth, a great snake, known in our story as Bakwa, came out of the sea, slithered on to the land – the rocks are the marks his belly left – and went up to his cave. He will stay there sleeping, as you will read in our story, until the world is at peace again.
This delightful children’s book – the first to be written by local children in Dominica – tells the story of the myth of the Kalinago snake. Like all myths it has changed down the centuries and this version is an adaptation by a primary school class who, from their own knowledge and their own imaginations, came up with this lively tale.
The book has already been seen by the John Burns primary school in south London. One pupil said: “This is the best book that I have read in ages.”
Dominican historian Lennox Honychurch said, “This charming story is retold with refreshing liveliness.”
The Kalinago people live in the Commonwealth of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean. They were the island’s first inhabitants and arrived in their canoes from South America many hundreds of miles away. The Kalinago (also known as Caribs) were farmers and fishermen but after Europeans arrived more than 500 years ago they gradually lost their land. Now they live by the sea in a mountainous and rainforested part of the islands known as the Carib Territory.
If you visit the Carib Territory, you will see a rocky “staircase” coming out of the sea. It is called L’Escalier tête chien – it means “the staircase of the snake” in the Dominican Creole language. This is where, according to the myth, a great snake, known in our story as Bakwa, came out of the sea, slithered on to the land – the rocks are the marks his belly left – and went up to his cave. He will stay there sleeping, as you will read in our story, until the world is at peace again.
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Title : The Snake King of the Kalinago
Words by children from Atkinson School, Dominica.
Paperback: 32 pages
Publication Date : February 2010
ISBN : 9780953222469