Annie John

Annie John is set in the middle of the 20th century, in one of the final decades of Antigua’s colonization by England. Though Christopher Columbus arrived on the island in 1493, naming it after a chapel called Santa Maria de la Antigua in Seville, Spain, those who are native to the island now call it Wadadli (née Waladli), which means “our own.” Ironically, the island has not been the Indigenous population’s “own” for centuries, as English settlers colonized the island in the early 1600s, and Antigua did not gain independence until 1981. That year, it became a realm of the British Commonwealth, with its own constitution, though its Chief of State is still the British monarch, who is represented in Antigua by the governor general. The head of Antiguan government is the prime minister, and there are two houses of the Antiguan Parliament (“Antigua and Barbuda: Government.” Global Edge). The original inhabitants of the island were the Siboney (or “stone people”), who were succeeded by the Arawaks, and the Arawaks were driven away by the “warlike Carib people” who settled neighboring islands but not Antigua (“Background Notes: Antigua and Barbuda.” US Department of State).