The Soucouyant: Caribbean Vampire

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The Soucouyant highlights the Caribbean's rich history as a cultural melting pot for thousands of years.

Many tales of vampires and the supernatural are derived from the Soucouyant--and many of these stories are hard to ignore because they are rooted in actual historical events.

Today, vampire stories are everywhere:  books, movies, television shows, and even video games.  Female vampires in particular have huge commercial appeal as evidenced by major motion pictures like Queen of the Damned, Twilight, Underworld, Dusk to Dawn, and many others.  They can all thank the mysterious, seductive Soucouyant for helping establish the genre.

Before Europeans arrived on our shores, Siboney, Arawak, and Carib people originating from South America made their way across the Eastern Caribbean.  In those days, Antigua was known as "Wadadli."

Each group that inhabited Antigua brought their own core beliefs, traditions, and folklore.

In 1492, while exploring the Caribbean, Christopher Columbus named Antigua after a cathedral in Seville, Spain.  By the 1600s, Antigua was emerging as an economic powerhouse fueled by the sugar cane industry.  

The 1700s solidified Antigua's place as military and economic outpost of great importance.  It was during this time that Admiral Horatio Nelson commanded the British Caribbean fleet from Nelson's Dockyard in English Harbour.  Other famous sites like the fortifications at Shirley Heights, Blockhouse Military Complex, Fort James, Fort Barrington, and Fort George were constructed.  You can still visit these sites and see the magnificent cannons and crumbling ruins.

Nelson's Dockyard National Park is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is overseen by Antigua & Barbuda's National Parks Authority.

The Soucouyant emerged as a blending of history and folkore handed down by the African, Latin American, and European folks who passed through or settled in Antigua--whether by choice or unfortunate colonial mandate.

One thing is clear, however:  no matter who you are or where you came from, you are not safe from the clutches of the Soucouyant, especially on quiet nights when the moon is full and stillness presides over quiet, forgotten island cemeteries.