Football Paradise takes a trip to Anguilla, a beautiful island in the Carribean, and chillin’ at the bottom of the FIFA world rankings.
For many outside the region, Jamaica encapsulates their vision of the Caribbean. Reggae, food and sports has created a cultural brand that has been exported to such a mass extent, that an area of the world inhabited by 41 distinctly different islands has largely been moulded into one generalised notion. Trinidad and Barbados will ring bells for many, but other smaller islands often go forgotten.
Anguilla, one such island, measuring a mere 16 miles by 3 miles, has a population of around 13,000. For such a small and beautiful island that exudes natural radiance and the vibrancy of life, it is criminal to think that upon discovery by the British in the 17th century, it was used as a breeding ground for Tobacco, the vice which is also the detrimental antithesis of life.
Like the historically covered ‘’Scramble for Africa’’, the earlier ‘’Scramble for the Caribbean’’ meant that at some point, most islands were sold or traded between European nations. Anguilla was owned by the British, then the Dutch, before a failed attempt by the French to take it ultimately ended with the island being claimed by the British once and for all. Borders being flexible during British periods of rule meant that from 1880, it was illogically grouped with St Kitts and Nevis, to form the a colony of three islands with no cultural or even geographical ties.