The 1970s in the news: On the road to Independence…

As the decade of political independence, the 1970s was a dynamic and sometimes volatile decade in Dominica, across the political, economic, social and cultural spheres. With the introduction of television into homes in the country, which made it easier to access information from around the globe about resistance to oppression by various nations, Dominica would not be left behind as it learned from its global counterparts about how to move forward. Negritude, Pan-Africanism, Black Power and Black Arts movements, the Civil Rights movement and later Civil Rights Act in the United States are but some of the influences on the majority working class population of Dominica, which was growing in access to employment and in social mobility and respect. As a result, the pressures on the colonial factions and “gwo boug” who were ready to maintain the status quo were evident in various aspects of the society’s changing social and political climate.

The news stories represented in this timeline reflect the highlights of these various tensions and conflicts that catalysed, influenced and informed Dominica’s journey into a new national identity.

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