WHO WERE the Caribbean’s newsmakers this year? Who were the people within the Caribbean doing interesting things, or the people from the Caribbean doing great work around the world? Who were the people in the Caribbean conversation? Our Most Interesting list for 2014 takes a look across the region for the artists, the influencers, the newsmakers, the characters. These are our picks for the Caribbean’s most interesting people of 2014, in no particular order.
Gaston Browne
After a sweeping election victory in June, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne hit the ground running. Seemingly every week, his government signed a major new investment deal. Later, he brought in Robert De Niro to build a hotel. Then his government began talking about making Antigua the region’s economic powerhouse, a Singapore on the Caribbean Sea. Whether he can pull it off or not remains to be seen; but Browne has been calling for bold ideas and big projects in a manner not seen in the region in recent years — and that makes him eminently interesting.
Nina Compton
St Lucia native Nina Compton’s run on Top Chef united viewers across the Caribbean, much like Jamaican Tessanne Chin did on The Voice in 2013. Blessed with expert culinary talent and natural charisma, Compton was soon after named St Lucia’s culinary ambassador — and she continues to be major voice for the power of Caribbean cuisine — globally. We’re excited to see what she does next.
Alia Atkinson
When you think of Jamaican athletics, it’s likely that you think first of the island’s stellar sprinters. But 25-year-old Olympian Alia Atkinson is changing that conversation. Earlier this month, Atkinson won Jamaica’s first-ever gold medal at the World Short Course Championships, taking home the crown in the 100m breastroke. She was also the first-ever black woman to win a world swimming title.
Edouard Duval-Carrie
Artist Edouard Duval-Carrie’s career path typifies a common Caribbean experience. He was born in Haiti, grew up in Puerto Rico, studied in Canada and then found his greatest success in the United States. And the dynamic Duval-Carrie made headlines this year when he debuted a solo exhibition, Imagined Landscapes, at the new Perez Art Museum Miami, which helped to kick off the largest Caribbean art exhibition in the world this year, Caribbean: Crossroads of the World.
Usain Bolt
As it was last year, it’s impossible to put together this list without including Bolt, the Caribbean’s most famous ambassador and one of the most talented athletes in history. Bolt, who has made inroads in his ad pitchman career, has a remarkable talent for staying in the global conversation, even when he isn’t on the track. That makes him irrepressibly interesting, time and again.
Rihanna
Like Bolt, the Bajan superstar is seemingly always in the public’s consciousness, a larger-than-life persona, walking on the edge and defiantly pushing against the boundaries of creativity and entertainment. This year, she expanded her global reach, most recently becoming a new creative director at sporting brand Puma. It’s a growing empire that shows no signs of slowing down.
Roosevelt Skerrit
At just 42, Dominica’s Roosevelt Skerrit is the youngest Prime Minister in the Caribbean. But despite his youth, earlier this month he and the Dominica Labour Party won his third consecutive election, marking the beginning of his fourth consecutive term, albeit with a reduced majority.
Tim Duncan
Few athletes, Caribbean or otherwise, exemplify professionalism like Tim Duncan. The native of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands has been a model of consistency and sportsmanship in his so-far-18-year career with the San Antonio Spurs. But it was his renewed push to lead San Antonio to a dominating NBA Finals victory (his fifth NBA championshiop) in June that made him one of the region’s most interesting figures.
Richard Branson
This British Virgin Islands homeowner (or island-owner, to be exact) has been a force in the region of late, most notably when he led the Caribbean Conservation Summit, launching a major effort to make the region a greener place, in partnership with the Carbon War Room. Branson’s 10-Island Renewable Challenge has found favour among many Caribbean governments. That’s not all, though. Branson also made news when he announced the creation of his own cruise line, Virgin Cruises, proving again why he’s the master of industry disruption.
Leslie Cartaya
It’s been quite a rise for hyper-talented Cuba native Leslie Cartaya, one of the emerging stars of Caribbean music. Cartaya, who received a Best New Artist Latin Grammy nomination for her solo work and a Grammy nomination for her work as lead singer with Miami-based band Palo!, is helping to forge a new sound for Afro-Cuban music in the modern age.
Winston Watt
It’s been more than two decades since “Cool Runnings,” but the Jamaican bobsled team continues to hold a warm place in the hearts and minds of fans around the world. That connection led veteran bobsledder Winston Watt to emerge from retirement and revive the Jamaican team at the Sochi Olympics this year, unsurprisingly vaulting the team, once again, into a worldwide sensation.
Jeneil Williams
Williams made history this year when the Jamaican-born supermodel was chosen as the new face of L’Oreal cosmetics, making her the first Caribbean model to lead a global cosmetics campaign. It was a reminder, too, of the continually rising influence of the Caribbean.
Roberto Morales Ojeda
Cuba has long sent its doctors around the world, and this year was no different. The fight against the Ebola virus was one of the biggest stories in the world in 2014, and it was Cuba that was one of the leaders in the fight. It was an effort that won plaudits around the world, led in large part by Cuban Public Health Minister Roberto Morales Ojeda.
Serge Letchimy
Earlier this year, Serge Letchimy, the president of Martinique’s Regional Council, attended the CARICOM Heads of Government Summit, a historic visit was part of a much-wider push to deepen his island’s ties with its independent neighbours. Letchimy, who turned heads with an idea for a Caribbean Erasmus programme, hasn’t been afraid to discuss the region’s pressing issues, from the scourge of the Sargasso Sea on Caribbean waters to the promise of sustainable energy. Despite being the leader of, not an independent state, but a department of France, Letchimy has become one of the leading Caribbean regionalists today, frequently extolling the virtues of a “Greater Caribbean.”
Jose Abreu
Few saw it coming. After being signed as a free agent by the Chicago White Sox, the talented Jose Abreu was a mystery. But the native of Cruces, Cuba took the Major Leagues by storm, instantly becoming one of baseball’s top sluggers and netting the Rookie of the Year Crown with 36 home runs and 107 RBI, making the All-Star team and winning Rookie of the Year.
Joan Latchman
The tragic 2010 Haiti earthquake was a reminder of the tectonic activity lurking underneath the Caribbean Sea. Thankfully, Trinidad’s Joan Latchman and her team at the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre are constantly monitoring the shifting plates, collecting seismic data from a massive network of stations across the region. For Latchman, the next big Caribbean quake is a matter of when, not if. The only question is if Caribbean governments will heed her warnings and prepare.
Mike Eman
It was bold and largely unprecedented. Standing up to what he saw as Dutch interference with Aruba’s affairs, Eman launched a hunger strike in July, a move that opened eyes across the region and the world. But Eman’s been equally bold in another area — Green energy, in which Aruba has become a regional force, with a goal of becoming a 100 percent green energy island by 2020.
Laurent Lamothe
After three years as a Prime Minister advocating for a new image of Haiti, as a social media pioneer among Caribbean politicians and an advocate for a more technocratic government, Laurent Lamothe resigned earlier this month following the recommendation of a presidential commission, a move aimed at solving Haiti’s longstanding political stalemate. It’s unclear whether that will work, but Lamothe, who will likely be a presidential candidate in 2015, remains a central figure in Haitian politics — and someone whose political chapter was the country’s most interesting this year.
Natalie Urquhart
Jamaican art. The photography of Hurricane Ivan. Works of Francisco Goya. It’s been a rather diverse slate this year at the National Gallery of the Cayman Islands, which has emerged to become perhaps the most versatile gallery in the region under the stewardship of director/curator Natalie Urquhart, who is doing her part to cultivate an increasingly strong local art culture in the Cayman Islands.
Lee “Scratch” Perry
Simply put, Lee “Scratch” Perry is one of the titans of Caribbean music. In more than a half-century-long career, Perry has worked with nearly every boldfaced name in reggae music. And he returned to the fold this year with Back on the Controls, a dub album that exemplifies his legendary production ability. It was also enough to earn him a Grammy nomination at the young age of 78).
Marlon James
Michiko Kakutani called Marlon James’ new book, A Brief History of Seven Killings, a “monumental new novel.” After three novels, James, a professor at Macalester College, is on his way to being the Next Great Caribbean Novelist. Or, more accurately, one of the Next Great Novelists, period.
Ricardo Zuniga
It was one of the biggest stories in the Caribbean in a half century: the United States and Cuba announced plans to re-establish diplomatic relations. And while US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro received much of the attention, it was Honduras native Ricardo Zuniga, a senior director at the National Security Council, who did much of the work on the ground, leading months of secret talks with his Cuban counterparts.
Claudine Neisson-Vernant
The history of rum is the history of the Caribbean. In Martinique, rum is part of the landscape of daily life, and for years the Neisson distillery in Carbet has epitomized that, as family run, locally-focused operation. Helping to hold it all together is family matriarch Claudine Neisson-Vernant, who’s stewarded the place into one of the island’s most love operations — and one with a growing presence abroad.
Shawne Bryan
Caribbean chefs are doing great things within the Caribbean. But there are also some budding superstars doing great work outside of the region. Look no further than Anguilla native Shawne Bryan, who is redefining dessert at one of Miami’s top restaurants, Zuma, satisfying the sweet tooth of many a celebrity.
Dascha Polanco
It’s something everybody’s talking about, and one of the biggest hits of the web-streaming TV era: Orange Is the New Black. The Netflix drama focusing on a women’s prison has been a major success, in no small part due to the efforts of Dominican-born actress Dascha Polanco as Dayanara Diaz.