49 Fun Facts About Trinidad and Tobago

What is the capital of Trinidad and Tobago?

Port of Spain, on the Gulf of Paria in north-west Trinidad, has been the seat of government since 1757, when the Spanish moved it from San José de Oruña.

Trinidad lies about 11 km off the coast of which South American country?

The islands sit on the South American continental shelf, so their wildlife, from howler monkeys to anacondas, is more Venezuelan than Caribbean.

In which year did Trinidad and Tobago gain independence from Britain?

Trinidad and Tobago became independent from Britain on 31 August 1962, three months after the West Indies Federation it had belonged to was dissolved.

Which instrument, invented in Trinidad in the 1930s and 40s, is its national instrument?

The steelpan evolved from Carnival's tamboo-bamboo bands as players hammered discarded oil drums into tuned instruments; in 2023 the UN General Assembly declared 11 August World Steelpan Day.

Which dance, in which performers bend backwards under a bar, originated at wakes in Trinidad?

Julia Edwards, the 'First Lady of Limbo', popularised it in the 1950s through films. Calypso, soca and chutney music were born on the islands too.

Which explorer sighted Trinidad in 1498 and named it for the Holy Trinity?

Christopher Columbus sighted Trinidad on 31 July 1498 during his third voyage, then sailed into the Gulf of Paria and along the coast of the mainland beyond.

What is the capital of Tobago?

Scarborough, on Rockly Bay on Tobago's southern coast, is the island's capital and main port, overlooked by Fort King George, built by the British in the 1770s.

In 1797 which British general took Trinidad from Spanish governor José María Chacón without a fight?

Ralph Abercromby arrived off Trinidad in February 1797 with a fleet under Admiral Henry Harvey; the outgunned Spanish squadron was burned at Chaguaramas and Chacón capitulated on 18 February.

Which Baltic duchy planted a colony on Tobago in the 17th century?

Courland, a duchy in what is now Latvia, sent colonists to Tobago in 1654 under Duke Jacob Kettler; they built Fort Jacob beside the bay known as Great Courland Bay.

Trinidad and Tobago were governed as separate colonies until they were united in which year?

In 1889 Britain joined Tobago, bankrupt after the collapse of its sugar economy, to Trinidad as a single colony; in 1899 Tobago was reduced to a ward of the united colony.

The first ship of Indian indentured labourers, the Fatel Razack, arrived in Trinidad in which year?

The Fatel Razack anchored in the Gulf of Paria on 30 May 1845 with about 225 Indian labourers; roughly 147,000 more followed before indentureship ended in 1917, and 30 May is Indian Arrival Day.

In the 2011 census, which was Trinidad and Tobago's largest ethnic group, at about 35%?

Indo-Trinidadians, descendants of indentured labourers from India, were 35.4% of the population in the 2011 census, with Afro-Trinidadians a close second at 34.2% and 22.8% identifying as mixed.

Who led the country to independence and served as its first prime minister until his death in 1981?

Eric Williams, an Oxford-trained historian whose 1944 book 'Capitalism and Slavery' argued that slavery's profits financed Britain's industrial revolution, founded the People's National Movement in 1956 and is called the 'Father of the Nation'.

Which group stormed Parliament in 1990 and held the government hostage for six days?

Jamaat al Muslimeen, led by Yasin Abu Bakr, seized the Red House and the TTT television station on 27 July 1990; its 114 insurgents surrendered on 1 August and were later freed under a disputed amnesty.

Who became the country's first female prime minister in 2010?

Kamla Persad-Bissessar led the People's Partnership coalition to victory in May 2010 and served as prime minister until 2015; she had earlier been attorney general and minister of education.

Unlike most Caribbean nations, Trinidad and Tobago's economy is based mainly on what?

Petroleum was found in 1857 but only mattered after sugar and cocoa collapsed. Tourism dominates only on Tobago.

Pitch Lake at La Brea in south-west Trinidad is the world's largest natural deposit of what?

Asphalt, roughly 10 million tonnes of it, fills the 100-acre Pitch Lake to a depth of about 75 metres; the lake slowly replenishes itself as bitumen seeps up from below and has been mined commercially since the 19th century.

What is the highest peak in Trinidad and Tobago?

El Cerro del Aripo rises 940 metres in the Northern Range of Trinidad, four metres higher than El Tucuche, and its slopes shelter the Aripo Caves, a nesting site for oilbirds.

The scarlet ibis and which Tobago bird are the country's two national birds?

The cocrico, the rufous-vented chachalaca found on Tobago, shares the coat of arms with the scarlet ibis of Trinidad; each bird represents one island of the nation.

Which wetland on Trinidad's west coast is famous for its evening roost of scarlet ibis?

Caroni Swamp, a mangrove wetland south of the capital on the Gulf of Paria, draws boat tours each evening as flocks of scarlet ibis fly in to roost on its islands.

Who designed Trinidad and Tobago's red, white and black national flag?

Carlisle Chang, a Trinidadian painter and designer, drew the flag adopted at independence; its black band edged in white stands for the people's dedication and the sea that unites the islands.

Doubles, the country's most popular street food, consists of curried chickpeas served in what?

Two fried flatbreads called bara, made from a turmeric-tinted dough, sandwich the curried channa; the dish is credited to Emamool Deen and his wife, who sold it in Princes Town in the 1930s.

Angostura bitters, made in Trinidad, are famous for what feature of their bottle?

An oversized label that overshoots the small bottle became the brand's trademark; legend says the Siegert brothers ordered bottles and labels in mismatched sizes and kept the result. The bitters contain no angostura bark.

Which Trinidadian batsman made a Test score of 400 not out against England in 2004?

Brian Lara made 400 not out for West Indies against England at St John's, Antigua, in April 2004, reclaiming the Test record he had first set with 375 on the same ground in 1994.

Hasely Crawford won the country's first Olympic gold at the Montreal Games in which event?

Hasely Crawford won the men's 100 metres in 10.06 seconds at the Montreal Games, the first Olympic gold for Trinidad and Tobago; Keshorn Walcott added javelin gold at London 2012.

In which year did Trinidad and Tobago make their first FIFA World Cup finals appearance?

At the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Trinidad and Tobago, captained by Dwight Yorke, drew 0-0 with Sweden before losing 2-0 to England and 2-0 to Paraguay.

Tobago-born Dwight Yorke won the 1999 Treble with which English club?

Manchester United signed Dwight Yorke from Aston Villa in August 1998 for £12.6 million; he struck up a prolific partnership with Andy Cole as the club won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in 1999.

Which Trinidad-born author of 'A House for Mr Biswas' won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001?

V. S. Naipaul, born in Chaguanas in 1932, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in Literature; 'A House for Mr Biswas' (1961) was modelled on the life of his father Seepersad.

Rapper Nicki Minaj was born in which district of the capital?

Saint James, a district on the western side of the capital, is where Onika Maraj was born in December 1982; she moved to Queens, New York, as a young child.

In 1977 Janelle Commissiong of Trinidad and Tobago became the first what?

Janelle Commissiong, crowned in Santo Domingo in 1977, was the first Black Miss Universe; Wendy Fitzwilliam brought Trinidad and Tobago a second crown in 1998.

Carnival designer Peter Minshall won an Emmy for his work on the opening ceremony of which event?

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City earned Peter Minshall an Emmy for his work on the opening ceremony; he had also designed for the 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta Olympic openings and the 1994 World Cup.

The oldest pre-Columbian archaeological site in the Caribbean, from about 5000 BC, is at which spot in Trinidad?

Banwari Trace, a shell midden in south-west Trinidad near San Francique, yielded 'Banwari Man', a skeleton more than 5,000 years old and the oldest known human remains in the Caribbean.

Which English adventurer attacked San José in 1595 and interrogated the Spanish governor while hunting El Dorado?

Walter Raleigh burned San José de Oruña in 1595, carried off its governor Antonio de Berrío as a prisoner and pumped him for information before pushing up the Orinoco in search of El Dorado.

Trinidad's 1783 Cédula de Población offered free land to loyal settlers of which faith?

Roman Catholic settlers from nations friendly to Spain were offered free land under the 1783 Cédula; French planters from Martinique, Grenada and Saint-Domingue poured in and the population multiplied within a decade.

Which West African-born soldier led an 1837 mutiny at St Joseph to march his men home to Africa?

Daaga had been seized by Portuguese slavers, freed by the Royal Navy and pressed into the 1st West India Regiment; his mutineers were stopped near Arima and he was shot at St Joseph in August 1837.

During World War II, which country operated large military bases at Chaguaramas and Cumuto in Trinidad?

The Americans built roads and paid well; calypsonians sang about the changes. They finally left in 1961.

In which year did Hurricane Flora devastate Tobago?

Hurricane Flora struck Tobago on 30 September 1963, flattening most of its houses and wiping out its coconut and cocoa estates, a rare direct hit for islands south of the main hurricane belt.

Trinidad and Tobago was a founding member in 1973 of which regional bloc?

CARICOM was created by the Treaty of Chaguaramas, signed on 4 July 1973 by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, replacing the CARIFTA free-trade area set up in 1968.

Which faith is the country's second-largest after Christianity?

Hinduism, brought by indentured labourers from India, was professed by 18.2% of the population in the 2011 census, ahead of Islam at 5%; Diwali is a national public holiday.

Which calypsonian, nicknamed 'the Grandmaster', recorded the 1978 hit 'Sugar Bum Bum'?

Lord Kitchener, born Aldwyn Roberts in Arima in 1922, recorded 'Sugar Bum Bum' in 1978; in 1948 he had stepped off the Empire Windrush at Tilbury singing 'London Is the Place for Me' for the newsreel cameras.

In which year did Trinidad and Tobago become a republic, replacing the Queen with a president?

Trinidad and Tobago became a republic on 1 August 1976 under a new constitution; Governor-General Ellis Clarke became the first president, an office filled by an electoral college of parliament rather than by popular vote.

Trinidad and Tobago's Ato Boldon won the 1997 world title in which sprint?

Ato Boldon won the 200 metres at the 1997 World Championships in Athens, beating Frankie Fredericks; he also collected four Olympic sprint medals between 1996 and 2000 without ever taking gold.

Trinidad and Tobago is the birthplace of which genre blending Indian folk melodies with Caribbean rhythms?

Chutney grew out of the folk songs Indian indentured labourers brought to Trinidad, sung to dholak and harmonium; Sundar Popo's 1969 hit 'Nana and Nani' is usually credited as its first recording.

Approximately how large is Tobago compared with the whole country's land area?

Tobago, about 41 km long and 12 km wide, covers roughly 300 of the country's 5,128 square kilometres, which is about 6% of the land area.

Why do signs on Trinidad's beaches warn bathers away from the manchineel tree?

Its sap blisters the skin, so even rainwater dripping from the leaves can burn bathers; the manchineel's small apple-like fruit is poisonous too, and the tree is common on Caribbean shores.

Which multi-sport event did Trinidad and Tobago host from 4 to 11 August 2023?

The Commonwealth Youth Games, postponed from 2021 by the pandemic, ran in Trinidad and Tobago from 4 to 11 August 2023; the country had earlier co-hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup.

The 1970 Black Power protests were followed by an attempted army mutiny that was put down by which force?

The Coast Guard blocked the mutineers' advance from Teteron Barracks in Chaguaramas by shelling the coastal road in April 1970; Lieutenants Raffique Shah and Rex Lassalle surrendered and were court-martialled.

The country's population is closest to which figure?

The population is about 1.4 million, more than 95% of it on Trinidad; the 2011 census counted 1,328,019 people, of whom just over 60,000 lived on Tobago.

Which Trinidadian one-pot dish of rice, pigeon peas and meat is browned with burnt sugar?

Pelau starts by caramelising sugar in hot oil to brown the chicken before rice, pigeon peas and coconut milk go into the same pot; it is a staple of Trinidadian beach outings.