Saint Helena

Saint Helena is a small volcanic British island in the middle of the South Atlantic, one of the most remote inhabited places in the world, nearly two thousand kilometres from the African coast. A British overseas territory, it forms a single territory with distant Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. About 4,400 people live there; the capital, Jamestown, lies at the bottom of a gorge. Its people, the "Saints", are of very mixed descent, born of the mingling of Europeans, Africans, Malagasy and Asians. The island is known as the place of Napoleon's last exile, where he died. Long reachable only by sea, it has had an airport since 2017.

Saint Helena is a steep, austere volcanic island whose dark cliffs drop straight into the ocean, with no beaches and no easy natural harbour. The interior is full of contrasts: the dry, moonlike coast gives way higher up to surprisingly green and fertile hills, covered in pasture, woodland and ferns, rising to Diana's Peak. Its extreme isolation has given the island a unique endemic flora. The capital, Jamestown, runs along a narrow valley between two walls of rock. The subtropical climate is mild, cooled by the trade winds.

Found uninhabited by the Portuguese in 1502, the island became a valuable stopover on the route to the Indies. The English East India Company settled it in 1659 and brought in European settlers, enslaved Africans and Malagasy, and later Chinese and Indian workers: from this mix came the people known as the "Saints". The island entered world history in 1815, when the British exiled Napoleon there after Waterloo; he died in 1821 at his residence of Longwood, now French property. In the 19th century Saint Helena also served as a base against the slave trade, and thousands of Africans freed from slave ships were landed there. Sidelined by the opening of the Suez Canal, the island has remained a remote British territory.

Saint Helena's language is English, in a distinctive island dialect with old turns of phrase and a unique accent, shaped by isolation. The island is deeply Christian, mostly Anglican; St James' Church in Jamestown is the oldest Anglican church in the southern hemisphere. Baptists, Catholics and other churches are present too. Churches, religious festivals and traditions set the rhythm of life in this small, close-knit community.

Saint Helena's culture is that of the "Saints", a people of mixed descent formed on an island cut off from the world. It shows in music and dance (old 19th-century ballroom dances have survived here), in hospitality and in a strong sense of community. The memory of Napoleon, with his house at Longwood and his former tomb, runs through the island and draws visitors. The food is a mix: fish (tuna above all), plo (a spiced rice dish of Asian origin), curries and fishcakes.