Caribbean Islands: The Land and The People
Editor: Keith Thompson
Paperback: 452 pages
Publisher: New Africa Press (9 October 2010)
ISBN-13: 9789987160181
Jamaica
JAMAICA is an island nation of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. It's about 90 miles south of Cuba and 120 miles west of Hispaniola which is an island comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It has an area of 4,300 square miles.
Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taino inhabitants named the island Xaymaca, meaning the “Land of Wood and Water,” or the “Land of Springs.”
It once was a Spanish possession known as Santiago. In 1655, it became an English and later a British colony known as “Jamaica.” It won independence in 1962.
With 2.8 million people, it's the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas after the United States and Canada.
It's also the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean after Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti in that descending order; while Trinidad and Tobago is the fifth most populous nation in the Caribbean.
In terms of area, Jamaica is the third-largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba and Hispaniola. Cuba is the largest and most populous of all the islands – and island nations – in the Caribbean.
Kingston is the largest city in Jamaica and the country's capital.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in what is now Jamaica, he claimed the island for Spain. But the island it was not really colonised until after his death.
Those were also the days when pirates reigned supreme on the high seas and Spain held the island against many buccaneer raids at what was then the main city which is now called Spanish Town.
Eventually England claimed the island in a raid but the Spanish settlers and their home country of Spain did not relinquish their claim to the island until 1670.
Jamaica became a base of operations for buccaneers; one of the most famous was Captain Henry Morgan. In return, the buccaneers – on behalf of England – kept the other colonial powers from attacking the island.
The island also became one of the most prominent destinations for Africans sold into slavery. Most of the African slaves came from West Africa and they became the most important labour force for the island's economy when they worked on plantations on the island.
The plantations were mostly for the production of sugar and sugarcane became the most important export for the island.
Many slaves arrived in Jamaica during the same time other enslaved Africans arrived in the United States. In fact, the Caribbean islands, including Jamaica, also served as a transit point for slaves destined for the United States.
When the British seized Jamaica in 1655, Spanish resistance continued for some years, in some cases with the help of the maroons, but Spain never succeeded in retaking the island.
Under early English rule, Jamaica became a haven for privateers, buccaneers, and occasionally outright pirates: Christopher Myngs, Edward Mansvelt, and most famously, Henry Morgan.
In one of his songs, “You Can't Blame the Youth,” Peter Tosh sings about Henry Morgan and other notorious historical figures who have been wrongly glorified, saying:
"You teach the youths about Christopher Columbus
And you said he was a very great man
You teach the youth about Marco Polo
And you said he was a very great man
You teach the youths about the pirate Hawkins
And you said he was a very great man
You teach the youths about the pirate Morgan
And you said he was a very great man
All these so-called great men were doing robbing, raping, kidnapping and killing."
Besides sugar, another major crop grown by the English settlers in Jamaica was coffee. And like sugarcane, the cultivation of coffee was also entirely dependent on the labour extracted from African slaves.
For more than 150 years, the cultivation of sugarcane and coffee by African slaves made Jamaica one of the most valuable colonial possessions in the world.
The colony's slaves, who outnumbered their white masters by a ratio of 20 to 1 in 1800, mounted over a dozen major slave conspiracies and uprisings during the 1700s including the famous Tacky's Revolt in 1760.
Escaped slaves known as Maroons established independent communities in the mountainous interior which the British were unable to suppress despite major attempts in the 1730s and 1790s to do so.
One Maroon community was expelled from the island after the Second Maroon War in the 1790s. The Maroons who were expelled after that war eventually became part of the core of the Creole community of Sierra Leone.
Also, the British colonial government enlisted the Maroons in capturing escaped plantation slaves. The British also used Jamaica's free people of colour, 10,000 strong by 1800, to keep the enslaved population in check.
During the Christmas holiday of 1831, a large-scale slave revolt known as the Baptist War erupted. It was originally organised as a peaceful strike by Samuel Sharpe. But the rebellion was not successful. It was suppressed by the militia of the Jamaican plantocracy and by the British garrison ten days later in early 1832.
Although the rebellion was suppressed, it caused some damage, loss of life and property, prompting the British parliament to hold two enquiries. The results of these inquiries contributed greatly to the abolition of slavery as of 1 August 1834 throughout the British empire.
However, the Jamaican slaves remained bound to their former owners' service, albeit with a guarantee of rights, until 1838 under what was called the Apprenticeship System.
The freed population still faced significant hardships, marked by the October 1865 Morant Bay rebellion led by and Paul Bogle. It was brutally repressed.
George William Gordon, a friend of Paul Bogle, was hanged because he was thought to have contributed to the riot even though he was not a part of its organisation or execution.
There was also a major change in the island's economy which had depended almost exclusively on sugar for so long. The sugar crop was declining in importance in the late 19th century and the colony diversified into the production of bananas.
In 1872, the capital of Jamaica was moved from Spanish Town to Kingston, a port city; the port city had far outstripped the inland Spanish Town in size and sophistication and was considered the right place to be the island's capital.
In 1866, the Jamaican legislature renounced its powers and the country became a crown colony. But some measure of self-government was restored in the 1880s when islanders gained the right to elect nine members of the island's legislative council.
The establishment of crown colony rule resulted – during the next few decades – in the growth of a middle class of low-level public officials and police officers drawn from the mass of the population whose social and political advancement was blocked by the colonial authorities.
Then came the Great Depression in the 1930s. The depression had a serious impact on the fledgling middle class and on the working class in Jamaica during that period.
The economic hardship led to other problems. In the spring of 1938, sugar and dock workers revolted on the island. Although the revolt was suppressed, it led to significant changes including the emergence of an organised labour movement and a competitive party system.
Jamaica gained a degree of local political control in the mid-1940's.
The first political party to be established was the People's National Party (PNP) founded in 1938. Its main rival, the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) was established five years later.
The first elections under universal adult suffrage were held in 1944.
Jamaica and nine other British colonies in the Caribbean formed the Federation of the West Indies in 1958. But Jamaica withdrew after its voters rejected in 1961 their country's membership in the federation.
Not long thereafter, Jamaica won independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962 and remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The island's first prime minister was Alexander Bustamante of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Initially, power swapped between the People's National Party and the Jamaican Labour Party.
Michael Manley was the first PNP prime minister in 1972. He introduced socialist policies and relations with Cuba. His second-term elections marked the start of repeated political violence.
When the PNP lost power in 1980, Edward Seaga immediately began to reverse the policies of his predecessor, bringing in privatisation and seeking closer ties with the United States.
When the PNP and Manley returned to power in 1989, they continued the more moderate policies and were returned in the elections of 1993 and 1998. Manley resigned for health reasons in 1992 and was succeeded as leader of the PNP by Percival Patterson.
The island of Jamaica has also been a source of immigrants to other countries for a long time.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, many Jamaicans migrated to Central America, Cuba and the Dominican Republic to work in the banana and canefields.
In the 1950s, the primary destination was the United Kingdom. But the British parliament passed a restrictive immigration law in 1962 which drastically reduced the number of immigrants from its former colonies and elsewhere entering the country.
After the restriction was imposed, Jamaicans emigrating from their homeland turned their attention to the United States as their primary destination, followed by Canada.
The heaviest flow of emigration particularly to New York and Miami occurred during the 1990s and continues today because of worsening economic conditions on the island.
New York, Miami and Fort Lauderdale in Florida are among the U.S. cities with the largest Jamaican population. In New York City alone, more than half of Jamaican immigrants live in Brooklyn. Remittances from Jamaican communities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada make increasingly significant contributions to Jamaica's economy.
A Closer look since colonial times
In 1660, the population of Jamaica was about 4,500 whites and some 1,500 blacks. As early as the 1670s, blacks formed a majority of the population.
When the English captured Jamaica in 1655, the Spanish colonists fled leaving a large number of African slaves. Rather than be re-enslaved by the English, they escaped into the hilly, mountainous regions of the island, joining those who had previously escaped from the Spanish to live with the Tainos.
These runaway slaves, who came to be known as the Jamaican Maroons, fought the British during the 18th century. The name is still used today for their modern descendants.
During the long years of slavery, Maroons established free communities in the mountainous interior of Jamaica, maintaining their freedom and independence for generations.
And during its first 200 years of British rule, Jamaica became one of the world's leading sugar-exporting, slave-dependent nations, producing more than 77,000 tons of sugar annually between 1820 and 1824.
After the abolition of the slave trade – but not slavery itself – in 1807, the British imported Indian and Chinese workers as indentured servants to supplement the labour pool. Descendants of indentured servants of Asian and Chinese origin continue to live in Jamaica today and they constitute an integral part of Jamaican society.
By the beginning of the 19th century, Jamaica's heavy reliance on slavery resulted in blacks – Africans – outnumbering whites – Europeans – by a ratio of almost 20 to 1.
Even though England had outlawed the importation of slaves, some were still smuggled into the colonies in the Caribbean. Slaves ships continued to sail from Africa to the Americas even as late as the 1840s as the case of The Amistad demonstrates involving slaves of the Mende tribe captured in Sierra Leone.
Some slave traders also evaded anti-slavery patrols on the West African coast by turning their attention to what is now Tanzania and Mozambique, although the number of slaves taken from East Africa to the Americas was much smaller than the number of those who taken from the western parts of the continent.
The British government drew-up laws regimenting the abolition of slavery. But they also included instructions for the improvement of the slaves' way of life. These instructions included a ban on the use of whips in the field; a ban on the flogging of women; notification that slaves were to be allowed religious instruction; a requirement that slaves be given an extra free day during the week when they could sell their products; and a ban of Sunday markets.
The measures applied to all the British colonies where slavery had been practised by the colonial power. However, in Jamaica, these measures were resisted by the House of Assembly. The Assembly claimed that the slaves were content and objected to interference by the British parliament in the island's affairs, although many slave owners feared possible revolts.
Following a series of rebellions, and changing attitudes in Great Britain, the British parliament formally abolished slavery in 1834, with full emancipation from chattel slavery declared in 1838.
In 1834, the population of Jamaica was 371,070 of whom 15,000 were whites, 5,000 free blacks, 40,000 ‘coloureds’ or people of mixed race, and 311,070 slaves.
There were other changes on the island of Jamaica introduced by the colonial rulers. In the 1800s, the British established a number of botanical gardens. These included the Castleton Garden set up in 1862 to replace the Bath Garden (created in 1779) which was subject to flooding. Bath Garden was the site for planting breadfruit brought to Jamaica from the Pacific by Captain William Bligh. Other gardens were the Cinchona Plantation founded in 1868 and the Hope Garden founded in 1874.
In 1872, Kingston became the island's capital and, in the years that followed, many changes took place across the spectrum.
In 1945, Sir Horace Hector Hearne became Jamaica's Chief Justice and Keeper of the Records. He headed the Supreme Court in Kingston between 1945 and 1950/1951. He then moved to Kenya where he was appointed Chief Justice.
Jamaica slowly gained increasing independence from the United Kingdom and in 1958, it became a province in the Federation of the West Indies. It was a federation of British colonies in the region which were then collectively known as the British West Indies. Jamaica attained full independence by leaving the federation in 1962.
The end of colonial rule was the dawn of a new era.
Strong economic growth averaging approximately 6 per cent per annum marked the first ten years of independence under conservative governments which were led successively by Prime Ministers Alexander Bustamante, Donald Sangster and Hugh Shearer.
The growth was fuelled by strong investments in the mining sector dominated by bauxite for the production of aluminium as well as in tourism and in the manufacturing industry and, to a lesser extent, in the agricultural sector.
However, the optimism of the first decade was accompanied by a growing sense of inequality, and a sense that the benefits of growth were not being shared by the urban poor, let alone those in the rural areas. This, combined with the effects of a slowdown in the global economy in 1970, prompted the electorate to change government, electing the PNP (People's National Party) in 1972.
And despite efforts to implement more socially equitable policies in the areas of health and education, Jamaica continued to lag economically, with its gross national product having fallen in 1980 to some 25% below the 1972 level.
Rising foreign and local debt, accompanied by large fiscal deficits, resulted in the invitation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) financing from the United States and Western donors, and the imposition of IMF austerity measures with an interest rate per year higher than 25%; the same kind of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) which caused untold hardship and suffering on hundreds of millions of people in Africa – and in other parts of the Third World – in the 1980s and 1990s and beyond.
Economic deterioration continued into the mid-1980s, exacerbated by a number of factors; the first and third largest alumina producers – Alpart and Alcoa – closed, and there was a significant reduction in production by the second largest producer, Alcan.
In addition, tourism decreased and Reynolds Jamaica Mines, Ltd. left the Jamaican industry.
Jamaica is a parliamentary democracy under a multi-party system patterned after the British model.
The government is headed by the prime minister who exercises executive functions and runs the country with his cabinet.
Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state. She officially uses the title “Queen of Jamaica” when she visits the country or performs duties overseas on Jamaica's behalf.
Her representative in Jamaica is the governor-general. The governor-general is nominated by the prime minister and by the cabinet but is formally appointed to his post by the British monarch – Queen Elizabeth II – in her official capacity as Jamaica's head of state.
All the members of the cabinet are appointed by the governor-general on the advice of the prime minister. It's the prime minister who chooses his cabinet. The governor-general plays only a ceremonial role of appointing cabinet members.
The monarch and the governor-general serve largely ceremonial roles, apart from having potent reserve power to dismiss the prime minister or parliament.
One of Jamaica's most prominent physical features is Blue mountains located inland.The island is surrounded by a narrow coastal plain.
Most major towns and cities are located on the coast. Major towns and cities include the capital Kingston, Portmore, Spanish Town, Mandeville, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio, Negril, and Montego Bay.
The Kingston Harbour is one of the largest natural harbours in the world.
There are several tourist attractions scattered across the country. They include Dunn's River Falls in St. Ann, YS Falls in St. Elizabeth, the Blue Lagoon in Portland, and Port Royal which was the site of an earthquake that helped form the island's Palisadoes.
The climate in Jamaica is tropical, with hot and humid weather, although higher inland regions are more temperate. Some regions on the south coast, such as the Liguanea Plain and the Pedro Plains, are relatively dry rain-shadow areas.
Jamaica lies in the hurricane belt of the Atlantic Ocean; as a result, the island sometimes experiences significant storm damage.
Hurricanes Charlie and Gilbert hit Jamaica directly in 1951 and 1988, respectively, causing major damage and many deaths.
In the 2000s, hurricanes Ivan, Dean, and Gustav also brought severe weather to the island.
At its greatest extent, Jamaica is 146 miles long and it varies between 21 and 52miles in width.
With an area of 4,213 square miles, Jamaica is the largest island of the Commonwealth Caribbean – comprising former British colonies once collectively known as the British West Indies – and the third largest of the Greater Antilles after Cuba and Hispaniola.
A number of small islands are located along the southern coast of Jamaica. They include the Port Royal Cays; Pedro Bank, an area of shallow seas with a number of cays which are low islands or reefs; and Morant Bank with the Morant Cays in the southeast. Morant Point is the easternmost point of mainland Jamaica.
The coastline of Jamaica is one of many contrasts. The northeast shore is severely eroded by the ocean. There are many small inlets in the rugged coastline, but no coastal plain of any extent. A narrow strip of plains along the northern coast offers calm seas and white sand beaches. Behind the beaches is a flat raised plain of uplifted coral reef.
The southern coast has small stretches of plains lined by black sand beaches. These are backed by cliffs of limestone where the plateaus end. In many stretches with no coastal plain, the cliffs drop 984 feet straight to the sea. In the southwest, broad plains stretch inland for a number of miles.
The Black River flows 43 miles through the largest of these plains. The swamplands of the Great Morass and the Upper Morass fill much of the plains. The western coastline contains the island's finest beaches.
Two types of climate are found in Jamaica. An upland tropical climate prevails on the windward side of the mountains, whereas a semiarid climate predominates on the leeward side.
Warm trade winds from the east and northeast bring rainfall throughout the year. The rainfall is heaviest from May to October, with peaks in those two months.
Rainfall is much greater in the mountain areas facing the north and east. Where the higher elevations of the John Crow Mountains and the Blue Mountains catch the rain from the moisture-laden winds, rainfall exceeds 200 inches per year.
Since the southwestern half of the island lies in the rain shadow of the mountains, it has a semiarid climate and receives fewer than 29.9 inches of rainfall annually.
Temperatures are fairly constant throughout the year, averaging 77 to 86°F in the lowlands and 59 to 71.6°F at higher elevations. Temperatures may dip to below 50°F at the peaks of the Blue Mountains.
In addition to the northeast trade winds, the island receives refreshing onshore breezes during the day and cooling offshore breezes at night. These are known in Jamaica as the “Doctor Breeze” and the “Undertaker's Breeze,” respectively.
In addition to major hurricanes which have hit the island, several other powerful hurricanes have passed near the island with damaging effects. In 1980, for example, Hurricane Allen destroyed nearly all of Jamaica's banana crop.
In recent years, Hurricane Ivan swept past the island causing heavy damage and a number of deaths in 2004. In 2005, Hurricanes Dennis and Emily brought heavy rains to the island. And Hurricane Dean caused some deaths and heavy damage to Jamaica in August 2007.
The first recorded hurricane to hit Jamaica was in 1519.
The island has been struck by tropical cyclones regularly. During two of the coldest periods in the last 250 years – 1780s to the 1810 – the frequency of hurricanes in the Jamaica region was unusually high. Another peak of activity occurred in the 1910s, the coldest decade of the 20th century.
On the other hand, hurricane formation was greatly diminished from 1968 to 1994, which for some reason coincides with the great Sahel drought.
Jamaica was also hit by a severe storm on 29 September 2010 which killed some people and caused extensive damage. According to a report by David McFadden of the Associated Press (AP) from Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday evening (Eastern Standard Time – EST – in the United States), 29 September 2010, “2 Known Dead, 12 Missing After Storm Soaks Jamaica”:
“Tropical Storm Nicole caused flooding and mudslides across Jamaica on Wednesday, leaving two confirmed dead and at least 12 more missing, even as the drenching system moved north and dissipated over the Florida straits.
The outer bands of the storm hammered Jamaica, toppling bridges and knocking out power to thousands. Many streets were filled with gushing brown torrents of water, prompting Prime Minister Bruce Golding to urge people to stay indoors.
Floodwaters battered squatter communities perched uneasily on the slopes of gullies that crisscross the sprawling capital of Kingston. One slide killed a 14-year-old boy, known to his neighbors as Buju, who was found in an eddy of muddy water. The rest of his family — including four sisters, the youngest just 3-years-old — had not been found by Wednesday evening.
'He was a fun boy. He loved to sing, he loved to play football. It's not right, the whole family lost,' said Munchie Fuller, a 23-year-old neighbor who watched terrified as a chunk of her own concrete house in Sandy Gully was swept into the raging waters before dawn.
Another resident, Lyndon Bennett, said the people in the shantytown who live along the gully are warned repeatedly to move for their own safety but most refuse to relocate.
'There's not a proper foundation there, the gully is just stone and dirt. People are told not to live there, but when you've got no other options you've just got to make ends meet. It's a real tragedy,' Bennett said.
The storm, which had sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph) earlier in the day, broke apart over the Atlantic, though the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that there were still large areas of heavy rain.
Jamaican Information Minister Daryl Vaz said two people were confirmed dead but warned that the toll could be higher from the flash floods and mudslides. He said 12 people were missing.
Emergency shelters were opened for thousands of Jamaicans who live in ramshackle homes along gullies. Major hospitals were treating only emergency cases. Officials said about 30 percent of the power utility's customers were without power. Some bridges collapsed in the rushing water.
'All in all, there has been a lot of damage done to infrastructure,' Vaz said. 'It's a serious blow to the country.'
In a rural area of St. Elizabeth parish, people told government officials that two farmers in the town of Flagaman were washed away by murky floodwaters and presumed dead. Another man was reportedly swept away while trying to cross rushing Hope River in Kingston.
Floods flattened fields of bananas, scallions and sweet pepper as the storm's outer edges raked the island.
The storm also soaked Cuba but no deaths were reported.
In Cuba, state-controlled television showed images of rain flooding roads and highways, especially around the eastern city of Santiago, but there were no reports of major damage. Far to the west in Havana, it wasn't even raining and there was no flooding.”
Another report, on the same day, on the same storm had a higher number of deaths. According to Kevin Gray of Reuters news agency in his report from Miami, Florida, “Tropical Storm Nicole Kills Eight in Jamaica”:
“Short-lived Tropical Storm Nicole triggered flash flooding that killed eight people in Jamaica and dumped heavy rain on Florida, Cuba, the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas on Wednesday.
The broad and ragged storm formed on Wednesday morning and dissipated Wednesday afternoon, and U.S. and Cuban meteorologists disagreed on whether it ever actually was a tropical storm at all.
Forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami pegged its peak sustained winds at 40 miles per hour, just over the 39 mph threshold to become a named storm.
Cuban forecasters put the top winds at 37 mph and disagreed that it was a tropical storm when it crossed the island.
'No tropical storm exists,' Cuba's top meteorologist, Jorge Rubiera, said on national television.
U.S. forecasters said Nicole had a poorly defined center of circulation and had been 'a marginal system.'
'Their interpretation is that they don't think it's a storm ... They're on one side of the margin and we're on the other,' Richard Pasch, a senior hurricane specialist in Miami, said before the storm was downgraded.
Nicole degenerated into a broad mass of thunderstorms that were forecast to move north-northeast over the Atlantic between Florida and the Bahamas on Wednesday night and then over the U.S. mid-Atlantic states by Friday.
All tropical storm warnings were dropped but the system was still dumping heavy rain on Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba, the Bahamas and southern Florida.
There was still a threat of flash flooding and mudslides in mountainous areas, the Hurricane Center forecasters said.
In Jamaica, the storm triggered floods that drowned two elderly men and a family of six.
A man in his seventies drowned in the village of Unity, north of Kingston, and a man in his 60s drowned in the southwest Jamaican town of Flagaman. Both were trying to walk home from village pubs when they were swept off by rising waters.
Police said a house occupied by a family of seven collapsed near the U.S. Embassy in the Liguanea area northeast of Kingston. A boy was rescued after citizens rushed to his aid but six members of his family were carried off by floodwaters and were confirmed to have drowned.
In Cuba, the heaviest rains fell in the central part of the island, where they were a welcome relief from a prolonged drought that had drained reservoirs and caused water shortages. Nearly eight inches of rain fell in the central province of Sancti Spiritus.
'These rains are a gift from heaven. I hope they go on for two or three days,' said Mariela Diaz, an officer worker in the city of Sancti Spiritus.
(Writing by Jane Sutton; additional reporting by Jeff Franks in Havana and Horace George in Kingston; editing by Eric Walsh).”
Although most of Jamaica's native vegetation has been stripped in order to make room for cultivation, some areas have been left virtually undisturbed since the time of Columbus.
Indigenous vegetation can be found along the northern coast from Rio Bueno to Discovery Bay, in the highest parts of the Blue Mountains, and in the heart of the Cockpit Country.
Ethnic origins
Jamaica's population mainly consists of people of African descent. There is also a large population of multiracial Jamaicans.
The largest minority groups are Jamaicans of Indian and Chinese ancestry. There are at least 160,000 of them, according to the 2001 census in a total population of more than 2.5 million.
Lebanese, Syrian, English, Scottish, Irish and German Jamaicans are small minorities. There are about 3,000-4,000 of them altogether.
But in recent years, immigration has increased. Many immigrants who have entered Jamaica have come mainly from China, Haiti, Cuba, Colombia, and other Latin American countries; 20,000 Latin Americans currently live in Jamaica. And about 7,000 Americans also live in Jamaica.
This topic is somewhat contentious with several respected sources giving different figures. In alphabetical order these are:
CIA Fact Book: black 91.2%, mixed 6.2%, other or unknown 2.6% (2001 census).
University of the West Indies: 76.3% African descent, 15.1% Afro-European, 3.4% East Indian and Afro-East Indian, 3.2% Caucasian, 1.2% Chinese and 0.8% Other.
The official language of Jamaica is English. But the vast majority of Jamaicans – or Jamaicans in general – primarily speak an English-African Creole language known as Jamaican Patois which has become known widely through the spread of reggae music.
Jamaican English
Jamaican English or Jamaican Standard English is a dialect of English spoken in Jamaica. It melds parts of both American English and British English dialects. Typically, it uses British English spellings and often rejects American English spellings.
Although the distinction between the two is best described as a continuum rather than a solid line, it's not to be confused with Jamaican Patois – what linguists call Jamaican Creole – nor with the vocabulary and language usage of the Rastafari movement.
“Patois” or Patwa is a French term referring to regional languages of France which include some Creole languages. But in Jamaica, the term refers to Jamaican Creole which Jamaicans have traditionally seen as “broken” or incorrect Standard English.
Yet it has its own legitimacy as a functional language of a particular people with their own identity and has won wide acceptance among its users the same way Black English – or Ebonics – has among millions of African Americans.
In that sense, it's considered to be a language, not just gibberish, which reflects the identity of a group of people and their history in a particular historical context.
But it's definitely not Standard English anymore than Ebonics is.
Some people dismiss it as – ignorance; a judgement that applies to Black English or Ebonics as well.
Jamaican Standard English is grammatically similar to British Standard English. Recently, however, due to Jamaica's proximity to the United States and the resulting close economic ties and high rates of migration – as well as the ubiquity of American cultural/entertainment products such as movies, cable television and popular music – the influence of American English has been increasing steadily. As a result, constructions or sentence structures such as “I don't have” or “you don't need” are almost universally preferred over “I haven't got” or “you needn't.”
The Irish accent is a major influence on the accent of Jamaican English today.
Recent American influence is also obvious in the lexicon. For example, babies sleep in “cribs” and wear “diapers” [or “pampers”]. Some people live in “apartments” – not in “flats” as the British say. Some people also live in “townhouses” – American English again.
Generally, older vocabulary tends to be British: babies wear “nappies,” not “diapers.” Cars have “bonnets” and not “hoods” which is an American term; they also have “windscreens” – Americans say cars have “windshields.”
Children study “maths” – Americans say “math” without an “s.” Children also use “rubbers” to erase their mistakes and wish they were on “holiday.” Americans say children use “erasers” – not “rubbers” – to erase their mistakes; and they wish they were on “vacation,” not on “holiday.”
The vocabulary in Jamaica is influenced by newer phenomena introduced into the country. Such phenomena are typically “imported” together with their American names.
An interesting use of mixed British and American vocabulary is with automobiles where the American term “trunk” is almost universally used in Jamaica instead of the British term “boot.”
The British term “sleeping policeman” is used instead of the American term “Speed Bump,” while the engine covering is always referred to by the British term “bonnet.” This is probably because the American term, “hood,” is used in Jamaica as a vulgar slang for penis.
Naturally, Jamaican Standard English also uses many local words borrowed from Jamaican Patois: “duppy” for “ghost”; “higgler” for “informal vendor”; and some terms for local foods, such as “ackee,” “callaloo,” “guinep,” and “bammy.”
Jamaican Standard pronunciation differs greatly from Jamaican Patois pronunciation. But it's clearly and recognizably Caribbean.
Giveaway features include the characteristic pronunciation of the diphthong in words like “cow” which is more closed and rounded than in Received Pronunciation (RP) or General American (GenAm); the pronunciation of the strut vowel (again, more closed than the RP or GenAm version, though not as closed as in the Creole); semi-rhoticity, i.e. the dropping of the “-r” in words like “water” (at the end of unstressed syllables) and “market” (before a consonant); but not in words like “car” or “dare” (stressed syllables at the end of the word).
Merger of the diphthongs in “fair” and “fear” takes place both in Jamaican Standard and Jamaican Patois, resulting in those two words (and many others, like “bear” and “beer”) becoming homophones. (Standard speakers typically pronounce both closer to “air,” while Creole speakers render them as “ear”). The short “a” sound (man, hat) is very open, similar to its Irish versions.
Jamaican Standard and Jamaican Patois exist together in a post-creole speech continuum.
Creole is used by most people for everyday, informal situations – it's the language most Jamaicans use at home and are most familiar with; it's also the language of most local popular music.
Jamaican Standard, on the other hand, is the language of education, high culture, government, the media and official/formal communications. It's also the native language of a small minority of Jamaicans (typically upper class and upper/traditional middle class).
Most Creole-dominant speakers have a fair command of Standard English, through schooling and exposure to official culture and mass media; their receptive skills (understanding of Standard English) are typically much better than their productive skills (their own intended Standard English statements often show signs of Creole interference).
Most writing in Jamaica is done in Standard English (including private notes and correspondence).
Jamaican Patois has no standardized spelling, and has only recently been taught in some schools. As a result, the majority of Jamaicans can read and write Standard English only, and have trouble deciphering written dialect (in which the writer tries to reflect characteristic structures and pronunciations to differing degrees, without compromising readability).
Written Patois appears mostly in literature, especially in folkloristic “dialect poems”; in humouristic newspaper columns; and most recently, on Internet chat sites frequented by younger Jamaicans who seem to have a more positive attitude toward their own language use than their parents.
While, for the sake of simplicity, it's customary to describe Jamaican speech in terms of Standard versus Creole, a clear-cut dichotomy does not adequately describe the actual language use of most Jamaicans. Between the two extremes – “broad Patois” on one end of the spectrum, and “perfect” Standard on the other – there are various in-between varieties.
This situation typically results when a Creole language is in constant contact with its standard (superstrate or lexifier language) and is called a creole speech continuum.
The least prestigious (most Creole) variety is called the basilect; the Standard (or high prestige) variety the acrolect; and in-between versions are known as mesolects.
Consider, for example, the following forms:
“im ah wok oba deh suh” (basilect).
“im workin ova deh suh” (low mesolect).
“(H)e (h)is workin' over dere” (high mesolect).
“He is working over there.” (acrolect).
(As noted above, the “r” in “over” is not pronounced in any variety, but the one in “dere” or “there” is.)
Jamaicans choose from the varieties available to them according to the situation.
A Creole-dominant speaker will choose a higher variety for formal occasions like official business or a wedding speech, and a lower one for relating to friends; a Standard-dominant speaker is likely to employ a lower variety when shopping at the market than at her workplace.
Code-switching can also be metaphoric (e.g., a Standard-dominant speaker switching to a lower variety for humoristic purposes, or to express solidarity).
Jamaican Patois
Jamaican Patois, known locally as Patois (Patwa) or Jamaican, and called Jamaican Creole by linguists, is an English-lexified creole language with West African influences spoken primarily in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora. It's not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English.
The language developed in the 17th century when slaves from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned and nativised the vernacular and dialectical forms of English spoken by their masters: British English and Hiberno English.
Jamaican Patois features a creole continuum (a linguistic continuum) – meaning that the variety of the language closest to the lexifier language (the acrolect) can not be distinguished systematically from intermediate varieties (collectively referred to as the mesolect) nor even from the most divergent rural varieties (collectively referred to as the basilect). Jamaicans themselves usually refer to their dialect as patois, a French term without a precise linguistic definition.
Significant Jamaican-speaking communities exist among Jamaicans who live in Miami, New York City, Toronto, Hartford in the American state of Connecticut, Washington, D.C., London in the UK, and in the Central American countries of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama on the Caribbean coast.
A mutually intelligible variety is found in San Andres y Providencia Islands, Colombia, brought to the island by descendants of Jamaican Maroons (escaped slaves) in the 1700s.
Mesolectal forms are similar to very Basilectal Belizean Kriol.
Jamaican Patois exists mostly as a spoken language. Although standard British English is used for most writing in Jamaica, Jamaican Patois has been gaining ground as a literary language for almost a hundred years. Claude McKay published his book – written in Jamaican Patois – of Jamaican poems Songs of Jamaica in 1909 and 1912.
Patois and English are frequently used for stylistic contrast (code switching) in new forms of Internet writing.
Jamaican pronunciation and vocabulary are significantly different from Standard English despite heavy use of English words or derivatives.
A native speaker of a non-Caribbean English dialect can understand a heavily accented Jamaican speaker only if he/she speaks slowly and forgoes the use of the many idioms that are common in Jamaican.
Jamaican Patois displays similarities to the pidgin and creole languages of West Africa due to their common descent from the blending of African substrate languages with European languages.
Jamaican Patois is a creole language that exhibits a gradation between more conservative creole forms and forms virtually identical to Standard English (i.e. metropolitan Standard English).
This situation came about with contact between speakers of a number of Niger-Congo languages and various dialects of English, the latter of which were all perceived as prestigious and the use of which carried socio-economic rewards.
The span of a speaker's command of the continuum generally corresponds to the variety of social situations that they situate themselves in.
Because Jamaican Patois is a non-standard language, there is no standard or official way of writing it. For example, the word "there" can be written de, deh, or dere, and the word "three" is most commonly spelled tree, but it can be spelled tri or trii to distinguish it from the noun tree.
Often, Standard English spellings are used even when words are pronounced differently. Other times, a spelling has become widespread even though it is neither phonetic nor standard (eg. pickney = child). In this case the spelling pikni would be more phonetic).
However, due to increased use on the Internet (such as in E-mail) in recent years, a user-driven process of partial standardization has been taking place.
Jamaican Patois contains many loan words. Primarily these come from English. But they are also borrowed from Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Arawak and African languages.
Examples from African languages include /dopi/ meaning ghost, from the Twi word adope; /se/ meaning that (in the sense of "he told me that...." = /im tel mi se/), also taken from Ashanti Twi; the pronoun /unu/, used for the plural form of you, is taken from the Igbo language.
Red eboe describes a light-skinned black person because of the reported account of fair skin among the Igbo.
Soso meaning only comes from both the Igbo and Yoruba languages.
From the Igbo language comes Obeah, a form of African shamanism (and also used as a popular scapegoat for common woes) originating from the Igbo dibia or obia ('doctoring') herbalists and spiritualists.
Words from Hindi include nuh, ganja (marijuana), and janga (crawdad).
Pickney or pickiney meaning child, taken from an earlier form (piccaninny) was ultimately borrowed from the Portuguese pequenino (the diminutive of pequeno, small) or Spanish pequeño ('small').
There are many words referring to popular produce and food items – ackee, callaloo, guinep, bammy, roti, dal, kamranga.
Jamaican Patois has its own rich variety of swearwords. One of the strongest is blood claat (along with related forms raas claat, bomba claat, pussy claat and others – compare with bloody in Australian English, which is not considered swearing). Homosexual men are referred to as /biips/ or batty boys.
A rich body of literature has developed in Jamaican Patois. Notable among early authors are Thomas MacDermot's All Jamaica Library and Claude McKay's Songs of Jamaica (1909), and, more recently, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Mikey Smith.
Subsequently, the life-work of Louise Bennett or Miss Lou (1919–2006), is particularly notable in her use of the rich colourful patois, despite being shunned by traditional literary groups. “The Jamaican Poetry League excluded her from its meetings, and editors failed to include her in anthologies.” She argued forcefully for the recognition of Jamaican as a full language, with the same pedigree as the dialect from which Standard English had sprung:
Dah language weh yuh proud a,
Weh yuh honour an respec –
Po Mas Charlie, yuh no know se
Dat it spring from dialec!
—Bans a Killin
After the 1960s, the status of Jamaican rose as a number of respected linguistic studies were published, by Cassidy (1961,1967), Bailey (1966) and others.
Subsequently, it has gradually become mainstream to codemix or write complete pieces in Jamaican Patois; proponents include Kamau Braithwaite who also analyses the position of Creole poetry in his History of the Voice: The Development of Nation Language in Anglophone Caribbean Poetry (1984).
However, Standard English remains the more prestigious literary medium in Jamaican literature.
Canadian-Caribbean science-fiction novelist Nalo Hopkinson often writes in Jamaican or other Caribbean patois.
Jamaican Patois is also presented in some films, for example, Tia Dalma's speech from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
Many Jamaicans have emigrated to other countries, especially to the United Kingdom, the United States, and to Canada. In the case of the United States, about 20,000 Jamaicans per year are granted permanent residence.
A very large number of them lived abroad where they collectively constitute what has become known as the Jamaican diaspora.
There has also been emigration of Jamaicans to Cuba. The scale of emigration has been widespread and similar to other Caribbean entities such as Puerto Rico, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
It's estimated that up to 2.5 million Jamaicans and Jamaican descendants live abroad. An estimated 60 per cent of the highly educated people of Jamaica now live abroad.
Concentrations of Jamaicans are large in a number of cities in the United States, including – in addition to the ones named earlier – Buffalo, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando, Tampa, Philadelphia, Providence in Rhode Island, and Los Angeles.
Jamaicans in the United Kingdom number an estimated 800,000 making them by far the country's largest Afro-Caribbean group.
Large-scale migration from Jamaica to the UK occurred primarily in the 1950s and 1960s (when the country was still under British rule). Today, Jamaican communities exist in most large UK cities.
Jamaicans also live in Ireland and are mostly concentrated in nation's capital Dublin.
In Canada, the Jamaican population is centred in Toronto. And there are smaller communities in cities such as Hamilton, Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa.
Jamaicans can be found in the far corners of the world but the largest pools of Jamaicans exist in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, other Caribbean islands, and all across the Caribbean coast of Central America.
During the past several decades, close to one million Jamaicans have emigrated especially to the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. This emigration appears to have been tapering off somewhat in recent years.
Most Jamaican emigrants have followed a path first to the UK. Many who do not remain in the UK move on to other Commonwealth countries such as Canada.
Jamaican emigrants also migrate directly to the United States, Canada, other Caribbean nations, Central and South America – mainly Costa Rica and Brazil, and even Africa, most notably to Egypt and Ethiopia – for whatever reason since almost none of them originated from those two countries but are mostly of West African origin from what is now Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast and other countries in that region.
New York City is home to a large Jamaican diaspora community, with communities along Flatbush, Nostrand and Utica Avenues in Brooklyn – centred around the neighbourhoods of Prospect Heights, Lefferts Gardens, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Crown Heights, Canarsie, and Flatlands.
The Bronx, neighbourhoods and towns such as Wakefield, Eastchester, Baychester, Queens, Westchester county and nearby Stamford in Connecticut, also have significant Jamaican communities.
Flatbush, Nostrand, and Utica Avenues feature miles of Jamaican cuisine, food markets and other businesses, nightlife and residential enclaves.
In Toronto, the Jamaican community is also large. Caribbean areas of the city are located in the neighbourhoods of Rexdale in Etobicoke, Jane and Finch and Lawrence Heights in North York, Malvern in Scarborough, sections of downtown Toronto, and York, which also includes a Little Jamaica district that's identifiable along Eglinton Avenue West.
In recent years, many Jamaicans have been moving out to suburbs such as Mississauga and Brampton.
The Jamaican community also has had an influence on Toronto's culture. Caribana – the celebration of Caribbean culture – is an annual event in the city. The parade is held downtown on the first Saturday of August, shutting down a portion of Lake Shore Boulvevard.
Jamaica Day is in July, and the Jesus in the City parade attracts many Jamaican Christians. Reggae and dancehall are popular among Toronto's youth.
London in the United Kingdom has a strong Jamaican diaspora. An estimated 7% of Londoners are of Jamaican heritage. Many are now at least second-, if not third- or fourth-generation Black British Caribbeans.
Also a further 2% of people in London are of mixed Jamaican and British origin, the largest mixed-race group in the UK and the fastest-growing.
One of the largest and most famous Jamaican communities is in Brixton, South London. More large Jamaican communities in London are Tottenham and Hackney in North London, Harlesden in North-West London, and Lewisham in South-East London.
The highest concentration of Jamaicans are in the inner-city South London boroughs.
On the last bank holiday of the year during late August, the Annual Notting Hill Carnival takes place in west London which is the second-biggest street party in the world after the Rio Carnival. It spans areas of west London such as Shepherd's Bush, Ladbroke Grove, White City and of course Notting Hill.
Many other Caribbean nations have large communities in that part of London. They include Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda.
The Caribbean community including many Jamaicans are involved in the carnival which starts on Saturday and finishes late on Monday.
Jamaicans have many food stalls, sound systems and floats involved in the procession.
More thanWell one million Londoners go to Notting Hill on the Monday for the carnival.
There is also a much smaller carnival called the Tottenham Carnival which takes place in Tottenham in June every year. Approximately 40,000 people attend the carnival.
Other Jamaican communities in the UK are in St. Pauls in Bristol, Chapeltown in Leeds, Moss Side, Longsight and Hulme in Manchester, Toxteth in Liverpool, Burngreave in Sheffield, Handsworth, Lozells, and Aston in Birmingham, and St. Ann's, Nottingham.
More recently many resort and wild-life management skilled Jamaicans have been trending emigration toward such far-flung nations as Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Jamaica continues to have a severe problem with barrel children – those left on their own by parents seeking a better life abroad.
Jamaica has had one of the highest murder rates in the world for many years, according to UN estimates.
Former Prime Minister P. J. Patterson described the situation as “a national challenge of unprecedented proportions.”
In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders for a murder rate of 58 per 100,000 people. The island nation had the highest murder rate in the world during that year.
In November 2008, the Jamaican parliament voted to retain the death penalty which is performed by hanging.
Some areas of Jamaica, particularly cities such as Kingston, experience high levels of crime and violence.
There is also violence against homosexuals. The U.S. Department of State reported that brutality against homosexuals, mainly by private citizens, was widespread in 2008.
Homosexuality is illegal in Jamaica, incurring a prison sentence. Many Jamaicans are hostile towards LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-gender) and inter-sex people, and various mob attacks against gay people have been reported.
Some critics claim that attacks on gay people are encouraged in some popular Jamaican dancehall/reggae songs that are sometimes referred to as murder music.
Attacks on gays has been criticised by human rights groups which have described Jamaica as “the most homophobic place on earth.”
By far the largest religion in Jamaica is the Christian faith. The Anglican Church, and the Church of God are throughout the country, and many old churches have been carefully maintained and/or restored.
The Rastafarian religion is a folk derivative of the larger Christian culture, likely influenced by Ethiopian Coptic culture.
There are also a small number of Jewish synagogues in Jamaica, dating from 17th century.
Elements of ancient African religions remain in remote areas through out the island. Most of the practices are described as Obeah, Kumina, or Pocomania. Although the congregations of these traditional “churches” are small, they are visited by many Christian and non Christians seeking traditional solutions which can not be found in conventional churches or other religious organisations.
It's estimated that as much as 80% of the population secretly seek the services of the African traditional religious healers when confronted with serious problems that conventional medicine and society can not remedy.
According to the 2001 census, the country's largest denominations are the Church of God (24% of the country's total population); Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church (11%); Pentecostal (10%); Baptist (7%); Anglican (4%); Roman Catholic (2%); United Church (2%); Methodist (2%); Jehovah's Witnesses (2%); Moravian (1%); and Plymouth Brethren (1%).
The Christian faith gained credibility as British Christian abolitionists and Baptist missionaries joined educated former slaves in the campaign against slavery.
The Rastafari movement had 24,020 adherents in Jamaica in 2001, according to census figues. But there are some disputes on this number. There are those who claim there are far more Rastas in Jamaica than what the government says.
The Rastafari movement is a monotheistic, Abrahamic, new religious organisation which was started in Jamaica in the 1930s. Its adherents worship Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and they don't believe that he died because he is God incarnate. Therefore he could not have died because God does not die. They see him as representing the Second Advent. The followers of this religion are known as Rastafarians, or Rastas.
The movement is sometimes referred to as “Rastafarianism” but the term is considered to be derogatory and offensive by some Rastas who dislike their faith being labelled as an “ism.”
Rastafari is not a highly organised religion; it's a movement and an ideology.
Many Rastas say it's not a “religion” at all but a “way of life.”
Most Rastas don't claim membership in any religious sect or denomination and encourage one another to find faith and inspiration within themselves; although some of them do identify strongly with one of the “mansions of Rastafari” – the three most prominent of these being the Nyahbinghi, the Bobo Ashanti and the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
The name Rastafari is taken from Ras Tafari, the pre-regnal title of Haile Selassie I, composed of the word Ras which in the Amharic language literally means “Head,” an Ethiopian title equivalent to the English title “Duke,” and Haile Selassie's pre-regnal given name, Tafari.
Rastafari are generally distinguished for asserting the doctrine that Haile Selassie I, the former, and final, Emperor of Ethiopia, is another incarnation of the Christian God called Jah. They see Haile Selassie I as Jah or Jah Rastafari, who is the second coming of Jesus Christ onto the Earth.
The Rastafari movement encompasses themes such as the spiritual use of cannabis and the rejection of Western society which they call Babylon in reference more to the metaphoric Babylon of Christianity than to the historical Mesopotamian city which is also mentioned in the Bible.
It proclaims Africa – which is also called Zion in the lexicon of Rastafarians – as the original birthplace of mankind, and embraces various Afrocentric social and political doctrines and aspirations including the social and political views and teachings of Jamaican black nationalist Marcus Garvey who is also often regarded as a prophet by Rastas. Marcus Garvey led the “back to Africa” movement.
Today, awareness of the Rastafari movement has spread in many parts of the world, largely through interest generated by reggae music. The most notable examples of Rasta-men are Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, who were both singers and songwriters with an international reputation as reggae musicians. Bob Marley died in 1981, and Peter Tosh in 1988.
By 1997, there were about one million Rastafarians worldwide, including some in Africa. About 5 – 10% of Jamaicans identify themselves as Rastafarians.
Other religions in Jamaica include the Bahá'í Faith which counts perhaps 8,000 adherents and 21 Local Spiritual Assemblies; Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
There is also a small population of Jews, about 200, who describe themselves as Liberal-Conservative. The first Jews in Jamaica trace their roots back to early 15th century Spain and Portugal.
Muslim groups in Jamaica claim 5,000 adherents.
Jamaican culture represents a rich blend of cultures. The indigenous people – Amerindians known as Taino – followed by their Spanish conquerors who were in turn conquered by the British, have all made major contributions to Jamaican culture.
However, it's the blacks and slaves who became the dominant cultural force as they suffered and resisted the harsh conditions of forced labour. Their culture was African adapted to Jamaica's local conditions.
After the abolition of slavery, Chinese and Indian migrants transported to the island as indentured workers, brought their cultures from Asia.
Although Jamaica is a small nation, it has been a major cultural force through the years and has had a global impact mainly because of its internationally acclaimed reggae music.
The musical genres of reggae, ska, mento, rocksteady, dub and, more recently, dancehall and ragga originated in the island's vibrant, popular urban recording industry.
Jamaica also played an important role in the development of punk rock through reggae and ska.
Reggae has also influenced American rap music, since they both share their roots as rhythmic, African styles of music. Like reggae, rap music has strong African elements in terms of style and performance but not always in terms of lyrics many of which are culturally offensive to Africans; for example, the use of profanity and insults to women so common among rap artists and their lyrics.
Some rappers such as The Notorious B.I.G. and Heavy D are of Jamaican descent.
Many other internationally known artists are Jamaicans or were born in Jamaica. They include Jimmy Cliff, Bunny Wailer, Grace Jones, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Desmond Dekker, Dennis Brown, Joseph Hill, Big Youth, Beres Hammond, Beenie Man, Shaggy, Shabba Ranks, Super Cat, Buju Banton, Sean Paul, I Wayne, Bounty Killer and many others.
Famous band artist groups that came from Jamaica include Culture, Black Uhuru, Third World Band, Inner Circle, Chalice Reggae Band, Fab Five, and Morgan Heritage.
The genre jungle emerged from London's Jamaican diaspora.
The birth of hip-hop in New York City also owed much to the city's Jamaican community.
The Rastafari movement has also been a major cultural force in Jamaica through the years especially since the 1930s. This Back to Africa movement believes that Haile Selassie is a black messiah who came to take the lost Twelve Tribes of Israel back to live with him on Holy Mount Zion in a world of perfect peace, love and harmony.
Bob Marley was the most prominent convert to the Rastafari faith. He spread the message of Rastafari to the world as did Peter Tosh, another international luminary, and others who are still doing it today.
Peter Tosh was also the driving force behind the formation of the reggae music group, The Wailers, whose members were Peter Tosh himself, Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer. Peter Tosh was the only one among the three who knew how to play guitar and other instruments when they founded the group. And it was he who taught Bob Marley how to play guitar.
The practice of smoking marijuana throughout Jamaica was popularised as a direct result of the Rastafarians' use of this weed for meditation purposes. And the popularity of the Rastafarian movement out of Jamaica through music helped increase the use of cannabis worldwide as it was promoted as “the weed of wisdom.”
Jamaica has also been featured prominently in literature and films. For example, Ian Fleming who lived in Jamaica repeatedly used the island as a setting for the James Bond novels, including Live and Let Die, Doctor No, For Your Eyes Only, The Man with the Golden Gun, and Octopussy.
But the only James Bond film adaption to have been set in Jamaica, so far, is Doctor No. Filming for the fictional island of San Monique in Live and Let Die, however, took place in Jamaica.
Journalist and author H. G. de Lisser (1878–1944) who was Jamaican used his native country as the setting for his many novels.
Born at Falmouth, de Lisser worked as a reporter for the Jamaica Times at a young age and in 1920 began publishing the magazine Planters' Punch. The White Witch of Rosehall is one of his better known novels.
He was named Honorary President of the Jamaican Press Association and worked throughout his professional career to promote the Jamaican sugar industry.
The American film Cocktail starring Tom Cruise is one of the most popular films to depict Jamaica.
A look at delinquent youth in Jamaica is presented in the 1970s musical crime film The Harder They Come starring Jimmy Cliff as a frustrated – and psychopathic – reggae musician who descends into a murderous crime spree.
Another popular Jamaican-based film is the 1993 comedy Cool Runnings which is loosely based on the true story of Jamaica's first bobsled team trying to make it in the Winter Olympics.
Errol Flynn lived with his third wife Patrice Wymore in Port Antonio in the 1950s. He was responsible for developing tourism to that area, popularising raft trips down rivers on bamboo rafts.
The island is also famous for its Jamaican jerk spice which forms a popular part of Jamaican cuisine.
Jamaica is also home to the world-renowned Red Stripe beer and Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee.
Rastafari: A closer look
One of the most prominent and internationally known aspects of Jamaica's African-Caribbean culture is the Rastafari movement, particularly those elements that are expressed through reggae music.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Robert Nesta Marley – Bob Marley – became the most high-profile exponent of the Rastafari culture and beliefs. His reputation as an innovative musician devoted to his faith has continued to grow since his death. By 2004, his “greatest hits” compilation, “Legend,” had sold 20 million copies worldwide, making him arguably the world's most famous Jamaican and certainly Jamaica's biggest-selling recording artist.
Rastafari itself, a monotheistic belief system, is based on teachings found in the Old Testament and the New Testament, especially the Book of Revelations. However, what distinguishes Rastafari from Christianity, Islam and Judaism – all of which also cite Abrahamic beliefs and teachings – is that Rastas believe in the divinity of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.
Hailed by Rastas as H.I.M – His Imperial Majesty – Haile Selassie is regarded as the true descendant of King Solomon and the earthly embodiment of Jah (God) – what believers see as a fulfillment of prophesy regarding the second coming of the Messiah.
It should be noted that those Rasta beliefs which are not explicitly mentioned in the Bible – such as the specific name of H.I.M. 'Haile Selassie' – have not been compiled as a single holy text. Instead, Rasta beliefs are primarily shared through a community of songs, chants and oral testimonies, as well as in written texts. The extensive use of songs makes Rastafari a particularly musical source of Jamaican culture.
Rasta cultural traditions include wearing their hair in uncut, uncombed strands known as dreadlocks in adherence to the Nazarite vow, as well as eating unprocessed – natural – foodstuffs which are known as Ital. However, neither tradition is regarded as compulsory. Many people who wear dreadlocks are not Rastas. And many Rastas do not wear dreadlocks.
One of the most controversial cultural traditions is Rastas' use of ganja as a sacrament which is smoked to aid in reasoning – contemplation and discussion. Cannabis is a strictly prohibited substance in Jamaica. Therefore its use by Rastas means the movement is in a more-or-less permanent state of tension with police agencies.
In its Jamaican homeland, Rastafari is a minority culture and receives little official recognition. But it's a prominent feature of Jamaican identity even if it's not the dominant one.
Jamaica is an overwhelmingly Christian country. Therefore Rasta beliefs and practices – such as the divinity of H.I.M Haile Selassie – are sometimes regarded not only as unorthodox but pagan by Christian Jamaicans although some Rastas can also express hostility towards some aspects of Christianity.
Nevertheless, the artistic contributions of the movement, especially by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, are widely respected. Bob Marley was awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1981 and there are two official monuments to him
Rastas can be found in many countries outside Jamaica and among many non-Jamaicans. Because it's not a centrally organised religion, there is no way of knowing how many devotees there are.
Dance has always been important in Jamaica – from colonial times until the present. It's an integral part of national life and culture.
Early folk rhythms and movements often enhanced Christian religious celebrations or were associated with Christian holidays. More recently, dances have been associated with the music of Jamaica, particularly dancehall styles.
More than 30 distinctive Jamaican dances have been identified. According to the National Library of Jamaica, traditional Jamaican dances fall roughly under three categories: African-derived, European-derived and Creole.
The African-derived dance tradition is divided into two types: religious dances and social dances.
Religious African dances such as the ritualistic Kumina, Myal, and Pocomania, are integral parts of worship ceremonies. The aim is to bring the dancers into the realm of the spiritual and heighten their readiness for possession. This part of Jamaica's African heritage has mainly been preserved by the Maroon communities.
Social African-derived dances include Etu Quadrille.
The Jamaican Creole dances integrate elements from both European and African cultures. Examples are Maypole, originally religious but now mainly social; Jonkonnu; Bruckin's; Revival; Pukkumina, possibly the best-known Revival – religious – style which still exists today; and Dinkie mini, a dance in the Wake Complex of traditional dances.
Social dances that are European-derived include those which accompanied work songs and ring games.
Dance is also represented during the Jamaican Hosay, a Caribbean East Indian festival.
Jonkonnu and Hosay are considered secular dances, despite the performance of Jonkonnu around Christmas time.
Dance theatre is also growing in importance. Rex Nettleford, Eddy Thomas, Olive Lewin, and Edna Marley are four Jamaicans whose influences on the arts – music and dance in particular – has been extremely important. Nettleford, Thomas, and Ivy Baxter formed the National Dance Theatre Company in the 1950s.
Other important Jamaicans in dance theatre have included the Tony-Award-winning choreographer Garth Fagan (The Lion King on Broadway).
Dancehall, or ragga music has inspired a number of dance styles as well.
To understand the evolution of popular dance, it helps to understand the musical progression.
Ska music, with fast beats, also had fast dances.
The slow to rocksteady also developed slower dances, allowing dancers to stay on the floor longer.
Reggae is associated with many things including the Rastafarian movement but it also influenced the newer styles.
Dancehall music often creates its own dances based on moves in the lyrics of the songs themselves.
Soca music from Trinidad and Tobago is popular in Jamaica with most of the popular artists being from Trinidad. But there are many soca Jamaican artists such as Byron Lee, Fab 5, and Lovindeer who are also famous and represent Jamaican music.
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.
Jamaica's music culture is a fusion of elements from the United States – rhythm and blues (R&B), rock and roll, soul, jazz and other styles; also elements from Africa, and neighbouring Caribbean islands such as Trinidad and Tobago whose music, calypso and soca, has influenced Jamaican music in varying degrees.
Reggae is especially popular mainly because of Bob Marley's international fame. He's called the king of reggae.
Jamaican music's influence on music styles in other countries includes the practice of toasting which has had an impact on rap music in the United States.
British genres such as Lovers rock and jungle music have also been influenced by Jamaican music.
Mento was recorded in Jamaica in the 1950s because of the efforts of Stanley Motta who noted the similarities between Jamaican folk and Trinidadian calypso which was becoming popular around the world.
For decades, mento bands toured the big hotels in Jamaica.
While mento never found as large an international audience as calypso, some mento recordings by Count Lasher, Lord Composer and George Moxey, among others, are now widely-respected legends of Jamaican music. Today, mento has largely been supplanted by other forms of music such as reggae and dub. But it's still performed, recorded, and released internationally by traditionalist performers like the Jolly Boys.
From the early 1900s and through the years, Jamaica has produced many notable jazz musicians. The Alpha School in Kingston which provided training and encouragement in music education was very influential. Also significant was the brass band tradition of the island, strengthened by opportunities for musical work and training in military contexts.
However, limited scope for a career in jazz music in Jamaica resulted in many local jazz musicians leaving the island. Many of them left Jamaica and went to live and work in the United Kingdom, especially London, or in the United States.
Among the most prominent and influential Jamaican jazz instrumentalists who made successful careers abroad was alto saxophonist Joe Harriot who is considered to be one of the most original and most innovative jazz composers in history.
Also internationally successful were trumpeters Dizzy Reece, Leslie 'Jiver' Hutchinson and Leslie Thompson.; bassist Coleridge Goode; guitarist Ernest Ranglin; and pianist Monty Alexander.
Harriott, Goode, Hutchinson and Thompson built their careers in London, along with many other instrumentalists such as pianist Yorke de Souza and the outstanding saxophonist Bertie King who later returned to Jamaica and formed a mento-style band.
Reece and Alexander worked in the United States. Saxophonist Wilton 'Bogey' Gaynair settled in Germany working mainly with Kurt Edelhagen's orchestra.
Ska originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s. Some of the first songs identified as ska were “Manny-O” by Joe Higgs (1958), “Easy Snapping” by Theophilus Beckford (1959), and “Oh! Carolina” by the Folkes Brothers (1960). “Simmer Down,” a huge ska hit, was recorded by The Wailers in 1963.
Perhaps the best-known of the original ska bands were The Skatalites whose career spanned decades and transcended Jamaican musical genres. The Skatalites' music launched the careers of Tommy McCook, virtuoso trombonist Don Drummond and tenor saxophonist, and fellow Alpha Boys School graduates Roland Alphonso, Jackie Mittoo, and Lester Sterling.
At first primarily instrumental, ska's rhythms generally didn't lend well to vocal stylings. However, some popular singers such as Desmond Decker, Toots Hibbert and Bob Marley got their start by singing in this style. This new style was widely embraced by Jamaican youths, and soon became popular in the United Kingdom and around the world.
In 1963, Chris Blackwell brought teenage singer Millie Small to Great Britain. She exploded on the international scene with her hit, “My Boy Lollipop,” which climbed the charts to Number 2 in both Great Britain and the United States.
Live touring bands launched the careers of many ska, rocksteady and reggae artists. Tommy McCook had been part of the band of Aubrey Adams based at the Courtleigh Manor hotel in Kingston before becoming one of the founding members of the Skatalites. Drummer Lloyd Knibb, also of The Skatalites, had done the hotel circuit playing for the Val Bennett, Len Hibbert and Cecil Lloyd bands.
One of the most successful music groups in Jamaica was Billy Vernon and the Celestials, the resident band at the Yellow Bird Club in Montego Bay. They toured many of the island's leading hotels. Their work was a blend of ska, mento and jump up, and featured hits such as “Ska Suzanna,” “Yellow Bird” and Wings of A Dove.”
A number of artists including Errol “E.T.” Webster, also known as “Errol T,” got their start in the music business with Billy Vernon and the Celestials.
Chris Blackwell's Island Records became the biggest label promoting Jamaican music on the international market. Due to its affiliation with the record industry in the UK and good financial support – especially the United Kingdom and the United States – Island Records had the distribution capacity to vastly increase exposure of Jamaican music to the global pop market, especially in the UK where a significant population of Jamaicans had relocated.
Ska's popularity grew steadily in Jamaica alongside Rastafari which spread rapidly in impoverished urban areas and among the politically radical musicians.
The lyrics of ska songs began to focus on Rastafarian themes; slower beats and chants entered the music from religious Rastafarian music, and ska soon evolved into rocksteady.
Rocksteady was the music of Jamaica's rude boys by the mid-1960s when The Wailers and The Clarendonians dominated the charts, taking over from pioneers like Alton Ellise who is believed to have invented rocksteady.
Desmond Dekker's “007” brought international attention to the new genre.
The mix put heavy emphasis on the bass line as opposed to ska's strong horn section; and the rhythm guitar began playing on the upbeat.
Session musicians such as Supersonics, Soul Vendors, Jets and Jackie Mittoo of the Skatalites, became popular during that period.
By the early 1970s, rocksteady had evolved into reggae which combines elements from American soul music with the traditional shuffle and one-drop of Jamaican mento.
Reggae quickly became popular around the world due in large part to the international success of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and other reggae musicians.
Bob Marley was viewed as a Rastafarian messianic figure by some fans especially in the Caribbean, and in Africa, as well as among some Native Americans and Australian Aborigines.
His lyrics about love, redemption and natural beauty captivated audiences and he gained headlines for negotiating truces between the two opposing Jamaican political parties (at the One Love Concert), led by Michael Manley (PNP) and Edward Seaga (JLP).
Reggae music was intricately tied to the expansion of the Rastafarian religion and its principles of pacifism and pan-Africanism. Musicians such as Gregory Isaacs, The Congos, and Burning Spear and producers like Lee 'Scratch” Perry solidified the early sound of reggae.
By 1973, dub music had emerged as a distinct reggae genre and heralded the dawn of the remix.
Developed by record producers such as Lee “Scratch” Perry and King Tubby, dub featured previously-recorded songs remixed with prominence on the bass. Often the lead instruments and vocals would drop in and out of the mix, sometimes processed heavily with studio effects.
King Tubby's advantage came from his intimate knowledge with audio gear and his ability to build his own sound systems and recording studios that were superior to the competition. He became famous for his remixes of recordings made by others as well as those he recorded in his own studio.
Following in Tubby's footsteps came artists such as U-Roy and Big Youth who used Rasta chants in songs.
Until the end of the 1970s, Big Youth-inspired dub music with chanted vocals dominated Jamaican popular music.
At the very end of the decade, dancehall artists like Ranking Joe, Lone Ranger and General Echo brought a return to U-Roy's style.
During the 1980s, the most popular music styles in Jamaica were dancehall and ragga.
Dancehall is essentially speechfying with musical accompaniment including a basic drum beat most often played on electric drums.
The lyrics moved away from the political and spiritual lyrics popular in the 1970s and now concentrate more on less serious issues.
Ragga is characterised by the use of computerized beats and sequenced melodic tracks. It's usually said to have been invented with the song “Under Mi Sleng Teng” by Wayne Smith.
Ragga barely edged out dancehall as the dominant form of Jamaican music in the 1980s. DJ Shabba Ranks and vocalist team Chaka Demus and Pliers proved more enduring than the competition and helped inspire an updated version of the rude boy culture called raggamuffin.
Dancehall was sometimes violent in lyrical content and several rival performers made headlines with their feuds across Jamaica, most notably Beenie Man versus Bounty Killer.
It emerged from pioneering recordings in the late 1970s by Barrington Levy, with Roots Radics backing and Junjo Lawes as producer.
The Roots Radics were the pre-eminent backing band for the dancehall style. Yellowman, Ini Kamoze, Charlie Chaplin and General Echo helped popularise the style along with producers like Sugar Minott.
The 1980s saw a rise in reggae music outside Jamaica. During that period, reggae particularly influenced African popular music: Sonny Okusuns (Nigeria), John Chibadura (Zimbabwe), Lucky Dube (South Africa) and Alpha Blondy (Ivory Coast) became stars.
The 1980s saw the end of the dub era in Jamaica, although dub has remained a popular and influential style in the UK and to a lesser extent throughout Europe and the United States.
Dub in the 1990s merged with electronic music.
Variations of dancehall continued to be popular into the mid 1990s. Some of the performers of the previous decade converted to Rastafari and changed their lyrical content. Artists like Buju Banton experienced significant crossover success in foreign markets, while Beenie Man, Bounty Killer and others developed a sizable North American following due to their frequent guest spots on albums by gangsta rappers such as Wu-Tang Clan and Jay-Z..
Some ragga musicians including Beenie Man, Shabba Ranks and Capleton adopted a new style of lyrics.
Reggae fusion emerged as a popular sub-genre in the late 1990s.
It's a mixture of reggae or dancehall with elements of other genres such as hip hop, rhythm and blues (R&B), jazz, rock 'n roll or indie rock. It's closely related to ragga music.
The Bongo Nation is a distinct group of Jamaicans possibly descended from the Congo. They are known for Kumina which refers to both a religion and a form of music.
Kumina's distinctive drumming style became one of the roots of Rastafarian drumming, itself the source of the distinctive Jamaican rhythm heard in ska, rocksteady and reggae.
The modern intertwining of Jamaican religion and music can be traced back to the 1860s when the Pocomania and Revival Zion churches drew on African traditions and incorporated music into almost every facet of worship. Later, this trend spread into Hindu communities, resulting in baccra music.
The spread of Rastafari into urban Jamaica in the 1960s transformed the Jamaican music scene which incorporated drumming (played at grounation ceremonies) and which has led to today's popular music.
Many of the above mentioned music and dance have been stylised by the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica led by Prof. Rex Nettleford artistic director (ret, prof and vice chancellor of The University of the West Indies) and Marjorie Whyle Musical Director (Caribbean Musicologist, pianist, drummer, arranger lecturer at the University of the West Indies).
Since 1962, this volunteer company of dancers and musicians have had many of these dances in its core repertoire and have performed worldwide to large audiences including The British Royal family.
Jamaican cuisine
Christopher Columbus visited Jamaica several times towards the end of the 1400s and at the beginning of the 1500s. He was once even shipwrecked off the northern coast of the island for about two years from 1503 to 1504.
During these visits, he described the way the Arawaks – the indigenous inhabitants of Jamaica – preserved meat by adding peppers, allspice and sea salt to make what is now known as Jamaican jerk spice.
The cuisine of Jamaica includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavours, spices and influences from the indigenous people on the island, Spanish and British settlers, African slaves, Indians and Chinese who collectively constitute the island's multi-ethnic and multiracial society.
It's also influenced by the crops introduced into the island from tropical southeast Asia.
Jamaican cuisine includes various dishes from the different cultures brought to the island. Other dishes are novel or a fusion of techniques and traditions. In addition to ingredients that are native to Jamaica, many foods have been introduced and are now grown locally. A wide variety of seafood, tropical fruits and meats are available.
Some Jamaican cuisine dishes are variations of the cuisines and cooking styles brought to the island from different parts of the world. These are often modified to incorporate local products. Others are novel and have been developed locally.
Popular Jamaican dishes include curry goat, fried dumplings, ackee and salt fish, fried plantain, “jerk,” steamed cabbage and “rice and peas” – pigeon peas or kidney beans.
Jamaican and various pastries and breads as well as fruit beverages and Jamaican rum are also popular.
Jamaican cuisine has spread with emigrations, especially during the 20th century, from the island to other countries. This has been facilitated by the quest for better opportunities in different parts of the world.
Jamaica has been the home or birthplace of many important authors. One of the most important aspects of Jamaican literature is the local patois or creole.
The tradition of storytelling in Jamaica is a long one, beginning with folktales told by African slaves during the colonial era.
Jamaica's folk stories are closely associated with those of the Ashanti, the Igbo, the Yoruba, the Ewe and other African ethnic groups from which the slaves were taken.
Some European tales were also brought to the island, particularly those from the United Kingdom since Jamaica was a British possession.
In folktales, the local speech style is particularly necessary. It infuses humour into the stories and is an integral part of the story telling.
Perhaps the most popular character in Jamaican tales is Anancy; the African spelling is Anansi.
This is an African spider-god who makes an appearance in tales throughout the Caribbean.
He is a trickster god and often goes against other animal-god characters, like Tiger and Donkey, in his stories.
The character is also known as Nancy Spida, and Brer Nansi.
The stories were also used by the slaves to outsmart their masters.
Thomas MacDermot, a Jamaican, is credited for fostering the creation of Jamaican literature. And his work, Becka's Buckra Baby, is seen as the beginning of modern Caribbean literature.
Jamaican Claude McKay was one of the founding fathers of Harlem Renaissance. He was also one of the people who helped fuel Negritude.
Aime Cesaire of Martinique is seen by many people as the father of Negritude, a concept that was also forcefully articulated by the African poet and philosopher Leopold Sedar Senghor who for many years was also the president of Senegal.
Having established himself as a poet in Jamaica, McKay moved to the United States in his 20s. He later went to France. But he never returned to Jamaica.
Another well-known Jamaican poet is Una Marson. She was well-known for her poetry and her activism as a feminist. Yet another one is Louise Bennett-Coverly.
One internationally renowned author who is not Jamaican but who has ties to Jamaica is Derek Walcott, a Nobel laureate, from St Lucia. He studied at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.
Other writers who have recently gained acclaim in Jamaica include Hazel Dorothy Campbell and the late Mikey Smith.
The island's local dialect, Jamaican Patois, has become an important element in literature and other arts. The speech style is particularly notable in poetry and in prose's dialogue.
Jamaica has a number of natural resources, especially bauxite, and a climate conducive to agriculture and tourism.
The discovery of bauxite in the 1940s and subsequent establishment of the bauxite-alumina industry changed Jamaica's economy. Before then, the emphasis was on the production of agricultural commodities as a means to fuel economic growth.
All that shifted to the production of bauxite and aluminium. By the 1970s, Jamaica had emerged as one of the world's leading producers of these minerals, leading to an increase in foreign investment in the country.
Jamaica has a mixed economy. State enterprises and private-sector businesses are both an integral part of the economy.
Major sectors of the Jamaican economy include agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism, financial and insurance services.
Tourism and mining are the leading earners of foreign exchange.
An estimated 1.3 million tourists visit Jamaica every year. Tourism is the largest foreign-exchange earner.
Jamaica is the second-largest exporter of bauxite in the world, surpassed only by Australia.
Sugar, the leading export crop, is produced in nearly every parish. It's also used for the production of by-products such as molasses and rum. Some wallboard is made from bagasse.
Bananas are another major export.
Another major export is coffee. It's grown mainly around the Blue Mountains and other hilly areas. It's a brand product known as Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee which is considered to be among the best in the world.
The picking season for coffee lasts from August to March.
Another important crop is cocoa. It's grown throughout Jamaica. About a third of the cocoa is used within Jamaica for instant drinks and confectionery.
Citrus fruit is mainly grown in the central parts of Jamaica, particularly between the elevations of 1,000 – 2,500 feet. The fruit picking season lasts from November to April.
Two factories in May Pen and Bog Walk produce fruit juices, canned fruit, essential oils and marmalade.
Coconuts are grown in the coastal areas of the northern and eastern parts of the island. They provide enough copra to supply factories to make butterine, margarine, lard, edible oil and laundry soap.
Rice is grown in swampy areas around the Black River and around Long Bay in Hanover and Westmoreland parishes for local consumption.
Other export crops are pimento, ginger, tobacco, and sisal.
Pastures cover a significant part of the land in Jamaica. Cattle rearing is one of the important economic activities on the island.
There is an increase in the quantity of animal products and in the number of livestock. But they're not enough for local requirements.
Also, the production of dairy products has been significant through the years, partly fuelled by the existence of a condensed milk factory at Bog Walk which was built in 1940. Still, the supply of dairy products is not enough for local consumption and Jamaica imports large quantities of powdered milk, butter and cheese.
The fishing industry grew during the 1980s mainly because of an increase in inland fishing on the island.
Thousands of people make a living from fishing. Many fishermen live on the Pedro Cays which are 80 miles off Jamaica's southern coast within the nation's territorial waters.
The shallow waters and cays off the southern coast of Jamaica have more fish than the northern part does.
Jamaica is able to meet about half of its fish requirements. The rest is imported. Major imports of frozen and salted fish come from the United States and Canada.
But some of the fish are toxic. Catfish are responsible for many deaths because of the deadly venom found on the tips of their dorsal and pectoral fins.
However, the deadly fish are considered by some people to be a delicacy.
By the late 1980s, only 185,000 hectares (457,000 acres) of Jamaica's original 1,000,000 hectares (2,500,000 acres) of forest remained.
The forests that once covered Jamaica now exist only in mountainous areas. And they provide only 20% of the island's timber requirements.
The remaining forest is protected from further exploitation.
Other accessible mountain areas are being reforested mainly with pines, mahoe and mahogany.
Jamaica is one of the major producers of bauxite and alumina in the world.
The island has reserves of more than 2 billion tonnes of bauxite which are expected to last for100 years.
The mineral is found in the central parishes of St. Elizabeth, Manchester, Clarendon, St. Catherine, St. Ann & Trelawny.
There are 4 alumina plants and 6 mines.
The island nation also has deposits of several million tonnes of gypsum on the southern slopes of the Blue Mountains.
A large amount of the mineral is used in the local cement industry and in the production of other building materials.
Other minerals found in Jamaica include marble, limestone, silica, copper, lead, zinc, manganese, and iron. Some of these minerals are found only in small quantities.
No oil deposits have been found.
The manufacturing sector is an important part of Jamaica's economy. It includes food processing; oil refining; production of chemicals; construction materials; plastic goods; paints; pharmaceuticals; cartons; leather goods; cigars; alcoholic drinks such as rum and beer; beverages; assembled electronics; textiles, and apparel.
The garment industry also is a major employer providing thousands of jobs.
An oil refinery located near Kingston refines crude oil imported from Venezuela. It also produces a number of petroleum by-products. These are mainly for local use.
There is significant growth in the construction industry because of the new hotels and tourist facilities which are being built to attract tourists to the island.
Tourism
Tourism, the island's main foreign exchange earner, provides about one-fourth of all the jobs in Jamaica.
Most of the tourist activity is centred on the island's northern coast including the areas of Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, and Port Antonio, as well as Negril on the island's western tip.
The financial services industry has expanded rapidly through the years. It includes banking, investment, and insurance services.
Banks include Century National Bank, National Commercial Bank, Pan-Caribbean Bank, Scotia Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and First Global Bank.
Jamaica does not have large commercial centres besides Kingston, Montego Bay, and Ocho Rios. As a result of that, the island nation has a poorly developed retail sector.
While Kingston and Montego Bay are home to a number of retail stores including American fast-food franchises such as Domino's, Pizza Hut, and Dairy Queen, the majority of the towns in the interior – Mandeville, May Pen, Spanish Town and others – have only small shops, public markets, and temporary roadside stands.
The island of Jamaica has a high profile on the international scene. One of the reasons is that it's part of the Caribbean which is a major tourist destination.
The Caribbean islands have been immortalised in many ways. They have been glorified as “paradise.” Songs have been written about them. They're also glorified in movies as the place to be under the sun.
And they may indeed be tropical paradise, with Jamaica being the most prominent island. But with all its prominence and attractions, Jamaica remains essentially a Third World country. Yet it has a lot of potential across the spectrum which has not been fully harnessed.
Caribbean Islands: The Land and The People
Editor: Keith Thompson
Paperback: 452 pages
Publisher: New Africa Press (9 October 2010)
ISBN-13: 9789987160181