Listen closely in Jamaica and you will hear a thousand references from well beyond this Caribbean island. Jamaicans speak of places in England and in Israel—from Somerset to Siloah, High-gate to Horeb—except that these places are in Jamaica, too. And hopping aboard a bus, you will encounter Arawak place names like Liguanea, Spanish names like Oracabessa, and entirely Jamaican flips like Rest-and-Be-Thankful, Red Gal Ring and even Me-No-Sen You-No-Come.
These place names reveal the country’s many influences, and, indeed, Jamaica’s 2.3 million people form a spectrum of races that would give the most dedicated genealogist a migraine. Most people are black, or some shade of brown, but many have undertones of Chinese, East Indian, Middle Eastern (known on the island as Syrian, no matter their origin) and European. Five centuries after Columbus, the rainbow of natural colors in Jamaica’s landscape is still vibrant. And there is no better metaphor than this rainbow for the mix of Jamaica’s cultures. With its tension and its tolerance, this island is truly one of the globe’s most fascinating ethnic environments.
Devon House, an 1881 mansion, was built by George Stiebel, a black Jamaican who made his fortune in South America. It once housed the National Gallery and is open to the public.
The first of many peoples known to hit the beaches of Jamaica did so about a thousand years after the death of Christ. Amerindians paddled their canoes over from the Orinoco region of South America. Before that, there is the possibility that a more primitive group, the Ciboneys, spent some time here on their trek from Florida to other large Caribbean islands. The Arawaks, however, left their imprint on Jamaica.
When Christopher-Columbus stepped ashore in 1494, the island had already served as the Arawaks’ home for nearly five hundred years. They were, by all accounts, gentle folk. Their way of life included hunting, fishing, farming and dancing their way through a calendar of festivals. The Spanish, however, had other plans, forcing them into hard labor and killing the last of them within fifty years. Once they had Jamaica to themselves, the Spanish seemed to decide they didn’t really want it. Their searches of the interior turned up no quick-profit precious metals, so they let the land fester in poverty for 161 years. When five thousand British soldiers and sailors appeared in Kingston harbor in 1655, the Spanish simply fled.
This Rastafarian, selling Caribbean lobster near Buff Bay, grows a beard and dreadlocks to demonstrate his pact with Jah (God). The Rastafarian religious movement grew out of Jamaica’s slave society.
The next three centuries under English rule provided Jamaica with its genteel underpinnings and the rousing pirate tradition that enlivens this period of Caribbean history. British buccaneer Henry Morgan was close friends with Jamaica’s governor and enjoyed the protection of His Majesty’s government no matter what he chose to plunder.
The notorious Port Royal (known as the Wickedest City in Christendom) grew up on a spit of land across from present-day Kingston. Morgan and his brigands found a haven there where ships could be repaired and loot could be spent. Morgan enjoyed a prosperous life. He was actually knighted and appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica before the age of thirty. Port Royal, however, did not fare so well. On June 7, 1692, an earthquake tipped most of the city into the sea, and a tidal wave wiped out whatever was left. Port Royal disappeared. Recently, divers have turned up some of the treasure, but most of it still waits in the murky depths.
The eighteenth century was prosperous for Jamaica’s sugar barons, who ruled as undisputed masters of their British plantations. The island became the largest sugar-producing colony on earth, mostly through the sweat of African slaves. Magnificent residences known as “great houses” rose above the cane fields. Fortunes built on sugar were the envy of even England’s king, giving rise to the expression “rich as a West Indian planter.”
Such words, of course, had little meaning for the 2 million slaves brought from Africa to Jamaica and Barbados. The slaves were cruelly used and were forbidden to speak their own languages or practice their own customs. Discipline was harsh, but the slave owners could never quite quell the spirit of rebellion that existed. Jamaica has a long history of slave uprisings and of slave violence against tyrannical planters.
For the slaves, there was also the ever-present inspiration of the Maroons, descendants of escaped slaves from Spanish days. Called cimarrones (runaways) by the Spaniards, these men and women lived in the mountains, defying and outwitting British troops at every turn. The Maroons drew other runaways and staged rebellions until a treaty in 1739 gave them a measure of autonomy that they retain to this day.
As it turns out, the planters proved almost as rebellious as their slaves. When the thirteen American colonies declared their independence from Britain, the Jamaica House of Assembly voted to join them. This declaration never quite took hold in world politics, but it was considered a daring gesture all the same. As with cotton in the American South, the entire sugar system proved less profitable when the slave trade was abolished in Jamaica in 1807 and slavery itself ended in 1838. The transition was peaceful compared to the Civil War that divided the United States. The planters’ initial plan was to hire former slaves who knew how to handle each job. But the English quickly discovered that most free men wanted nothing more to do with plantations. So a frenzied effort was launched to attract cheap labor from abroad, initiating Jamaica’s great age of immigration.
Workers came in ethnic waves over the decades. As each group rose from the lowest levels of the social system, another group had to be solicited to do the island’s dirty work. Small numbers of Germans and Irish came first, then workers from India and China followed in great numbers.
Schoolgirls during recess in Port Antonio. While these children may look relaxed, the education system in Jamaica is very competitive, with children having to take mandatory placement exams to win spots in schools, because there are not enough places for all the children.
A full 95 percent of Jamaica’s people trace their heritage to Africa, yet most have some link or distant relative tying them to Great Britain, the Middle East, China, Portugal, Germany, South America or another island in the Caribbean. In general, these groups live together peacefully—partially because they’ve had to over the years to survive and partially because there has been so much intermarriage.
By the mid 1900s, a “national identity” had supplanted a British one in the hearts and minds of Jamaicans. This new identity was given official recognition on August 6, 1962, when Jamaica became an independent nation with only loose ties to the Commonwealth. On that day, the Union Jack was lowered for the last time, and the new black, green and gold Jamaican flag was lifted up.
“Out of Many, One Nation” is the motto of Jamaica, though it struggles today with the same problems that plague so many Caribbean islands. Its unity can be heard in the language of its people, which carries both words and word patterns from West African languages. And when Jamaicans speak, even in dark moments, it is with a unique lilt that makes every sentence a song.
The Rastafarians
Reggae’s hypnotic beat carries Rasta’s message of protest and purity
By Norma Benghiat
The tremendous mingling of cultures in Jamaica has also led to a mingling of religions. The vast majority of Jamaicans consider themselves Christian, yet there are significant communities of Jews, Hindus, Moslems and other religions. But Rastafarianism is the religion that was born in Jamaica, and it commands a serious following on the island— along with the respect of even those Jamaicans who choose not to follow it.
Say the word “Rasta” and an image of marijuana-smoking reggae musicians comes to mind, for reggae is the most well known product of this religion, spread through the world as it has been by such famous reggae