A Political and Cultural History of Jamaica Essay

The 1930’s was a time of great struggle in the USA. The New York stock market crashed in 1929 and triggered a spiral of economic depression, which hit African Americans hard.

The country that I chose to conduct a culture analysis on is Jamaica. Jamaica is a third world country located in North America and the 3rd largest island in the Caribbean Sea. There is a 2.5 million population, which equally divided between urban and rural areas. The country runs approximately 146 miles long and varies between 21- 52 miles wide. The climate is tropical and its main tourist attraction is their beautiful beaches. The capital of Jamaica is Kingston, which has a population of more than 645,000. Kingston is the chief port of Jamaica and is along the southeastern coast of the island. It is covered by the “Blue Mountains”, which is thickly covered which tree ferns. The Blue Mountains experiences an average of 200 inches of rain annually, resulting in topsoil erosion and an abundance of streams. Peasants nurture coffee, usually grown on large plantations, in the valleys of the mountains. It is amongst the most expensive coffees in the world and is exported mainly to Japan.

“The imposition of structural adjustment programs in the Third World since the 1970s has been characterized as a war against the poor, a process of [neo] recolonization” (Turner, 1994: 37). This statement is particularly applicable to the country of Jamaica. The island has been susceptible to a variety of neocolonial acts including the presence of multinational corporations, structural adjustment programs, and loan organizations that have sucked Jamaica’s economy dry. This neocolonial presence has devastated the population in more ways than one. It is apparent that neocolonialism has had and continues to have a large impact on society as a whole in Jamaica. This

In an article written in the Jamaica Observer, Haughton (2017) describes the state of Jamaica as an under-developed child who continues to depend on its parents for approval. “For many years colonialism milked Jamaica and other Caribbean countries by imposing a false identity on our people, diminishing resources that affected growth and development (Haughton, 2017).

Jamaica Kincaid successfully convinces her audience that post colonial impact still remains. Through the use of rhetorical appeals such as pathos, logos and imagery she successfully explains her claim. Through this novel she gives an insightful explanation of what antigua is like from a person who comes from that area. Kincaid being born in antigua, she gives us a view from her eyes on what antigua is really like while going through post colonial impact. Kincaid incorporates historical background in text to convince her audience that this impact is holding back antigua from the good and enjoyable place it can really be. She develops a connection with the audience when she makes them feel like the tourist that is figuring out what's going on in the background of antigua. This connection serves as pathos as it makes the audience feel the emotion of anger and disappointment for not knowing what mess is really going on in this small island. This demonstration shows how cultures everywhere are affected by postcolonialism and how there is a negative global commonality between tourist and natives.

The island of Jamaica is very rich in culture and has many historic turnabouts throughout the years. The country has a rich and complex history including being the first country to have Arawak and Taino Indians settle there.

Since the arrival of Europeans the Caribbean islands have been going through constant change. The loss of native peoples and the introduction of the plantation system had immediate and permanent reprocussions on the islands. The Plantation system set up a society which consisted of a large, captive lower class and a powerful, wealthy upper class. As the plantation systems became successful labor was needed in order to progress. Slavery became the answer to the problem. Slavery played an important role in the how the economy changed the islands because there was a

Jamaica is a land of diverse cultures. It has a number of different racial ethnic groups .The largest group however is the blacks or Africans so 'Jamaica’s culture' is predominantly black. Interwoven is also the European culture which these blacks learnt from their former white slaves masters. You will find Indians living in Jamaica also. Many Indians came to Jamaica as indentured servants and stayed, they too have an input in the Jamaica’s culture.

The caribbean is where a small island, contains two countries within its borders and a long history of conflict. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are two different country, with completely different cultures, from religion, to the food they eat, Two countries, with two different, yet correlating stories. A story of conflict is what unites these two countries. This paper will attempt to analyse that story, and answer how this small island came to be divided into two countries, and inhabited by two peoples of such different cultures. This paper will also take a small look at the results of this history, and it’s effects on both countries.

     The people of Jamaica have no influence on the daily economic decisions that affect their lives. For almost 25 years, Jamaica has been able to keep a very small percentage of its national revenue because of agencies like the World Bank and IMF. While other big name countries continue to grow economically, these

In a quaint little village tucked away on a beautiful Caribbean island, lays the seaside town of Runaway bay. A town filled with deep rooted culture on an island filled with welcoming natives. The pleasant vibes of reggae music and Rastafarian culture flow from the hills to the sandy shores. This island rich with tropical fruits and spices is located in the heart of the Greater Antilles. History tells that the enslaved island once known to its natives as “Xaymeca”, has come a long way in becoming the independent nation known today as Jamaica. In the Sea of many islands known as the West Indies, Jamaica stands peaceful, welcoming tourist and expanding rapidly. From an early age my passion for the island and its culture

     Jamaica is a tropical island, located in the heart of the Caribbean Sea. Around the coastlines are beautiful beaches with crystal clear blue-green water. In some respects, this is the majority of what people know about Jamaica. In this orientation text you will better understand Jamaica’s history, the people who live there, the many different religions, geography, and governments that have ruled the land.

Jamaica is not just white sand beaches and mimosas. Behind the thin veil of paradise lurk corruption, violence, and inequalities. Life & Debt illustrates the daily realties of Jamaica following IMF structural adjustment programs. IMF reforms have perpetuated a cycle of debt that Jamaicans have little hope to escape. Although IMF conditionality claims to develop nations so that they can grow and re-pay their lenders, Jamaica is still indebted $4.5 billion dollars and has little development to show for it. Measures of austerity coupled with devaluation, high interest rates, and drops in local wages results in greater unemployment, increased violence, and widening inequality. The bulk of the film focuses on how global integration has undercut

The sugar plantations increased the profit for the earlier settlers, because in this era sugar was uncommon. The money that entered Barbados from the sugar plantations brought political power to the owners who were controlling the economic aspects as well as in governmental offices. Land owners made it known to the slaves that they were the authority figure and they should not try to get out of line. “Its House of Assembly, which began meeting in 1639, is third-oldest legislative body in the Western Hemisphere, preceded only by Bermuda’s legislature and the Virginia House of Burgesses” (Country Watch, Inc., 2014) . This government wrote a democratic constitution which was used as a template by “the American Founding Fathers” (Country Watch, 2014) to draw up the United States Constitution. Sugar plantations were a successful commercial enterprise which raised a split in Barbados between large plantations and the early small farms resulting in these small farmers to leave. “Some of the displaced farmers relocated to British colonies in North America” (Barbados, 2011). In the years between 1663 through 1669 Barbados was hit with many natural disasters such as a locust plague, Bridgetown fire, a hurricane, drought and in other times too much rain which added to the island’s financial problems. Yet, the natural disasters did not stop the business men

Columbus discovered Jamaica on May 5, 1494, one year after he heard of the existence of the island. However, the true history of Jamaica begins with the African-Jamaican people who came to the island twenty years after the English took control from the Spaniards. The history of Jamaica can be broken up into different time periods, which were defined by watershed moments or events. Jamaican history begins with the establishment of the native islanders called the Tainos who inhabited the island for hundreds of years before the discoveries of Columbus. (JNHT 1)