The Jamaica Portal

Jamaica
Location of Jamaica
LocationCaribbean

Jamaica (/əˈmkə/ jə-MAY-kə; Jamaican Patois: Jumieka [dʒʌˈmie̯ka]) is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi), it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 km (78 nmi) south of Cuba, 191 km (103 nmi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 215 km (116 nmi) southeast of the Cayman Islands (a British Overseas Territory).

With 2.8 million people,0 Jamaica is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. Most Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Because of a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, there is a large Jamaican diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music (and such associated genres as dub, ska and dancehall), and it is internationally prominent in sports, including cricket, sprinting, and athletics. Jamaica has sometimes been considered the world's least populous cultural superpower. (Full article...)

Illustration of Trelawney Town

Cudjoe's Town was located in the mountains in the southern extremities of the parish of St James, close to the border of Westmoreland, Jamaica.

In 1690, a large number of Akan freedom fighters already living in the mountains launched an assault on the Sutton's Estate in Clarendon, central Jamaica, free between 300 and 400 enslaved people. They established a new town of Free black people in Jamaica, in the forested mountains of the island's interior, in the Cockpit Country. Naquan, Cudjoe's father, was allegedly the one who orchestrated this rebellion. Naquan was succeeded by Cudjoe, the first leader of this group of Jamaican Maroons in western Jamaica. (Full article...)

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Did you know (auto-generated)

  • ... that at 107 years old, Stanley Stair of Jamaica was at the time of his death the last surviving Caribbean veteran of World War I?
  • ... that Gloria Cameron was the first native Jamaican in the UK to appear on the British television programme This Is Your Life?
  • ... that footballer Kameron Simmonds, who plays for Jamaica, only took up the sport after a gymnastics injury?
  • ... that Antoinette Tidjani Alou wrote a work of autofiction that traces the journey of a Jamaican woman who moved to Niger for love?
  • ... that Swedish naval officer Axel Lagerbielke was imprisoned in Lima for over a year, held in Callao and eventually escaped from Panama on an English packet boat to Jamaica?
  • ... that the Carib Theatre in Kingston, Jamaica, was the British West Indies' first building to offer air conditioning upon its opening?

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Cliff performing in 2012

James Chambers, OM (born 30 July 1944), known professionally as Jimmy Cliff, is a Jamaican ska, rocksteady, reggae and soul musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and actor. He is the only living reggae musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievements in the arts and sciences.

Cliff is best known among mainstream audiences for songs such as "Many Rivers to Cross", "You Can Get It If You Really Want", "The Harder They Come", "Reggae Night", and "Hakuna Matata", and his covers of Cat Stevens's "Wild World" and Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now" from the film Cool Runnings. He starred in the film The Harder They Come, which helped popularize reggae around the world, and Club Paradise. Cliff was one of five performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. (Full article...)

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South Camp Adult Correctional Centre, also known as the Gun Court prison

The Gun Court is the branch of the Jamaican judicial system that tries criminal cases involving firearms. The court was established by Parliament in 1974 to combat rising gun violence, and empowered to try suspects in camera, without a jury. The Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, and Resident Magistrate's Courts function as Gun Courts whenever they hear firearms cases. There is also a Western Regional Gun Court in Montego Bay. Those convicted by the Gun Court are imprisoned in a dedicated prison compound at South Camp in Kingston. Until 1999, the Gun Court sessions were also held in the same facility.

The long sentences of the Gun Court and its restrictions on the rights of the accused have given rise to constitutional challenges, some of which have been appealed to the Privy Council in London. These cases have resulted in some modifications to the court, but have upheld it on the whole. The Gun Court system has also been the target of criticism because of its lengthy delay in hearing cases, and the continuing rise in gun violence since its adoption. (Full article...)

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Credit: Arpingstone
An Air Jamaica Airbus A340-300 (registration 6Y-JMP) landing at London Heathrow Airport, England

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