Jamaica

So, swimming below Cuba and the west of Haiti lies Jamaica. I know, I know: you’re all thinking of Tom Cruise’s character Brian Flanagan mixing cocktails by the beach in Cocktail (am I right, or am I right?) but, please, let’s think about independence for a moment or two. On 6 August, 1962 Jamaica gained its independence from the United Kingdom, and now we’re here to celebrate Jamaica’s Independence Day.

And stop thinking only of the Rastafari movement. There’s more to Jamaica than rastas, reggae and ska. There is also, for instance, James Bond. Ian Fleming lived there and liked to send the super-spy there regularly.

We’ve been reading about the Arawaks whenever we get to the Caribbean, and Jamaica is no different—the Arawak (and, apparently, maybe the Taino people as well) first settled on Jamaica anywhere between 6000 and 3000 years ago. Whether they died out immediately after European contact or survive for a little while longer, what is apparent is that there’s little trace left of the first nation peoples of Jamaica.

We’re back to Columbus—or, as I like to think of him by now, my old friend Chris. He landed in Jamaica in 1494, and claimed the island for Spain. The first settlement on the island was at Sevilla. It didn’t last long—the settlement was abandoned in 1554. Abandoned?, you ask. Why? Why, the best reason—pirates!

The English got rid of the Spanish, and in 1655 the English took over Jamaica, and then Jamaica became a sugar hot-spot. In the early nineteenth century the island was producing more than 77,000 tonnes of sugar a year. Go brush your teeth, just for thinking about that. Obviously at this stage there were slaves working on the plantations that produced all this sugar. When abolition took effect, the British brought in indentured servants from China and India. Because that’s not exploitative at all. (You can tell when I’m writing with sarcasm, right?) Oh, and Jamaica were a bit slow off the mark in letting abolition become reality: the 1833 law was enacted on 1 August 1834, but in Jamaica full emancipation didn’t really get declared until 1838. Today about 90 percent of the population are of African descent.

Around the middle of the 20th century Jamaica started to edge towards its independence until it gained full independence in 1962.

On my! The name Montego Bay (yes, I believe the Beach Boys mention Montego in "Kokomo") comes from the Spanish name Manteca bahía. Translation? Bay of Lard. No, I didn’t mis-type Lord. I mean Lard. As in, named in honour of the large boar population which contributed to the lard-making industry.

But forget about the lard. Go. Lie on a beach. Wait for your cocktail.

Before you fall asleep in the sun, a poem. I have, for your reading pleasure, “Getting There” by Edward Baugh from The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry.


Getting There

It not easy to reach where she live.
I mean, is best you have a four-wheel drive,
and like how my patty pan so old
and spare parts hard to get, I fraid.
I wonder why that woman love
hillside so much and winy-winy
road, when everybody know
she born under Cross Roads clock and grow
by seaside like all the rest of we.
Some part, I tell you, two vehicle can’t pass
and if rain falling is watercourse
you navigating, and rockstone mashing up
you muffler, and ten to one
a landslide blocking you. You must
keep you eye sharp for the turn-off
or you pass it and lost. I bet
by now you dying to know
who this woman I talking bout
so much! Well, to tell
the truth, I not too sure
myself. My friend who study
Literature say she is the tenth
muse. Him say her name
is Silence. I don’t know
nothing bout that, but I want
to believe what them other one say
is true—that when you reach
you don’t worry so much
bout the gas and the wear-and-tear
no more, and it have some flowers
and bird make your spirit repose
in gladness, and is like
everything make sense, at last.

—Edward Baugh
from The Heinemann Book of Caribbean Poetry