The cultural life of Jamaica is a wealthy one; its music, art, and cuisine have a spirit that's as hard to describe as the rhythms of reggae or an outburst of streetwise patois. Although 95% of the population traces its bloodlines to Africa, Jamaica is a stockpot of cultures, including those of other Caribbean islands, Great Britain, the Middle East, India, China, Germany, Portugal, and South America. The third-largest island in the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola), Jamaica enjoys a considerable self-sufficiency based on tourism, agriculture, and mining.
The island's physical attractions include jungle mountaintops, clear waterfalls, and unforgettable beaches, and its tourist areas are grouped around the northern and western coastlines. Ocho Rios (often just Ochi) is a major cruise port, resort center, and the home of Dunn's River Falls, probably the most photographed spot in the nation. Montego Bay (or MoBay, as it's known), destination of most tourist flights, is a sprawling beach resort. At the island's western tip lies Negril, once a sleepy hangout for bohemian travelers; though now bigger and glitzier. In addition to these pleasure capitals, Jamaica has a real capital in Kingston, the true heart and head of the island. This is where politics, literature, music, and art wrestle for acceptance in the largest (800,000 people) English-speaking city in the Western hemisphere south of Miami.
The first group known to have reached Jamaica were the Arawak Indians, who paddled their canoes from the Orinoco region of South America around AD 1000. In 1494 Christopher Columbus stepped ashore at what is now called Discovery Bay. Having spent four centuries on the island, the Arawaks had little notion that his footsteps on their sand would mean their extinction within 50 years, thanks to overwork, cruelty, and European diseases. When the indigenous population died out, the Spanish brought African slaves to the island.
What is now St. Ann's Bay was established as New Seville in 1509 and served as the Spanish capital until the local government crossed the island to Santiago de la Vega (now Spanish Town). The Spaniards were never impressed with Jamaica; they found no precious metals, and they let the island fester in poverty for 161 years. When 5,000 British soldiers and sailors appeared in Kingston Harbor in 1655, the Spaniards didn't put up a fight.
The arrival of the English and the three centuries of rule that followed provided Jamaica with the genteel underpinnings of its present life. The British were challenged soon after their arrival, however, by the Maroons, former slaves the Spanish had freed and armed to harass the island's new rulers. The Maroons took to the most rugged regions of the island, led by the runaway slave and head of an Ashanti freedom-fighting family, Cudjoe. The First Maroon War (1690-1739) was played out across the island using guerrilla warfare. The island then remained quiet until 1760, when a slave rebellion broke out; later that century the Second Maroon War began. Tensions reached a peak in 1832 with the hanging of a Baptist minister, Sam Sharpe, in Montego Bay -- punishment for his role as ringleader in an island-wide slave rebellion. Three years later slavery was abolished. Today the hanging is remembered at Sam Sharpe Square in the midst of bustling MoBay with a statue of the fallen leader.
The second half of the 20th century brought independence to Jamaica. On August 6, 1962, the island became an independent nation, although still a member of the British Commonwealth. The government is headed by a freely elected prime minister. Two political parties, the People's National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), vie for position, and elections can become heated, even violent, events. Elections in 1980 resulted in many deaths, mostly in Kingston's ghettos; seven more recent elections were carefully monitored by a contingent that included Jimmy Carter and Colin Powell, and remained peaceful.
Today's Jamaica is a place where poverty is rampant, and many citizens must work at the fringes of the tourist industry as unlicensed taxi drivers, hair braiders, and vendors. Being hassled is one of the most common complaints by travelers to Jamaica, and the government has increased fines and even penalties of jail time for hassling tourists. Many problems involve attempts to sell marijuana, or ganja, an illegal product.
Still, despite its problems, Jamaica is a place of profound natural beauty and rich, authentic culture. Travelers here find a multitude of little things that call them back time and again -- from the sizzle of jerk pork on a roadside grill to the lap of waves on a sandy beach, the call of the magnificent doctor bird flitting through the trees, or the quiet whistle of a breeze through the Blue Mountains. This is a land of a million surprises.
