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Our History & People

Christopher Columbus landed in Jamaica on May 4, 1494. In his log, he described Jamaica as “the fairest island that eyes have beheld; mountains and the land seem to touch the sky… all full of valleys and fields and plains.”

In Jamaica, the Spanish mariners found a gentle American Indian people, the Tainos; a peaceful people who had never experienced war. Sadly, under the Spanish settlement, the entire Indian population, perhaps a hundred throusand, died from a combination of forced labor and European infections like the common cold, to which they had no immunity.

The Spaniards never fully colonized Jamaica, although Columbus himself spent nearly a year on the island in 1503. The island was then named “Xaymaca” by the Tainos, meaning “land of wood and water.” The words “hurricane,” “tobacco” and “barbeque” were also derived from their language.

In 1509, the Spaniards established a capital, New Seville, near the town of Ocho Rios. The Spaniards actually called the area Las Chorreras, meaning “waterfalls”. The English misunderstood, interpreting Las Chorreras to mean “eight rivers”, hence the name Ocho Rios. Today, the foundations of New Seville are under excavation, and the search continues for the two ships that Columbus beached nearby. In their century and a half of rule, the Spaniards brought sugar cane, and later, slaves from Africa to cultivate the cane.

The English captured Jamaica in 1655 and turned the island into one vast sugar plantation, making the planters rich. In England, they used to say, “as rich as a West Indian planter”. To grow the sugar cane, the English brought many more Africans to work as slaves from the west coast of the continent and from present-day Nigeria.

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Buccaneers soon operated out of Jamaica, attacking the treasure ships of Spain and France. One was a young indentured labourer from Wales named Henry Morgan. He would prosper and rise to Lieutenant Governor. His home base, Port Royal, was known as “the richest and wickedest city in Chistendom.” But, in 1692, an earthquake destroyed Port Royal, pushing it below the sea.

When the English arrived, the Spaniards fled to the neighbouring islands. Their slaves escaped into the mountains and formed their own independent groups, called Maroons. The Maroons were in time joined by other slaves who escaped from the English. For a long time they fought against the English who sought to re-enslave them. So successful were the Maroons, fighting from their fortresses, that the English were forced to sign peace treaties granting the Maroons self-government and ceding to them the mountain lands that they inhabited. The runaways periodically staged rebellions until the treaty in 1739 that gave them a measure of local autonomy they still retain today. Slavery was abolished in 1834.

In the economic chaos that followed emancipation, one event stood out: the Morant Bay Rebellion of 1865. The uprising was led by a black Baptist deacon named Paul Bogle and was supported by a wealthy Kingston businessman, George William Gordon. Both were executed and are now among Jamaica’s national heroes.

In the years that followed, much of modern Jamaica was forged. Migrants from India and China came as indentured workers for sugar estates and rapidly moved to other occupations. Soon, Jewish settlers came to Jamaica, followed by migrant Arab traders from Palestine.

Mixed marriages created today’s unique racially mixed Jamaican people, and are the basis of Jamaica’s national motto, “Out of Many, One People”. Ambition and aspirations sent many abroad. A Jamaican workforce helped to build the Panama Canal. Others grew cane in Cuba and mahogany in Belize while some early enterprising migrants started communities in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere.

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http://www.marcusgarvey.net/Information/history.htm


In 1920 Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican by birth and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), attracted global attention with his 'back to Africa' movement for black people. The development of the black awareness movement and civil protest movement in the USA was a direct result of Garvey's work. In a speech Garvey declared: "Look to Africa, for the crowning of a black king, he shall be the Redeemer." A few years later, on 2 November 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned as King of Ethiopia Emperor Haile Selassie (Power of the Trinity) I, Conquering Lion from the Tribe of Judah and King of the Kings of Ethiopia.
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The coronation was regarded as the fulfillment of Garvey's prediction about the black king, and can in a certain sense be viewed as the official start of the Rastafarian movement. Rastafarians refer to him as His Majesty Kaiser Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion from the Tribe of Judah, Elected One of God, Light of the World, King of Zion.

 http://www.angelfire.com/ny/ethiocrown/Haile.html

H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie arrived in Jamaica on April 21, 1966. On arrival at the Norman Manley Airport, he exited the plane but then retreated when he saw thousands of Rastafarian chanting Jah Rastafari. He refused to leave the plane until his security was assured. He eventually exited and with heavy security was quickly hurried into a waiting car and rushed to a reception arranged by Prime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante.

 Jamaican people continue to prosper and to give the world men and women of distinction including legendary entertainer Harry Belafonte, basketball player Patrick Ewing, baseball palyer Chalres (Chilli) Davis, Olympic medallist Merlene Ottey, reggae superstar Bob Marley, middleweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis, and among the top female polo players in the world Lesley Ann Masterton, and more recently Usain Bolt who took Beijing by storm at the 2008 Olympics. Bolt electrified 90,000 fans at the Bird's Nest, striking not once but thrice with world records.

On August 6, 1962, at a midnight ceremony witnessed by Britain’s Princess Margaret and U.S. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, the British Union jack was lowered; the new black, gold and green Jamaican flag was raised, and Jamaica became an independent nation.


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Reggae legend Bob Marley, along with such artists as Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh, Toots & The Maytals and Third World have received global acclaim for decades. A more recent derivative of reggae, Dancehall, has become the driving force for a younger generation, heavily influencing local and international trends in fashion and dance – even street language. Sean Paul, Beenie man and Shaggy are among many artists now lighting up the charts across the Caribbean and around the world.

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It’s not only our music gaining world recognition. A variety of Jamaican paintings and carvings are on display at Kingston’s National Gallery. Priceless intuitive pieces of Dunkley and Kapo, as well as contemporary pieces, ensure the art scene in Jamaica remains as vibrant as any. Regular exhibitions grace art galleries all around the island.

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