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  • Jamaican subscriber Ashlee P., sent me this book of Jamaican patois poems by Luis Bennett.

  • Here's a poem about a time a circus came to Kingston and a lion escaped from its cage.

  • Wat a magic, wat a mystery. Circus lion bus him boun'

  • and de crowd doan get excited, and de crowd is safe and soun.

  • Jamaica people gran me chile, Jamaica people bole,

  • Fe face dee king o' Beas, wit everyting unda controle.

  • De lion bus de cage door doun, de lion jump de wall.

  • An not a soul doan halla out & not a soul doan bawl.

  • De lion mingle wid de crowd an prowl from wes' to eas'

  • De people sidung calmly,

  • an salute the King o' Beas.

  • I love patois!

  • Everybody I'm your host Barb's Jah Maica.

  • Probably the most iconic Caribbean nation to ever hit international mainstream pop culture.

  • So many things to talk about, let's just jump in.

  • Ahh, Back in the Caribbean. Don't you just love this region of the planet? First of all,

  • Jamaica is the fourth largest island country in the Caribbean.

  • Located west of Haiti', south of Cuba and east of the Cayman Islands,

  • where all the billionaires hide those wonderfully offshore bank accounts to avoid taxes.

  • Jamaica is divided into fourteen parishes in the capital Kingston

  • in itself acting as a parish. The parishes are further kind of split into

  • Three historic counties that don't have any administrative relevance.

  • They are Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey. Yeah, with names like that, you can almost smell the British residue.

  • The largest cities after the capital Kingston would be Spanish Town, Portmore both in the

  • St. Catherine parish; however if we're talking about outside the general Kingston area,

  • the next largest would be Montego Bay and Mandeville

  • with the three busiest and only international airports being Kingston

  • Norman Manly International,

  • Montego Bay, Sangster International and Bosco Belles Ian Fleming international

  • There was some controversy over naming that last airport because everybody was like "Why don't we name it after a Jamaican person?"

  • but Prime Minister Golding was like "Look, the dude kind of put Jamaica on the map", and if it wasn't for us

  • he wouldn't have had the inspiration to create James Bond

  • So suck it up, people!

  • Now despite being small, Jamaica still holds its ground under the disputed territory between them and Columbia, Nicaragua and the U.S

  • Over the uninhabited submerged reefs and bank areas of Bajo Nuevo and the Serranilla Bank.

  • Remember people, the second you discover even the smallest sandbag protruding from the sea,

  • you gotta claim it. That way you get an exclusive economic zone. WOO HOO!

  • Speaking of which, the country has about 30 smaller islands and islets and keys and sandbanks lining their shores.

  • The largest one being Great Goat island in the south across Mors pen. Now the one thing you need to know about Jamaica and its charm

  • is that if you come, you will notice some of the strangest place names Imaginable.

  • Each town has a little bit of a story and context.

  • So you'll encounter things like Broke Neck Gully, Rattrap, Betty's Hope, Rest and be Thankful, Old Woman, Savannah

  • See Me No More, Time and Patience Wait a Bit, and my personal favorite Me No Sen You No Come.

  • Jamaicans just like to call it as they see it. Simple, no need to overcomplicate!

  • Hmm, what should we call this place?

  • Drop Sandwich Lagoon!

  • Another interesting thing is that Jamaica has maroon villages,

  • which are inhabited by people descended from slaves that escaped and created their own free societies in the mountains.

  • These villages would eventually play a strong role in Jamaica's history and in a future episode

  • Sierra Leone! You will just have to wait like 47 years for that episode.

  • Today they kind of hold like a slight autonomous and separate role from the rest of Jamaican culture

  • as they live in secluded areas holding on to ancient African traditions.

  • Otherwise some top-level spaces of interest might include Hero Circle,

  • Glistening waters with Bioluminescent organisms that light up,

  • Windsor's fire spring; You can literally light it on fire,

  • Sunken Pirate City, Floyd's Pelican bar made of driftwood. Dolphin Cove, the Bob Marley museum and mausoleum, Dunn's River Falls,

  • Reggae Beach, Kool Runnings water park, mountain river cave with Taino and Arawak paintings,

  • Mystic mountain rainforest, bobsledding in Ochos Rios, Martha Bray River with wooden rafts and Ira Blue Hole and Secret Falls.

  • Yeah, I'm still kind of mind-blowing over that fire water and glowing lagoon place.

  • That's just proof that Jamaica is thriving with magical natural wonders, which brings us to

  • Jamaica may be small but it is definitely loaded with natural treasures.

  • First of all, Jamaica lies below the Cayman Trough on the Nicaragua rise an area in the Caribbean Sea

  • that is elevated giving Jamaica shallower waters and richer biodiversity. This also gives them the seventh largest natural harbour in the world: Kingston Harbour.

  • The country is also about 146 miles long (235 kilometers)

  • And at its widest only about 52 miles (84 kilometers) wide. Basically Jamaica is made up of

  • nice valleys and plains in the West and center sometimes referred to as "Cockpit country"

  • with a small Mocho and Dry Harbour mountains in the centre and finally the tallest range, the Blue Mountains with the tallest peak:

  • Blue Mountain peak in the east starting around Kingston. The longest river being a black river on the west side

  • and Wally Wash Pond being the largest body of water inland. Now just like we studies in Dominica episode,

  • Jamaica is also home to natural mineral and hot springs, such as Blue Hole, Bubbling Springs, Milk River, Rockford Mineral Spa and the Blue Lagoon -

  • Not this one - this one. Although much of the island has been stripped for agriculture, wildlife is also quite prevalent

  • especially in the undisturbed force in the north and blue mountains. Animals like bats,

  • Hutia, boar and the indigenous Jamaican boa and freshwater Jamaican slider turtle can be found. Speaking of agriculture,

  • Jamaica was primarily used by the colonists for sugar plantations. However today, all sorts of crops are grown. The most notably the ackee fruit

  • which actually tastes salty not sweet. Ackee is used in the national dish: Ackee and saltfish.

  • Otherwise other notable Jamaican dishes might include: Rice and peas, jerk chicken, chicken foot soup, mannish water,

  • steamed callaloo and gizada. And I know what half of you are thinking: Yes, let's talk ganja.

  • Yes, we all know it.

  • Cannabis is pretty internationally recognized as a part of Jamaican culture.

  • It was actually introduced from India by indentured servants from India

  • which is where the word "ganja" comes from. It's weird because for the longest time, growing marijuana

  • and even possessing it was illegal even though you can literally just find plants in the middle of the forests.

  • It wasn't until 2015 that the country voted to decriminalize and amend strict laws. Today,

  • you are allowed to have up to five plants legally

  • more if you have a cultivators license. Possession up to two ounces or 56 grams is legal.

  • Rastafarians are allowed to use it for religious purposes. And the Rastafarians are a whole other story.

  • Jamaica's people are few but incredibly world-renowned and unique in so many ways.

  • Looks like a great time to discuss that in

  • Jamaica lives by the motto: Out of many, one people.

  • Attributing the unity to all the cultural pieces that have made them who they are today.

  • First of all, the country has about 3 million people and is the third largest Anglophone nation in the Americas.

  • The vast majority of Jamaicans identify as black at over 90%,

  • about 7% are mixed and the remainder are actually mostly made up of Asians, not whites, like the Chinese and Indian Jamaicans

  • with whites following after, mostly descended from British colonialists and other people groups following.

  • And the coolest thing is: They all speak in a Jamaican accent.

  • Here's a white guy and a Chinese guy both born in Jamaica

  • I come from Jamaica. Come from the west side...

  • Can't really tell you where we come from...

  • I'm Jamaican. What people don't believe me. They don't believe I come from Jamaica because I'm Chinese.

  • Yeah, that was pretty cool, wasn't it? They used the Jamaican dollar as their currency.

  • They use the type A,B American style plug outlets and they drive on the left side of the road.

  • Now even though they have a small population,

  • Jamaica has probably made the biggest global impact for Caribbean culture out of all their neighbors. In the quickest way I can summarize their history:

  • Tainos and Arawaks, Christopher Columbus comes in and calls it Santiago, Slaves come in from Africa, Brits come in calling it Jamaica,

  • Slavery abolished in 1838, The Brits were like:

  • "Dang we need cheap labor since the slaves are free. Hmm

  • Oh, yeah, let's do the same thing we did with Guyana!" Come on Indians and Chinese, Finally Jamaica gains independence in 1962 however

  • However, they still fall under the Commonwealth as a constitutional monarchy, but Queen Elizabeth still remains the technical head of state

  • but nobody really sees her as like the "Head head of state".

  • Now due to Jamaica's relative isolation from the rest of the Antilles, Jamaica had to kind of develop their own unique style of customs and traditions.

  • For one, Christianity has played a huge role in Jamaica.

  • Jamaica also has more churches per square kilometer than anywhere else in the world. Contrary to popular belief,

  • Rastafarianism although started in Jamaica in the 1930s only makes a small minority of somewhere around

  • 5% of the population. if you don't know anything about Rastafarianism, basically,

  • it's an Afro Centric belief system that takes inspiration from the Christian Bible as certain rituals and doctrines

  • like the one we discussed in the Ethiopia episode, in which they believed that Haillie Sellasse was the messiah,

  • Yada yada yada, if you're interested in learning it, just Google it. I wish it was that easy.

  • I wish I could just do that for every episode. Just Google it, "Jamaica". Done. Second,

  • we all know the biggest source of global influence for Jamaica would be no doubt the music. Starting in the 50s,

  • Jamaica's ska and Rocksteady "Precursors to the Sixties" reggae and dancehall melodies

  • not only became super popular in themselves

  • but also paved the way for other branch genres like hip-hop and EDM. In order to really appreciate Jamaica's music though,

  • it might be wise to brush up on the part I personally find most fascinating: patois.

  • Now although in a legal sense, the official language of Jamaica is standard Jamaican English

  • Or SJE. Many will say that technically there are two languages: The other being Jamaican Patois,

  • which is basically like an English Creole much like what Haiti did with French. The thing is

  • Jamaican Patois is kind of like a loose-feel-it-as-you-go type of language.

  • It doesn't have an official standardized format.

  • But there are certainly universally used words such as:

  • and of course everyone knows the classics:

  • However when they want to emphasize something, they like repeat a word twice like:

  • and they always use like filler words, which don't have any meaning, but it kind of illustrates the story better. For example:

  • Okay, Jamaican geograpeep Daron wrote this.

  • I'm gonna try to see if I could do it.

  • I don't know how I did. That was either incredibly offensive or kind of acceptable.

  • Oh if you make a Jamaican friend, chances are.

  • you will get a nickname and its usual based off of anything they noticed from you.

  • Yo man ya, what your name?

  • Uhh... "Keith".

  • Nah, man you like to broom your name "Broomey". Ya eat the cupcake your name "Munchie".

  • You're raising three daughters and a host in San Francisco meet Juan Collier, Bob Saget. Like that!

  • Anyway, we could go on explaining more about the various festivals, traditions, dances

  • or how they are the only Caribbean nation with an active hockey team even though all the players are like literally Canadian Nationals

  • but that'll take too long. For what it's worth, some notable people of Jamaican descent might include:

  • Michael Lee-Chin, Dr. Thomas Phillip Lecky, Oliver Samuel,

  • Sprinters Usain Bolt, Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce and Asafa Powell, Merlin Ottey,

  • Dustin Brown, Jimmy Cliff, Ziggy Marley, Shaggy, Mona Hammond, Grace Jones, Sanya Richards-Ross,

  • Mary Seacole, Damian Marley, Sean Kingston, Portia Simpson Miller, Marcus Garvey, Naomi Cambell, Notorious B.I.G,

  • Patrick Ewing, Louise Simone Bennett, and the most iconic Jamaican maybe of all time the master himself, Robert Bob Nesta Marley.

  • All right, now we've got to move on and see who else likes to dance the reggae beat with Jamaica.

  • If you ask an Jamaican what Jamaicans are best at, they'll probably say something like

  • "Knowing how to slow down and take it easy when life needs to".

  • Therefore, it's not hard for other countries to like Jamaica.

  • First of all, Jamaica has close ties to Cuba as they have been giving scholarships and medical help for decades.

  • Treaties and business deals have always been active.

  • They have a funny little rivalry with Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados though when it comes to dominating the tourism industry

  • And sports competitions. But when they meet up as people, it's like they're brothers all over again.

  • China keeps an eye on them considering that they already have a noticeable Chinese minority

  • by the way, Tessanne Chin who won the voice in The US Was like a huge deal

  • and they have been investing like crazy for the past few decades. Jamaican see this as kind of like a

  • suspiciously nice gesture because they like the business, but they don't want to be taken over by excessive debt.

  • Also like mentioned in the Ethiopia episode, Jamaicans love Ethiopia especially Rastafarians. In terms of their best friends though,

  • the Jamaicans I've talked to have said most likely their fellow Anglophone Nations:

  • The USA, Canada and the UK.

  • These areas have the largest Jamaican diaspora communities and remanence money makes a huge part of their economy.

  • Visa-free entry is allowed for each nation and each country places to make a high on tourism publicity

  • which in return gives them huge global popularity.

  • In conclusion, Jamaica is like the little island that could and music was its fuel.

  • People all around the world now put this tiny landmass in high regard all because they have that certain

  • talawa charm but with a laid-back life that everyone admires.

  • Stay tuned, Japan is coming up next!

Jamaican subscriber Ashlee P., sent me this book of Jamaican patois poems by Luis Bennett.

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地理の今!ジャマイカ (Geography Now! Jamaica)

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    Andy Zuo に公開 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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