Living in the Caribbean

Jamaica is and Island situated in the Caribbean Sea, south of Cuba, west of the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Its indigenous Arawakan-speaking Taíno inhabitants named the island Xaymaca, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water", or the "Land of Springs".

It was first a Spanish possesion, in 1655 it became an English, and later a British colony, known as "Jamaica". With 2.8 million people, it is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas, after the United States and Canada. Jamaica became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962. It remains a Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. Kingston is the largest city in Jamaica and the country's capital. English is the official language Jamaicans speak an English-African Creole language known as Jamaican Patois, which has become known widely through the spread of Reggae music.

The country´s motto "Out of Many, One People”, highlights it multicultural character. Most of the people in Jamaica are descended from the African slaves from long ago. Ancestors of other Jamaicans may have been explorers and settlers. As the cities in Jamaica grew, more immigrants decided to move to Jamaica. Most immigrants come from China or India. Large scale migration from Jamaica to the UK occured primarily in the 1950's and 1960's (when the country was still under British rule), nowadays Jamaican communities exist in most large UK cities.

The way people in Jamaica get food is not by going to the local grocery store but by going to a traditional market in the middle of town. They carry the food supplies back home by balancing a basket on the top of their heads with the food inside. The people in Jamaica wear colorful robes draped over soft linen underneath. They wear this typical clothing along with hats to match their robes.