#jamaican culture

[ghost-37]

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Downsides on living in a 3rd world country

So anyone who reads my blog probably knows I am from Jamaica, although I live in the US now after going to college here. And as messed up as the US is a lot of times, I am so grateful to be here. Make no mistake: Jamaica will always be my home and I love the country so much but honestly, I never want to go back.

I feel like a big issue (depending on how you see it) is how people back home handle medical problems. For example, since coming to the US I have learnt about so many freaking allergies and food intolerances! Someone told me they were allergic to carrots and my mind exploded! I even learned fairly recently that light and water allergies are a thing 🤯.

But back home, if a kid does not want certain food because they don't like it or it upsets them, the parents are like "well you better eat it or you go hungry". Especially in my parents' generation. When meals were provided, no one really gave any consideration to allergies. If there was an event, there was no effort to make sure there was a vegetarian or vegan alternative (not that I cared much since I 100% love meat and dairy lol). I think the same attitude also applies to pain. If you have some kind of chronic pain, it's just something you need to toughen up and deal with and move on.

Thank God I never had allergies and I hope it stays that way. But I even think about my tendencies. Like I hate the sound of loud chewing. I can't stand it. I remember the first time it really bothered me. Back then, we ate dinner around the table and we were eating boiled food and stewed chicken. I was a little girl, less than 10 for sure, but I remember how overwhelmed and distressed I was at the table as I heard my family eating. It got so bad that I crushed the food to mush in my hands. My parents were mad (understandable since we couldn't afford to waste food like that) and sent me to a long timeout upstairs in the bedroom.

And it never got better.

Thankfully, we stopped eating around the table at some point. And if I could, I would listen to loud music while I ate my dinner around my family to block out the noise. Or I would retreat to a different room to eat if I wanted to eat in peace. I am lucky that most of my friends and extended family don't chew loudly but I try my best to tolerate the few that do when I am forced to be in their presence during a meal even though I am literally dying inside.

I thought I was just sensitive. When I feebly tried to bring it up to my mom during Christmas, she never treated it with any weight.

It wasn't until I mentioned my issue to a college friend that she said I may have misophonia. And it's like everything made sense. I don't know if I truly have it or not but it fits so well that I felt like I might cry. But a normie Jamaican might just say I am being extra and making a big deal out of nothing.

There are way worse struggles of living in a developing 3rd world country, don't get me wrong. But I am bringing up this because I have a family member living with me for at least a year and his eating sounds are driving me crazy and I don't know how much longer I can bear this in what used to be my quiet, safe space. This is just a way to build up some courage so I can talk to him about it. I know he won't be mad about it but it just feels so awkward.

[romonwrites]

Schools in France Vs Schools In Jamaica

[cooyahclothing]

Made in Jamaica crop tops by Cooyah.

Available worldwide at Cooyah.com

[caribbeangirlfolkloring]

The ‘Respelling Obeah’ conference that occurred earlier today. Lots to learn!

[legendunltd]

Jamaica: The Soulful Pulse of Global Influence

Jamaica, with its vibrant culture and rich history, has undeniably left an indelible mark on the global landscape through its music, art, and spiritual heritage. At the heart of Jamaica’s influence lies the timeless rhythms of reggae, the spiritual ethos of Rastafari, and the iconic legacy of Bob Marley. As we delve into the depths of Jamaica’s cultural tapestry, we uncover a profound connection…

[fcfvafeed]

Romeich Major Clarifies Controversial Job Fair Entry Fee as Marketing Tactic

Businessman and artiste manager Romeich Major faced criticism for announcing a $1,000 entry fee for his job fair. He has now revealed that this was merely a marketing tactic, with no attendees being charged. Major defends his approach, emphasizing...

By FCFVA News Team Romeich Major, a notable businessman and artiste manager based in Kingston, Jamaica, recently faced a wave of public criticism after announcing a $1,000 entry fee for his job fair. However, in a twist, Major has come forward to reveal that this fee was merely a strategic marketing move and was never meant to be collected from attendees. Image of Romeich Major via Google…

[mymusicbias]

[folkfashion]

Rastafari man, Jamaica, by Mattstone911

[marcusbelafonte]

March 1st, 1927 - April 25, 2023

RIP to the great Harry Belafonte.

What a life.

Daylight come and me wan’ go home.

[romonwrites]

Jamaican Proverbs and Sayings

[originalhaffigaza]

Real Rasta man Dem Which country is this plane ✈️ heading To ???

[spoiledbratblog]

90’s Dancehall Fashion

Location: Jamaica 🇯🇲

[punkeropercyjackson]

Eh,i find the idea that Hobie would make fun of cutesy things to the Spiderband's faces without caring if it hurts their feelings because he wants to keep his image to be just projection from Atsv fans.And the projection is being pussies

[kemetic-dreams]

Afro-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of predominant African descent. They represent the largest ethnic group in the country.

The ethnogenesis of the African Jamaican people stemmed from the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th century, when enslaved Africans were transported as slaves to Jamaica and other parts of the Americas. During the period of British rule, slaves brought into Jamaica were primarily Akan, some of whom ran away and joined with Maroons and even took over as leaders

West Africans were enslaved in wars with other West African states and kidnapped by either African or European slavers. The most common means of enslaving an African was through abduction.

Based on slave ship records, enslaved Africans mostly came from the Akan people (notably those of the Asante Kotoko alliance of the 1720's: Asante, Bono, Wassa, Nzema and Ahanta) followed by Kongo people, Fon people, Ewe people, and to a lesser degree: Yoruba, Ibibio people and Igbo people. Akan (then called Coromantee) culture was the dominant African culture in Jamaica.

Originally in earlier British colonization, the island before the 1750s was in fact mainly Akan imported. However, between 1663 and 1700, only six per cent of slave ships to Jamaica listed their origin as the Gold Coast, while between 1700 and 1720 that figure went up to 27 per cent. The number of Akan slaves arriving in Jamaica from Kormantin ports only increased in the early 18th century. But due to frequent rebellions from the then known "Coromantee" that often joined the slave rebellion group known as the Jamaican Maroons, other groups were sent to Jamaica. The Akan population was still maintained, since they were the preference of British planters in Jamaica because they were "better workers", according to these planters. According to the Slave Voyages Archives, though the Igbo had the highest importation numbers, they were only imported to Montego Bay and St. Ann's Bay ports, while the Akan (mainly Gold Coast) were more dispersed across the island and were a majority imported to seven of 14 of the island's ports (each parish has one port).

Myal and Revival

Kumfu (from the word Akom the name of the Akan spiritual system) was documented as Myal and originally only found in books, while the term Kumfu is still used by Jamaican Maroons. The priest of Kumfu was called a Kumfu-man. In 18th-century Jamaica, only Akan gods were worshipped by Akan as well as by other enslaved Africans. The Akan god of creation, Nyankopong was given praise but not worshipped directly. They poured libation to Asase Ya, the goddess of the earth. But nowadays they are only observed by the Maroons who preserved a lot of the culture of 1700s Jamaica.

"Myal" or Kumfu evolved into Revival, a syncretic Christian sect. Kumfu followers gravitated to the American Revival of 1800 Seventh Day Adventist movement because it observed Saturday as god's day of rest. This was a shared aboriginal belief of the Akan people as this too was the day that the Akan god, Nyame, rested after creating the earth. Jamaicans that were aware of their Ashanti past while wanting to keep hidden, mixed their Kumfu spirituality with the American Adventists to create Jamaican Revival in 1860. Revival has two sects: 60 order (or Zion Revival, the order of the heavens) and 61 order (or Pocomania, the order of the earth). 60 order worships God and spirits of air or the heavens on a Saturday and considers itself to be the more "clean" sect. 61 order more deals with spirits of the earth. This division of Kumfu clearly shows the dichotomy of Nyame and Asase Yaa's relationship, Nyame representing air and has his 60 order'; Asase Yaa having her 61 order of the earth. Also the Ashanti funerary/war colours: red and black have the same meaning in Revival of vengeance. Other Ashanti elements include the use of swords and rings as means to guard the spirit from spiritual attack. The Asantehene, like the Mother Woman of Revival, has special two swords used to protect himself from witchcraft called an Akrafena or soul sword and a Bosomfena or spirit sword

Jamaican Patois, known locally as Patwa, is an English creole language spoken primarily in Jamaica and the Jamaican diaspora. It is not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English. The language developed in the 17th century, when enslaved peoples from West and Central Africa blended their dialect and terms with the learned vernacular and dialectal forms of English spoken: British Englishes (including significant exposure to Scottish English) and Hiberno English. Jamaican Patwa is a post-creole speech continuum (a linguistic continuum) meaning that the variety of the language closest to the lexifier language (the acrolect) cannot be distinguished systematically from intermediate varieties (collectively referred to as the mesolect) nor even from the most divergent rural varieties (collectively referred to as the basilect). Jamaicans themselves usually refer to their use of English as patwa, a term without a precise linguistic definition.

Jamaican Patois contains many loanwords of African origin, a majority of those etymologically from Gold Coast region (particularly of the Asante-Twi dialect of the Akan language of Ghana).

Most Jamaican proverbs are of Asante people, while some included other African proverbs

Jamaican mtDNA

A DNA test study submitted to BMC Medicine in 2012 states that "....despite the historical evidence that an overwhelming majority of slaves were sent from the Bight of Biafra and West-central Africa near the end of the British slave trade, the mtDNA haplogroup profile of modern Jamaicans show a greater affinity with groups found in the present-day Gold Coast region Ghana....this is because Africans arriving from the Gold Coast may have thus found the acclimatization and acculturation process less stressful because of cultural and linguistic commonalities, leading ultimately to a greater chance of survivorship and a greater number of progeny."

More detailed results stated: "Using haplogroup distributions to calculate parental population contribution, the largest admixture coefficient was associated with the Gold Coast(0.477 ± 0.12 or 59.7% of the Jamaican population with a 2.7 chance of Pygmy and Sahelian mixture), suggesting that the people from this region may have been consistently prolific throughout the slave era on Jamaica. The diminutive admixture coefficients associated with the Bight of Biafra and West-central Africa (0.064 ± 0.05 and 0.089 ± 0.05, respectively) is striking considering the massive influx of individuals from these areas in the waning years of the British Slave trade. When excluding the pygmy groups, the contribution from the Bight of Biafra and West-central rise to their highest levels (0.095 ± 0.08 and 0.109 ± 0.06, respectively), though still far from a major contribution. When admixture coefficients were calculated by assessing shared haplotypes, the Gold Coast also had the largest contribution, though much less striking at 0.196, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.189 to 0.203. When haplotypes are allowed to differ by one base pair, the Jamaican matriline shows the greatest affinity with the Bight of Benin, though both Bight of Biafra and West-central Africa remain underrepresented. The results of the admixture analysis suggest the mtDNA haplogroup profile distribution of Jamaica more closely resembles that of aggregated populations from the modern-day Gold Coast region despite an increasing influx of individuals from both the Bight of Biafra and West-central Africa during the final years of trading enslaved Africans.

The aforementioned results apply to subjects whom have been tested. Results also stated that African Jamaicans (that make up more than 90% of the population) on an average have 97.5% of African MtDNA and very little European or Asian ancestry could be found. Both ethnic and racial genetic results are based on a low sample of 390 Jamaican persons and limited regional representation within Jamaica. As Afro-Jamaicans are not genetically homogeneous, the results for other subjects may yield different results.