Afro-Jamaicans
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Afro-Jamaicans or African-Jamaicans are Jamaicans of Black African/Sub-Saharan African descent. They presently represent the largest ethnic group in the country, comprising over 90 percent of the island's population. In addition, there are people of Afro-Jamaican descent living in other parts of the world, such as the United States and United Kingdom.
The ethnogenesis of the Afro-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. The first Africans to arrive in Jamaica came in 1513 from the Iberian Peninsula. When the English captured Jamaica in 1655, many of them fought with the Spanish, who gave them their freedom, and then fled to the mountains, resisting the British for many years to maintain their freedom, becoming known as Maroons. The British brought with them mostly Akan slaves, some of which ran away and joined with Maroons and even took over as leaders.
Origin
Africans were captured in wars, as retribution for crimes committed or by abduction and marched to the coast in "coffles" with their necks yoked to each other. The most common means of enslaving an African was through abduction. They were placed in trading posts or forts to await the six- to twelve-week Middle Passage voyage between Africa and the Americas during which they were chained together, underfed, kept in the ship's hold by the thousands. Those who survived were fattened up and oiled to look healthy prior to being auctioned in public squares to the highest bidders.
Notable Black-Jamaicans and Mixed race Jamaicans
- Joseph Hill
- Bob Marley
- Buju Banton
- Beenie Man
- Big Youth
- Black Uhuru
- Usain Bolt
- John Barnes
- Bounty Killer
- Koffee
- Dennis Brown
- Naomi Campbell
- Capleton
- Chris Gayle
- Chalice Reggae Band
- Colin Powell
- Jimmy Cliff
- Desmond Dekker
- Ricardo Gardner
- Marcus Garvey
- Beres Hammond
- Kamala Harris
- Heavy D
- I Wayne
- Inner Circle
- Grace Jones
- Damian Marley
- Ziggy Marley
- Dijon McFarlane
- Claude Mckay
- Vybz Kartel
- Morgan Heritage
- Lee "Scratch" Perry
- Yendi Phillipps
- Trevor D. Rhone
- Sheryl Lee Ralph
- Shabba Ranks
- Danny Ray
- Shaggy
- Super Cat
- Third World Band
- Patrick Ewing
- Peter Tosh
- Bunny Wailer
- The Notorious B.I.G.
- Courtney Walsh
- DJ Kool Herc
- Minister Marion Hall
- Busta Rhymes
- Queen Nanny
- Paul Bogle
- George William Gordon
- Samuel Sharpe
See also
