[P] FROM JAMAICA TO THE WORLD

THEME : AMERICAN ENGLISH-SPEAKING AREAS

HOW HAVE JAMAICAN PEOPLE INFLUENCED THE WORLD?

LESSON 1. JAMAICAN CULTURE & HISTORY

Jamaica, island country of the West Indies. It is the third largest island in the Caribbean Sea, after Cuba and Hispaniola. Jamaica is about 146 miles long and varies from 22 to 51 miles wide. It is situated some 100 miles west of Haiti, 90 miles south of Cuba, and 390 miles northeast of the nearest point on the mainland, Cape Gracias a Dios, on the Caribbean coast of Central America. The national capital is Kingston.

Christopher Columbus, who first sighted the island in 1494, called it Santiago, but the original indigenous name of Jamaica, or Xaymaca, has persisted. Columbus considered it to be “the fairest isle that eyes have beheld,” and many travelers still regard it as one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean. The island’s various Spanish, French, and English place-names are remnants of its colonial history. The great majority of its people are of African ancestry, the descendants of slaves brought by European colonists. Jamaica became independent from the United Kingdom in 1962 but remains a member of the Commonwealth.

from Britannica.com

Reggae Movement

Style of popular music that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s and quickly emerged as the country’s dominant music. By the 1970s it had become an international style that was particularly popular in Britain, the United States, and Africa. It was widely perceived as a voice of the oppressed..

Rastafari

The Rastafari (or Rastafarianism) are followers of a religious and cultural movement that began in Jamaica in the 1930s.

At its heart, Rastafari combines African identity, spirituality, resistance to colonialism, and a belief in liberation.

Bob Marley (1945-1981) was a Rastafari and incorporated Rastafari beliefs into his music. His international popularity helped spread his ideas, imagery and reggae around the globe.

However, Rastafari isn't simply a style of reggae or a hairstyle. It is a religious movement with diverse beliefs and practices, and individual Rastafari can interpret its teachings differently.

One particularly interesting thing is that this movement developed in Jamaica but looks spiritually toward Africa—which reflects its central themes of African identity, displacement, liberation and returning to one's roots.

Vocabulary to understand the Rastafari

Haile Selassie I - Former Ethiopian emperor regarded by many Rastafari as ‘Jah’ (God) or a divine chosen figure. He was crowned in 1930.

Ethiopia & Africa - Africa and especially Ethiopia has enormour spiritual significance. It is considered as the ancestral homeland.

Babylon - It refers to oppressive systems and institutions associated with colonialism, racism, materialism...

Zion - Spiritual home, representing freedom and liberation from Babylon.

Jah - A name for God in the Rastafari culture.

Dreadlocks - Often associated with Rastafari, it symbolises spiritual commitment, naturalness and resistance to conventional society.

LESSON 2. AN AMERICAN WELCOME

New York City, city and port located at the mouth of the Hudson River, southeastern New York state, northeastern U.S. It is the largest and most influential American metropolis, encompassing Manhattan and Staten islands, the western sections of Long Island, and a small portion of the New York state mainland to the north of Manhattan. New York City is in reality a collection of many neighbourhoods scattered among the city’s five boroughs—Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island—each exhibiting its own lifestyle. Moving from one city neighbourhood to the next may be like passing from one country to another. New York is the most populous and the most international city in the country. Its urban area extends into adjoining parts of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.

New York is the most ethnically diverse, religiously varied, commercially driven, famously congested, and, in the eyes of many, the most attractive urban centre in the country. No other city has contributed more images to the collective consciousness of Americans: Wall Street means finance, Broadway is synonymous with theatre, Fifth Avenue is automatically paired with shopping, Madison Avenue means the advertising industry, Greenwich Village connotes bohemian lifestyles, Seventh Avenue signifies fashion, Tammany Hall defines machine politics, and Harlem evokes images of the Jazz Age, African American aspirations, and slums. The word tenement brings to mind both the miseries of urban life and the upward mobility of striving immigrant masses. New York has more Jews than Tel Aviv, more Irish than Dublin, more Italians than Naples, and more Puerto Ricans than San Juan.

From Britannica.com

MORE THAN & LESS THAN REMINDER

In English, you can use the comparative words ‘more’, ‘less’ and ‘as’, also known as quantifiers to indicate a quantity or to compare two elements with each other.

New York has more Irish than Dublin
You have more books than John

The opposite of ‘More’ is ‘Less’. It is used in the same way.

Paris is less crowded than New York
Jen has less freckles than Annie

Finally, it is possible to use ‘as’ if you want to compare two similar elements.

Ben is as funny as Claire

How many Americans are descended from immigrants that passed through Ellis Island?
How many people went through this place in 1892?
What were migrants seeking or escaping from by coming to the US?
What did they have to go through when they finally arrived?

LESSON 3. A JAMAICAN INFLUENCE

Little Carribean is home to the largest and most diverse Caribbean-American-LatinX community outside of the West Indies, making up 20% of New York City.

Located on the corridors of Flatbush, Church, Nostrand, and Utica Avenues, Little Caribbean is home to people, restaurants, and small businesses that come together to share social and cultural histories and futures.

In 2017, Shelley Worrell of caribBEING spearheaded the movement to name the Little Caribbean neighborhood.

caribBEING continues to celebrate and amplify this thriving community where West Indians from the entire region live, work, and play, and to commemorate the history of the

Caribbean Diaspora in New York City.

Taken from LittleCarribean.nyc

DJ Kool Herc (born April 16, 1955, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican American disc jockey (deejay or DJ) who is credited as the founder of hip-hop, a musical and cultural movement that revolves around four elements: rapping, graffiti painting, B-boying, and deejaying. In 1973, Herc introduced a number of innovations at a party he deejayed and cohosted that brought the foundational elements of hip-hop together for the first time.

Hip hop is a subculture and an art movement that emerged from the Bronx in New York City during the early 1970s. Its development reflected the negative effects of post-industrial decline, political discourse, and a rapidly changing economy.

FINAL TASK I

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