Portal:Jamaica

Chinese Jamaicans are Jamaicans of Chinese ancestry, who include descendants of migrants from China to Jamaica. Early migrants came in the 19th century; there was another wave of migration in the 1980s and 1990s. Many descendants of early migrants have moved abroad, primarily to Canada and the United States. Most Chinese Jamaicans are Hakka and many can trace their origin to the indentured Chinese laborers who came to Jamaica from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries. According to one study, approximately 4% of Jamaican men have a direct Chinese paternal ancestor. (Full article...)

• ... that an early Elton John song has been described as "only marginally less horrifying" than its title?
• ... that footballer Kameron Simmonds, who plays for Jamaica, only took up the sport after a gymnastics injury?
• ... that Swedish naval officer Axel Lagerbielke was imprisoned in Lima for over a year, held in Callao and eventually escaped from Panama on an English packet boat to Jamaica?
• ... that Jamaican-Welsh noblewoman Justina Jeffreys was the inspiration for the character of Anthelia in the 1817 novel Melincourt?

Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez MBE (17 October 1934 – 4 September 2015), also known as Rico, Reco or El Reco, was a Cuban-born Jamaican ska and reggae trombonist. He recorded with producers such as Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd Daley. He was known as one of the first ska musicians. Beginning in the 1960s, he worked with the Members, the Specials, Jools Holland, and Paul Young. (Full article...)

Hurricane Dennis was a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone that briefly held the record for the strongest Atlantic hurricane ever to form before August. Dennis was the fourth named storm of the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It originated on July 4 near the Windward Islands from a tropical wave. Dennis intensified into a hurricane on July 6 as it moved across the Caribbean Sea. Two days later, it became a strong Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale before striking Cuba twice on July 8. After weakening over land, Dennis re-intensified in the Gulf of Mexico, attaining its lowest barometric pressure of 930 mbar (27.46 inHg) on July 10. That day, Dennis weakened slightly before making a final landfall on Santa Rosa Island, Florida as a Category 3 hurricane. After moving through the central United States, the circulation associated with former Hurricane Dennis dissipated on July 18 over Ontario. While Dennis was still active as a tropical cyclone, it lost its status as the strongest hurricane before August to Hurricane Emily, which also moved through the Caribbean.

In the Caribbean, the outer bands of Hurricane Dennis brought tropical storm-force winds and heavy rain to parts of Haiti, resulting in floods and landslides. A total of 3,058 homes were damaged and 929 were destroyed. Hundreds of livestock were killed, causing significant harm to Haiti's agricultural industry. The storm resulted in 56 fatalities and caused approximately $50 million in damages. In Jamaica, Dennis produced 24.54 in (623 mm) of rainfall in Mavis Bank. The resultant floods severely affected Jamaica's agriculture industry, killing nearly 160,000 livestock and leaving around 100,000 customers without electricity. The storm killed one person in Jamaica and resulted in over $34.5 million in damages. In Cuba, rainfall peaked at 43 in (1,092 mm). Approximately 120,000 houses were damaged and 15,000 homes were destroyed. Nationwide, 2.5 million people lost access to water while 70% of the water sources in Granma Province were contaminated. Its agricultural industry was also affected, with almost 27,000 hectares (67,000 acres) of agricultural land being destroyed in the provinces of Cienfuegos and Granma. The impact led to 16 fatalities and caused an estimated $1.4 billion in damage to the country. (Full article...)

Bammy is a traditional Jamaican cassava flatbread descended from the simple flatbread called casabe, eaten by the Arawaks / Taínos, Jamaica's indigenous people. Variations of bammy exist throughout the Americas. It is produced in many rural communities and sold in stores and by street vendors in Jamaica and abroad. (Full article...)

• ... that in 1725 Hans Sloane described a plant he called Prickly-Pole as the Jamaican tree species that was "the most fit to make Rods and Scowrers for Guns"?