With 2.8 million people,0 Jamaica is the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas (after the United States and Canada), and the fourth most populous country in the Caribbean. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. Most Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Because of a high rate of emigration for work since the 1960s, there is a large Jamaican diaspora, particularly in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The country has a global influence that belies its small size; it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music (and such associated genres as dub, ska and dancehall), and it is internationally prominent in sports, including cricket, sprinting, and athletics. Jamaica has sometimes been considered the world's least populous cultural superpower. (Full article...)
It provides traditional classroom education to its students in a variety of subject areas and caters to students aged 10 to 19 years. First established as a boarding school for boys, it has remained a single-sex school with the boarding facilities removed, but later re-opened in 2016. (Full article...)
... 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 Rita Humphries-Lewin, a former chair of the Jamaica Stock Exchange, entered the industry as a secretary?
... that at 107 years old, Stanley Stair of Jamaica was at the time of his death the last surviving Caribbean veteran of World War I?
Anita "Margarita" Mahfood (died 1 January 1965) was a dancer, actress, and singer in Jamaica. She was called "the famous Rhumba queen" and headlined performances. She also performed reggae music, writing and singing her own music, one of the first women in Jamaica to do so. Mahfood was murdered on New Year's Day in 1965, by her boyfriend Don Drummond of the Skatalites band. (Full article...)
This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.
South Camp Adult Correctional Centre, also known as the Gun Court prison
The Gun Court is the branch of the Jamaican judicial system that tries criminal cases involving firearms. The court was established by Parliament in 1974 to combat rising gun violence, and empowered to try suspects in camera, without a jury. The Supreme Court, Circuit Courts, and Resident Magistrate's Courts function as Gun Courts whenever they hear firearms cases. There is also a Western Regional Gun Court in Montego Bay. Those convicted by the Gun Court are imprisoned in a dedicated prison compound at South Camp in Kingston. Until 1999, the Gun Court sessions were also held in the same facility.
The long sentences of the Gun Court and its restrictions on the rights of the accused have given rise to constitutional challenges, some of which have been appealed to the Privy Council in London. These cases have resulted in some modifications to the court, but have upheld it on the whole. The Gun Court system has also been the target of criticism because of its lengthy delay in hearing cases, and the continuing rise in gun violence since its adoption. (Full article...)
Selected cuisines, dishes and foods - show another
Bammy is a traditional Jamaicancassavaflatbread descended from the simple flatbread eaten by the Arawaks, Jamaica's original inhabitants. Today, it is produced in many rural communities and sold in stores and by street vendors in Jamaica and abroad.
Bammies have been consumed since pre-Columbian times and is believed to have originated with the native Arawak people. For centuries, it was the bread staple for rural Jamaicans until the cheaper, imported wheat flour breads became popular in the post-World War II era. (Full article...)
...that on the flag of Jamaica, black symbolises the strength and creativity of the Jamaican people, gold represents sunlight and the country's natural wealth and green represents hope for the future and agricultural richness?
.svg)
