"They are a people so full of love and without greed that I believe there is no better race or better land in the world." Peter Martyr, linguist and Catholic priest (1514); from Columbus and the Golden World of the Island Arawaks by D.J.R. Walker, Ian Randle Publisher.
Jamaica = reggae, dancehall, rock steady, ska. These are the most commonly associated words that come to mind when Jamaica's culture is mentioned. But many people do not realize where the roots of Jamaica's true culture originate. Let us explore those roots, for they helped influence the present.
Jamaica is in that part of the world called the "New World" because to the Europeans, it was "discovered" a little over 500 years ago. The modern recorded history of Jamaica is in fact just the story of its discovery and effects by people from the "Old World," such as Christopher Columbus and those who followed him. But the real impact upon Jamaica was made by the first true Jamaicans.
It is estimated that the earliest people to enter the New World did so starting from about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. There are many theories of the way they came, but one widely held theory is that they wandered out of Siberia, crossed the Bering Strait into Alaska and spread slowly southward until they met the Caribbean. These newcomers brought with them skills such as fire and tool-making, and soon settled the various islands of the Antilles, from Cuba to Trinidad, finally arriving in Jamaica in approximately 1,000 A.D. Another theory regarding the arrival of the native people is that a good majority of the tribes present in the Caribbean in those times might instead have come from South America.
Editor's Note: A very recent scientifc discovery has uncovered a surprise for current day Jamaicans - that the earliest Jamaicans were in fact, the Taino, not the Arawaks, as has been thought and taught in the schools for years and years! New evidence revealed by an intense study of artifacts, language and culture by the National Heritage Trust has concluded it was the Taino, not the Arawaks who first inhabited Jamaica, contrary to what has been believed for years. The NHT is now working with the Ministry of Education and other cultural groups to update the information. Although related to the Taino, the Arawaks lived on other Caribbean islands according to this new research.
Because this new discovery about the Taino has not yet replaced the long-held popular belief, RFG has chosen to refer to these people as the first true Jamaicans, rather than either Taino or Arawaks.
The first true Jamaicans found two other tribes that already inhabited the Caribbean - the Siboneys and the Caribs. Our ancestoral society soon was relatively large in number among the islands and it's estimated that there were sometimes over 60,000 living in one tribe at a time. It is they who gave the island the name "Xamayca," (zaemakę), meaning "land of wood and water." Mild and peaceful, simple and generous by nature, they led carefree lives among themselves. They wore very little clothing and often the men and unmarried women went naked. These first people would paint themselves, wear beads for necklaces and also tattoo themselves with signs of their gods. They were incredibly skilled fishermen and women and were very disciplined socially and politically, with all their tribes living peacefully with each other, which differed greatly from the life of the other tribes they found.
The Siboneys, also called "rock-dwellers," were located in Haiti, Cuba and possibly Jamaica. They were a far more primitive tribe than the Jamaicans. Although knowledge of the Siboneys is very limited, it's said they were once used as servants by our early ancestors. Conversely, the Caribs were a fierce and warlike tribe, frequently raiding the Jamaicans, then killing and eating men, women and children.
Although the first true Jamaicans were a peace-loving society they were not helpless; the men took part in great endurance tests which made them stronger and more prepared to fight in Carib raids. Despite the troubles they faced, they continued to live in happiness for hundreds of years until the arrival of the Spaniards.
The first tribe of Indians that Christopher Columbus saw were described by Columbus as being "very well built, of very beautiful bodies and faces; the hair coarse almost as the hair of a horse's tail and short, they are the color of the Canary Islanders, neither black or white." Some would tie flattening boards to their foreheads at a young age, so as to make their skull so hard it was protection against primitive weapons. It is even a fact that some Spanish swords were blunted and broken from impacting these strong, native skulls.
Houses were simple in design and frail in appearance, yet they could stand up to very strong winds and even hurricanes. They were small round huts with a cone-shaped roof thatched with palm leaves and grass. Our ancestors were the first to invent the hammock, which they called "hamac." Their food intake was small; it is said the amount of food a Spaniard would eat in one day could last a native a week. They ate cassava (a tuber root related to the yam), corn and various plants. To help themselves when hunting meat they learned to domesticate a small breed of dog, called "alcos." The alcos caught parrots, ducks, iguanas and coneys, (similar to a mongoose). Our people were also quite skilled in making canoes, and in fact the word "canoe" is their word. Some canoes were made for two or more people, some for 40 and 50 people. Columbus stated he saw one that was 96 feet long and eight feet wide!
The first Jamaicans also astonished Columbus with the amount of tobacco (another original word), they consumed daily. They smoked a tobacco called "cohiba," which today is known worldwide as Cuba's finest trademark cigar. However, smoking tobacco was not used for leisure, but instead as a religious ritual performed regularly. They would smoke cohiba, which caused them to go into a trance, where it was believed they could talk with their gods.
Religion was a very essential element to their society. They believed in two supreme gods, one male and one female. In addition they believed in a large number of spirits and images (that lived in shrines called zemes) which housed the spirits of the dead, and possessed magical powers. Very few authentic zeme statues are still present today, and the three main existing statues can be found in the British Museum in London, England. Early English settlers in Jamaica found these carvings in the year 1792.
Apart from their usual religious ceremonies giving praise to their gods, the first people believed strongly in a number of great myths. They believed the first humans came out of two caves. Originally, these caves were watched over by a supreme guardian of the earth, but one day he forgot to close them up and so the sun escaped, as well as the first humans. Because of his carelessness, the guardian was turned into stone and the race of humans would never be able to stare directly at the sun again.
At one time it was the priests who held supreme power over all our ancestors by convincing them that some zemes could actually speak. As one story has it, to the priests' dismay, the Spaniards happened across a speaking tube hidden inside a zeme carving. The priests begged the Spaniards not to tell the truth of their deception, giving the Spaniards even greater power over everyone because of this.
The most amazing information we know about our original history is that even though they lived thousands of years before Christ, they had religious traits similar to those of Christianity. Of all the myths they believed in, their strongest belief - and one that many people still believe in today - is that man was blessed with the power of having a soul and that after death this soul would go to another realm of everlasting peace, ease and rest; a place with no droughts, hurricanes or sickness, where time passed in feasting and enjoyment; a place where no one died. "Coyaba" they called it, but today this place is referred to by many as "Heaven."
Such then were the first Jamaicans - a kindly, primitive people, still in the Stone Age of development as the 15th century drew to a close. It was not known to them that far across the Atlantic "civilized" society in Europe was entering an era known as the Renaissance, or "the rebirth of learning." Christopher Columbus, who set out to discover the New World for the Old, led the journey to find new vicinities in which the Old World could prosper from the New. It was on the morning of Monday, May 5, 1494, that Columbus first set foot on the island of Jamaica and found the first true Jamaicans. After thousands of years of peaceful, primitive living, soon they found themselves overcome in harsh manual labor and slavery set upon them by the Spaniards, and quickly began dying off from the overburden of labor placed upon them. The Spaniards also brought unknown diseases. They severely suffered from these hardships and soon the once-known original people of Jamaica, became known only in history.
In Jamaica today, the culture of our real roots has not been forgotten and is mostly remembered through cuisine and pottery. There are still people living throughout the islands of the Caribbean who are descended from the original true Jamaicans, and although estimated to be very small in numbers, they are regarded as our true past. We should continue to recognize our true roots - even though they are gone, they are not forgotten.
Sebastian is a seventh or eighth generation Jamaican of English descent on his paternal (Jobson) side. His great- great-great-great-grandfather, Richard Jobson, came to Jamaica in the mid-1700s (the English had claimed Jamaica in 1660) and settled in the village of Claremont, in the parish in St. Ann, where he and two other relatives, James Trewick and Roger Dobson, were property owners and cattle farmers for generations. The town of Claremont, St. Ann, shaped like a "Y" with the arms leading to each one of the three major properties, was originally known as "Finger Post" long before the village materialized. This was due to the fact that in older days the sign in the center of town was shaped in the old-fashioned way of a hand with a pointing finger, hence the name. It was at this corner that the chief market of the area was held, and here that servants and slaves gathered from the surrounding properties to sell their produce. One gathers from old tales that it was an open market and there were no houses in the immediate vicinity since the surrounding lands all belonged to Jobson and the other young British gentlemen. These three men were the founding fathers of Claremont and to this day the parish of St. Ann is known by the elders as "Jobson territory." To the present day, the Jobson name is highly regarded and respected for their part in community development and services throughout the generations. The Jobson coat of arms (family crest) is officially documented in Burke's General Armory, of the United Kingdom. So this makes Sebastian a true Jamaican, with some very deep roots in the history of our country. As you may know, the national motto for Jamaica is "Out of many, One people." This is due to the wide cross-section of nationalities that have mixed here. There are East Indians, Asians, Africans, English, Spanish, Italian, German and others like Sebastian; his ancestry is a big mix-up of English, African, Carib Indian, Portuguese and Cuban. Many came as servants for the English or as a result of shipwrecks, while many found refuge from wars. All in all, it is this wonderful blend of nationalities that make for such beautiful and handsome Jamaicans! More connections... did you know that Bob Marley was also born in the parish of St. Ann? His village is called Nine Miles and located just a few miles from Claremont. Visitors from all over the world make the journey through the beautiful hills of St. Ann, also known as the Garden Parish, to Claremont to get to Bob Marely's birthplace and his mausoleum in Nine Miles. Sebastian's great-grandmother Jesse Lopez-Jobson grew up on Brisset property which adjoined Nine Miles. She and Mrs. Booker (Bob's mother) were friends and knew each other's family well. She would have also known Bob's father, Captain Norval Marley, who was an overseer for the properties in the area. Cousin Dickie Jobson's sister, Diane, was Bob Marley's lawyer and personal confidante up until his death, and today she serves in the same capacity for Mrs. Booker. Sebastian is a great friend of Mrs. Booker who frequents our house regularly on the way up to Nine Miles."