History

There are some buildings in Jamaica that tell their stories long before you step inside them. A low concrete shop at a crossroads. Steel grills bleached pale by decades of sun. A living space tucked quietly behind a counter stacked with tins, rice bags, and cartons. These structures were never designed to impress. They were built to endure. And in that endurance lies something quietly revealing about...

Stand in Jamaica in the middle of the 18th century and you are not simply looking at an island. You are looking at an engineered landscape. Every acre has been surveyed, claimed, fenced, drained, planted, mortgaged, inherited, and defended. Jamaica at this moment is Britain’s most profitable colony, and that wealth is not abstract. It is rooted in land — vast sugar estates carved into hillsides and...

Jamaica’s story can’t be told properly without two threads that keep crossing each other: church and land. One shaped people’s beliefs and daily life; the other shaped power, wealth, settlement, and belonging. When you look closely, you start to see how often churches sat at the centre of communities not only spiritually, but geographically and economically—sometimes as landowners, sometimes as...

There are places in the world that merely accommodate life.And then there are places that shape it. Jamaica belongs firmly to the latter. This is an island where land does not sit quietly beneath your feet. It speaks. It remembers. It absorbs the footsteps of those who came before and quietly asks something of those who arrive next. To build here — to live here — is never a neutral act. It is a...

THIS PIECE REFLECTS ON JAMAICA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH LAND AND PROPERTY ACROSS PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE, SHAPED BY HISTORY, CLIMATE, AND GLOBAL INFLUENCE. He stands facing us, eyes steady, unblinking.Green, gold, and black are not just painted on his face — they are carried in him. Not costume. Not performance. Inheritance. Behind him, the island’s colours refuse to stay flat. They spill into...

Before there were deeds, there was defiance. Before there were titles of land, there were titles earned in struggle—Queen, Prophet, Warrior, Premier—voices who built more than walls; they built belonging. Every acre of Jamaica tells their story, from the hills where Nanny’s drums beat freedom into the soil, to the plains where Sam Sharpe’s faith rose like dawn over chains. The same ground where...

Jamaica's history is a rich tapestry woven from various cultural threads, each contributing to the island's unique identity. Among these threads is the Chinese community, whose presence dates back to the mid-19th century. Their journey from indentured laborers to influential figures in Jamaican society is a testament to resilience, adaptability, and the enduring spirit of community. This narrative...

In Jamaica, the word “mama” carries a weight that is deeper than any dictionary definition. It is more than a term of endearment, more than the voice that calls you in for supper or tucks you into bed. Mama is survival, culture, land, language, leadership, and love — sometimes soft, sometimes fierce, always unshakable. To tell the history of Jamaica is to tell the history of its mamas, stretching...

There are stories in history that unfold not like a straight line, but like the design of a great building — foundations dug in hardship, walls raised in determination, spaces filled with laughter and struggle, and, after years, a kind of symmetry that no one could have planned. The Windrush story, especially the part written by Jamaica and its people, is one such structure. Cinematic film still of...

When you stand on a Jamaican hill, wind brushing across the cane fields, it’s hard to imagine the centuries of blood, sweat, and hope that shaped this island. British colonial rule, beginning in 1655 with the seizure of Jamaica from Spain, left marks that are still visible in our towns, landscapes, and even in the architecture of the homes we now cherish. “Building a home is about more than...