Interesting Jamaican Facts

By Teri Champigny

Are you planning to travel to Jamaica on vacation? Most people who visit the island overlook, or never bother to learn the very interesting facts that surround Jamaica. This information can give your vacation much more meaning.

Here are some basic and interesting facts:

1. The Ackee, also known as Blighia Sapida is a national emblem of Jamaica. This gorgeous red, yellow, black and green plant is not native to Jamaica, however. It was imported from West Africa, and it is believed that it originally arrived in Jamaica via a slave ship. Jamaica is the only place in the world that considers the fruit of the Ackee edible.

2. Jamaica was the first Caribbean country to gain their independence. They were also the very first country in the entire Western hemisphere to build a railroad. Other first include: the first to produce bananas in the Western part of the world, first in the Caribbean to produce rum for commercial sale, first Caribbean island to enact legislation to promote making films, the first country to sign the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis, and Malaria grant agreement, the first tropical country to enter the Winter Olympics (bobsledding, which inspired the movie Cool Runnings), the first place that England acquired by conquest, and the first of all British colonies to establish a postal service.

3. Jamaica has the oldest Golf club in the western hemisphere: The Manchester Golf Club, which was established in 1868. After the United States, Jamaica has won the most world medals and Olympic medals. The fastest men and women, according to records are Jamaicans.

4. There are more multiple live births, meaning two or more babies, in Jamaica than anywhere else. Jamaica has the second largest butterfly in the world, it is the third largest island in the Caribbean, and Jamaica was the first country to impose economic sanctions against South Africa during the apartheid regime.

5. The very first settlers in Jamaica, the Arawak Indians, gave us the words canoe, hurricane, potato, tobacco, and barbecue. Jamaica is only 10,991 square kilometers, but more than 2,700,000 are residents there. The capital city is Kingston, and the industry includes tourism, bauxite, alumina, textiles, agro processing, apparel, rum, cement, metal, paper, chemical products, and telecommunications. Agricultural products include yams, vegetables, poultry, goats, milk, sugarcane, bananas, coffee, citrus, crustaceans, ad mollusks.

6. The majority of families in Jamaica are headed by women. Marriage is not as common here as it is in other countries, and many couples don’t marry until their children are grown. Families are very tight knit, and they love children. Jamaicans believe and live by the old saying: It takes a village to raise a child. Most Jamaicans are of the Christian faith. A nine-day wake is common for a person who has died.

7. In rural Jamaica, after the birth of a child, the placenta is buried, with a sapling planted on top of it – the tree is called the Baby’s tree. Jamaicans use more natural products, such as fruits, vegetables and herbs for healing than they do chemical medication. Jamaicans don’t visit a doctor, they visit a balmist.

8. Jamaica has more churches per square mile than any other country in the world. While they are Christian, the majority are Rastafarian, which is a religion that is based on the Christian bible, but that originated in Jamaica. In rural areas, some Jamaicans practice witchcraft as well.