Jamaica

The BBC country profiles include links to relevant BBC coverage, Jamaican newspapers, radio stations, TV channels and an online country timeline giving a survey of key events from 1494 onwards. Date of last update is given.

The U.S. Department of State offers a detailed country profile on Jamaica. This site focuses on implications for US/US policy.

Portals to the world provides a collection of annotated website links for every nation. Links are to both government sites as well as outside servers.

Link collection, part of the Latin American Information Network (LANIC) mega-site maintained by the University of Texas (Austin). Problems: links are not annotated, frequency of updates unclear.

Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty, editors. Caribbean Islands: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987.

Official websites on Jamaica

Das Auswärtige Amt bietet Länderinformationen über Jamaika, gibt Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise sowie informiert über die Wirtschaftslage und Wirtschaftsstruktur des Landes.

The official website of Jamaica's Ministry of Foreign Affairsand Foreign Trade.

The official website of Jamaica's government.              

Facts and Statistics

The Country Indicator for Foreign Policy (CIFP) project represents an on-going effort to identify and assemble statistical information conveying the key features of the political, economic, social and cultural environments of countries around the world.  Maintained by Carleton University (Canada).

The International Data Base (IDB) contains statistical tables of demographic and socio-economic data for 227 countries and areas of the world. Output is displayed in charts and graphs, but can also be modified individually for use in spreadsheets etc. Maintained by the US Census Bureau.

The CIA World Factbook is a reliable, much-quoted resource on basic country statistics. Date of last update is given.

Maps

The Perry Castañeda Library Map Collection offers a comprehensive collection of maps in various formats (political, historical, relief, etc.). Maintained by the University of Texas (Austin).

Embassy World provides a collection of maps of various countries including Jamaica.

The Maps of World site provides both maps of Jamaica and basic information on the country.

Historical Maps

The Yale Map Collection includes a large number of antiquarian maps (including a 1576 and 1728 map of Jamaica or a 1823 map of The Route of Columbus arriving among the Bahama Islands).

Map Collections (1500-2004) collects Americana and Cartographic Treasures of the Library of Congress. It makes the digitized part of the Library's vast repository of cartographic material available to the public. Search by keyword and location index possible. Manyhistorical maps.

This collection by Prestwidges of Jamaica includes a large number of annotated antique maps of Jamaica from 1572 – 1910. Very large, printable and downloadable high-quality reproductions.

Geography, Climate, Geology

Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty, editors. Caribbean Islands: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. Includes information on Jamaica's Geography and the Caribbean Geographical Setting.

The Forrestry Department provides information about forest management and conservation programs approved by the Goverment of Jamaica.

This is the homepage of the Jamaica Sustainable Development Networking Programme.

Press

Jamaica Gleaner - daily

Jamaica Star - daily

Jamaica Observer - daily

Sunday Herald - weekly

News Agency

Jampress - government-run

Radio

Radio Jamaica Ltd (RJR) - operates three commercial networks: RJR 94 FM; entertainment station FAME-FM; music station Hitz 92

Kool 97 - commercial

NewsTalk 93 - commercial

Irie FM - commercial, reggae

Hot 102 - commercial

Zip 103 - commercial

Love FM - religious

KLAS FM - commercial

Power 106 - commercial

Roots 96.1 FM - community

Television

Television Jamaica Limited (TVJ) - formerly Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation, it became TVJ when it was privatised in 1997

CVM Television - private

Love TV - religious

General Media Information/ Web Portals

The news service of the ‘Caribseek’ portal site brings together all news sources from and about the Caribbean.

The Jamaica Newspaper and News Media Guide provides access to Jamaican newspapers (Jamaica Observer, Jamaica Gleaner, Jamaica Star, etc.), the Jamaica Information Service, Jamaican TV channels and radio stations.

‘BBC Caribbean’ provides news concerning the Caribbean and a variety of audio programs.

News site, compiling news from a very wide range of different sources, allowing users to quickly and easily find targeted news on the Internet.

Political and Legal Situation

The Guide to Law Online by the U.S. Law Library of Congress is an annotated compendium of online sources for legal information including selected links to primary documents, legal commentary, and general government information about specific jurisdictions and topics.

Politicalresources.net offers an index of political sites available on the Internet, sorted by country, with links to Parties, Organizations, Governments, Media.

Wikipedia has an extensive list of political parties in Jamaica.

The Political Database of the Americas (PDBA) maintained by the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Georgetown University provides the collection, systematization, dissemination, and exchange of information, data, statistics, and institutions from a political perspective, comparative studies; and other resources relevant to the 35 countries of the region.

The ‘Jamaica Information service’ (JIS) by the executive agency of the government of Jamaica provides information on Government's policies and programmes. The subsection ‘Jamaican laws’ and ‘Bills and Acts’ contain documents and links to speeches by Jamaican politicians.

Social Sciences

The searchable version of the ‘Library of Congress Handbook of Latin American Studies’ is the mayor source forbibliography of books and articles concerning Jamaica. Essential guide to academic resources, includes annotations. Updated annually (alternates between humanities and social sciences).

Datenbasis"Internationale beziehungen und Länderkunde" (IBLK): links to full text scholarly articles provided by the network "Internationale Beziehungen und Länderkunde"

IREON - Fachportal Internationale Beziehungen und Länderkunde.
Research of scholarly articles, websites and bibliographic references to political, social and economic topics.

Human Rights Situation

Amnesty International offers up-to-date information (reports, news releases) on human rights issues in each country from 1996 to date.

Human Rights Watch offers frequent reports on human rights issues in each country and an overview of human rights developments in Jamaica from 1989 onwards.

The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices offers a detailed overview of the human rights situation in each country. Submitted annually to Congress by the US Department of State.

Culture

Site by the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, containing an essay titled ‘Dread History: The African Diaspora, Ethiopianism, and Rastafari’, an image gallery, a glossary of topic-related terms and a helpful bibliography.

Site of the ‘The Society For Caribbean Studies’ (SCS) providing access to online publications of selected papers (PDF format) from the SCS annual conference and Northern Research Seminars from 2000 - present. Papers cover historical and cultural aspects.

History

The BBC Country Profiles include an online timeline of each country.

History of Nations is based on information from the US Department of State and highlights each nation's history.    

Wikipedia's History of Jamaica.

A ‘Brief History of Jamaica’, compiled from various history books by Donna Essix, provides a concise overview of the history of Jamaica.

Sandra W. Meditz and Dennis M. Hanratty, editors. Caribbean Islands: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1987. Includes information on the

Historical and Cultural Setting,

The European Settlements, The Colonial Period,

The Sugar Revolutions and Slavery and on

Political Independence.

Slave Trade and Slavery

‘The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record‘ is a collection of 1,000 images depicting Atlantic slavery. Images cover a broad geographic range, with the majority from West and West Central Africa, the English and French Caribbean, Brazil, and the United States. Engravings, paintings, portraits, photographs and punishment devices. Search engine provided.

This site provides access to the raw data and documentation which contains information on slave trade to Jamaica, 1782-1788 and 1805-1808. Data file contains information on the date of arrival, crew, number of slaves, goods carried, port of origin of slaves, initial port of embarcation from England, etc.  Maintained by the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Last updated 2005.

'Slave Resistance: A Caribbean Study' is a historical overview of issues related to slavery and resistance. Site developed by students at the University of Miami and includes a series of student essays.

Colonial Period

‘Caribbean Views’ presents a collection of high quality visual images (thumbnail, large and zoomable images) and texts housed in the British Library in London representing contrasting views of life in the British colonies in the Caribbean during the 18th and 19th centuries. The texts include almanacs, journals, travel narratives, personal narratives of former slaves, abolitionist tracts, and occasional letters and wills.

Predominantly French site on 'Privateers and Pirates of Jamaica and Hispaniola and other places in America in the second half of the XVIIth Century.'Includes historical documents, an online bibliography, a biographical dictionary, and a newsletter which reviews new publications/sites. Includes sections on Jamaica's Sir Henry Morgan. Problems: English translations are rather rough.

Empire Online is an exciting collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Each Section features thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. (Access only via university network or vpn client)

The Making of the Modern World: full text database providing access to a myriad of historical documents, mostly related to economic and colonial history. (Access only via university network or vpn client)

Native American History

KACIKE: Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology offers articles dedicated to correct the long standing impression that Caribbean Amerindians were either irrelevant to the making of the modern societies and cultural formations found in the Caribbean basin, merely mute witnesses to history, or that they have been altogether absent in post-colonial Caribbean history.

Based on an exhibition at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (Smithsonian Institution), 'Creativity and Resistance: Maroon Cultures in the Americas' focuses on the history and culture of Maroon communities in Suriname, French Guiana, and Jamaica, and also the Seminole Maroon communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. The site includes a series of academic survey essays. Not updated since 1999.

Research

The searchable version of the ‘Library of Congress Handbook of Latin American Studies’ is the mayor source for bibliography of books and articles concerning Jamaica. Essential guide to academic resources, includes annotations. Updated annually (alternates between humanities and social sciences).

Religions

Archived version of a website by the university of Virginia containing/providing detailed profiles of more than two hundred different religious groups and movements, essays by scholars and teaching resources. Includes a profile on Rastafarianism with annotated links to Rastafarian web sites. Date of last update indicated.

Free internet version of the Holy Piby, also known as the “Black Man’s Bible”, the holy text of Rastafarians, compiled by Robert Athlyi Rogers of Anguilla from 1913 to 1917. Includes a chapter about Marcus Garvey.

‘Rastafari Online’ contains biographical information, a large collection of video clips about Haile Selassie, and a Bible search engine.

Languages

Online dictionary (Taíno-English) of the Taíno Language Project of the Taino Inter-Tribal Council. Problem: The pronunciation of the words in Patois is not indicated.

The Rasta/Patois Dictionary contains a link to phrases and proverbs in Patois. Problem: The pronunciation of the words in Patois is not indicated.

This site offers a demo of the ‘International Corpus of English - Jamaican Component’, including a short introductory essay on “The English Language in Jamaica” with a useful bibliography, sample audio files and written transcriptions of the recorded conversations. Maintained by the University of Freiburg.

The ‘Corpus of Written English Creole’, compiled at Lancaster University, is a relatively small but diverse collection of texts that are written or published in England and represent English-lexicon Caribbean Creole (Patois / Patwa / Nation Language), e.g. poems, extracts from novels and other fiction, plays and miscellaneous materials, including advertisements and grafitti. A copy of the corpus can be obtained for research purposes.

‘Jamaican Language, Past and Present’ is an essay on the history of Jamaican language and its present-day use.

This site provides a collection of a few texts of various sorts, at various levels of the Jamaican creole continuum, compiled by Peter L. Patrick, professor of linguistics at the University of Essex. The texts come in different formats, some including phonological transcription, gloss and translation, others occurring in discourse transcription only, with a few features noted. Includes a link to a site presenting Jamaican proverbs.

This overview of research papers by Peter L. Patrick, professor of linguistics at the University of Essex allows viewers to access a few academic papers on Jamaican creole and Patwa and other striking linguistic phenomena.

Art

Collection of student papers on various aspects of Reggae, Rastafarianism, Jamaican Patois and historical aspects. Contains useful bibliographical references.

'A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters' (Calabash) is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing works encompassing, but not limited to, the Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanophone and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. Contributions are subdivided into poetry, fiction, non-fiction and come in PDF format. Maintained by the New York University.

The ‘Gallery of West Indian Arts’ contains, besides Haitian and Cuban art, a wide selection of paintings by 22 Jamaican artists and biographical information about the painters. Photos of the works presented can be viewed in high resolution. A short biography of the painters is also provided.

‘Jamaica Arts’ contains predominantly non-annotated works of artists in the following categories: Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Printmaking, Ceramics, Music, New Media, Dance, Craft, Textiles, Films and Exhibitions. Problem: Quite a few links are not working.

‘Three moments in Jamaican art’ presents a group of works (paintings and sculptures) by Jamaican artists, including biographical information about the artists and annotations of their works.

Bobmarley.com provides information about Bob Marley’s life and his music, including sound and video clips and the lyrics of his songs.

Annotated links to websites in English, Italian and German about reggae, includes rasta- and patois dictionaries. Site maintained by the Italian reggae band CantinaRoots.

Indigeous people(s)

The Caribbean Amerindian Centerlink (CAC) is the only resource that seeks to gather and organise all possible sites about and by Caribbean Amerindians' and publishes two magazines (Issues in Caribbean Amerindian Studies, Kacike: The Journal of Caribbean Amerindian History and Anthropology). The site contains full-text versions of historical books/documents Update information provided.