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Portal:Jamaica

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The Jamaica Portal

Jamaica
Location of Jamaica
LocationCaribbean

Jamaica (/əˈmkə/ jə-MAY-kə; Jamaican Patois: Jumieka [dʒʌˈmie̯ka]) is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi), it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about 145 km (78 nmi) south of Cuba, 191 km (103 nmi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and 215 km (116 nmi) southeast of the Cayman Islands (a British Overseas Territory).

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...)

Kingston Harbour c. 1870

Kingston Harbour in Jamaica is the seventh-largest natural harbour in the world. It is an almost landlocked area of water approximately 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) long by 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) wide. Most of it is deep enough to accommodate large ships, even close to shore. It is bordered to the north by the city of Kingston, the capital of Jamaica; to the west by Hunts Bay and the municipality of Portmore; and to the south and east by the Palisadoes strip, which protects it.

The harbour is home to the Kingston Container Terminal, Jamaica's largest port. Other docks on Kingston Harbour are at the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica in downtown Kingston and at the Jamaica Flour Mills and the Caribbean Cement Company at Rockfort. Fresh water, along with industrial and domestic waste, is discharged into Hunts Bay from rivers and drainage gullies, including Rio Cobre and Sandy Gully. (Full article...)

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Anita "Margarita" Mahfood (died 2 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 in 1965, by her boyfriend Don Drummond of the Skatalites band. (Full article...)

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Welsh buccaneer Henry Morgan from Piratas de la America (1681) by Alexandre Exquemelin

Sir Henry Morgan (Welsh: Harri Morgan; c. 1635 – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he and those under his command raided settlements and shipping ports on the Spanish Main, becoming wealthy as they did so. With the prize money and loot from the raids, Morgan purchased three large sugar plantations on Jamaica.

Much of Morgan's early life is unknown; he was born in an area of Monmouthshire that is now part of the city of Cardiff. It is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how the Welshman began his career as a privateer. He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the early 1660s during the Anglo-Spanish War. Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica; as diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, or a licence, to attack and seize Spanish vessels. Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto del Príncipe (now Camagüey in modern Cuba) and Porto Bello (now Portobelo in modern Panamá). In 1668, he sailed for Maracaibo, Venezuela, and Gibraltar, on Lake Maracaibo; he plundered both cities before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. (Full article...)

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Sunrise over the south beach of Jamaica
Sunrise over the south beach of Jamaica
Credit: Adam L. Clevenger
Sunrise over the south beach of Jamaica

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