![]() ![]() Ĭolloquially, many present-day Jamaicans refer to their home island as the "Rock". Yamaye has been suggested as an early Taíno name for the island as recorded by Christopher Columbus. The indigenous people, the Taíno, called the island Xaymaca /ʃa͡iˈmaka/ in their language, meaning the "Land of Wood and Water" or the "Land of Springs". Jamaica is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy with legislative power vested in the bicameral Parliament of Jamaica, consisting of an appointed Senate and a directly elected House of Representatives. Andrew Holness has served as Prime Minister of Jamaica since March 2016. His appointed representative in the country is the Governor-General of Jamaica, an office held by Patrick Allen since 2009. ![]() Politically it is a Commonwealth realm, with King Charles III as King of Jamaica. However, it ranks poorly for civil rights of LGBT persons, ranking last in the Western Hemisphere. It ranked first in the Caribbean on the World Happiness Report for 2021. Jamaica performs favourably in measurements of press freedom and democratic governance. ![]() Jamaica is an upper-middle income country with an economy heavily dependent on tourism it has an average of 4.3 million tourists a year. Jamaica is often considered the world's least populous cultural superpower. The country has a global influence that belies its small size it was the birthplace of the Rastafari religion, reggae music (and associated genres such as dub, ska and dancehall), and it is internationally prominent in sports, most notably cricket, sprinting and athletics. Due to 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 majority of Jamaicans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, with significant European, East Asian (primarily Chinese), Indian, Lebanese, and mixed-race minorities. Kingston is the country's capital and largest city. With 2.8 million people, 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. The island achieved independence from the United Kingdom on 6 August 1962. Beginning in the 1840s, the British began using Chinese and Indian indentured labour to work on plantations. The British fully emancipated all slaves in 1838, and many freedmen chose to have subsistence farms rather than to work on plantations. Under British colonial rule Jamaica became a leading sugar exporter, with a plantation economy dependent on the African slaves and later their descendants. Named Santiago by the Spanish, the island remained a possession of Spain until 1655, when England (later Great Britain) conquered it, renaming it Jamaica. Many of the indigenous people either were killed or died of diseases, after which the Spanish brought large numbers of African slaves to Jamaica as labourers. Originally inhabited by the indigenous Taíno peoples, the island came under Spanish rule following the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1494. Jamaica lies about 145 kilometres (90 mi) south of Cuba, and 191 kilometres (119 mi) west of Hispaniola (the island containing the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) the British Overseas Territory of the Cayman Islands lies some 215 kilometres (134 mi) to the north-west. Spanning 10,990 square kilometres (4,240 sq mi) in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica ( / dʒ ə ˈ m eɪ k ə/ ( listen) Jamaican Patois: Jumieka) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. ![]() +1-658 ( Overlay of 876 active in November 2018) ![]()
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