JAMAICA
Everything you need to know about Jamaica!!!
GEOGRAPHY
Jamaica is an island located in the Carribean or the West Indies. Its the third biggest island in the Greater Antilles and the fifth largest country in the Carribean
Ethnic Groups
Black (90.9%), mixed (7.3%), East Indian (1.3%), white (0.2%), Chinese (0.2%)
Climate or Weather
Tropical. Hot, Humid, temperate interior.
Capital and Population
Capital city is Kingston. Population is 2.76 million.
POETRY
Claude Mckay was a Jamaican poet. He was known for starting the Harlem Renassaince and being a fixture in African American poetry. This is his most famous poem "The Harlem Dancer":APPLAUDING youths laughed with young prostitutes And watched her perfect, half-clothed body sway; Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes Blown by black players upon a picnic day. She sang and danced on gracefully and calm, The light gauze hanging loose about her form; To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palm Grown lovelier for passing through a storm. Upon her swarthy neck black, shiny curls Profusely fell; and, tossing coins in praise, The wine-flushed, bold-eyed boys, and even the girls, Devoured her with their eager, passionate gaze; But, looking at her falsely-smiling face I knew her self was not in that strange place. "The Harlem Dancer" is reprinted from Harlem Shadows. Claude McKay. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922.
TONE AND THEME
This poem is about youth,sex,and proscumity and the discrimination black women had to endure in the early 1900's. The tone of the poem is somewhat exciting and depressing at the same time because it uses the atmosphere of a club but then again, the young girl is "stripper' and you know she is bound to make bad desicions.
RANDOM FACTS
Rum is the national drink of Jamaica. The national drink of Jamaica is Ackee and Saltfish. Jamaica was the first tropical country to compete Winter Olympics.