Hema: Hi, Mireille
Mireille: Hi.
Hema: We are back with another episode of the Moreish Podcast. Do you remember the hint we ended with last week?
Mireille: Uh, something about coffee?
Hema: Yes. We said that the country we are covering today is known for delicious blue mountain coffee. Which country were you talking about, Mireille?
Mireille: We're talking about Jamaica.
Hema: You are covering the history, and there's a lot of history to talk about. So let's just dive right in.
Mireille: I think Jamaica is probably the most exported island of the Caribbean, meaning that everybody has an image of Jamaica and already knows about Jamaica. It's the third largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba and Hispaniola. The Tainos were the first people who migrated to Jamaica from South America around 600 AD. They named the island Xaymaca, land of wood and water. They mostly lived on the coastal areas relying on a diet of fish, cassava, sweet potatoes, and corn along with other vegetables and fruit.
Columbus went to Jamaica in search of gold. He had heard in Cuba that it was the land of blessed gold. He did not find gold, but he described Jamaica as the fairest island that eyes have beheld. Mountains and the land seems to touch the sky, all full of valleys and fields and plains. When Columbus first arrived on May 3rd 1494, he called it Santiago. The first Spanish settlement was in 1510. The Taino tried to fight the Spanish, but the Spanish killed and tortured the Taino to get their land and force them into enslavement. After living in Jamaica for 900 years, the Spanish decimated the Taino within 50 years.
Starvation, European diseases, and many committed suicide rather than being enslaved. These were the reasons that led to the eradication of the Taino in Jamaica.
Finding no gold in Jamaica, plantations were set up to provide rations for the ships traveling from Europe to the Americas, and slaves who started to arrive in 1513 were brought to provide the labor.
The effect of Spanish colonization can still be seen today with names of rivers and towns like Ocho Rios, Rio Bueno, Port Antonio. On May 10th 1655, the British attacked and defeated the Spanish. The Spanish freed their slaves and ran to Cuba. Located in the center of the Caribbean, Jamaica was an ideal location for the British to gain dominance over the Spanish in the Caribbean. British pirates known as buccaneers led by Sir Henry Morgan had the support of England and would attack Spanish ships transporting gold and silver. As a result, Port Royal, their headquarters, became one of the richest in the Caribbean at the time.
Hema: Does Henry Morgan have anything to do with the rum?
Mireille: Yes. That's exactly who it was named after. Even though, he was arrested, he was then later knighted.
In 1670, the Treaty of Madrid was signed where Spain recognized Jamaica as British. This stopped the fighting and in order to maintain peace, Henry Morgan was arrested, although he would later be knighted.
Hema: And then somewhere along the way came Captain Morgan Rum.
Mireille: Exactly. Without the battles and theft of Spanish gold and silver, the British now focused on trade of agricultural products, particularly sugar, indigo, cacao, and coffee.
Sugar became the primary crop for the British with over 400 sugar plantations by 1739 Jamaica became one of Britain's richest colonies. Now those slaves that the Spanish had freed before they escaped hid out in the mountains and inland areas of Jamaica. Others who escaped would join them. They became known as maroons coming from the Spanish word, cimarrones, meaning mountaineers, and they formed their own communities based on West African traditions.
There were constant battles between the Maroons and the British. The most violent periods are known as the Maroon Wars, which was between 1725 and 1739. In 1739, they would sign a peace treaty giving the Maroons autonomy of their community and some interior land in exchange for helping the British to fight any invaders or people who would come to attack the British.
To this day, every year, there is a celebration in Jamaica on January 6th to celebrate the signing of this treaty. Things remained relatively peaceful until 1795. After some minor breaches from the Trelawney Town Maroons, Governor Balcarres decided to attack them against the wishes of local plantation owners who did not want to disrupt the relative peace with the Maroons. 300 Maroons held out for 6 months against 1500 troops and 3000 volunteers. When a peace agreement was offered, the Maroons accepted it, but they were double crossed.
They were arrested, and 600 Maroons would be deported to Nova Scotia in Canada and then later again to Sierra Leone back to the continent from whence they came. Leonard Parkinson, one of the Maroon leaders, is regarded as the captain of the Maroons. There were many slave rebellions throughout the years, but I'm just gonna mention two here. the Easter Rebellion of 1760 and the Christmas rebellion of 1831 led by Sam Sharpe, who is regarded as a national hero. Meanwhile, aggressive importation of slaves from Africa continued under the British.
By 1800, there were 21,000 British and 300,000 slaves on the island. Most slaves to Jamaica came from Ghana, Nigeria, and Central African Republic, particularly the Akan, Ashanti, Yoruba, Igbo, and Ibibio tribes. Along with these slaves, Jewish indentured servants also arrived from Spain escaping the Spanish Inquisition, practicing their faith in secret. Some indentured servants also came from Germany. By the time slavery was abolished in 1807, about 2 million slaves had embarked from Africa, although not all of them made it through the torturous Middle Passage.
In 1838, emancipation from slavery had been won. The majority population of black people being led by a few whites and mulattos or mixed race people caused a lot of unrest. There was injustice in courts, land ownership, wages, and heavy taxation. Inspired by the Haitian Revolution and worried about re enslavement, the Morant Bay Rebellion took place on October 11th 1865 killing the chief magistrate and 18 Europeans. However, it was brutally overcome. The organizers, Paul Bogle, and his alleged coconspirator, George William Gordon, were hung.
Now I'm sure many of you have heard the Jamaican motto “Out of Many One People”. And this comes from the different groups who would come to Jamaica as indentured servants that contribute to the culture of Jamaica to this day. I already mentioned the Jewish people, but in 1845, the first indentured servants arrived from India to replace the loss of labor due to the end of slavery. They mostly came from Northern India, particularly Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab.
In 1854, they would be joined by indentured servants from China, specifically Hong Kong and Hakka speaking provinces of Southeast China. Later, Jamaica would receive more Chinese indentured servants also from Panama.
Over 1200 people also arrived from Germany. These people were given farmland and businesses. These European peasants were brought to Jamaica in hopes of being a model for the former slaves to show them how to behave, Long before the current situations, both Palestinians and other Arabs, both Muslim and Christian, fled to the Americas to escape religious persecution, many of them settling in Jamaica from the early 20th century. Some of these came as early as the 1890's, from countries like Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. By the late 1800's, the plantation system had collapsed, and bananas became the primary crop in Jamaica.
Many of these people who came from the Middle East became involved in banana production. While many people often view Jamaica as a black country, and, yes, black people do make up the majority of the population, All of these immigrants who came to Jamaica contribute to the diverse culture that is to be Jamaican today.
In 1959, they became self governed. And then on August first 1962, became an independent country with King Charles still remaining as head of state.
Before I get into a little more on the culture of Jamaica, I did wanna mention a few notable Jamaicans. Some of my favorite Jamaican authors you may wanna read are Claude McKay plus the poetry of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley. Yes, many of their songs have been published in Caribbean poetry collections.
Now we're gonna get to Marcus Garvey. Not only did Marcus Garvey form the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Jamaica in 1914, which advocated black nationalism and Pan Africanism, promoting unity with the larger African diaspora, but he became an activist in New York City. Known as the black Moses, he spoke about being proud of being black and learning about our black heroes and the beauty of African cultures.
Despite his popularity, his unethical business practices, and stances on racial purity, even approving of the KKK, caused strife with leaders of the NAACP like W.E.B. Du Bois. Now there was so much I skipped or I skimmed and also made educated guesses with conflicting reports of history, but this gives you a brief overview of Jamaica's history.
Now let's get a little more into the culture of Jamaica. Jamaicans are about 75% black, 15% mulatto, black and white, 4 % black and Asian mixed with either Indian or Chinese, 2% East Indian, 1 % Chinese, and the remaining 3% is other of Middle Eastern or European descent. While English is the official language, Jamaican Creole, commonly called Patwa, is widely spoken. Patwa is an English based Creole language largely based on African language structure, especially the West African Twi language with a little Spanish and French thrown into the mix.
Jamaicans are primarily Protestant Christians with the largest number belonging to the Pentecostal or Seventh day Adventist faith. There are also small numbers of Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist. However, we cannot talk about religion in Jamaica without discussing Obeah and Rastafari. Calypsonians from Jamaica and beyond will often reference Obeah in music, like the song Obeah Wedding by the Mighty Sparrow, a Trinidadian. But perhaps the biggest Jamaican export is reggae music, which came out of Rastafari with the worldwide popularity of Bob Marley.
I also recently read a book, How to Say Babylon, which was a great memoir about growing up in a fundamentalist Rastafari family. It was really interesting and will be linked in the show notes.
Obeah, in addition to other sects like Pukimina and Kumina, combine elements of Christianity with West African religions. Modern day Obeah is an Afro Creole practice combining elements of both. They are primarily practiced to ward off evil, healing or cause harm to enemies with both good and evil spells. Myal, a variation of Obeah practiced in Jamaica, includes herbalism, healing, and practices to ensure protection from evil and misfortune and aid in reaching one's goals. Some of the strategies used include singing, communication with spirits, and dancing - many linked to traditional West African dances and West African gods.
Practice throughout the British Caribbean, although it might be hard pressed for some to admit it, is a system of beliefs rooted in spirituality and the powers of the supernatural. Hema, have you heard about Obeah in Trinidad?
Hema: Yes. Obeah, very much so. It's a thing that I've grown up knowing about, but it's always been depicted as something a little bit scary. And I will admit that maybe some of the folk folklore and obeah have gotten intermingled in my mind.
Mireille: Now Rasafari was started in the 1930's. It grew out of Marcus Garvey's Pan Africanism.
Rastafari viewed the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie the first, who ruled from 1930 to 1974 as their God and promote the return to Africa. Some of them even view him as the second coming of Christ.
Bob Marley was the most world famous Rastafari inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and posthumously awarded the Grammy's lifetime achievement award in 2001. To this day, the two most popular genres in music in Jamaica are reggae and dancehall. There's not enough time to get into dancehall today, but I have linked an article detailing it with reggae. And now, Hema, let's talk food.
Hema: Let's talk about food in Jamaica. I think most people when you say Jamaican food are going to think about jerk chicken. Wouldn't you say?
Mireille: Absolutely.
Hema: This is the dish most people associate with Jamaica, jerk chicken, but it is not the national dish.
You might also be thinking of Jamaican beef patties or the Ital diet that the Rastafari's adhere to. And as a side note, if you are not familiar with the Ital diet it’s mostly vegan. Sometimes fish can be eaten, but it's based on eating fresh natural foods, no processed foods, simply cooked, maybe even raw, food that will retain the most nutrients, and that is meant to promote vitality, energy, and life force. There are some very delicious restaurants here in Toronto that serve food based on the Rastafari diet.
Chef Mireille: I'm a James Beard judge in the cookbook category, and I got a fabulous Ital cookbook last year. I'm not a vegetarian or vegan, but I've been loving, cooking some foods from that book.
Hema: Mireille talked about the history of the people who came to Jamaica. There were the Spanish, the British, the Tainos, some Jewish people from Spain, Germany, and then we had the indentured laborers from India, China. We've got people from Syria and all over the Arab world. So there is a plethora of history and ancestry in Jamaica and you would think that all of that would come into the national dish.The food in Jamaica can be a mix up and a mash up with influences from all of those people who came to the country. Let's talk about the national dish, which is most often eaten for breakfast. It is ackee and saltfish. Saltfish is one of my favorite things to cook.
Mireille: I love saltfish, but I hate ackee. Like, the texture, I can't get around it. But everybody's palate is different, and I know people who live and die for it.
Hema: Yes. Ackee does have a very distinct mouthfeel, and we'll talk about that. We're gonna talk about the national dish in two different parts, the ackee and the saltfish, because they there is history to both parts of this national dish. Ackee is the national fruit of Jamaica, but it is not endemic to the island, nor the Caribbean. It was first introduced to the region from West Africa in the 18th century and was brought over on the slave ships with the captured enslaved people. And in fact, the name ackee comes from the Twi language of Ghana. To this day, you could find ackee grown in Africa, although from what I've read, most people don't eat it.
If I am wrong, I would love for you to correct me and let me know that in the comment section. Ackee is now abundantly grown in Jamaica, as you would imagine being that it is the national fruit. Interestingly, the botanical name, which I will put in the show notes because I cannot pronounce it, is in honor of captain William Bligh, who we have heard of in a previous episode. Captain William Bligh apparently took the fruit from Jamaica to England in the 18th century to start cultivating it there. Ackee is technically a fruit, and canned ackee is very widely available. I've never seen fresh ackee here in Toronto, always in cans. What about you, Mireille?
Mireille: I've only seen it in cans as well.
Hema: Ackee is grown on trees, and it can only be eaten when it's ripe. The unripe fruit will make you sick. Apparently, if the red skin of the fruit has split open naturally on the tree, then it's ripe and safe to eat, but I am not an expert. Do not take this as advice. The fruit has red skin, and inside is the soft, creamy, yellow flesh attached to a big black seed. The creamy, yellow flesh is the part that is eaten. And because of that sort of soft, almost custardy mouthfeel is why I think Mireille does not like it.
The other half of the dish is saltfish. Saltfish is salted fish, and it's used in many cuisines around the world and all over the Caribbean. It had been considered a cheap food item, and I know growing up that I ate saltfish quite a bit, but it's not really that cheap anymore. I was in the store the other day, Mireille, and I was shocked to see how expensive saltfish has gotten.
Mireille: Yeah. I usually get them for about $7.99 a pound here.
Hema: One thing I'm gonna note about saltfish is if you are looking for saltfish in the store, you're gonna find salted cod, and you will find salted Alaskan pollock, which is cheaper. Salted cod, in my opinion, is the one you want to buy.
This is the part where I'm gonna deviate a little bit from talking about food and talk about the triangular trade, three legged trade route that was part of the transatlantic slave trade. It was a trade route between Europe, West Africa, and what was considered the New World, and was active until around the mid nineteenth century. I will get back to saltfish in a moment and explain the connection, but let's talk about this triangle trade.
The first prong was manufactured goods from Europe, which could be things like metal or tools, textiles, brass dishes, firearms, ammunition, and alcohol were taken from Europe on ships to ports on the coast of Western Africa.
The second prong was these goods were traded in Africa for enslaved and captured people who were put on the boats and taken to Brazil and the Caribbean. The enslaved African people were sold at auctions and taken to many different places in the New World or in colonies, many to work on the plantations that Mireille talked about earlier, and some of them did end up in Jamaica on plantations.
The third prong of this trade route. The colonies of Britain sent plantation crops and things made from these crops back to Europe. These were things like sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, molasses, and rum. A lot of these goods came from around the Caribbean. The colonies, which also, as Mireille talked about earlier, included Canada, sent meat, fish, flour, and lumber to the Caribbean.
This is where I come back to saltfish. The fish used most often was cod, and the cod was salted for preservation to last the long journey and sent from the New World on these ships as part of the trade route to the Caribbean from either Europe or Eastern Canada. It was considered a cheap source of protein and nourishment for the enslaved people, and being a cheap source of protein, saltfish was also adopted into the diets of the indentured labourers. It was cheap, and it didn't require refrigeration.
Refrigeration was a luxury that the enslaved people and the indentured laborers could not afford. Although ackee was also planted in other parts of the Caribbean, it is mostly eaten in Jamaican cuisine. Not really used elsewhere, and that could be because it was seen as poisonous, but Jamaicans have claimed it and really made it their own. Ackee is soft and has quite a neutral flavor. People have said that it looks like scrambled eggs when it's cooked. It's a very pale yellow and it pairs very well with the salty saltfish and the flavors of the other ingredients used in the dish - onions, thyme, scotch bonnet peppers, maybe tomatoes, garlic, scallions, red sweet peppers. The salted cod, is soaked or boiled to remove the excess salt. If you're making saltfish for the first time, please don't eat it exactly as is because it is very salty.
Mireille: I saw someone do that on an episode of Chopped, and I was screaming at the TV.
Hema: No. Please don't do that. The cod is soaked to remove the excess salt, then boiled, then drained. Some people just boil it instead of soaking it. Once boiled, it becomes flaky, The seasonings and the aromatics are then sauteed. The veggies, like sweet peppers, if you are using them, added to the pot. And then the flaked saltfish is added to the pan. So it's basically a 1 pan meal. Everything is layered and added in together, And then ackee is added in last, and you have to be very delicate with it, so you're not going to break it up and turn it into mush. Ackee and selfish is served with provisions like breadfruit, yams, green bananas, dumplings, plantain, or maybe hard dough bread - something a little bit heartier.
We will leave some links for Ackee and Salt Fish in the show notes. You will see how history and the transatlantic slave trade and that triangle trade really played a role with the food and the national dish, intertwining and bringing to Jamaica things that were not grown there and that were not always found in Jamaica, but that the Jamaican people have really made their own.
Mireille: Thank you so much for joining us this week as we explored Jamaica, Out of Many One People, on the Moreish Podcast.
Hema: Come back next week to find out which Caribbean nation we will be talking about next. As usual, we'll give you a little hint. This two island country is the smallest country in the Americas. If you know what we're talking about, head over to Instagram or TikTok and leave us a comment. We will see you next week.
Mireille: Bye.
Hema: Bye.