The suppression of Jamaican culture in Jamaica.

As some readers of my wonderful blog might know. I have some roots to the Caribbean so I have strong views on what goes on there especially 🙂

One thing I’ve always been interested in is the amount of time it seems the government would rather suppress its own culture. I’m talking about Jamaican Obeah being illegal and Jamaican patois still not being recognised as an official language.

It seems as though Jamaica wants to feel British?! Lets take a look at Haiti. Right next door to Jamaica yet they have recognised voodoo as a religion and Haitian Creole as a language.

What gives Jamaica? You have a religion and a language that people practice and use in the country yet it’s not recognised and these aren’t new issues.

The Obeah man who promises to fix all your problems in life for a extortionate fee would most probably disappear if Obeah was legalised. He will be unable to rip people off! Well we can hope right? 🙂

I don’t know who makes these policies or what the Jamaican people think, however I can only think of good things if these two pieces of Jamaican culture were finally recognised.

Another issue is how some Jamaicans view Africa

A lot of Jamaicans with African Ancestry generally are not happy about being linked to the continent in any way! However European, Chinese and Indian Jamaicans are proud and for the most part seem to have maintained a little of their identity. I think this sort of thinking is doing damage to the whole island. It’s like Jamaicans are happy to throw away large parts of history and culture because the colonists said so a long time ago.

Maybe this is related to Jamaica’s political system? It is a two party state isn’t it? No real libertarian (or other view) brought into their politics 😉

What Jamaican Obeah is – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obeah