Culture Preservation | Bluefields Bay

Cultural Heritage

Jamaican culture is the unique result of influences from a variety of peoples and cultures, including the indigenous Taino; Spanish settlers and Portuguese Jews from the sixteenth century; English, Welsh, Scot and Irish settlers from the seventeenth century; Germans, East Indians, and Chinese who came as indentured workers in the nineteenth century; Lebanese or ‘Syrians’ who emigrated in the twentieth century; and most of all Africans who came as enslaved peoples in the eighteenth century in particular. This diversity is reflected in the Jamaican national motto, “Out of Many, One People.”

Music

Music is of great importance in the Caribbean region and exhibits a distinctive “Creole” fusion of African and European traditions. Jamaica has a rich repertoire of ‘folk songs’, inseparable from dance, as well as proverbs and folktales. The first popular music of Jamaica was Mento, an acoustic style that became popular in the US and around the world in 1956 with the release of Calypso, the first million-seller LP, by Harry Belafonte, which contained iconic songs like Day-O (“The Banana Boat Song”), Jamaica Farewell, and Linstead Market. The Jolly Boys is the most well-known mento band today. The Mighty Beestons are perhaps their closest rival, hailing from Beeston Spring, a community in the hills above Bluefields.

Mento was followed by Ska, with a distinctive horn section, in the late Fifties, then by Rock Steady, with a strong bass line and upbeat, in the mid Sixties. Socially conscious Reggae music came to prominence in the late Sixties. A locally produced movie, The Harder They Come, starring the famous reggae performer Jimmy Cliff, was released in 1970 to world acclaim and put reggae on the global map. The US Library of Congress recently added the soundtrack to the National Recording Registry, marking it as a milestone in music history. The millennial issue of Time magazine ranked reggae artist Bob Marley as the most important musician of the Twentieth Century. Reggae also gave rise to “Toasting” by deejays, Dub, Dub Poetry, and Dancehall in the Seventies and Eighties, which are seen as inspirations for American Rap. Finally, it should be noted that Jamaica has also contributed to Jazz, particularly in the work of pianist Monty Alexander and guitarist Ernest Ranglin.

Bluefields Bay has played an important role in the growth of Reggae, nurturing two of Jamaica’s most well-known reggae artists, Peter Tosh and Bob Andy:

Peter Tosh (1944-1987), born Winston Hubert McIntosh in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, was a founding member of The Wailers. Tosh grew up in Bluefields Bay and moved to Trenchtown in Kingston when he was 15, where he met Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer. They began singing together in 1962, with Tosh teaching them to play instruments. Tosh wrote some of the Wailers’ early hits, including “Get Up, Stand Up” and “400 Years,” before he and Bunny left the group in 1974 to pursue solo careers. Tosh, like Marley and Wailer, was an ardent Rastafarian. They also shared a concern for social justice. But Tosh’s music was more controversial because of his militant views; he was particularly renowned for promoting the legalization of marijuana. In 2012 Tosh received the Jamaican Order of Merit posthumously for his contributions to music. Visit the Peter Tosh Memorial Garden in Belmont to learn more about this reggae legend.

Bob Andy (1944-2020) is one of reggae’s most influential songwriters. Andy was born in Kingston as Keith Anderson but moved to Bluefields Bay at the age of seven to live with his grandmother. After her death he returned to Kingston and ended up in the Maxfield Park Children’s Home where he learned to play piano and began to sing in the Kingston Parish Church choir. In the 1960’s, Andy and three other artists formed a rock steady group called The Paragons. He later left the group to pursue a solo career and write songs for Studio 1. Andy also performed with Marcia Griffiths as Bob and Marcia, danced with the National Dance Theatre Company, acted in two movies, and became a record producer. In 2006 the Jamaican government honored him with an Order of Distinction (OD) for his contributions to music and culture.
You can hear live popular music every week at Blue Ocean Sands Restaurant and Bar in Belmont.

Language

Jamaica is a bilingual society. Considering it was a British colony for over 300 years, it is not surprising that English is the official language. Jamaican Standard English is modelled on British English although it is a distinct dialect. Jamaican Standard English is used in government, in schools, on radio and television, in the newspapers, in print, and by the upper classes. It has become ‘Americanized’ in recent years as so many Jamaicans have emigrated to the US. The ‘Jamaican’ language or Patwa (from the French patois) is the vernacular language of the home and the people. It was formerly regarded as ‘broken English’ but is now recognized as a distinct language called Jamaican Creole. Patwa has been gaining increasing acceptance and respectability since the 1970s and is more commonly heard and even written today. Jamaican Standard English and Patwa form a linguistic continuum, which is to say that speech is typically a mix of both.

Cuisine

Jamaican cuisine consists of flavors influenced by a variety of cultures, including: African, English, French, Portuguese, Irish, Indian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, and more. Seafood and tropical fruits are major components of Jamaican food.

Some popular Jamaican dishes include:

Jerk Chicken, Pork, or Fish
Ackee and Saltfish
Curry Goat
Bammies
Fish Escovitch

Art

There are several talented artists to visit in the Bluefields Bay area:

Jah Calo is a Rastafarian carver and painter who has a shop on the side of the highway called Studio Black, which is just east of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. His signature painting is the Doctor Bird, Jamaica’s national bird, a scissor-tailed hummingbird. He also offers many portraits of Peter Tosh. Calo is happy to tell you all about his work and the inspiration behind his creations.
Brother Jerry is a skilled carver whose shop is on the roadside on the east end of Belmont, near Belmont Academy.
Cotta Craft is a sewing business developed by the BPCA and located at the BPCA Resource Center. They produce uniforms for businesses and schools and offer some souvenirs as well, particularly placemats and bags.
There are a number of workshops producing custom furniture, typically from mahogany.

Religion

Jamaica is a deeply religious and predominantly Christian society, although Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism are also practiced. The island is said to have more churches per square mile than any other place on earth. The Spanish brought Catholicism to the island in 1519. The (Anglican or Episcopal) Church of England was established in Jamaica in 1655 for the benefit of the planters and other colonials. Protestant missionaries began to arrive in 1754, with the Moravians, followed by the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, who directed their efforts to the enslaved and to free people of colour. The Salvation Army established their first mission in the Caribbean at Retirement Estate in Bluefields in 1887. They were invited by a local proprietor, Raglan Phillips, who went on to become the first Pentecostal preacher in Jamaica. Today, the most popular religions on the island are the Pentecostals and the Seventh Day Adventists. Jamaica also has two indigenous religions, Zion Revival, an African Christian movement that emerged from a religious revival in 1860, and the Afrocentric Rastafari movement that mixed Revival with the teachings of Marcus Garvey in the 1930s. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church established a mission in Jamaica in 1970, focusing on the Rastas, at the request of Emperor Haile Selassie, whom the Rastas regard as a divine Saviour. There is an inactive Orthodox church in Belmont and an active one in Savanna-La-Mar.

History

The Tainos. The Tainos are a Native American people who were living in the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico) when Columbus arrived in 1492. They were the first settlers of the island they called Xaymaca, arriving at least by 600 AD/CE. Four Taino sites have been located on Bluefields Bay, including Paradise Point, Chebuctoo, Bluefields, and Culloden.
The Spanish. Columbus landed in Jamaica in 1494 and claimed the island for Spain. The first Spanish settlement on the island they called Santiago was established on the north coast, at Maima-Seville, in 1509. The third Spanish settlement, named Oristan, was situated in Bluefields Bay in 1519.
The British. England invaded the Spanish colony and conquered it in 1655. Soon after, a fort was built in Bluefields. The area became known as “Privateers Quarters” as it was a center for privateers who raided Spanish settlements and attacked Spanish treasure ships. A Dutch privateer by the name of Blauvelt apparently made his base in Bluefields Bay around 1644, and the name of the bay is probably derived from him. Sir Henry Morgan launched two successful raids on Panama, supposedly from Bluefields Bay, in 1668 and 1670.
The Plantation Era. Estates were established in the Bluefields area in the late 18th century, producing sugar, molasses, rum, coffee, cacao, pimento, citrus, and cattle. They depended on enslaved Africans for labor. Remnants of the plantations are still evident today in surviving “great houses,” sugar mills, sugar vats, and the like.
A Port. Bluefields Bay was an important port in colonial times, particularly for the supply of ships and as a rendezvous for Atlantic convoys. In 1793, HMS Providence, commanded by the famous Captain William Bligh, dropped anchor in Bluefields Bay, following a successful voyage from Tahiti that brought the breadfruit and other valuable crops to the island.
Phillip Henry Gosse. The great British naturalist, ornithologist, and inventor of the aquarium lived at Bluefields Great House from 1844-46. His research on birds and other wildlife resulted in three important books, The Birds of Jamaica (1847), Illustrations of the Birds of Jamaica (1849), and A Naturalist’s Sojourn in Jamaica ((1851).
Emancipation. The slave trade was abolished by the British Empire in 1807, and the slaves were freed in 1838. Christian missionaries purchased estates to create about sixty “free villages” for freed persons, including one established by the Moravians at Beeston Spring, a village in the hills above Bluefields.

Picture Credit: Sketches on H.M.S. Providence, including some sketches from later voyages on Thetis and Princess Charlotte, 1791-1811, by George Tobin, #84: Bluefields, Jamaica 1793. Courtesy of Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales at https://sl.nsw.gov.au.

Cultural Preservation

Cultural heritage is both tangible or seen and felt and intangible or experienced and imagined.
The tangible heritage of Bluefields Bay includes several historic great houses and churches as well as artifacts from archaeological sites. The Jamaica National Heritage Trust is responsible for the protection and preservation of historic sites on the island.

The intangible heritage of Bluefields Bay includes the words people use, the songs they sing, their forms of worship, and traditional skills such as fishing and the making of canoes. The African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica, the Institute of Jamaica, and the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission are dedicated to the preservation of Jamaican cultural traditions.

The BAP or Bluefields Archaeology Project was formed in 2008 to explore and preserve the history of Bluefields Bay. This research includes a study of archival documents, field surveys of terrestrial and underwater sites, and extensive excavations of a Taino midden, a colonial blacksmith shop, and a British colonial fort. This work has been sponsored by the BPCA, under a permit from the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, and has included participants from Binghamton, East Carolina, Missouri State, Murray State, Transylvania, and Utah State universities.

Historical Sites

Existing Historic Sites in Bluefields include:
Tate-Shafston Great House in Brighton, circa 1700
Oristano Great House in Bluefields, 1720
Bluefields Great House in Bluefields, circa 1740
Ackendown “Castle” in Culloden, circa 1710 or 1810
Chebuctoo Great House in Cave, before 1780
Shafston Great House in Bluefields, 1790?
Mearnsville Methodist Church in Mearnsville, probably mid-1800s
St. Thomas Anglican Church in Bluefields, 1867
Salem Moravian Church in Beeston Spring, 1867