A history of the Jamaican people from an Afro-Caribbean rather than a European perspective. Africa is at the centre of the story; for by claiming Africa as homeland, Jamaicans gain a sense of historical continuity, of identity, and of roots.

The Story of the Jamaican People is the first general history of Jamaica to be written in almost 40 years. It differs significantly from earlier "imperial" histories which have been written from the perspective of the coloniser and which have relegated Jamaicans to an inferior and passive role. In this book, the authors offer a new interpretation of Jamaica's history. The central theme is the long struggle of the African-Jamaican against subjugation, injustice, economic deprivation and the fight for full freedom. Sherlock and Bennett recount the epic resistance to slavery; from the acts of sabotage on the estates, the legendary exploits of Maroon heroes Cudjoe, Nanny and Tacky, to the final blow delivered by Sam Sharpe which ended slavery in Jamaica. An underlying theme throughout the book is the centrality of Africa, the original homeland of the African-Jamaican. The memory of Africa's ancient civilisations, its diverse tribes, languages, cultures and religions, sustained the African-Jamaican throughout slavery and remains a positive influence on modern-day Jamaican culture. Although the focus of the story is on African-Jamaican, the authors recognise the significant role played by other ethnic groups - East Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, Syrians and Jews - in the development of modern Jamaica. The Story of the Jamaican People is told in a powerfully evocative and poetic style in which the images of creative writers and artists are blended with extensive quotations from anthropological, sociological and historical sources. The book is copiously illustrated and has an extensive bibliographical and reference section as well as a useful index.

A tale inspired by the 1976 attempted assassination of Bob Marley spans decades and continents to explore the experiences of journalists, drug dealers, killers, and ghosts against a backdrop of social and political turmoil.

“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith An O: The Oprah Magazine “Top 15 Best of the Year” • A Well-Read Black Girl Pick Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret—Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life. In “Light-Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands,” an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In “Mash Up Love,” a twin’s chance sighting of his estranged brother—the prodigal son of the family—stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In “Bad Behavior,” a couple leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In “Mermaid River,” a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In “The Ghost of Jia Yi,” a recently murdered student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in “Shirley from a Small Place,” a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother’s big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital. Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction’s most dynamic and essential authors. Praise for How to Love a Jamaican “A sublime short-story collection from newcomer Alexia Arthurs that explores, through various characters, a specific strand of the immigrant experience.”—Entertainment Weekly “With its singular mix of psychological precision and sun-kissed lyricism, this dazzling debut marks the emergence of a knockout new voice.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “Gorgeous, tender, heartbreaking stories . . . Arthurs is a witty, perceptive, and generous writer, and this is a book that will last.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties “Vivid and exciting . . . every story rings beautifully true.”—Marie Claire

A description of the period in Jamaica's history that follows the abolition of slavery, up to the introduction of universal adult suffrage. The author analyzes the social, intellectual and political history of the era, including health, law, labour, and the ideas of the black intelligentsia.

Deporting ‘Black Britons’ exposes the relationship between racism, borders and citizenship by telling the painful stories of four men who have been exiled to Jamaica. It examines processes of criminalisation, illegalisation and racialisation as they interact to construct deportable subjects in contemporary Britain and offers new ways of thinking about race and citizenship at different scales.

This book goes from the arrival of Columbus, to the taverns of Port Royal, to the runaway slaves who defeated the English to the slaves' rebellions and everyday life.