To understand Jamaican folklore, rhythm and soul, try the Jamaican stories
about Anansi, the spider-man.
Anansi is a trickster figure in West African folk culture, whose stores were
transported by colonial era slaves to the Caribbean. Anansi is a spider, but he
is also a person. When you read the stories about Anansi and
other animal
characters, you will
other animal
characters, you will probably find it hard to say just "who" or "what" theyare.
Anansi is a true animal person, a spider-man. As a tickster, Anansi often
outwits his opponents - but sometimes the trickster himself gets tricked. (You
win some, you lose some!). In fact, Anansi is not very nice - you can admire his
wisdom, but he can also be wicked and cruel. Anansi would really like to get
something for nothing: and sometimes he manages to do just that. But other times
his lazy habits and greediness leads him into really big troubles.
Anansi is at one and the same time a creator and destroyer, giver and taker, one
who dupes others and who is always duped himself. He wills nothing consciously.
At all times he behaves as he does due to impulses over which he has no control.
He knows neither good nor evil, yet he is responsible for both. He possesses no
values, moral or social, he is at the mercy of his passions and appetites. He
dances insanely to the rhythm of reggae, the national music of Jamaica.
You land at 'Norman Manley airport in the capital, Kingston on a long strip of
sand called the "Palisadoes,” twenty kilometers from the city center. Jamaica is
located in the middle of the Caribbean Sea.
After Haiti, Jamaica is the most African of the islands in the Caribbean. It is
an Island with endless white beaches, mountains, rivers and waterfalls
overlooking the lush tropical vegetation, breathtaking sunsets, a sky so blue
that it may hurt your eyes, endless music, and legendary stories of pirates and
colonial era sugar plantation slaves.
You are on the island of the three R’s: Rasta, Reggae, and Rum. The Island was
home to most famous Rastaman, Bob Marley, who made the world aware of the
"Reggae", the music of protest born in the tough ghettos of Kingston and fueled
by Jamaican "Rum"and Ganja.
No other country supposedly has a higher consumption of cannabis than Jamaica.
Myth or reality?
TERRITORY
700 miles south from Miami, 90 south from Cuba, Jamaica
is by size the
third island of the Antilles.
Blue mountains divide it in two parts: in the south is Kingston, the
capital, that is one of the most violent cities of the world,
while on the north side are Negril, Montego bay, Ocho Rios and Port Antonio.
Down from the mountains flow 120 rivers. There are also mineral
springs with therapeutic properties.
In Jamaica grow more than 3000 plants and 200 different orchids.
CLIMATE
Weather is tropical, hot and humid. Temperatures vary
between 26 and 32 ° c.
It rains more in summer, particularly in august and september: the
hurricanes season.
The sea temperature ranges from 24 to 30°c.
Form of government:
constitutional monarchy
Capital:
Kingston
Area: 10.991 kmq.
Population: 2.758.124
Languages:
English and Creole patois
Currency:
Jamaican dollar (
(JMD). 1 JMD=0,012
euro
Time Zone: - 5 GMT - UTC
Documents:
passport
Entry
Fee:
30 us dollar
International Dialing Code:
001 876
Health: : Most
health facilities are inadequate even in the
tourist
areas, both in hygienic and professional point
of view.
Electricity:
110/220 volts.
American flat plugs, type A,B.
(See image)