Reasons why Jamaica is the ‘BIGGEST’ little country in the world

Can you think of any other island of similar size to Jamaica where its ideas, customs, and social behaviour are emulated by so many people across the world?

Physically our island is a mere speck on the global map but culturally, we are a force to be reckoned with! Jamaica sits proudly on the Caribbean Sea with a meagre length of 146 miles and a population of just over 2.7 million.

Despite its tiny size, Jamaica can go ‘toe to toe’ with the world’s Superpowers in terms of global popularity. It really is phenomenal just how well known and adopted our culture is around the world. Here are some of the main reasons why Jamaica stands side by side with the world’s greatest nations in terms of popularity:

 

How We Speak

We have a very cool and unique way of speaking and because of this many parts of the world continue to adopt elements of Jamaican dialect.

Jamaican Patois is a combination of English words and a Jamaican accent with grammatical features common to the languages of West Africa.

It’s always interesting and often times hilarious to see persons from other nations attempt to ‘chat inna patwa’.

Many persons have gone to great lengths to understand and speak like us. In fact some have even moved to Jamaica in order to learn patois.

Check out this guy’s reasonable attempt at speaking Jamaican Patois below:

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We can Run !

Jamaica has always had a fairly strong presence in track and field but in recent years we have absolutely dominated certain areas, particularly sprints.

Breaking World and Olympic records while making it look easy has propelled Usain Bolt to stratospheric levels of stardom.

His incredible feats have easily made him one of the most renowned and influential figures of all time and he flies the Jamaican flag with pride whenever he is able to do so.

We produced the fastest man in the world but he is only one of many world dominating athletes from the land of wood and water.

Check out Jamaica’s medalists in the 2012 Summer Olympics in the table below:

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Gold	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	Athletics	Women’s 100 m	4 August
Gold	Usain Bolt	Athletics	Men’s 100 m	5 August
Gold	Usain Bolt	Athletics	Men’s 200 m	9 August
Gold	Kemar Bailey-Cole* Yohan Blake Usain Bolt** Nesta Carter Michael Frater	Athletics	Men’s 4×100 m relay	11 August
Silver	Yohan Blake	Athletics	Men’s 100 m	5 August
Silver	Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce	Athletics	Women’s 200 m	8 August
Silver	Yohan Blake	Athletics	Men’s 200 m	9 August
Silver	Schillonie Calvert* Veronica Campbell-Brown** Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce** Samantha Henry-Robinson* Sherone Simpson Kerron Stewart	Athletics	Women’s 4×100 m relay	10 August
Bronze	Veronica Campbell-Brown	Athletics	Women’s 100 m	4 August
Bronze	Hansle Parchment	Athletics	Men’s 110 m hurdles	8 August
Bronze	Warren Weir	Athletics	Men’s 200 m	9 August
Bronze	Christine Day Shereefa Lloyd Rosemarie Whyte Shericka Williams Novlene Williams-Mills	Athletics	Women’s 4×400 m relay

 

Jamaican Music & Dance 

In every corner of the world you can find someone who is familiar with Jamaican music and the legendary reggae singer Bob Marley.

Jamaican (Reggae and Dancehall) music is immensely popular in many European and Asian countries where it attracts huge crowds at various concerts staged throughout those regions each year.

Jamaica’s reggae and dancehall artistes make frequent tours of countries around the world and many any musicians continue to adopt  reggae music as their own and add their own styles.

It is also no secret that Jamaicans can dance pretty darn well. I can’t count the number of persons I  have spoken with over the years from various countries who have expressed a strong desire to learn Jamaican dance moves.

Our dance moves are frequently copied or  slightly modified by persons outside of Jamaica though we are rarely given credit . 🙁

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(Demarco – No Dirt – choreographed by A NI Mal)

 Jamaican Food

Jamaican cuisine includes a mixture of cooking techniques, flavors, spices and influences from the indigenous people on the island of Jamaica, and the Spanish, British, Africans, Indian and Chinese who have inhabited the island.It is also influenced by the crops introduced into the island from tropical Southeast Asia. Jamaican cuisine includes various dishes from the different cultures brought to the island with the arrival of people from elsewhere.

Apart from our pristine beaches, warm spirited people, and amazing weather,  many individuals from around the world seem to have an insatiable appetite for our cuisine.

We have some of the most scrumptious dishes in the world. In fact, our national dish was deemed so scrumptious that is was ranked number two among the world’s best national dishes by the National Geographic.

Some popular dishes you will see prepared in Jamaica and many parts of the world include:

Jerk Chicken, Ackee and saltfish, Brown stew chicken, Corned Beef and cabbage Curry goat/mutton, Escoveitch fish and many others.

These are some of the things that contribute to Jamaica’s influence globally. Please feel free to share others in the comments.

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