Enchanting rhythms from the other side.

AuthorGarfer, Pilar
PositionJamaica's Southwest coast

It has been said that going to the southwest of Jamaica is like entering another world. The island's proximity to the mainland of the United States has made it synonymous with sleek, all-inclusive resorts that provide exotic tropical delights mixed with modern urban comforts. It is no surprise then that this side of the island, where local myths and folklore permeate the virgin landscape, is unknown to the average visitor.

The southwest coast embraces three of Jamaica's parishes or states, Westmoreland, St. Elizabeth, and Manchester. Stretching from Savannah-la-Mar, in Westmoreland, to the Milk River Bath on the border of Manchester and Clarendon parishes, the coastal region is one of dramatic topographical contrasts and sweeping vistas. This sometimes rocky coastline is broken by white beaches that stretch alongside the communities of Bluefields, Auchindown and Whitehouse, while beige and black powder-fine sands wrap the shores of Treasure Beach and Alligator Pond farther east. A central mountain range follows the contour of the coast, providing a backdrop for the lush valleys which produce most of Jamaica's fruit and vegetables. This terrain changes abruptly into dry fields in the parish of St. Elizabeth, where the dramatic Santa Cruz mountains meet the sea at seventeen hundred feet, forming the cliffs known as Lover's Leap.

In this predominantly agricultural region, sugarcane production was the basis of the economy and is still cultivated today. Although the Spaniards introduced it in 1640, grand-scale production did not peak until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries under British rule. By 1814, Jamaica had produced 34 million pounds of sugar, making it the world's chief exporter of raw sugar. Plantations became human factories where alienated African slaves suffered deprivation by abusive overseers who managed the estates of the absentee owners. Slave uprisings and maroon guerrilla warfare plagued the English for centuries. From the onset, various religious groups - Baptists, Wesleyans, Moravians, Presbyterians, and Methodists - joined the cause of the slaves. By associating themselves with the antislavery movement in England, missionaries in Jamaica played a pivotal role in the abolition of slavery. Their years of struggle finally influenced the British Parliament to pass the Emancipation Act in 1834. However, slaves in Jamaica were not actually freed until four years later. This period marked the beginning of the decline of the British plantation empire, although Jamaica continued to produce sugar, at times reaching world records.

For the first ten years after emancipation, religious leaders filled the vacuum of leadership and authority. The British even feared that the government would fall entirely into their hands. "Interestingly enough," observes a prominent social worker," Jamaica has more churches per square mile than any country in the world." He adds that "the country's history can be told through the role of its churches and past religious leaders."

The plantation mentality prevailed throughout the nineteenth century as the country moved towards a new social structure. The colored or mulattoes who had been educated in England gradually took on minor administrative positions, while emancipated blacks continued to farm, forging the agricultural infrastructure that exists today. Even as freemen, the blacks continued to occupy an inferior economic status. In the 1860s, workers from Asia and Eastern Europe began to replace what was once the black labor force on the plantations. The influence of these...

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