Beautiful; aggressive; exuberant, talkative; humorous; resourceful; unpredictable – Jamaica brings many adjectives to mind, but boring is not one of them. No other country so young and so small has had such global cultural influence as the land of Marcus Garvey, Louis Bennett, Bob Marley and Usain Bolt. Jamaica Fi Real provides an in-depth look at Jamaica’s people, history, music, sports, religion and culture, creating a vivid twenty-first century portrait of perhaps the world’s most fascinating island.
Author of bestselling book Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music and longstanding columnist with the Jamaica Observer and the Jamaica Gleaner newspapers, Kevin O’Brien Chang, paints a real and insightful portrait of Jamaica looking at its music, culture, sports, religion, history and people. To the world at large Jamaica means sunny beaches, reggae and rum, but Jamaica Fi Real: Beauty, Vibes and Culture goes far beyond the surface exposing and exploring the unique things that make Jamaica, Jamaica; in some cases setting the record straight, and also highlighting some significant achievements and little known facts about Jamaica. Did you know that in the 2008 Olympics Jamaica won more gold sprint medals than every other country put together?; that Ska – a mixture of rhythm and blues, mento, revival and rastafarian music – was born in poor west Kingston ghettos?; or that Martin Luther King Jr praised Jamaica as having felt more at home there than anywhere else in the world?
Lavishly illustrated with over 200 images featuring places to go, foods to eat, religious practices and cultural and historical icons, no other book on or about Jamaica provides such an in-depth, honest and creative representation of Jamaica as Jamaica Fi Real. It will appeal to the Jamaican Diaspora, persons wanting to visit Jamaica, and persons generally interested in Jamaican history, culture and lifestyle.
