Background

"Out of Many, One Nation" is the motto of Jamaica. A landscape of mountains, lush jungle and sandy beaches make up this Caribbean island.

The Arawak Indians were Jamaica’s indigenous people, who arrived by paddle from South America. Jamaica was known to them as Xaymaca which literally means ‘the land of wood and water’.

Later settlers brought to the island many new tropical fruits and edible vegetation – transplants from India, China and Malaysia.

Jamaica is unique in the complex ethnic makeup of its people, who are the descendants of the Amerindians, the European colonists, the African slaves and later Germans, Irish, Indians, Chinese, Lebanese, Syrians and Arabs.

Jamaica’s food reflects this diverse cultural heritage, fusing elements of Indian, European and South East Asian cooking to create a unique and delicious cuisine. The flavours and tastes of spicy scotch bonnet chillis, mountain thyme, honey, lime and coconuts, mangoes, bananas, pineapple, soursop, breadfruit, ackee, dasheen, callaloo, plantain, sweet potato, fish, chicken and goat are combined to create this colourful cooking. Examples of the most popular Jamaican dishes include rice and peas, ackee and saltfish and jerk chicken.

Rastafarianism is a way of life or a livity (life+liberty), which like life itself, continues to grow in mind, body and spirit. In its essence it is a doctrine so pure it is open to be embraced by anyone and everyone, regardless of appearance. It is an inborn concept with its own music, speech, beliefs, cuisine, lifestyle and attire.

The sacramental smoking of ganja (marijuana), and the growing of dreadlocks as well as the incorporation of the colours of the Ethiopian flag – red, green and gold - into clothing, is all part of the culture. Rastafari believe in the deity of the late Ethiopian king, Haile Selassie I, and practise a faith of universal love for all humanity – One Love.

Rastafari are concerned with fidelity to earth and nature and this extends in a special way to the realm of food and eating habits. A Rastafarian’s diet – called I–tal, which means natural, is essentially vegetarian with no processed food, and uses only the produce of the land.