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Jamaica is fifty-five and what an Independence journey it’s been. The journey has been froth with challenges, difficulties and frustrations of a people, the majority of whose ancestry hails from a glorious past in Africa, but who were captured and forcibly removed from their homeland.

But the journey also includes the resistance, the defiance, the resilience of a people who in the face of brutality and oppression, fought for and won our Emancipation and Independence.

So much has changed in Jamaica where we, through our one-of-a-kind culture, have constructed a new civilisation that has astonished the world. We can be proud of our nation-building experience.

Our modern history is replete with achievements. Our writers and poets sought to depict our cultural and social landscape in their works.

We became Jamaica Wanderers and migrated to various locations to work in varying industries: in Panama, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, as well as Canada, until today we can truly say there are Jamaicans everywhere in the world.

Today, thanks to that migration, we have built a formidable Diaspora, of which we at home are justly proud.

The name ‘Jamaica’ is now never uttered without a response. All across the globe we are known for our assertiveness, brashness and arrogant pride and nationalism. We have created a world class product in tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, culture and sports. As our National Hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Garvey once asserted, we have “caused men to see us as their equals”.

So much has changed in Jamaica where we, through our one-of-a-kind culture, have constructed a new civilisation that has astonished the world. FOREWORD