The Jamaican Diaspora

Many people are still asking, what is Diaspora? Who are the Diaspora? These are great questions to start a discussion. However, they are primarily asked by people exposed to the word, who want to use it, but are uncertain of its origin and how to apply it to Jamaica.

The term Diaspora(always capitalized) is the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland, in our respect, from Jamaica to other parts of the world. We popularly use the phrase “every weh yuh guh, there is a Jamaica.” As accurate as it is, all Jamaicans who live in foreign lands, places we have never heard about, are a part of the Jamaican Diaspora.

We can spin the meaning in various directions. For example, as Jamaicans, we are, and most of the rest of the Caribbean, are of the African Diaspora. Since Africa is the motherland of black people. Additionally, Chinese-Americans are of the Chinese Diaspora, and so on.

For Jamaica, a subset of the African Diaspora, the major Diaspora regions are the USA, UK, and Canada. All the outlying countries and regions also have smaller clusters of Jamaicans who are all members of our Diaspora.

Note, however, that there is a big difference between people who are part of the Jamaican Diaspora and persons who can apply for citizenship as Jamaicans. There are centuries of generations of Africans who…