Island People

Jamaica is hardly the sole world nation in the early twenty-first century to have embraced a branding agenda. England has its “Cool Britannia” ad campaign; Korea, its “K-Pop.” In an era when the public sphere can feel like a marketing consultancy, even artists and grade schoolers know that it’s not the product, it’s the brand. But the branding concept’s uses and abuses, in a society whose forebears’ flesh was once singed like cattle’s, was striking. Striking, for that history… Brand Jamaica was striking for how all its facets, from sports to music to frolicking tourists, were implicated within the garrison complex that came during the 1970s and ’80s to rule and ruin island life. And it was striking, too, because of what Brand Jamaica’s story could maybe reveal about the larger fortunes of the old Third World. Clustered together in azure-blue waters are a collection of little islands whose culture, history and people have touched every corner of the world. From the moment Columbus gazed out at what he mistook for India, and wrote in his journal of 'the most beautiful land that human eyes have ever seen,' the Caribbean has been the subject of fantasies, myths and daydreams. It was claimed, and its societies were built to enrich old Europe, and much later its beaches were splashed across billboards advertising fizzy drinks, its towns and people pictured in holiday brochures. But these islands are so much more than gloss, white sand and palm trees, they form a region rich in colour, beauty and strength. Home of the Rastafarian faith, Che Guevara's stomping ground and birthplace of reggae, the Caribbean has produced some of the world's most famous artists, activists, writers, musicians and sportsmen - from Usain Bolt to Bob Marley and from Harry Belafonte to V. S. Naipaul. In the pages of Island People we hear the voices of the Caribbean people, explore their home and learn what it means to them, and to the world. In this fascinating and absorbing book, the product of almost a decade of travel and intense study, Joshua Jelly-Schapiro strips away the fantasy and myth to expose the real islands, and the real people, that make up the Caribbean. ‘Jelly-Schapiro’s writing reflects an extraordinary intimacy with his subject… this book, years in the making, does the region splendid justice.’ – New York Times