Writing POC 101

Jamaican Canadian Characters - @NessaNicole4

For starters, I am second-generation Canadian with Jamaican heritage on both sides of the family. My parents were born and raised in Canada while my grandparents immigrated, my maternal grandparents in their adult years while my paternal ones came as children. Most people expect Jamaicans to have really thick accents, but after living here for so long, they aren't that noticeable. In fact, my aunt told me that people in her elementary school used to think Grandpa was white because of the way he answered the phone when they called ("Yello?"). 

Only my paternal grandma and my maternal grandpa have accents, mostly when pronouncing certain words. Grandma would always tell me to eat my "vegeh-tebles" and "quit jumping on the chestahfield".

One thing I really want to emphasize is this: we do not "speak Jamaican". Jamaican isn't a language, it's an ethnicity. That's like saying Indians speak Indian. The actual language is an English dialect called Patois (pronounced pah-twah) or Creole and is a mixture of African and European languages, including Spanish. Unlike bilingual or multilingual households who regularly switch back and forth between tongues, Patois is not a language frequently spoken in my family. Growing up I've learned a few phrases, slang, and other terminology, but other than that, we all speak plain English.

The second thing I have to address is race. When people picture Jamaicans, their first image is a dark-skinned black person with a Rasta hat and dreadlocks. 1) We are not all Rastafarians and 2) Jamaica does not consist solely of black people. As a former Spanish and British colony, slaves were brought from all over, including Africa, China, and India. There are white Europeans as well, some descendants of former slave owners and others slaves themselves. In my family alone there are Guyanese Jamaicans, Chinese Jamaicans and Irish Jamaicans (which is the reason my sisters and I have freckles). I've even got a fourth cousin with curly red hair and blue eyes. We marry outside the race all the time.

With that in mind, black Africans do make up the majority of the population. So while it is not uncommon for a character to be mixed, for the most part they will have some kind of black heritage.

So many times as a child I would tell people I was Jamaican and they would say, "But ... you don't look Jamaican" or "How are you so light?" 'Cause I come from a family of predominantly light-skinned black people. It's not unheard of. While I admit that I am a bit on the paler side even in my family, I have thick black curls, full lips, and dark brown eyes. People generally think at least one of my parents are white or that my hair's actually a very dark shade of brown. Nope. Sorry. Jamaicans are a diverse group with all kinds of hair colours and textures, body types, features, skin tones, and eye colours.

Even a few years back the media was going berserk over a Volkswagen Super Bowl commercial where the primary actor was a white man speaking Patois. Everyone was debating on whether or not it was racist while my family was just like: "This is awesome." Still, it ended up being so controversial that it was taken off the air.

Now to move on to one of my favourite topics: food.

We don't actually eat traditional Jamaican dishes every day. The most common Jamaican meal we eat at my house is probably curry shrimp or chicken with rice. My parents love all kinds of foods from sushi and spanakopita to Szechuan chicken and fish tacos. We're not picky.

At family gatherings, however, you will see more traditional meals like oxtail with rice and peas, curry goat, curry beef, pumpkin squash, Escovitch fish, cornbread, jerk chicken, and baked macaroni. For Easter breakfast, my mom makes ackee and salt fish, dumplings, fried breadfruit and plantain. Another Easter classic is Jamaican bun and cheese. And yes, we do have beef patties from time to time, but we are very particular about our brands. In my house, Allan's Pastries rule.

Roti is another popular food found in Caribbean culture. My family usually looks for good roti shops during Caribana in the summer.

In terms of character names, they reflect the wide variety of cultural influences in Jamaica. There are plenty of English names like William, James, Bentley, Eleanor, Heather, and Grace. You could also go with an Irish name like Tyrone, Kerry, or Dara. Biblical names like Peter, Andrew, Ruth, and Deborah are also common. Or if you're looking for something a bit more authentic, names that end in "ton" are also common for boys: Carleton, Everton, Trenton, etc. Some French names could be Mavis, Dominique, Leon, or Lance. You could even choose an Arabic name like Amani, Amina, Jamal, or Kareem. If you want something with African roots, Amari, Taye, or Uma are some examples. And then, of course, there are your modern/contemporary names like Lamarr, Rashan, Devondre, Sheree, Keandra, and Tinesha. Whatever your preference, you can't really go wrong.

Music is also a big part of the culture, particularly at parties. Yes, we do listen to a bit of Bob Marley, but he's not the only reggae artist out there. There's also Gyptian, Sean Paul, Shaggy, and plenty others. I grew up listening to Harry Belafonte's calypso hits and a fair amount of soca. Nevertheless, we listen to everything: hip hop, R&B, pop, soul, rap, jazz, funk, gospel, punk rock, rock n' roll, country, the works. I personally love Ed Sheeran, James Bay, Michael Jackson, Marianas Trench, Alicia Keys, Christina Grimmie, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé, Jacob Latimore, Rihanna, Coldplay, the Jonas Brothers, Nathan Sykes, Ariana Grande, Logic, Alessia Cara, Tori Kelly, Rixton, Tasha Cobbs, Kirk Franklin, and JoJo.

When it comes to religion, it can vary again. Most Jamaican families I know are Christian or Catholic, but there are Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Revivalists, and Rastafarians. I'm not an expert on the last two, so you can check out these sites at your leisure: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/customs/customs_1.shtml and http://www.my-island-jamaica.com/jamaica_religions.html. 

Finally, education is extremely important in Jamaican families. There was no question at all over whether or not I was going to university. On occasion my Papa reminds me of an old Desmond Dekker quote: "[S]ilver and gold will [waste] away, but a good education will never decay."

I hope this has given you a good overview of Jamaican culture. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions. Happy writing!