Culture and Religion

Since the 1980s Canadians have been introduced to Jamaican/Caribbean life and culture through institutional programs and activities as well as through ethnocultural and mainstream institutional links. The Organization for Caribbean and Canadian Initiatives (OCCI), in conjunction with York University, initiated monthly conferences dealing with all aspects of Caribbean life and culture from both Caribbean and Canadian perspectives, including a Congress of Caribbean Authors, Playwrights and Poets. An international seminar on the centenary of the birth of Marcus Garvey focused on his extraordinary influence in the New and Old Worlds. Several universities offer Caribbean (and Latin American) studies that deal with Jamaica; York University’s Centre for Research in Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC) is the largest in the country.

Flag-raising ceremonies mark Jamaica’s independence day (6 August) on the first Monday in August. They constitute a major civil ceremony in Toronto, attended by officers of the JCA, consular representatives, politicians, and members of the community at large. In Toronto an annual Bob Marley Day honours the reggae superstar, who died on 11 May 1981, and Bob Marley Awards mark individual civic contributions.

Through Jamaican food outlets as well as mainstream food chains and fine restaurants, Jamaican meat patties, jerk sauce, and jerk-style preparation of meats and fish have become popular. Jamaica talk, for its part, has helped Jamaican Canadians maintain a sense of identity. Its use within and outside the home varies with status. Among students in areas of group concentration it is used to foster identity and exclusiveness. To the extent that authentic reggae artists express themselves in the vernacular, Jamaica talk has served as a bridge between young people and adults of all races and ethnicity. The same holds true for “dub poetry,” which combines rhythmic reggae music with the spoken word (Jamaica talk) and has been popularized by dub artists such as Lillian Allen and Clifton Joseph in Toronto. The performing and visual arts focus on theatre, folkloric dance, and music, especially reggae music, and are supplemented by visiting performers from Jamaica.

In Toronto, the Heritage Singers, founded by Grace Lyons, have entertained for nearly two decades. Exhibitions of works by Jamaican artists based in Jamaica and Canada are regularly featured at the Jamaican consulate in Toronto and at the office of the high commissioner in Ottawa.

Canada has offered limited scope for africanized/creolized forms of worship. Involvement with denominational churches is largely a matter of social class and inclination. Consistent with the general societal trend, religious observance is not as pronounced among the younger generation, especially those reared or born in Canada. Jamaicans, especially of the black working class, have joined more congenial, evangelical or revivalist churches, especially in areas with predominantly black residents. Churches catering to Jamaican/Caribbean families provide social services designed to facilitate cultural adaptation and/or accommodation.

The Canadian governmental practice of relying on a single categorization of all peoples of negroid or African descent on the basis of colour – black – has served to strengthen solidarity and nationalism among Jamaican communities, certainly in the Toronto and Montreal areas. In Canada, for parents, and even more, for children, blackness or colour/race correlation is a component of identity. Thus, when a member of the group behaves well, the group image is enhanced, and the converse holds true. Where authorities perceive the community as being homogeneous, especially in dealing with problems, solidarity and community activism are likely consequences. Accordingly, Jamaicans and their community institutions have both espoused and strongly supported human rights and other anti-racism policies.

The national sports of Jamaica, cricket and soccer, are marginal in Canada, and for Jamaican Canadians they do not form a major part of the processes of socialization and acculturation. However, the presentation of a West Indies team and the rest-of-the-world team in a one-day cricket match at the SkyDome in Toronto in 1989 – as a United Way fund-raising event – attracted about 46,000 spectators, including thousands of Jamaican and West Indians, and reporting on Commonwealth test matches has since become a regular feature in Toronto-based and Canada-wide mass-circulation dailies.

Jamaica has since 1948 produced male and female Olympic champions in sprints, middle distances, high jumps, and hurdles, and Canada has been represented at the Olympics and at international meets by Jamaican-born athletes in track and field. For instance, Angela Taylor-Issajenko was voted female athlete of the year in 1980, Toronto gave her an award of merit in 1982, and she received the Order of Canada in 1985. Ben Johnson won a bronze medal in 1984 at Los Angeles and came first in the 100-metre dash at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, but was subsequently disqualified for use of a banned substance and stripped of the gold metal. In 1996 Donovan Bailey won the 100-metre and anchored the winning 4 X 100 relay team in Atlanta, running with four others. Curtis Hibbert became Canada’s top-ranking gymnast in the 1980s and is now a highly respected coach.