Afro-Jamaican Origins - Part 1

Have you ever completed an ancestry check, and been disappointed by the lack of information available on your predecessors? Unfortunately this a common issue for those of Afro descent. Today, we will attempt to elaborate on our origins and what Jamaicans are believed to be comprised from.

Jamaicans or Afro-Jamaicans are of Black Africa/Sub-Saharan descent, and comprise multiple African ethnicities, most of them brought to Jamaica from the Atlantic slave trade. Of those brought to Jamaica via the Atlantic slave trade, 95.3% are believed to have been from West Africa, with the remaining 4.7% from unknown sources or Southeast Africa (Rucker, 2006) (see table for further information).

The first Africans arrived in Jamaica almost a century before the British expeditiously took part in Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century. These Africans came from Spain and Portugal in 1513. Many of these Africans fought with the Spanish who gave them their freedom when the British Empire invaded Jamaica in the mid-16th century. When the Spanish were defeated and ousted by the British, these Africans fled to the hills and mountains and continued to resist the British to maintain their freedom, later they would become known as the Maroons.

The Africans brought to Jamaica later, in the aforementioned slave trade, are believed to be primarily Akan. A small proportion of these Akan, are reported to have successfully ran away from the British and joined the Maroons, later becoming leaders in the groups.

The means with which these Africans became slaves were numerous, many were sold by their own kin, due to rivalry or intra-racial prejudice. Many were capture during wars, but most were simply abducted. Wherever those unfortunate enough to be captured were, they were bonded and marched to the coasts to be traded.

New slaves were placed in trading posts or forts to be shipped to the Americas or other nearby locales in the six to twelve-week Middle Passage voyage. During this time, slaves were chained together, underfed, and kept in the ship’s holds. These holds were overcrowded hell holes, often with many dying from suffocation during the voyage. Those unlucky enough to survive the voyage, were quickly fattened up and oiled to look healthy before being taken to auctions, often in public squares to be sold to the highest bidders.

In the period of 1663 to 1700, only 6%, a minority of slave ships going to Jamaica listed their origin as the Gold Coast. In the succeeding two decades, this number jumped to 27% and increased further throughout the early 18th century.

At the earlier stages of Jamaican colonisation by the British before the 1750s, the majority of African arrivals were Akan. According to records from the phoenix ship, following the Akan people, enslaved Africans were mostly comprised of the Igbo, Yorba, Kongo, Fon and Ibibio.