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Who Discovered Jamaica?
The Tainos or Christopher Columbus?

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the_tainos_in_jamaica_smallWho Discovered Jamaica?

by Venesha Johnson | Associate Writer

Here in Jamaica, it is common practice for children to start learning about the history of our island as early as an infant school. This includes some of the most influential people in our history such as our national heroes, the maroons, the Tainos (Awaraks) and to some extent Christopher Columbus.

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One very important aspect of our history has, for the most part, always been misconstrued and even today, many Jamaicans are still pretty much in the dark about this. And that is about the discovery of our beautiful island.

Who discovered Jamaica?

This a question we should all know the answer to by now right? And of course, many people would confidently say, Jamaica was discovered by Christopher Columbus. However, that is not quite true.

Our recorded history dates back to May 14, 1494, when Christopher Columbus first arrived in Jamaica. He wrote in his logs, "the fairest island that eyes have beheld: mountains and the land seem to touch the sky... all full of valleys and fields and plains," expressing his profound admiration for what he had seen.

Later, he brought in more Spanish colonists and made the American-Indian Tainos, who were already living there, perform unpaid labour. They also spoke a language from which the words "hurricane," "tobacco," and "barbecue" were derived. A sizable Tainos-focused museum is located in Konoko Falls.

Eventually, due to a combination of forced labour and the diseases the Spanish brought with them, like the common cold, to which the Tainos were not immune, the entire population of the Tainos perished.

The Taino Indians arrived in Jamaica around 600 AD and were the island's first inhabitants. They were prehistoric groups that had migrated to Jamaica from South America's northern coast.

The Tainos, who had continuously inhabited Jamaica for nearly 900 years, were exterminated within 50 years of the Spanish conquest in 1494 due to Spanish settlers' exploitation, starvation, and a lack of resistance to European diseases.

A large number of Tainos resisted the Spanish invasion of their territory vehemently; some even committed suicide rather than become slaves.

So to truly answer the question, “who discovered Jamaica?”, the answer would be the Tainos. Even though this was unrecorded, they were the first group to truly discover Jamaica.

Now that you know who discovered the island, here are some exciting things that the Tainos brought to Jamaica that you may not have known.

What did the Tainos bring to Jamaica?

Carvings, artistry and other craftsmanship- Many discovered artefacts are examples of the Taino people's skilled craftsmanship.

They were adept at a variety of crafts, including woodworking, pottery, cotton weaving, and stone and wood carving. For religious purposes, the Tainos also crafted their gods, known as zemis, from wood, bone, clay, and stone. They also produced clay bowls, cups, and other containers.

  • Fishing- Some of the Tainos' sources of protein included fish and other marine life, including sea turtles and manatees. Because of this, the Tainos had highly skilled fishermen who employed unusual fishing techniques. For instance, they would splice the line so that one end was attached to a remora (suckerfish) and the other was attached to their canoe.

    They would allow the remora to swim away from the canoe until it hooked onto a turtle or a larger fish. They would pull the remora in and seize their prey once it was attached. Even though more effective techniques are now being used, fishing still plays a significant role in our culture.
  • Canoe Making- We can now travel quickly across the globe thanks to the development of technology over time. But we frequently observe copies of some of our ancestors' modes of transportation. Canoes were one such mode of transportation.

    Travelling in canoes made of tree trunks, the Tainos islanders made their way from one nation to the next. As you can see, Jamaica's island is still very much a part of the Taino legacy. And the wonderful thing is that many of our museums today still contain a few traces of Taino (Arawak) life.

The Tainos have contributed alot to Jamaican culture and cuisine. These contributions have even greater meaning since this is all the evidence we have of the Taino people in Jamaica.

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Return to Who Colonised Jamaica? from Who Discovered Jamaica?
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References & Sources For Who Discovered Jamaica?

  1. Jamaican history: Learn more about Jamaica's past and people (no date) placeholder. Available at: https://www.visitjamaica.com/feel-the-vibe/history/#:~:text=Our%20documented%20history%20begins%20when,Jamaica%20in%20May%20of%201494 (Accessed: October 29, 2022).

  2. What did the Tainos contribute to Jamaica? (no date) My. Available at: https://www.my-island-jamaica.com/what-did-the-tainos-contribute-to-jamaica.html (Accessed: October 29, 2022).

Who Discovered Jamaica? | Written: October 29, 2022

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