Our African ancestry and European influences have shaped a rich hybrid culture, and spawned an extraordinary musical legacy, covering five different genres. Mento to Dancehall, each with a specific beat, in sync with the enduring sounds of African drumming. At the turn of the 20 th century, our spirited and adventurous nature led many to seek employment in Panama. On our way, we soaked up the Central American tango and samba, Trinidadian calypso, blended African sounds and created a vibrant Jamaican folk music called Mento. Its diverse origin was reflected in the varied instrumentation, which comprised the banjo, hand drums, guitar and a rumba box. During the decades of the 1920s and 30s we ‘let go’ on crowded dance floors to mento’s humorous lyrics, which poked fun at everyday life.

We were saturated with optimism during the 1960s as we awaited full Independence. Filled with high hopes and big dreams, Ska’s buoyant jazz rhythms, though influenced by American Rhythm and Blues, affirmed our musical sovereignty. Party crowds danced the night away to Derrick Morgan’s ‘ Forward March’, when we heralded our Independence from Britain in 1962. And everywhere you went it was Jamaican ska, ska, ska! When the sound hit abroad, it spread like wild fire through London’s underground scene, scoring ‘big time’ with Millie Small’s ‘ My Boy Lollipop’ .

In the latter half of the 1960s, the beat slowed, a heavy bass emerged and dance moves became languid. Some ‘rude boys’ found kinship with the new sounding Rock Steady. Derrick Morgan’s ‘ Tougher Than Tough’, and the Clarendonians ‘ Rudie Gone a Jail’, reflected the times. Desmond Dekker’s ‘007 (Shanty Town)’ became Rock Steady’s first international hit, but this epoch was transitory, for it had to make way for the inevitable scorching, rebel music – Reggae!

Reggae reverberated with the dispossessed. Jamaican legends, Burning Spear, the late Dennis Brown, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer helped to shape the music form and impacted significantly. Marley’s consumate lyrics, ‘This morning I woke up in a curfew; O God, I was a prisoner, too’, told the story.