This book examines the racial and socio-linguistic dynamics of Jamaica, a majority black nation where the dominant ideology continues to look to white countries as models, yet which continues to defy the odds. The authors trace the history of how a nation of less than three million people has come to be at the centre of cultural, racial and linguistic influence globally; producing a culture than has transformed the way that the world listens to music, and a dialect that has formed the lingua franca for a generation of young people. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Caribbean linguistics, Africana studies, diaspora studies, sociology of language and sociolinguistics more broadly.

This book examines the racial and socio-linguistic dynamics of Jamaica, a majority black nation where the dominant ideology continues to look to white countries as models, yet which continues to defy the odds. The authors trace the history of how a nation of less than three million people has come to be at the centre of cultural, racial and linguistic influence globally; producing a culture than has transformed the way that the world listens to music, and a dialect that has formed the lingua franca for a generation of young people. The book will be of particular interest to students and scholars of Caribbean linguistics, Africana studies, diaspora studies, sociology of language and sociolinguistics more broadly.