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1. General Situation The island of Jamaica is the third largest island of the Caribbean archipelago. A parliamentary democracy, Jamaica was given autonomy by the United Kingdom in 1959 and won its full independence in 1962. The great majority of its inhabitants are of African descent. The nation’s economy, dependent mainly on tourism and also on bauxite mining, has stagnated since 1995. Between 1996 and 2000 employment fell by roughly a sixth (Unemployment). Before Europeans arrived, Jamaica was inhabited by Amerindians. The Tainos occupied the island from the middle…

Voodoo, or vodun (as it is often known in African countries), is a religion of Caribbean origin, developed in Haiti by peoples of African descent in response to the social, political, economic, and religious oppression consequent on transatlantic slavery. It originated largely against the background of both the remembered religious past of the slaves, primarily from Dahomey (since 1975, named Benin), and the rites of the Roman Catholic Church as propagated by the Spanish and French. It may be seen…