On August 6, 1962, the island of Jamaica became an independent nation, making it the first sovereign English-speaking country in the Caribbean. The tremendous victory of this likkle but tallawah island (“small but mighty” in Jamaican) was one triumph in the long history of Black sovereignty and nationalism that led to the disintegration of the British empire in the Caribbean.
Written by Dr. Alexandria Miller. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Video production by Hannah Keller, Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Justin Troyer, and Victoria Paige. A transcript is available at https://origins.osu.edu/index.php/read/jamaican-independence.
This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University.
