Roots: Mothers before the plantations
Before ships carried chains across the Atlantic, Jamaica’s earliest people — the Taíno — already honoured women as central to their society. Mothers farmed cassava, cultivated herbs, and kept households alive with knowledge of seasons and rituals. They passed on stories, crafts, and healing practices, tying future generations to the land. These women were the first “mamas” of Jamaica: providers, protectors, and keepers of continuity.
Enslavement and survival: mothers as healers and anchors
When colonisation brought the brutal plantation system, African women bore the greatest burdens. Enslaved mothers cut cane, cooked in hot kitchens, carried children on aching backs — and still managed to build family out of fragments. “Mama” became more than just biological parenthood: it was the granny-midwife who delivered babies under torchlight, the elder who whispered folktales, the woman who hid herbs in her apron to heal the sick. In a world designed to brea…
