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{{More citations needed|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Jamaican Creoles<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage|first1=Richard |last1=Allsopp |publisher=UWI Press|year=1996 |page=176-177|isbn=978-976-640-145-0}}</ref>
| group = Afro-Jamaicans
| regions = Throughout [[Jamaica]]
| pop = 76.3% of [[Jamaica]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uwi.edu/jamaica.php#:~:text=Population:2,824,913+(2024+est.,%25+Chinese+and+0.8%25+Other.&text=History:+When+Christopher+Columbus+first,by+Arawak+(Taino)+Indians|title=Jamaica &#124; The University of the West Indies|website=www.uwi.edu}}</ref>
| langs = [[Jamaican Patois]], [[Jamaican English]]
| rels = MainlyPredominantly [[ChristianityProtestantism]], with minorities of other forms of [[IrreligionChristianity]], [[RastafariJudaism]]sm, and [[JudaismRastafari|Rastafari]] <br />'''Afro-Jamaican religions'''<br />[[Rastafari]], [[Convince]], [[Jamaican Maroon religion]], [[Kumina]]
| related = [[Afro-Caribbean people|African Caribbean Creoles]], [[British Jamaicans]], [[Black Canadians]], [[Jamaican Americans]], [[Belizean Creole people|Belizean Creoles]], [[Asante people]]
}}
 
'''Afro-Jamaicans''', or '''Jamaican Creoles''',<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage|first1=Richard |last1=Allsopp |publisher=UWI Press|year=1996 |page=13, 176-177|isbn=978-976-640-145-0}}</ref> also called '''Taíno Jamaicans''', are [[Jamaicans]] of predominantly [[AfricanAfro-Caribbean diasporapeople|AfricanCaribbean Creole]] descent. They represent the largest [[ethnicity|ethnic]] group in the country, and are the [[Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean|indigenous people of Jamaica]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jamaica Population 2021 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs)|url=https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/jamaica-population|url-status=live|access-date=2021-06-20|website=World Population Review|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131222015634/http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/jamaica-population/ |archive-date=2013-12-22 }}</ref>
 
The [[ethnogenesis]] of the Jamaican [[Creole people]] stems from the indigenous [[Taíno]], and the [[Coromantee|Cromanty]] ethnic group who were abducted from the Gold Coast, and taken to Jamaica during the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Jamaican English|first1=Robert B. Le Page |last1=Frederic G. Cassidy.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1980 |page=131|isbn=978-0-521-11840-8}}</ref> Both the [[Taíno]], and the [[Coromantee|Cromanty]] were held captive during slavery, and intermarried with one another over the course of time. Their descendants the ('''Creoles''') are now the predominant ethnic group in [[Jamaica]], [[Bermuda]], [[Cayman Islands]], the [[Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina|Raizal Islands]], and the [[Turks and Caicos Islands]];<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage|first1=Richard |last1=Allsopp |publisher=UWI Press|year=1996 |page=176-177|isbn=978-976-640-145-0}}</ref> who all share a common ('''Creolian''') heritage and ancestry.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of Jamaican English|first1=Robert B. Le Page |last1=Frederic G. Cassidy.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1980 |page=130|isbn=978-0-521-11840-8}}</ref>
The [[ethnogenesis]] of the Black Jamaican people stemmed from the [[Atlantic slave trade]] of the 16th century, when enslaved Africans were transported as slaves to Jamaica and other parts of the Americas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Castilla |first=Julian de |date=1924 |title=The English conquest of Jamaica |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/camden-third-series/article/abs/english-conquest-of-jamaica-an-account-of-what-happened-in-the-island-of-jamaica-from-may-20-of-the-year-1655-when-the-english-laid-seige-to-it-up-to-july-3-of-the-year-1656-by-captain-julian-de-castilla/128E8F78849E09C3784D41BE07B88CD4 |journal=Camden |series=Third Series |volume=34 |pages=32 |doi=10.1017/S2042171000006932}}</ref> During the period of British rule, slaves brought to Jamaica by European slave traders were primarily [[Akan people|Akan]], some of whom ran away and joined with [[Jamaican Maroons]] and even took over as leaders.<ref name="auto">{{cite book|title=History of Jamaica, From Its Discovery To The Year 1872|first= William James |last=Gardner |publisher=Appleton & Company |page=184 |year=1909 |isbn=978-0415760997}}</ref>
 
== Origin ==
West Africans were enslaved in wars with other West African states and kidnapped by either African or European slavers.
 
=== Ethnicities ===
Based on slave ship records, enslaved Africans mostly came from the [[Akan people]] (notably those of the Asante Kotoko alliance of the 1720s: Asante, Bono, Wassa, Nzema and Ahanta) followed by [[Kongo people]], [[Fon people]], [[Ewe people]], and to a lesser degree: [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], [[Ibibio people]] and [[Igbo people]]. Akan (then called ''Coromantee'') culture was the dominant African culture in Jamaica.<ref name="auto"/>
 
Originally in earlier British colonization, the island before the 1750s was in fact mainly Akan imported. However, between 1663 and 1700, only six per cent of slave ships to Jamaica listed their origin as the [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]], while between 1700 and 1720 that figure went up to 27 per cent. The number of Akan slaves arriving in Jamaica from Kormantin ports only increased in the early 18th century.<ref>Siva, Michael, ''After the Treaties: A Social, Economic and Demographic History of Maroon Society in Jamaica, 1739–1842'', PhD dissertation (Southampton: Southampton University, 2018), p. 27.</ref> But due to frequent rebellions from the then known "Coromantee" that often joined the slave rebellion group known as the [[Jamaican Maroons]], other groups were sent to Jamaica. The Akan population was still maintained, since they were the preference of British planters in Jamaica because they were "better workers", according to these planters. According to the Slave Voyages Archives, though the Igbo had the highest importation numbers, they were only imported to Montego Bay and St. Ann's Bay ports, while the Akan (mainly Gold Coast) were more dispersed across the island and were a majority imported to seven of 14 of the island's ports (each parish has one port).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.slavevoyages.org/|title=Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade|publisher=Slavevoyages.org|access-date=29 August 2017}}</ref>
 
=== Afro-European or Browning Class ===
The majority of the house slaves were [[mulatto]]es. There were also Brown/Mulatto or [[Coloureds|mixed-race]] people at the time who had more privileges than the Black slaves and usually held higher-paying jobs and occupations.<ref>{{cite web |first=Rebecca |last=Tortello |url=http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0059.htm |title=The Arrival of the Africans |newspaper=Jamaica Gleaner|via= Pieces of the Past |date=3 February 2004|access-date=29 August 2017}}</ref>
 
In 1871 the census recorded a population of 506,154 people, 246,573 males, and 259,581 females. Their races were recorded as 13,101 White, 100,346 "Coloured" (now known as the Browning Class), and 392,707 Black.
 
== History ==
=== Atlantic slave trade ===
{{Main|Atlantic slave trade}}
{| class="wikitable sortable" align="right"
! Region of embarkment, 1701–1800!! Amount %
|-
| [[Bight of Bonny|Bight of Biafra]] <small>([[Igbo Jamaican|Igbo]], [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]])</small> ||align=center| 31.9
|-
| [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]] <small>([[Akan people|Asante/Fante Akan]])</small> ||align=center| 29.5
|-
| [[Central Africa|West-central Africa]] <small>([[Kongo people|Kongo]], [[Northern Mbundu people|Mbundu]])</small> ||align=center| 15.2
|-
| [[Bight of Benin]] <small>([[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], [[Ewe people|Ewe]], [[Fon people|Fon]], [[Allada]] and [[Mahi people|Mahi]])</small> ||align=center| 10.1
|-
| [[Windward Coast]] <small>([[Mandé peoples|Mandé]], [[Kru people|Kru]])</small> ||align=center| 4.8
|-
| [[Sierra Leone]] <small>([[Mende people|Mende]], [[Temne people|Temne]])</small> ||align=center| 3.8
|-
| [[East Africa|Southeast Africa]] <small>([[Macua (people)|Macua]], [[Malagasy people|Malagasy]])</small> ||align=center| 0.1
|-
| (Unknown) ||align=center| 5.0<ref>{{cite book|title=The river flows on: Black resistance, culture, and identity formation in early America |first=Walter C. |last=Rucker |publisher=LSU Press |year=2006 |isbn=0-8071-3109-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2XlG4rRK4QC&pg=PA126 |page=126 }}</ref>
|}
 
=== Myal and Revival ===
'''Kumfu''' (from the word ''Akom'' the name of the [[Akan people|Akan]] spiritual system) was documented as ''Myal'' and originally only found in books, while the term Kumfu is still used by Jamaican Maroons. The priest of Kumfu was called a ''Kumfu-man''. In 18th-century Jamaica, only Akan gods were worshipped by Akan as well as by other enslaved Africans. The Akan god of creation, [[Nyame|Nyankopong]] was given praise but not worshipped directly. They poured libation to [[Asase Ya]], the goddess of the earth. But nowadays they are only observed by the Maroons who preserved a lot of the culture of 1700s Jamaica.<ref name="auto"/>
 
"Myal" or Kumfu evolved into Revival, a syncretic Christian sect. Kumfu followers gravitated to the American [[Revival of 1800|Revival of 1800 Seventh Day Adventist movement]] because it observed Saturday as god's day of rest. This was a shared aboriginal belief of the Akan people as this too was the day that the Akan god, [[Nyame]], rested after creating the earth. Jamaicans that were aware of their Ashanti past while wanting to keep hidden, mixed their Kumfu spirituality with the American Adventists to create Jamaican Revival in 1860. Revival has two sects: ''60 order'' (or Zion Revival, the order of the heavens) and ''61 order'' (or Pocomania, the order of the earth). 60 order worships God and spirits of air or the heavens on a Saturday and considers itself to be the more "clean" sect. 61 order more deals with spirits of the earth. This division of Kumfu clearly shows the dichotomy of Nyame and [[Asase Yaa]]'s relationship, Nyame representing ''air'' and has his 60 order'; ''Asase Yaa'' having her 61 order of the ''earth''. Also the Ashanti funerary/war colours: red and black have the same meaning in Revival of ''vengeance''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Jamaican Folk Medicine: A Source Of Healing|first=Mervyn C. |last=Allenye |publisher=University of the West Indies Press|pages=36 |year=2004 |isbn=9789766401238}}</ref> Other Ashanti elements include the use of swords and rings as means to guard the spirit from spiritual attack. The [[Asantehene]], like the Mother Woman of Revival, has special two swords used to protect himself from witchcraft called an [[Akrafena]] or ''soul sword'' and a Bosomfena or ''spirit sword''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Running to 'Mother' - Thugs seek guard rings and divine protection |newspaper=Jamaica Gleaner |first=Mel|last=Cooke|date=19 September 2010 |url=http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100919/lead/lead4.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/online_research_catalogues/ag/asante_gold_regalia/i_history-significance-usage/iv.aspx|title=British Museum - I.v|website=Britishmuseum.org|access-date=29 August 2017}}</ref>
 
=== John Canoe ===
A festival was dedicated to the heroism of the [[Akan people|Akan]] king 'John Canoe' an [[Ahanta]] from [[Axim]], [[Ghana]] in 1708. See [[John Canoe]] section.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}
 
=== Jamaican Patois ===
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== See also ==
{{Portal|Jamaica|Africa}}
* [[Coromantee|Cromanty]]
* [[Dancehall]]
* [[Dub music]]
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