Since scholarship on the Ten Type Beauty Contest is limited, details on the pageant was taken from research conducted by Dr. Rochelle Rowe in her book, “Imagining Caribbean Womanhood: Race, Nation & Beauty Competitions, 1929-1970” and her more specified academic paper, “Glorifying the Jamaican Girl”: The “Ten Types – One People” Beauty Contest, Racialized Femininities, and Jamaican Nationalism”. In 1954, then Minister of Finance in the Jamaica Labour Party, Donald Sangster had this grand idea: Jamaica will celebrate "three hundredth anniversary of British rule in Jamaica" and the celebrat ..read more

“Among the tiny minority of politically motivated criminals in the 1970s none won as much notoriety and anxious concern from the authorities as did Dennis “Copper” Barth. Born in Kingston in 1951, Barth’s turn to crime came at an early age after he dropped out of the Rennock Lodge Elementary School at age twelve. By the time he was eighteen years old Barth had been convicted of several major offences, including murdering a policeman, for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment.19 By the mid- 1970s, Barth, who operated out of the Rennock Lodge area in East Kingston, had been declared “publi ..read more

"In most scholarship, the Rastafari movement is thought to have formed from a rethinking of biblical prophecies enabled by Black consciousness. Rastafari scholars have not sufficiently probed the tentative connections between the movement and Hinduism. Most map the movement in a dialectic between White oppressive Christianity and oppressed Afro-Jamaicans, which has produced a Rastafari that reappropriates, repurposes, and reproduces the Black and African ethos while actively disentangling the Afro-Indian intimacies that are found across the archives. Moreover, this view diminishes the agency o ..read more

The Jamaat al Muslimeen coup attempt was an attempt to overthrow the government of Trinidad and Tobago, instigated on Friday, 27 July 1990. Over the course of six days, Jamaat al Muslimeen, held hostages at the Red House (Parliament building) and at the headquarters of the state-owned national television broadcaster, Trinidad and Tobago Television (TTT).  In the end, the prime minister was shot, persons died and numerous others would never be the same again.  Song: Babylon Fallin - Kabaka Pyramid  For information on the sources used in this episode, visit our website at: https ..read more

In 1975, Cuba sent troops to Angola to help them fight against an invasion by apartheid South Africa. Henry Kissinger, the US Secretary of State was angry at this, so he set out to get countries to denounce Cuba’s actions. Jamaica was one of these countries. So, in December 1975, Kissinger met with prime minister Michael Manley on the issue. On this episode, we hear from Manley, himself, how this conversation went and the events that occured in its aftermath - events, that forever changed Jamaica. -Michael Manley’s account is taken from, Jamaica: A Struggle In The Periphery by ..read more

In Jamaica, there is the famous Devon House. A historical landmark, it is popular for its patties, the Devon House ice-cream and on any given weekend when the weather is suitable, it also serves as a public park for families. However, there’s a popular story that involves Devon House that most Jamaicans grow up hearing. Basically, the story goes that Lady Musgrave, the then governor of Jamaica’s wife, was so angry at seeing Devon House, this grand mansion owned by a black man, that she authorise the building of another road, to avoid driving passed it. And it’s for this reason why the road is ..read more

In 1976, on the 3rd of December, at his residence of 56 Hope Road, Bob Marley survived an assassination attempt mostly by his manager, Don Taylor, been a barrier between him and assassins. Almost 3 years later in a Gabonese hotel room, Bob Marley apparently beat up Don Taylor. The incident is said to serve as the inspiration for one of Marley's most famous track, Bad Card For additional reading information on this episode and to view our transcript for this episode, visit our website at: https://www.tenementyaadmedia.com/ Don't forget to follow us on our social media Twitter: https://twitter ..read more

Upon the arrival of large numbers of Indians to the Caribbean, through the Indentureship system, they also brought their religion and other aspect of their culture. Their aversion to not assimilating to whiteness, was seen as a problem by the colonial governments. And no other event in the 1800’s would portray this than the 1884 Hosay Massacre in Trinidad which say agents of the colonial state - the police- turn their guns on Indians taking part in the annual Hosay festival. For additional reading information on this episode and to view our transcript for this episode, visit our website at: h ..read more

Every year, around May to August, usually, there’s a repetitive argument that exist in Jamaica society. Whether on traditional or social media, this debate takes place where person inquire why do Jamaica’s authorities continue to mandate the wearing of jacket and tie for men in formal spaces - especially in a tropical climate. The thing is however, there was once a time in this country’s modern history, when the government of Jamaica went on a campaign to change societal norms - that is: change what male formal attire means in the Jamaica. Through this campaign, the safari styled dress suit kn ..read more

Content Warning: this episode contains mentions of violence, slavery and wider harm.  Most scholarship on Caribbean chattel slavery of enslaved Africans largely covers the the sugar and tobacco plantation systems throughout the region. However, there was another massive industry that was built upon the enslavement of Africans - that was the cultivation of salt. Saltpans, the name given to the areas of salt production, were spread across the region: Turks & Caicos, Haiti, Jamaica, Barbuda, Sint Maarten, Bonaire and other areas. Throughout the 18th and 19th century, the region was one t ..read more