Celebrating Jamaican independence in Brandon
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/08/2023 (834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
While not as bombastic as the celebrations that took place in the streets of Kingston, the local Jamaican community came together over the long weekend to commemorate their home country’s emancipation.
Brandon’s Jamaica Independence Day festivities took place throughout Sunday afternoon and evening, with a couple dozen people gathering at Rideau Park to enjoy a potluck, some music and a couple culturally specific activities like dandy shandy.
This event came two days after the local municipal government formally recognized Jamaica’s independence by raising the island country’s flag at City Hall.
According to Rushana Newman, executive director of the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, this marks the first time that such a flag raising ceremony has taken place in the Wheat City.
To Newman, this development highlights how far Brandon’s immigrant community has grown since she first arrived in 2015 as an international student, when there were maybe only 30 to 40 other native-born Jamaicans in town.
Now that the community has expanded to include a couple hundred people, Newman is excited to help showcase her home country’s heritage in the future, especially for events like the returning Westman Multicultural Festival next February.
“It’s going to be big,” she said. “We’re coming back with lots of excitement at the Jamaican pavilion.”
The Colony of Jamaica originally gained its independence from the United Kingdom on Aug. 6, 1962 following over 300 years of British control.
Jamaicans traditionally commemorate their liberation every year by staging large-scale parades, musical competitions and other cultural displays, with the biggest celebrations taking place in and around the capital city of Kingston.
» The Brandon Sun
