Yasus, YS Falls & Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers

Yasus Afari

Yasus Afari is a dub poet who started his career performing to students of the University of the West Indies and local teachers’ colleges. He released his first song in 1986 and went on to write and record music with several musicians, including Maxi Priest and Tony Rebel. He has been honoured locally and overseas for his work. He has written Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World and a book of Poetry Eye Pen. He has released five albums. His most well known recording is possibly Put it Een.

YS Falls

YS Falls is another beautiful piece of Jamaica, where a seven-tied waterfall cascades into a pool which is also fed by underground springs. The falls were selected as the Jamaica Hotel & Tourist Association’s attraction of the year from the 1995-1997. The Ministry of Tourism and Sport gave the operators an award in 2002 for their outstanding environmental stewardship in developing an ecotourism attraction. The property also boasts impressive gardens, canopy and a range of tropical birds.

The estate was a cane farm and also exported logwood to Europe. In 1887 the property changed owners and the production of cane and logwood continued. Cattle was also reared on the estate. The logwood export died out as synthetic dyes replaced the derivative from the logwood tree. Today the focus is on ecotourism, breeding pedigree cattle (Jamaica Red Poll) a stud farm. Interestingly, the present owner monitors the number of visitors to the property with a view to preserving the natural beauty of the estate.

Yabba

There are several types of Yabba, which go back to the days of slavery. Some were used for food preparation, as cooking pots and for storing food items. These were unglazed and unfired and fell out of favour as time advanced and were replaced by imported ceramic items. These days, Yabbas are decorative rather than functional.

Ziggy Marley & the Melody Makers

Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers - This group is comprised of Bob Marley’s children and was one of my favourites when I was growing up. Even today, I enjoy their tracks from way back when. The Marley’s are still making music, having launched solo careers in the case of Ziggy and Stephen and have also moved in different directions including fashion designing and writing. Some of my favourite tracks are Brothers & Sisters, Look Who’s Dancing and Tumblin’ Down.

Zion Hill: There are two communities in Jamaica that have this name, one in St. Andrew and St. Catherine. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any information as to why these places were called Zion Hill.

Jamaican terms again...

Zion - For the Rastaman, Zion refers to Africa generally and specifically to Ethiopia as the ancestral homeland of black people, in short, the holy land. 

Zutupec – someone who has no class.  

Source

And that's the A-Z Challenge for me! I have lots of visits to make, so bear with me while I catch up this coming week.

Many thanks to those who have taken the time to download and read these books that I've offered for free during the Challenge! I hope you enjoy the little bit of Jamaica I've shared through these stories. They're still available for free download. Click the covers.

 Walk good! (A Jamaican term which means goodbye.)