Brand Jamaica: Reimagining a National Image and Identity
252
Brand Jamaica: Reimagining a National Image and Identity
252Hardcover
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Brand Jamaica is an empirical look at the postindependence national image and branding project of Jamaica within the context of nation-branding practices at large. Although a tiny Caribbean island inhabited by only 2.8 million people, Jamaica commands a remarkably large presence on the world stage. Formerly a colony of Britain and shaped by centuries of slavery, violence, and plunder, today Jamaica owes its popular global standing to a massively successful troika of brands: music, sports, and destination tourism. At the same time, extensive media attention focused on its internal political civil war, mushrooming violent crime, inflation, unemployment, poverty, and abuse of human rights have led to perceptions of the country as unsafe.
Brand Jamaica explores the current practices of branding Jamaica, particularly within the context of postcoloniality, reconciles the lived realities of Jamaicans with the contemporary image of Jamaica projected to the world, and deconstructs the current tourism model of sun, sand, and sea. Hume Johnson and Kamille Gentles-Peart bring together multidisciplinary perspectives that interrogate various aspects of Jamaican national identity and the dominant paradigm by which it has been shaped.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781496200563 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nebraska |
| Publication date: | 12/01/2019 |
| Pages: | 252 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Between Fame and Infamy
The Dialectical Tension in Jamaica's Nation Brand
Hume Johnson
Jamaica — a former colony of Great Britain and the third most populous Anglophone country in the Americas — is among the world's most recognized and highly identifiable nation brands. Despite its miniscule size — both in terms of landmass (4, 244 sq. miles, 10, 911 sq. km) and population (2.8 million) — Jamaica has achieved fame and prestige from boasting a strong global image and symbolic portfolio as the home of one of the world's most iconic artistes, Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley); some of the fastest sprinters in the world, including the legendary Usain Bolt, who is considered the planet's fastest human; a hugely popular indigenous culture featuring reggae, Rastafari, great food, and ganja (otherwise called marijuana or weed, which is said to be the best in the world); Jamaica is also internationally famous for having a year-round sunny climate, beautiful beaches, and landscapes described by many as a mythical, enchanting island, a "paradise." On the other hand, Jamaica is known for virulent crime, corruption, poverty, underdevelopment, and homophobia. In 2013 the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Global Study on Homicide ranked Jamaica among the top six "most murderous" countries in the world, Transparency International, in its 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), continues to rank Jamaica among the world's most corrupt, scoring the country 44 out of 100 where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean (Francis 2019), and in 2006 Time magazine called Jamaica "the most homophobic place on earth" (Padgett 2006; Jackson 2015), locking this nation brand between fame and infamy.
The latter is worrying, as a problematic national image is seen to be a major obstacle for a country's social, economic, and cultural progress. In this era of globalism/globality — defined by globalization, competition, technological advancements, and social networking — nations are competing for buyers of their products; for students, talent, aid, and investment; as well as for attention and respect in the international community. Extant scholarship (e.g., Avraham and Ketter 2013; Avraham 2009; Anholt 2006, 2010; Viosca, Bergiel, and Balsmeier 2005) draws attention to nations' enduring prolonged crises and negative images caused by long-lasting problems such as economic hardship, high crime rates, continuous war, and political instability. The prevailing argument is that nations that have poor reputations (or that are not well-known) are more likely to suffer marginalization and will not easily witness economic success. In short, a bad reputation is bad for business. This means that the stakes are high for countries such as Jamaica that confront troubling and controversial public image and perceptions. Jamaican political authorities, including foreign affairs, tourism, industry and commerce ministries, along with its promotion and trade agency (JAMPRO) and other players, confront an extremely difficult challenge regarding the nation's conflicting and ambiguous public international image. These interests believe that Jamaica's international reputation and success in sports, music, and as a top tourism destination is enough to make the country attractive and respected on the global stage as well as potentially economically successful. Jamaican authorities must, however, consistently address the negative and controversial aspects of the Jamaican brand if it is to construct a successful and sustainable brand and reap economic harvests.
In this chapter I explore the existing challenges confronting "Brand Jamaica." I argue that positive global coverage of Jamaica's outstanding brand achievements in sports, music, and as a premier tourism destination is being potentially negated, if not undone, by the destabilizing impacts of its rival brands — crime, economic instability (debt, poverty, unemployment), corruption, and perceptions of declining human rights. The consequence is a contradictory, perplexing, and problematic public image of Jamaica, with severe consequences for investment and tourism promotion as well as economic and social progress. Jamaica represents a nation that finds itself in a troubling situation of prolonged negative images and stereotypes even alongside positive perceptions. It is this contradiction that I see as the "dialectical tension" in Jamaica's national image, a friction between fame and infamy. The chapter thus points at the imperative for Jamaican authorities to evaluate the nation's formal public image, manage the impact of prolonged crises on its brand, and attempt to reimagine Jamaica beginning with a focus on its people and the nation's creative and cultural credentials in order to ensure economic success and remain relevant in changing times. As a point of departure, I will provide an overview of Jamaica's famous nation brand, popularly called "Brand Jamaica," and then introduce dialectical tension as a conceptual framework that may help us to make sense of the contradictions in Jamaica's nation brand. Finally, I look more closely at challenges Brand Jamaica currently confronts and how they may be reconciled as well as the role the Jamaican authorities might play in the construction of the brand that is Jamaica.
Jamaica's "Claim to Fame" — An Overview
Despite its inescapable status as a former colony of Great Britain, shaped by centuries of slavery, violence, and plunder, Jamaica has made an indelible mark on the global arena through a massively successful troika of brands — reggae music, sports, and destination tourism. Since the 1960s and 1970s Jamaica's rising popularity and esteem in the world has been premised on the ballooning success of the nation's vibrant music culture, featuring forms such as ska and rocksteady but particularly its indigenous reggae, which was then the world's newest music genre. Jamaica is known as a musical force, having the highest per capita musical composition of any country in the world (Mussche 2008, 31). The list of reggae's megastars is extensive, but Bob Marley is undeniably the genre's greatest celebrity icon and ambassador. Through Marley's timeless music and powerful messages of peace and love, Jamaica found itself a significant player in the global movement for equality, peace, and justice. As a lyrical art form and cultural expression, reggae has had a penetrating local and global impact as a vehicle for sociopolitical commentary, critiquing oppressive political systems and engaging listeners about issues of identity, love and relationships, perseverance, and hope.
Consistently addressing issues such as poverty, justice, and education as well as a resistance to Babylon (the social and political structures of the state), Marley transcended culture and language and cultivated a strong social consciousness especially among the younger generation (Mussche 2008). Songs such as "One Love" and "War" resonated with oppressed peoples on every continent and inspired a desire to fight for and protect their fundamental human rights. The expression One Love itself became a widely understood expression of love and respect for all peoples regardless of race, creed, or color. This was Jamaica's gift to the world and the beginning of the nation's symbolic presence on the world stage in the modern period. In 2000, global media recognized Jamaica's significant contribution to world culture. The British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, for example, named Bob Marley's "One Love" as the song of the millennium. This is while the popular U.S. newsmagazine, Time, in a piece entitled "The Best of the Century," listed Marley's 1977 album Exodus as the best album of the twentieth century, asserting that "the album is a political and cultural nexus drawing inspiration from the Third World, then giving voice to it the world over" (Jamaica Gleaner 2007).
Emerging alongside the rise of Bob Marley as global superstar were Jamaica's indigenous cultural practices, such as the lifestyle and ideology of Rastafari, which — thanks to Marley — had begun to take on a fad-like following across the world. Developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, Rastafarianism espouses racial pride and identity as well as repatriation of blacks to Africa, the home of their ancestors. Rastas base their philosophy on the teachings of Jamaican black activist and national hero Marcus Garvey, who advanced a Pan-African philosophy of black pride, empowerment, and black racial identity — which became known as Garveyism. Marcus Garvey became one of the most influential leaders emerging from Jamaica during the 1920s and 1930s; he defined Pan-Africanism not just for the Harlem Renaissance but for the whole world. His philosophy had a huge influence on the global civil rights movements, particularly on the views of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela, and provided an important inspiration to the Rastafari movement and other activist movements around the world (Mussche 2008).
The followers of Rastafari, which now number in the thousands worldwide, sport the distinctive dreadlocks hairstyle (as a resistance to Babylon), observe various rites and customs such as the smoking of weed (marijuana, or ganja) as a religious sacrament, and revere the late emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, who they see as the Black Messiah; they also sport the signature colors of red, green, and gold, which represent the Ethiopian national colors. Rastafari is intrinsically tied to the expansion of reggae internationally, as many of Jamaica's reggae artistes adopted a Rastafarian aesthetic and philosophy and are seen to be largely responsible for popularizing and contributing to the expansion of Rasta culture globally. Rastafari, in other words, played a critical role in situating Jamaican culture in the international arena. It is this symbolic culture that essentially concretized Jamaica's sense of place in the world.
It is the Jamaican people, however, who ought to be given credit for Jamaica's global fame and strong brand name. A significant example of this is the modern athletic revolution being led by legendary Jamaican sprinters such as Usain Bolt (considered the fastest man in the world) and compatriots Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell-Brown, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson, and, before them, Merlene Ottey and Herb McKenley and his compatriots Arthur Wint and Donald Quarrie. Breaking record after record, Jamaican athletes have set new bars of achievement in world athletics. Known as the "sprint factory," Jamaica has given the world new sprinting techniques and coaching tactics and in the process helped to transform track and field from a fading sport to the most popular event at the Olympic Games. Other outstanding citizens in fashion, the arts, film, and food technology as well as tech-savvy entrepreneurs and intellectuals are promoting Jamaica abroad through their notable achievements. Cultural studies scholar Donna Hope, for example, writes extensively on the critical contribution of "dancehall culture" (dance, fashion, and lifestyle) in the internationalization of Jamaican culture (Hope 2006). In addition, Jamaica's local language, patois, which has, for a long time been fighting for recognition, found space in Volkswagen's 2013 Super Bowl commercial and in a plethora of Hollywood films, including the 1990 flick Marked for Death, starring Steven Seagal; the popular Cool Runnings in 1993; Meet Joe Black (1998), starring Brad Pitt; and in the 2017 Marvel series Luke Cage. Jamaican export products are also strong signifiers of its "claim to fame." Blue Mountain Coffee (one of the most expensive and sought after coffees in the world), Appleton Jamaica Rum, patties (meat pies), Red Stripe Beer, jerk, and the grapefruit drink Ting are fully established around the world, contributing to the nation's presence and strong symbolic culture. If this was not enough, white sand beaches, lavish all-inclusive resorts, and a tropical climate have catapulted Jamaica into one of the world's premier destination tourism brands, attracting on average some 3.5 million tourists annually — including stopover and cruise ship passengers (Caribbean360 2016; Jamaica Tourist Board 2015).
Yet the discourse about Jamaica is not always positive. Accompanying Jamaica's largely positive public international image is the development of what may be called a "rival brand" image. Since the early 1960s (when the island gained independence from Great Britain) and 1970s, Jamaica's emergence as a progressive nation — legislating new political and social rights to its poor, improving education, and actively participating in the global civil rights and social justice movements — has also been attended by international media coverage of the country's internal political civil war, featuring intense warfare between opposing gangs loyal to the country's two main political parties (the People's National Party [PNP] and the Jamaica Labor Party [JLP]), mushrooming crime, inflation, unemployment, and impoverishment. Today this negative image persists. Regular reports in the global media of Jamaica featuring gang warfare, upsurges in violent crime, corruption, and economic instability lead to troubling perceptions of the country as unsafe — a dangerous paradise, so to speak. Overall, the result has been a contradictory and problematic public image of Jamaica, with severe consequences for investment, tourism promotion, and the nation's economic and social progress.
The Brand Jamaica Dialectic
Despite the centrality of tourism in Jamaica's nation branding project and this sector being the bedrock of the economy, it is essential that Jamaican authorities bear in mind that Brand Jamaica is a nation brand of striking contradictions. A contradiction exists "whenever two forces or tendencies are interdependent yet mutually negate each other" (Miller 2002). Whereas all nation brands contain both positive and negative aspects, Brand Jamaica exhibits a perplexing combination of competing forces that are struggling for dominance. Dialectical theory appears to be a good model by which to explain these tensions and contradictions. Dialectic, in the Hegelian sense, is an interpretive method that explains the dynamic interplay between two opposing forces or entities (Rawlins 2008; Baxter and Montgomery 1996). It suggests that some proposition (a thesis) is necessarily opposed by an equally contradictory proposition (antithesis). The contradiction is often reconciled on a higher level of truth by a third proposition (synthesis). Dialectical theory has its philosophical roots in the idea that the world is in constant flux, with creative and destructive forces constantly operating upon each other. Baxter (1996), for example, in applying dialectics to communication and relationships, argues that dialectical tension is the "tugs and pulls" that are present in relationships as a result of the coexistence of both repelling (centrifugal) and attracting (centripetal) forces. Drawing on this theory, figure 1 illustrates the dialectical tensions inherent in the Jamaican brand.
This figure goes to the heart of the dilemma confronting Brand Jamaica. First, the figure points to the extraordinary presence, influence, and promise (both formally projected or informally created) of many aspects of the Jamaican national brand (e.g., tourism; sports, particularly athletics and bobsled; a vibrant culture featuring the popular reggae and dancehall music genres; a unique language and accent; an indigenous Rastafari movement; vibrant lifestyle; world-famous export products such as Blue Mountain Coffee; and a multiplicity of iconic citizens, among them Bob Marley and Usain Bolt). Second, it points to dangerous deficits and the prolonged crisis facing the Jamaican brand embodied in ostensible weaknesses in the institutions, structures, and processes of governance — deep debt, corruption, violent crime, breaches of human rights, poverty, rising employment, and perceptions of homophobia.
This glaring dichotomy exhibits the dialectical tension within this nation brand, reproducing Brand Jamaica's relative strength versus its profound vulnerability. The positive brand narratives evident in the top half of figure 1 have historically served to elevate and position Brand Jamaica as one of the world's most popular nation brands. However, it is worth noting that the negative discourses displayed in the bottom half of figure 1 have simultaneously served to undermine Jamaica in international public opinion and disrupt its capacity to take full advantage of its moral, social, economic, and cultural capital. This dialectical contestation between opposing brand attributes in Jamaica suggests that some variables may be performing brand-building functions while others are equally and simultaneously performing brand-reducing functions. In other words, both negative and positive brand narratives are vying to become the dominant discourse in Jamaica.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Brand Jamaica"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska.
Excerpted by permission of UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction Hume Johnson and Kamille Gentles-Peart 1. Between Fame and Infamy: The Dialectical Tension in Jamaica’s Nation Brand Hume Johnson 2. Branding the Nation: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Jamaica Tourist Board’s Commercial Campaigns Nickesia Gordon 3. Women of “Paradise”: Tourism Marketing and the Lived Realities of Jamaican Women in the United States Kamille Gentles-Peart 4. Brand Jamaica and the Economic Cost of Homophobia: Initiating a Conversation Anna Kasafi Perkins 5. An (Un)easy Sell: Rebrandings of Jamaica in Marlon James’s A Brief History of Seven Killings and Its French and Spanish Translations Laëtitia Saint-Loubert 6. Brand Kingston: Reimagining Jamaica’s Capital City Hume Johnson 7. Hold On to What You Got: Intellectual Property and Jamaican Symbols and Culture Steffen Mussche-Johansen and Hume Johnson Final Thoughts Hume Johnson and Kamille Gentles-Peart References List of Contributors Index