HERITAGE: KS4 Commended

Shanai in Year 11 shares a celebratory reflection on her Jamaican and St. Kittitian heritage.

Both of my parents have played a major part in my heritage as well as my identity.

I am mixed with Kittitian (Ker-tish-ern) and Jamaican, but I was born and raised in the UK, so I'm known and seen as the 'black British girl' or 'the Caribbean British girl'.

I have been to Jamaica before, around nine years ago, when I was still in primary school. I remember it being relaxing. I remember it being tropical. I remember the beaches and the freshly caught fish. I remember the urge of wanting more and more fresh fish, the freshest there there is, caught only minutes before from the salty sea.

I would like to go back to Jamaica one day, as well as travel to St. Kitts. I know some of you may be asking yourselves, 'what is St. Kitts?' 'Where is St. Kitts?' Well, Basseterre (the capital) is a small island which bumps off the coast of another island called 'Nevis'; the two islands join together and are known under the title of 'St. Kitts and Nevis.' It is situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. St. Kitts is mostly known for its cloud-shrouded mountains and its tropical sandy beaches, as well as its former sugar plantations (before it was ruined by imports from other countries coming from aboard). The population amasses to around 53,000, which is extremely small when compared to Jamaica.

Both Jamaica and St. Kitts serve the same mouth-watering traditional food, such as rice and peas, plantain, ackee and saltfish, fried/boiled dumplings, jerk chicken, oxtail, callaloo (Caribbean vegetable just like Spinach) and so many more delicious foods.

Hopefully, one day, once this who pandemic is over, I will get to travel to St. Kitts and explore the land. I want to explore the country as a whole. I want to find out more about my heritage. I want to know more than I already know.