Today the population of the country consists mainly of the black and mulatto descendants of those slaves. There are also minorities of East Indian, Chinese, Amerindian, Syrian, Lebanese, and European ancestry, all with full and unqualified Jamaican citizenship. More than half of the Jamaican population lives in urban areas. The official language of Jamaica is English, but many people speak a popular and expressive Creole dialect. Originally developed as a means of communication between slaves, it contains elements from African languages as well as from English, French, and Spanish.
Education is theoretically free, but illiteracy is still a problem.
Near Kingston, the capital and chief port, is the main campus of the University of the West Indies and a technical college. A religious people, Jamaicans enjoy complete freedom of worship. Rastafarians use ganja, a potent form of marijuana, as a sacrament and have special rules of dress, diet, and work. Jamaicans have developed a vibrant national culture, notably represented in such fields as reggae music, drama, and the visual arts and in the sport of cricket. Half the cultivated area is controlled by about 1,000 large estates, while the other half is divided into 185,000 small farms.