Earlier today, September 14th, Jamaica managed to once again make history. As of today Jamaica is the first and only Caribbean country to have a compilation of videos and pictures, or a story, on social media site Snapchat, and one of a select few countries to be given the honour.

Hundreds of Yaadies got involved in the project, showcasing our beautiful island home for the world to see. And the end result was absolutely beautiful. Many snaps showed an authentic, un-commercialised view of our island and its treasures. From folk songs to chilling with friends over some good jerk chicken and festival or fish and festival, to coconut jelly, fresh shrimp and a look at Kingston from the hills.

Many took to other social media platforms like Twitter to gush about how beautiful our country is and how charming and rich our culture appears to be. Conversely, when one of the prominent snaps showed what users thought was a ‘twang’ instead of a genuine Jamaican accent, the complaints were so plentiful that Snapchat removed it. 

There were snap stories from other snappers, showcasing other persons with extremely hilarious snaps. Examples can be seen in the pictures above, but one example was from Quite Viral host Quite Perry. Making reference to a stone he said “this is what you call a Jamaican rock stone, if somebody eva violate, yuh fling it an’ buss dem head.”

Some of these snaps are hilarious as some snappers had decided to stick with the misconception that foreigners have of Jamaicans. Many of them believe that our everyday living is totally different from theirs, and that we aren’t able to meet some of our basic needs. It’s either that, or the misconception that all Jamaicans are rastas and we are always happy.  There were snaps of people reading the Michael Manley History book, captioning as “reading my fav book” another person snapped a big wash-pan filled with water captioning “about to take a shower.” And of course the gimmicks really did not end there.

However, some feel that important aspects of Jamaica did not make it, for example: dancehall.