Chinese Development Projects in Jamaica: An Ethnography of Imperial Formations from the ‘Yaardi’ Perspective
Abstract
Attracted by the prospect of Chinese funding for infrastructure projects, Jamaica became the tenth Caribbean Island to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), amidst Western criticisms labeling it as a ‘debt trap’. This thesis provides an ethnographic account of how Jamaicans talk about and make sense of BRI projects in their daily lives and in relation to the larger political and economic processes (debt, sovereignty, imperialism) taking place in their ‘imagined community’. While some Jamaicans consider the BRI as an opportunity to develop public infrastructure, others remain skeptical, fearing that these initiatives may compromise national sovereignty. By utilizing frameworks such as dependency theory, I contextualize the BRI within the dynamics of debt-dependency between the periphery and the core and, reparations to emphasize the necessity of debt relief for post-colonial states like Jamaica to redress the exploitation of human and natural resources and the social and economic decline resulting from colonialism.