Selling Paradise, Building a Diaspora: Air Jamaica and the Forging of Postindependence Jamaican Identities

This poster examines the post-1962 Jamaican independence generation through the lens of its national airline, Air Jamaica, and explores how international travel cultivated a modern, cosmopolitan identities and cultures throughout the Atlantic World. From its start in 1969, Air Jamaica had a dual mandate: to serve as a symbol of national sovereignty and to attract predominantly American tourists to Jamaica’s hotels, resorts, and beaches. This analysis argues that government agencies, in collaboration with American marketing firms, strategically deployed historic tropes, particularly the image of the sexualized, wanton, mixed-race woman, to market an exoticized vacation experience unavailable elsewhere. These advertising campaigns, while economically motivated, reinforced colonial-era fantasies for white consumers.

Simultaneously, this poster addresses the structural challenges faced by Jamaica and other nations in the Americas under the “supremacy of the skies”: the hegemonic dominance of the U.S. and British governments over airline routes and airport access. Despite these political and economic barriers, Jamaicans leveraged Air Jamaica and other flight networks to circumvent migration restrictions, which led to new diasporic communities, hybrid cultural identities, and a sense of global citizenship. The poster synthesizes advertisements, historical records, and migration patterns to illustrate the complex interplay between tourism economics, racialized marketing, and the agency of Jamaicans in shaping their modern identity on a global stage.

By positioning Air Jamaica not just as a vehicle for tourism, but as a catalyst for post-independence nation-building and cultural redefinition, this poster will visually and intellectually argue that Air Jamaica was a dual instrument of colonial fantasy and post-independence agency.

On the left side, the poster will present vibrant Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) and Air Jamaica advertisements, deconstructing how they used racialized and sexualized tropes of mixed-race women to sell an exoticized paradise to American tourists. This visual argument highlights the perpetuation of colonial gaze for economic gain.

In stark contrast, the other side will feature the data-driven visuals of flight schedules and route maps to illustrate the airline’s role in connecting Jamaica to transatlantic diasporic networks, visually representing the creation of modern, global Jamaican identities. This section will argue that these same tourist networks provided the infrastructure for Jamaican travelers to circumvent geopolitical barriers, enabling migration, community-building, and a sense of global citizenship. By juxtaposing the fantasy of the ads with the reality of the flight paths, the poster shows how Air Jamaica simultaneously upheld tourism’s hegemonic narratives while facilitating a powerful, resistant, and modern Atlantic culture.