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49 free Jamaica trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
45 free Jamaica trivia questions with answers. Jamaica is the third-largest island in the Caribbean and punches far above its size: it gave the world reggae, ska and dancehall, the fastest sprinter ever recorded, a religion, a bobsled team that became a Disney film and the house where every James Bond novel was written. This quiz covers the whole island: the Taíno name and Columbus's landing, the Spanish and English centuries, Port Royal's earthquake, the Maroons and Nanny, emancipation and independence in 1962, the flag and motto, the fourteen parishes, Kingston's harbour and Montego Bay's airport, Blue Mountain Peak and Blue Mountain coffee, ackee and saltfish, jerk, Red Stripe, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Rastafari and Haile Selassie, Usain Bolt and the Olympic sprint dynasty, cricket, the Reggae Boyz, the 1988 bobsled team and Ian Fleming's Goldeneye. Easy openers for holidaymakers, hard ones for people who know their parishes. Use it for a Caribbean-themed quiz round, a classroom geography lesson or the flight down. Every answer was checked against a documented source and the citation sits under each explanation.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which two Caribbean islands are larger than Jamaica?
Cuba and Hispaniola
Cuba and Hispaniola, the latter shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, are the only Caribbean islands larger than Jamaica; all three lie in the Greater Antilles.
Q 02The island's indigenous name, Xaymaca, is usually translated as what?
Land of wood and water
The Taino name Xaymaca is usually rendered 'Land of wood and water', though 'Land of springs' is an alternative translation.
Q 03Christopher Columbus became the first European to see Jamaica in which year, on his second voyage?
1494
Columbus sighted Jamaica on 5 May 1494 during his second voyage, landing at a bay he named Santa Gloria; the first Spanish settlement, Sevilla, followed in 1509.
Q 04Under Spanish rule the island was known by what name?
Santiago
Columbus christened the island Santiago; the Taino-derived name Jamaica replaced it after the English conquest of 1655.
Q 05Which two commanders led the English invasion of Jamaica in 1655?
William Penn and Robert Venables
Admiral William Penn, father of Pennsylvania's founder, and General Robert Venables took Jamaica in May 1655 after their assault on Santo Domingo failed.
Q 06The pirate haven Port Royal was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami in which year?
1692
The 7 June 1692 earthquake sank much of Port Royal into the harbour; Kingston was founded weeks later to house the survivors.
Q 07The free communities of escaped slaves who held out in Jamaica's mountainous interior were known as what?
Maroons
The British sued for peace after the First Maroon War, signing treaties with Cudjoe in 1739 and Queen Nanny in 1740.
Q 08What distinction does Queen Nanny hold among Jamaica's National Heroes?
The only woman
Nanny is the only woman among Jamaica's seven National Heroes; a 1740 land grant of 500 acres to her followers became Moore Town, and she appears on the $500 note.
Q 09Full emancipation from slavery was declared in Jamaica in which year?
1838
Slavery ended in 1834 but a forced 'apprenticeship' followed; full emancipation came on 1 August 1838, marked each year as Emancipation Day.
Q 10The 1865 Morant Bay rebellion was led by which Baptist deacon, now a National Hero?
Paul Bogle
Paul Bogle, a Baptist deacon from Stony Gut, led the 1865 Morant Bay march; Governor Edward Eyre's brutal reprisals hanged him and got Eyre recalled.
Q 11Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom on which date?
6 August 1962
Jamaica became independent on 6 August 1962 and, at independence, kept the British monarch as head of state within the Commonwealth.
Q 12Who became Jamaica's first prime minister, at the age of 78?
Alexander Bustamante
Alexander Bustamante, born in 1884, founded the Jamaica Labour Party and became the first prime minister at independence in 1962, aged 78.
Q 13Jamaica's national motto is what?
Out of Many, One People
'Out of Many, One People', adopted at independence in 1962, nods to the island's African, European, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese roots.
Q 21Jamaica's national dish pairs salted codfish with which fruit?
Ackee
Ackee and saltfish is the national dish; the ackee's Latin name, Blighia sapida, honours Captain Bligh, who took it to Kew in 1793, and unripe fruit is toxic.
Q 22Jerk seasoning's two key ingredients are Scotch bonnet peppers and which spice, Jamaica's biggest spice export?
Allspice
Allspice, called pimento in Jamaica, is the dried berry of a tree native to the island and, with Scotch bonnet, defines jerk; the word 'jerk' likely traces to 'charqui'.
Q 23Red Stripe lager, first brewed in 1928, is made by which Jamaican company?
Desnoes & Geddes
Q 14The Jamaican flag's design is said to have been inspired by which other country's flag?
Scotland's
The gold saltire echoes Scotland's Saint Andrew's cross, a design a Scottish minister in Jamaica is said to have suggested after a striped version was dropped for resembling Tanganyika's flag.
Q 15How many parishes is Jamaica divided into?
14
Jamaica's 14 parishes are grouped into three historic counties, Cornwall, Middlesex and Surrey, which have no administrative role.
Q 16Blue Mountain Peak, Jamaica's highest point, rises to roughly what height?
2,256 m
Blue Mountain Peak tops out at 2,256 m (7,402 ft); its slopes grow Blue Mountain Coffee, one of the world's most prized beans.
Q 17Which sand spit shelters Kingston Harbour and carries the road to the airport?
The Palisadoes
The Palisadoes, a long sand spit ending at Port Royal, shelters Kingston Harbour and carries the road to Norman Manley International Airport.
Q 18Which former colonial seat was Jamaica's capital before Kingston took over in 1872?
Spanish Town
Spanish Town, founded by the Spanish as Villa de la Vega after they abandoned unhealthy Sevilla, served as the capital for more than three centuries.
Q 19Jamaica's largest and busiest airport, Sangster International, serves which city?
Montego Bay
Kingston has Norman Manley International, and a third airport near Ocho Rios is named after Ian Fleming.
Q 20Jamaica's national symbol, the red-billed streamertail hummingbird, is known locally by what nickname?
Doctor bird
The red-billed streamertail is Jamaica's 'doctor bird', a nickname often traced to its long tail streamers resembling a doctor's old-fashioned coat-tails.
Desnoes & Geddes, founded in Kingston in 1918, launched Red Stripe in 1928; Guinness took control in 1993 and Heineken bought the company in 2015.
Q 24Jamaica is among the world's leading exporters of which mineral ore?
Bauxite
Bauxite, the ore refined into aluminium, powered Jamaica's economic boom in the decade after independence and is mined mainly in the island's central parishes.
Q 25The English-based creole spoken by most Jamaicans is called what?
Patois
Jamaican Patois, or Patwa, is an English-based creole with West African influences; linguists treat it as a language distinct from Jamaican Standard English.
Q 26Rastafari, which emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s, reveres which Ethiopian emperor?
Haile Selassie
Haile Selassie, crowned emperor in 1930, was born Tafari Makonnen and titled Ras Tafari, the name the movement took; preacher Leonard Howell hailed his coronation as prophecy fulfilled.
Q 27How did Jamaica honour Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association?
First person named a National Hero
He was deported from the US in 1927 after a mail fraud conviction over his Black Star Line and reburied in National Heroes Park in 1964.
Q 28The 1968 single 'Do the Reggay', the first hit to use the word reggae, was by which group?
Toots and the Maytals
Toots and the Maytals' 1968 single 'Do the Reggay' gave the genre its name; UNESCO added reggae to its intangible heritage list in 2018.
Q 29Bob Marley was born in 1945 in which Saint Ann Parish village, where he is also buried?
Nine Mile
Marley was born in Nine Mile, Saint Ann, on 6 February 1945 and was laid to rest there in a mausoleum after his death in 1981.
Q 30Which Bob Marley album did Time magazine name 'Album of the Century' in 1999?
Exodus
Exodus (1977) was recorded in London after Marley survived a December 1976 shooting in Kingston; Time named it the album of the 20th century.