Travel Guide Seaford Town

This small village, lost in the valleys of the Jamaican countryside, is known throughout the island. Indeed, it stands out by the architecture, surprising under these latitudes, of its farms with Germanic appearance and by the blond and blue eyes of its inhabitants. Under the impetus of the colonial government, which, sensing emancipation was imminent, wished to populate the Jamaican countryside with whites, some three hundred German immigrants followed in the footsteps of a Prussian doctor, William Lemonious, and settled in this region around 1835, creating a Germanic colony whose traditions continue today.The land was granted by Lord Seaford who owned large estates in the area. The objective was twofold: to limit or even prevent the establishment of freed black slaves as independent small farmers, and to create a buffer zone populated by whites between the rich planters of the valleys and the Maroons established in tiny farms in the nearby Cockpit Country. The population was not very mixed, but the village has since welcomed more farmers, and only 25% of Seaford's population is now white. There are about two hundred descendants of the original German settlers, many of whom have one of four surnames, Somers, Eldermeyer, Wedermeyer or Kameka. It is surprising to hear a Teutonic-looking farmer speak Jamaican patois or to be served at the grocery store by a German woman. People come from far and wide to buy a pig or a goat from German farmers, killed and prepared according to special methods. Although German is hardly spoken today, some traditions remain and a mini-museum traces the unusual history of this small rural community.A small church with a zinc roof, built on top of a hill, dominates the village. The region also preserves from this page of its history a few places and villages named with very un-English sounding names (Hanover, Blenheim, Berlin, Potsdam, Bohemia...). Possibility to sleep on the spot; a guest house is located in the same building as the city museum.Be careful, once arrived in Seaford, we advise to turn back to Cambridge, to continue towards Mandeville, via Bamboo Avenue, because the direct road is too bad