Diaspora return and identity fuel new opportunities for Jamaica, Consul General says

In the past four years, more people of Jamaican heritage have been applying for Jamaican citizenship, Jamaican Consul General in Miami, Florida, Oliver Mair, has observed. Their reintegration and involvement as business owners, professionals, and philanthropists present significant opportunities for Jamaica, he said.

“Our consulate has gotten more done because we have powerful Jamaicans in the United States. They do things and they open doors and, so, those who want to come back, we say welcome home,” he said while addressing delegates at the recently concluded Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay. He drew insights from two panellists — British-Jamaican businessman, chef, and cookbook author Keith “Levi Roots” Graham, and businesswoman of Jamaican and Kittitian heritage Jewel Daniels Radford, founder and CEO of Daniels Communications. The conference was held under the theme Diaspora Partnerships: Rebuilding a More Resilient Jamaica.

Their stories of success in Jamaica and abroad, grounded in embracing their “Jamaicanness” and wider Caribbean heritage, were presented as examples of how returnees and diasporans can thrive while contributing to national development.

Returning home

For Brooklyn, New York-raised global leadership expert and philanthropist Daniels Radford, the decision to move to Jamaica 14 years ago opened doors and allowed her to create opportunities for others. Through Daniels Communications, based in Montego Bay, St James, she has helped develop more than 1,000 leaders across the tourism, business process outsourcing, banking, retail, hospitality, and public sectors. Through her nonprofit organisation, Inspire and Serve, she has also led and partnered on initiatives that have benefited more than 3,000 people across Jamaica through disaster recovery, volunteerism, education, and community development.

“Growing up, my father always taught me to be proud of my heritage,” Radford said. “He also taught me that I have a responsibility to give back, and those values continue to guide both my life and my work.”

Although she received her education and professional experience in the United States, she said she struggled to fully connect with her culture there.

“I could never understand my culture in America… I wanted to honour what he told me, and there was something inside my spirit that kept drawing me,” she said, adding that experiences of gender, racial, and ethnic bias in the United States also influenced her decision to relocate, as she found those biases less pronounced in Jamaica.

“Imagine being on a flight to Jamaica and those biases disappear?” she said, adding that the respect and sense of community she found in Jamaica gave her the confidence to build her business.

“I feel at home,” she said. “I’ve been here for 14 years. I’ve faced challenges, I’ve faced difficult situations, but I’m not leaving. This is where I love most.”

The journey is not only about the individual

She cautioned diasporans who choose to return not to treat relocation as a way to elevate themselves personally, but as an opportunity to contribute to national development.

“When you come from someplace else, whether it be from the UK or the United States or wherever you’re coming from, you have a responsibility. It’s not just about building your house and buying your car in a gated neighbourhood. You’re supposed to take your intellectual property and not just your finances, and help build Jamaica,” she said.

She also urged humility and clarity of purpose among returnees, noting the importance of understanding how to adapt skills to the local context.

“Know your ‘why’ — why are you coming back home, and what do you want to do when you come back that goes beyond you,” she said. “We are a developing nation. Very often we compare America or the UK to Jamaica, and it doesn’t make sense. Jamaica is not yet at that stage.”

Bringing Jamaica to the world

Keith “Levi Roots” Graham, the Clarendon-born entrepreneur behind the Reggae Reggae Sauce brand — now one of the largest spice sauce brands in the United Kingdom — highlighted how embracing Jamaican identity abroad can also build opportunity.

The chef and businessman, who attended the conference at the invitation of co-chair The Jamaica National Group, shared how his personal philosophy, drive, and cultural identity shaped his success.

After investing all his capital into his sauce and initially targeting West Indian customers in Brixton, he realised his product had wider appeal.

“You have to go out and find your own market,” he said, recalling how a dart thrown by his son landed on Carmarthenshire, Wales — a largely unfamiliar area for him.

“There’s no Black people there, no Rasta man with a guitar,” he said humorously, explaining that he needed to move beyond Brixton to reach mainstream consumers.

That decision eventually led him to the British television programme Dragon’s Den in 2007. With his guitar, sauce, and music, he secured investment that helped scale his brand internationally.

“There was a Shakespeare quote that inspired me,” he said, referencing Julius Caesar: “There is a tide in the affairs of men…”

He said success comes from recognising opportunity and acting on it at the right time.

His breakthrough came after a chance encounter in Carmarthenshire with a woman who tasted his sauce and encouraged him to apply to the show. She later turned out to be one of the programme’s producers.

“I went as me — the Jamaican, the Rasta man. I took my culture with me,” he said. “It was because I was authentic — the guitar, the name Reggae Reggae Sauce — that I was able to succeed on Dragon’s Den.”

He secured £25,000 investments from two of the show’s entrepreneurs, providing the capital to grow his brand, which now holds shelf space in major UK supermarkets and led to the opening of restaurants in London.