Especially among the poor, her arrival has spawned an almost-tangible sense of increased national pride on an island racked by economic hardship and more than 4,000 homicides in the past five years.

Her unofficial theme tune is her compatriot reggae singer Shaggy's I Wonder if God is a Woman . Simpson Miller, 60, also widely known as 'Mama Portia', had been chosen by her People's National Party (PNP), over three male candidates, to replace PJ Patterson, who stepped down as prime minister after 14 years.

A former minister for sport, she lists her first love . . . after her husband Errald Miller . . . as boxing. She knows the biggest fight she faces is Jamaica's drug-related violence: 1,670 people were killed last year, more than 100 of them children.

One of her key weapons will be the national hero and close friend Asafa Powell, the sprinter who won the 100m gold at the Commonwealth Games recently. Powell has promised to back her battle, acting as a role model for Jamaican youth "to replace the killing gun with the starter's gun" by taking up sport.

Alongside the island's violence, Simpson Miller must tackle its growing economic crisis, which includes its massive debts, an almost-stagnant growth rate, 15% unemployment and 13% inflation. Totally reliant on imports, Jamaica could not survive without its lucrative beach and cruise ship tourism, itself often held hostage to hurricanes, and, even more so, its US$1.5bn ( 1.3bn) remittances from Jamaicans overseas.

'Sista P' had survived public insults over her humble origins from what some call 'the brown-skin elite' to win the party's vote after Patterson announced he would not complete his third five-year term. "To lift up the poor, " was her overall priority, she said in her inauguration speech on the lawn of King's House, the governor-general's residence in Kingston.

Most Jamaicans, at home or abroad, would no doubt agree with the words of the island's blind PNP senator Floyd Morris in a local newspaper: "Kick it, Portia, Kick it!"