Cultural Penetration

Many philosophers and scholars have ventured to define and debate cultural penetration and whereas we may agree with some of their arguments for or against, the fact is, cultural penetration has been with us from the beginning of humankind and will be with us forever.

Because the British were such vicious and determined colonialist, building for themselves an empire 'on which the sun would never set', in modern civilization, it's the English language which has prevailed worldwide.

We in Jamaica, having been enslaved then colonized by the British, did not escape. And while I am happy to have learnt that Interational language, I am still upset about the lengths they went to, to demonize and even demolish the language and culture of my African ancestors. 

Despite the brutality, some things prevailed somehow so when you listen to the Jamaican Patois, our language, you realize that many of its words and phrases were adopted from the Twi language, the mother tongue of over nine million Ashanti people. 

I am mulling on the issue of cultural penetration and how a tiny little island like Jamaica has managed  to have its culture adopted worldwide.

This trend of thought began when I saw and listened to the video below.

This video also demonstrates the ridiculousness of still having words commonly used in Jamaca and internationally, labeled 'bad words,' (supposedly indecent language) and the use still being punished in by a fine!

These are totally innocuous words which the British oppressors could not understand when their slaves/colonial subjects used them to express defiance, surprise, frustration etc. hence they banned them and established a 40 shilling fine each time they heard them.

Despite us being independent for 60 years and the shilling not even being in existence anymore, these so-called 'bad words' continue to attract a menial fines. 

It has always been my opinion that the law has never been repealed only because it gives the police another stupid and unnecessary reason to continue oppressing us, although no one uses them more than the police themselves!

In fact, I had the experience some years ago, of a policeman stopping me for a traffic offence and during our heated exchange, he told me some of his badwords and I told him some of mine, only to have my arrest include a charge of using 'indecent language!'

So, the language persecution continues.

This is amusing in some respects, for while we continue with that nonsense, through cultural penetration, our badwords have been adopted by many people throughout world and awarded much love. 

For example, it is impossible to walk around Georgetown in Guyana and not hear one of our favorite 'badwords' raass, in common use.

I recall once being in Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean too and hearing a slew of 'raass, bumboclaat, etc. Thinking a Jamaican was around, I went to introduce myself, only to find that through cultural penetration, the user had been an Antiguan. 

On another occasion I was sitting on a park bench in Colon, Panama, when I heard a teenager shouting  a bunch of  'raass, bumboclaat' etc. on top of his voice. When I approached him, I discovered to my great amusement that he spoke no English, no Patois but was fluent in our 'badwords' which he learnt from his long-dead grandfather who had worked on the Panama Canal and had settled there when the project was completed.

So yes, thanks to cultural penetration, I could write pages on how our language, food and culture took wings long ago.

Let me instead address my favorite term; 'bumbo/bumboclaat ' which is still deemed a 'badword' in Jamaica.

Some years ago, when my grandson attended St. Peter and Paul Preparatory School in Jamaica, I heard him saying 'bumbo'. As it was deemed a 'big people word' in my house, I admonished him gently, only for him to show me the book he was reading entitled "Bumbo the Elephant'".

Horrified, but suspecting it was a misprint, since elephants were often called Dumbo or Jumbo, I approached his teacher the next day to demand that the book be withdrawn. She however insisted that  she had no authority to do so, as books were provided by the Ministry of Education.😓

Long story short, since then, the sanitized bumbo/bumboclaat  has become my favorite expression whenever I am astonished, hurt, impressed, unnerved, stupefied, dumfounded etc!

Thanks to the video above, I have now learnt that bumboclaat has taken on new meanings, in that it has been adopted as the name for a dog and the new definition declared as; ETERNAL PEACE.😅😅😅😅

I like this new trend.

All power to cultural penetration.

https://youtu.be/LYfi5487FEk

 

KARURA FOREST, A VERY SPECIAL PLACE

I think my special attachment to the Karura forest, stems from the fact that on a recent visit to Kenya, that was my first exposure to their great outdoors.

This 1063 hectare (2627 acres) open space, is right in the middle of a residential area in Nairobi and is a dream location for residents.

A section of the forest

Luckily, I became a 'resident' for a while and this healthy, open, green space was virtually next door to where I was staying with my hosts Kelly and Denis. So on my very first day, we went on a 7 km hike.

Nothing could beat the welcome we received from a family of friendly Sykes monkeys that my 'guide' Denis had never seen before, despite his many visits to the area.

I don't know why this family was so welcoming, since we did see others when we continued the trek and they fled immediately at the sound of our footsteps.

Apart from the natural beauty of the area, this forest is a place for all sorts of activities and on the very day we were leaving, we returned there for a yoga session.

Our hosts at lunch

As it was also Mothers day and there were three mothers in our group, we headed to their lovely restaurant for a delicious mothers day lunch followed by a muddy hike to the  Karuru waterfall. 

I am happy that I was loaned a pair of water boots, though heavy, to do that trek through the mud, as it had rained all night.

Apart from the waterfall we saw some of the caves in which Mau Mau rebels (the resistance lasted from 1952-1960) hid out from the British in their struggle to liberate their country from those oppressive colonialists. 

With friends in front of one of the caves

For the benefit of those not familiar with that struggle, it occurred, because under British rule, the invaders grabbed the best lands, took away the rights of the Kenyan people who they used their superior arms to dominate in their quest for cheap labor. 

(Visitors to Kenya should visit the Nairobi National Museum where through photographs and paintings, they graphically display the murder of civilians and the brutal slaughter of the Kenyan freedom fighters during that period.)

The savagery of the British  (including at the Chuka and Hola massacres) however, only motivated more Kenyan people to put their lives on the line to gain their freedom. 

This determination to die for liberty and the condemnation the murderers received from the international community, so ratted the well armed British, that in 1963 they had to agree to give independence to the Kenyan people.

Walking through this scenic gorge, brought back memories of a hike I did along our own Cuna Cuna trail in Jamaica, where National Hero, Nanny, and her freedom fighters, hid out in the caves as they waged their own guerilla war for freedom against the same savage colonizers.                                         

They too, as home grown strategists, caused the well-armed bullies to give them the concessions they fought for.  

It was therefore a personal pleasure for me to take in the natural beauty of this side of the Karura forest while recalling the struggle of the Kenyan people for freedom. 

However, while in Jamaica, we are accustomed to waterfalls and rivers in which we can swim and frolic, as the mighty Nairobi River raged through the area, there was no swimming allowed. For although the water is 'clean,' the recent heavy rains had caused it to take on the red color of the soil. 

Anyway,  that raging river did look a tad too dangerous for me to to frolic in, even during the dry season.