Jamaican Culture

Jamaican culture is so exotic, contagious and endearing, that the world just doesn’t seem able to get enough of it.

This includes our language, so now many typical Jamaican words like irie, dem, nevva etc are now in dictionaries on line.

Our language also sports many other expressive and catchy words which successive iidiat Jamaican governments have continued to censor and fine persons for using them.

This is a hangover from the actions of oppressive British colonialists, who had banned their use, as they thought they were being used to curse them. 

They probably were but we have been independent for 60 years and have seen these words become part of our normal language, not to curse but because they are so descriptive.

Parsons use them, police use them, judges use them etc. But they remain banned in our law books.

You can journey to Guyana, Antigua etc. where every second adjective you hear being used is the harmless Raass. Yet in your own country you can still be dragged off to court and fined by a judge for saying it.😡

The same applies to my favorite word to express surprise. That is bumbo.

Many years ago, when my grandson was in prep school I heard him saying bumbo. Horrified, I inquired how he learnt the word only to have him present me with his school book entitled; “ Bumbo the Elephant.”

We have always known the elephant to be Dumbo in kid’s books, so I immediately realized it was probably a misprint. I therefore went to his teacher the next day to point out that if a police heard him talking about Bumbo, he could be in trouble. 

She however informed me that all their books were sanctioned by the Ministry of Education so she could do nothing.

This was over twenty years ago, yet Bumbo still remains a tool of oppression by police.

In fact, it was probably twenty years before that incident that the late, great Peter Tosh (singer/musician,) recorded the classic chant; ‘Oh bumbo claat, oh raass claat.’ (Listen to it on you tube at; https://youtu.be/tYDfqIhPxCw.) 

He however probably suffered the most oppression in Jamaica under what he appropriately described as the shitstem!

Now, while aspects of our precious language are designated bad and censored by iidiat governments, the rest of the world embraces and profits from them.

How stupid can that be?

So, now if you want a shirt to explain the meaning of bumboclaat, you have to enrich the foreign-owned Amazon, while poor people in my bumboclaat country are being oppressed for using it.

Tell me I am dreaming!

 

 

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