Jamaican Slang EditorialTHE Blog for Jamaican Slang, Patois, Reggae, Rastafari, Real T’ing dem and Jamaica

We were on a little holiday for a few days, so you probably noticed a slow down in posts. Despite the time away, we are back and feeling poetic. Speaking of back and poetry, I thought it would be a good idea to post a poem about returning to Africa. For those of you in the know, repatriation (returning to Africa) is a big deal in the Rastafari movement, but is it really the best thing for people of African descent brough over in slavery. The famous Jamaican author Louise Bennett aka Miss Lou contemplates the idea of returning to Africa in the poem ‘Back to Africa‘. By the way, this poem is in Jamaican Patois, so you really get an idea of the grammar and maybe some Jamaican Slang.

Back to Africa, Miss Mattie?
You no know wha you dah seh?
You haf fe come from somewhe fus
Before you go back deh!

Me know say dat you great great great
Granma was African,
But Mattie, doan you great great great
Granpa was Englishman?

Den you great granmader fader
By you fader side was Jew?
An you granpa by you mader side
Was Frenchie parlez-vous?

But de balance a you family,
You whole generation,
Oonoo all barn dung a Bun Grung-
Oonoo all is Jamaican!

Den is weh you gwine, Miss Mattie?
Oh, you view de countenance,
An between you an de Africans
Is great resemblance!

Ascorden to dat, all dem blue-yeye
White American
Who-fa great granpa was Englishman
Mus go back a Englan!

What a debil of a bump-an-bore,
Rig-jig an palam-pam
Ef de whole worl start fe go back
Whe dem great granpa come from!

Ef a hard time you dah run from
Tek you chance! But Mattie, do
Sure a whe you come from so you got
Somewhe fe come back to!

Go a foreign, seek you fortune,
But no tell nobody say
You dah go fe seek you homelan,
For a right deh so you deh!

Source: Black Woman Thinks…

So, should we go back to Africa? I’d love to hear your feedback on this, since it is such a big deal in the Rastafari movement. More Time.

A few weeks ago I did a post on Buju Banton. If you didn’t read that post, please click here to get caught up to speed. In the post I mentioned that Buju was one of the most controversial Jamaican artists and with good reason, he has made some songs that bothered people. One of the first songs he recorded that really got people mad, especially women, was “Love Me Browning” off of his 1992 album Mr. Mention (definitely a classic and worth getting…the “Love Me Browning” single came out in 1991 though). You see, in Jamaican Patois a Brownin‘  is a light-skinned woman and the song is describing Buju’s love for lighter skinned women, but anyone who is familiar with Jamaica knows that the majority of the people are darker in complexion. Darker-skinned women took offense to the hit song and Buju moved quickly to create a song dedicated to the darker women of Jamaica appropriately called “Love Black Woman”.

Although, this song casued controversy in Jamaica in the early 90s, the roots of the controversy date back to slavery. More often than not, lighter-skinned people of African descent fared better in Jamaica and other parts of the New World. Many were able to move between the world of the slave and the slave master. As time went on and the slave masters left Jamaica, many of these lighter-skinned people became the island elite. This might be shocking to some, but this can be seen today in Jamaica and other post-emancipation societies. If you want to see this for yourself, head to Kingston and visit Downtown and then Uptown. This is a complex topic, but it is important to understand the roots of the controversy of Buju’s song. Not surprisingly,  this incident would certainly not be the last time Buju Banton released a controversial song, but that is another blog post for another day.

One of the great things about both of “Love Me Browning” and “Love Black Woman”, is that they are great songs to learn Jamaican Slang/Patois. The whole Mr. Mention album is a Jamaican Slang Classic.  The album has so many classic riddims, essential patois grammar and vocabulary and just hit track after hit track. Buju was on “fyah” at this point in his career, kind of like Mavado is now, even though their lyrics are so different.

If you want to learn more about Buju and Jamaican Patois, head over to www.jamaican-slang.com and pick up a copy of the Rastaman Vibration. The book is a wealth of knowledge and has a section about Buju in the book.

What? You thought I was going to leave you hangin’ without posting those classic Buju songs, not this time! Here they are:

Buju Banton - Love Me Browning

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Buju Banton - Love Black Woman

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