A Patois Revival: Jamaica Weighs Language Change as Ties to Britain Fray

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A push is underway to make Jamaica’s Patois an official language, on par with English, as the country weighs cutting ties to the British monarchy.

Walk into any government office, courtroom or classroom in Jamaica, and you’ll be expected to speak the official language, English.

But venture into the street, tune into a radio talk show, or flip through the pages of Di Jamiekan Nyuu Testiment, or step into someone’s home or scroll through the feeds of Jamaican influencers, and another language dominates: the astonishingly vibrant Patois.

Long stigmatized with second-class status and often mis-characterized as a poorly structured form of English, Patois has its own distinct grammar and pronunciation. Linguists say Patois, which is also called Patwa, Creole or, simply, Jamaican, is about as different from English as English is from German. It features a dizzying array of words borrowed from African, European and Asian languages.

Now, as Jamaica moves ahead with plans to cut ties to the British monarchy — a shift that would remove King Charles III as its head of state and make the Commonwealth’s largest country in the Caribbean into a republic — momentum is building to make Patois Jamaica’s official language, on par with English. » | Simon Romero | Photographs and Video by Alejandro Cegarra | Reporting from Kingston, Jamaica | Wednesday, October 11, 2023

‘God Save the King’ Doesn’t Fall from Jamaican Lips So Easily. Soon We’ll Be a Republic

THE GUARDIAN: Barbados beat us to it, but this week our prime minister made throwing off the colonial yoke a top priority. It won’t be easy, but watch this space

King Charles and Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness at Buckingham Palace, London, September 2022. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images
Britain, take note. A post-Elizabethan era is taking shape here in Jamaica. And it looks like a republic. “The government will be moving with haste and alacrity towards transforming Jamaica into a republic,” said our prime minister, Andrew Holness, on Monday. “Please move ahead with speed,” he urged his minister of constitutional affairs. If there are obstacles, the government will do whatever it takes.

But then, the signs have long been there. Little or no notice was taken in Jamaica of the Queen’s jubilee last year. There was no bunting, no official party at King’s House. The main celebration was a big party celebrating a different jubilee – the 50th anniversary of The Harder They Come, the Jamaican feature film that introduced reggae and Rastafari culture to the world. But our most notable celebrations in 2022 honoured the year in which Jamaica also celebrated 60 years of independence from British colonial rule, with many activities, memorials and galas honouring that national history. » | Barbara Blake-Hannah | Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Post-Brexit Britain is beginning to look pretty sick, isn't it? Sick and feeble. – © Mark Alexander

‘Perfect Storm’: Royals Misjudged Caribbean Tour, Say Critics

THE GUARDIAN: Calls for slavery reparations and Jamaica’s PM insisting country was ‘moving on’ signal sea change in relations with royals

A screenshot from the accompanying video.
It was supposed to be a visit to mark the Queen’s diamond [surely Platinum?] jubilee – a chance to present the modern face of the British monarchy to a region where republican sentiment is on the rise.

But it really didn’t turn out that way.

When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge end their week-long tour of the Caribbean on Saturday, they will report back that the tour may have accelerated moves to ditch the Queen as the head of state.

Calls for slavery reparations and the enduring fury of the Windrush scandal followed them across Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas – overshadowing a trip aimed at strengthening the Commonwealth and discouraging other countries from following Barbados’s example in becoming a republic. » | Rachel Hall and Amelia Gentleman | Friday, March 25, 2022

Jamaicans Lead Caribbean Calls for Britain to Pay Slavery Reparations

Caribbean slave descendants, some of whose ancestors worked for David Cameron's distant family, are calling for an apology and billions of pounds in reparations

Read the Telegraph article here | Jon Swaine, Jamaica | Saturday, February 15, 2014

Prince Harry Charms Jamaicans with Bob Marley Quote
Prince Harry continued his diplomatic charm offensive this morning by quoting Jamaican legend Bob Marley as he attended a State dinner in Kingston.

Read the article / Watch more videos here | Gordon Rayner, Kingston, Jamaica | Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Jamaican PM Calls for Compensation from UK ahead of Prince Harry's Visit
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Jamaica's prime minister has hinted that Britain might want to pay her country compensation for the "wicked and brutal" years of slavery in the days of Empire as she prepares to host Prince Harry on the latest leg of his Caribbean tour.

Portia Simpson Miller said that if Britain wanted to apologise for slavery it would be "fine with us" and repeated her view that the Queen should be removed as head of state of the Commonwealth realm.

In an interview with the BBC recorded hours before Prince Harry touched down at Kingston's Normal Manley Airport, Mrs Simpson Miller chose the four-day Diamond Jubilee visit to highlight the way her forebears had been wronged by the British.

"No race should have been subjected to what out [sic] ancestors were subjected to," she said. "It was wicked and brutal.

"We gained our freedom through the sweat, blood and tears of our ancestors and we are now free.

"If Britain wishes to apologise, fine with us, no problem at all." » | Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter, in Kingston, Jamaica | Tuesday, March 06, 2012

WATCH BBC VIDEO: here

Jamaican Gay Rights Activists Hopeful of Repealing Anti-homosexuality Law

THE GUARDIAN: British peer who helped overturn homophobic law in Northern Ireland joins campaign to do the same in Jamaica

They are one of the world's most beleaguered gay communities, brutalised by violence, hounded by a law that makes homosexual acts a crime and driven into the shadows in a country where four in five people admit they are homophobic. But now gay people in Jamaica are cautiously optimistic that change may be in the air.

A new government has begun making noises about an end to discrimination and repealing an anti-gay law. Portia Simpson Miller, standing for election as prime minister in December, declared that "no one should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation", and indicated she would be willing to have gay people in her cabinet. "I certainly do not pry or do not have any intention to pry into the private business of anyone," she said. She won by a landslide.

Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican law lecturer and legal adviser to the advocacy group Aids-Free World, says he is delighted by the change of mood – although it has yet to lift the sense of insecurity felt by Jamaica's gay community. Tomlinson, a prominent voice for gay rights on the island, has fled his home because of death threats that followed his marriage to his male partner in Canada after a picture was published in the Toronto Star. » | Sarah Boseley, health editor | Friday, February 10, 2012

Jamaica Vows to Drop Queen as Head of State

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Portia Simpson Miller, the new prime minister of Jamaica, has vowed to abandon the Queen as head of state and turn the country into a republic.

Mrs Simpson Miller made the pledge just weeks after it was announced that Prince Harry would visit the Caribbean nation later this year to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee.

The constitutional changes are not expected to disrupt his trip but may lead to a potentially embarrassing diplomatic situation where a representative of the monarchy visits Jamaica at the same time the government is working to sever its links to the crown.

Speaking at her inauguration on Thursday, Mrs Simpson Miller offered a fulsome tribute in English to the monarch, saying: "I love the Queen. She is a beautiful lady, and apart from being a beautiful lady, a wise lady and a wonderful lady."

However, she pointedly switched to Jamaican patois as she told the crowd of 10,000: "But I think the time has come." » | Raf Sanchez, Washington | Friday, January 06, 2012

"No Gays" Says Jamaica's Prime Minister on BBC's HARDtalk

Illegal Immigrant Slashes Throat On Board Plane as He Is Deported

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: An illegal immigrant slashed his throat on a plane today as he was being deported to Jamaica.

The man is receiving treatment in hospital after the Virgin Atlantic flight from London Gatwick to Kingston, Jamaica, was postponed.

A UK Border Agency spokesman said an investigation was being launched into how the man was able to inflict the ''superficial injuries'' on himself.

Passengers, who watched in in horror as the incident took place, have been offered counselling by the airline.

Emergency services prevented more serious injury by "gluing" his throat together, a source said. » | Monday, June 20, 2011

Muslim Leader Blasts Gay Lifestyle
JAMAICA OBSERVER: PRESIDENT of the Islamic Council of Jamaica, Mustafa Muhammad, says he agrees with the Sharia law which prescribes death for people who openly flaunt homosexual behaviour.

Muhammad did not mince words as he lashed out against what he described as an unclean, unnatural lifestyle.

“It is illegal and in the Sharia law the punishment is death. If you follow Christianity it is a crime in the sight of God. He destroyed a whole city because of this thing. It is an ungodly practice and I apologise to no one for this,” Muhammad said.

Under Jamaican law, persons who practice buggery — the sexual penetration of the anus — can be sent to prison for up to 10 years.

Despite claims by local and international gay lobbyists that homosexuals are attacked and killed in Jamaica, police statistics show that most gays who are killed are victims of crimes of passion.

Muhammad made sure to state that he was against the killing of gays in Jamaica.

“This can only be done in a country that is being run by Islam,” he said. >>> Karyl Walker | Monday, February 01, 2010

Editor-At-Large: After Turing, the Shameful Abuse of Gays Goes On
THE INDEPENDENT: It's become fashionable for politicians to say sorry – generally for events they have no control over. It's easier to demonstrate humility for a social injustice that happened more than half a century ago than to admit responsibility for handing Rover cars to a bunch of avaricious buffoons who presided over its demise, resulting in thousands of workers losing their jobs.

Belatedly, Gordon Brown has made a public apology for the "horrifying and utterly unfair" treatment of Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician and code-breaker whose work undoubtedly helped to bring the Second World War to a swifter conclusion, and who made an important contribution to the development of computers.

Turing was gay, and after being convicted of gross indecency in 1952 he was offered chemical castration or a prison sentence. He submitted to the highly controversial medical procedure; however, his criminal record ensured he lost his security clearance and his job. He committed suicide two years later.

There's been a long campaign to clear Turing's name – more than 30,000 people signed a petition – so it's not as if the Prime Minister woke up one day and decided that this repulsive episode in the history of gay-bashing should be publicly atoned for half a century later. In 1999, Time magazine included Turing in its 100 most important people of the 20th century and some campaigners want him to be posthumously knighted.

I'm glad that Brown felt bad about what happened to Turing, but I wonder whether he spends any time considering the ongoing harassment of homosexuals in one of our former colonies, a country millions of Britons visit and one with very close ties to a large number of British citizens. I'm talking about Jamaica, where last week John Terry, a British diplomat, who was made a MBE for services to tourism, was found murdered at home in Montego Bay. A note attached to his body reportedly called him a "batty man", slang for homosexual.

Whether this particular murder was homophobically inspired or not, the context is not encouraging. The attitude of most Jamaicans towards gay men and women is prehistoric – in a survey last year, 70 per cent questioned said they didn't think homosexuals should be entitled to the same rights as other citizens; only 26 per cent disagreed with that. In a recent poll of Jamaicans, 96 per cent were against legalising sex between consenting males. The Prime Minister, Bruce Golding, has gone on record saying he would never allow gays in his cabinet. Popular musicians including Buju Banton, Bounty Killer, Shabba Ranks, Elephant Man and Beenie Man have all had hits with lyrics that call for gays to be attacked and killed.

In 2006, Time called Jamaica "the most homophobic place on earth". Prominent gay activists have been murdered and homophobic attacks are routine. Homosexuality itself is not illegal, but sodomy is. Organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have long complained about the treatment of gays in Jamaica, to no avail. >>> Janet Street-Porter | Sunday, September 13, 2009