When I turned 30, I arranged a trip to Jamaica with some friends – a homecoming, if you will. I remember yearning for a sense of connection to my Jamaican heritage, as well as being in search of answers about the meaning of life, my career and relationships – typical things a 30-year-old could be trying to navigate. Throughout my teenage years, Jamaica became a place of dissonance and rejection, particularly because of my sexuality and often feeling like a pariah because of my alternative interests, amongst the more traditional ideologies of some Jamaicans. Religion and radical Christian evangelism, first brought over by Europeans, has been at the root of the more traditional values on the island. Jamaica is even rumoured to have the most churches per square mile in the world.
I was in awe of the lushness, the natural rhythm and community on the island – there was something in the air that just felt right. It was surprising how easy it was for me to clearly communicate in the Jamaican language – even the conversations with people who had stronger dialects. It made me feel an unexpected inner joy and sense of completion. One of Bob Marley’s famous lyrics, “We know where we’re going, we know where we’re from”, had a significant meaning to me and my friends of Caribbean descent in that moment. It was the reclaiming of my identity as a British-Jamaican.
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Others of my generation are also reclaiming the language, and shaping it in their own way. Roots & Ting is a social media platform that aims to make Black British history and culture more visible and accessible to global audiences. The founder of Roots & Ting, who also goes by the name Roots & Ting, was raised in a Caribbean household in the UK and shares similar memories to me. Jamaican Patwa was part of the fabric of their everyday life and often spoken by their family – but trying to join in came at the risk of being ridiculed. “They were keen to share the language and often spoke Patwa to me, but they would laugh at my attempts to sound like them,” says Roots & Ting.
However, Roots & Ting’s educational experience differed to mine. They initially attended a traditional British state primary school, then went to a Caribbean faith school in the UK, where Patwa permeated every aspect of school life.
“We would sing in choir using Patwa words, and some of the books we’d read were in Patwa too. Some of the teachers were born in the Caribbean and would use their languages in class,” says Roots & Ting. “I’d even write in my books in Patwa because that was the way I heard words at home. Teachers would often correct me and tell me to write in standard English. There was this unwritten understanding of when and where to use it,” they say. They describe their experience as positive, and says that it boosted their self-esteem and security in their identity.
“Being there taught me to be proud of my Caribbean heritage. It gave me the tools to reclaim the language in my adult life,” they say.
Learning to speak Jamaican
Today, as Jamaica is reconsidering its colonial-era ties with Britain, and planning to hold a referendum on whether to remove King Charles III as the head of state, some are calling for Patwa to gain formal recognition. On the other hand, the opposition party leader in Jamaica said last year that the country had a “language problem”, with many considering Patwa somehow unworthy and inferior to English.
As Tucker’s research shows, such concerns exist in the diaspora, too. “Many Afro-Caribbean and black immigrants moved to North America for greater social mobility and educational opportunities – they felt their language didn’t necessarily serve that purpose,” she says. She also highlights that parents felt there was a risk that if their child spoke Patwa, they might be given fewer educational opportunities, or be categorised as having delayed language development.
Recognising and valuing Jamaican as a language has real, practical consequences for children for whom Jamaican is their first language, Tucker says. “If we don’t acknowledge it as a language, then we put a lot of children at a terrible disadvantage,” she says, since those children would then just be seen as speaking a deficient form of English.
One way to solve this could be bilingual education in English and Jamaican, researchers suggest. Curriculum of the Jamaican language is already being taught in Canada and the US. Celebrated Youtube channel, Chat Patwah, is also leading the way teaching audiences the basics, rules and fundamentals of the Jamaican language in their online tutorials.
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Publish date : 2024-09-28 12:59:00
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