In a recent video tweet, Jamaican comedian Julie Mango described how a typical Jamaican mother would respond if she heard you criticizing her child.
The Jamaican culture permits a typical Jamaican mother to say some of the most revealing and embarrassing things to their children, especially the girls, to teach them valuable lessons, like how to put themselves together. But you dare not follow suit because you will not like what you get if you try it. Instantly, that mother would transfer all the fake anger onto you, even if you were her best friend.
And she would use all the adjectives handed down through generations by our forefathers to describe you. And when she got done with you, you would have learned never to follow suit when a strict mother uses revealing adjectives to teach her child how to put herself together.
And it doesn’t mean the person hates you or even carries a grudge against you. Instead, it’s to teach you two important lessons.
- I do not mean any of those despicable things I said to the child. It’s a big part of the Jamaican culture-just a tactic from the traditional child-rearing playbook.
- You are too ups. Mind your own dam business. I raise my child how I want. You raise your child how you want.
Then, the mother would transition into a long monolog, telling the intruder that her parents and grandparents used those same tactics on her growing up. And how she is living proof that those tactics work. And they do.
So, Sometimes a parent must shame a child into doing the right thing.
Hence, anybody who grew up in a typical Jamaican home had to endure hearing those piercing adjectives in their ears. But those adjectives extend into the wider society as well. You listen to them in the schoolyard, on the bus, or anywhere there is a crowd. And even when people get into verbal confrontations. But when you hear them from your parents, they are not the same as when you listen to them in the streets.
One thought on “Did you know this about the Jamaican culture?”