African Words In Patois

Patois is a very colourful way in which Jamaicans expresss themselves. Often times a specific word or phrase in patois injected at the right time in a conversation conjures emotions the way English sometimes cannot.

Standard English is an important part of our daily lives both in education and in a professional realm. However, patois crosses classes and it can be seen as a unifying tool. How exactly did this colourful dialect evolve? It is a mixture of different languages, sometimes slangs that arise in popular culture, deviations of english words and amazingly, sometimes rention of African words, hundreds of years after the first African slaves were brought to Jamaica's shores.The Transatlantic Slave trade brought approximately ten to twenty million Africans to the Americans, six hundren thousand coming to Jamaica, one of the largest importer of slaves between 1533 and 1807[1].

Let us consider the word, "pickney" used to refer to small children. In Nigeria, small children are sometimes refered to as "pickin". In "Once Upon Four Robbers"- a play written by Nigerian playwright, Femi Osofisan in 1978, one character says, "Don't go with him, Alhaja. He's on their side, you can see. The Leader always suspected it too. Every time we went on a raid and had to kill, he broke down and sobbed like a silly school pickin [2]. Femi Kuti, son of famous Nigerian Afrobeat musican, revered in his own right, often use yoruba rhythms and words and one will very often here "pickin" being mentioned.

Another word which has been retained is "ducunno". This one is not very popular among Jamaicans and is often mentioned more in rural Jamaica. It is similar to potato pudding but has a rougher texture from the addition bits of cocunut and grated yam. Instead of being baked in an oven or traditionally on a wood fire like potato pudding, it is wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in sugar sweetened water with spices. Ducunno is sometimes called "blue drawers", and is yet another instance in which African rentention occurs. Not only the word, but also the method of prepartion. In Nigeria ducunno is prepared not necessarily with potatoes but with corn. Possibly slaves adapated to more availability of pototoes but kept the method of prepartions, which still continues today.

Bearing in mind that slaves sent to Jamaica came from many countries from Western Africa, it is not surprising that there would be cultural and language rentions, even after hundred of years. Stories, cultural practices might have been some of the ways in which Jamaicans were able to retain elements of Africa, including specific words.

• [1] http://www.nlj.org.jm/abolition.htm
• [2] http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/wyrick/DEBCLASS/osofi.htm