Author: Mak Spence
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Tek Sleep Mark Deat’
The Jamaican proverb that warns against getting too comfortable Every hurricane season, there’s always one neighbor who starts boarding up windows the moment the forecast turns orange, while everybody else waits to see if the storm is really coming. The old folks call this the exact thing “tek sleep mark death” warns against — the…
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Good Fren Betta Dan Pocket Money
Why real friends are richer than cash The message came on a Tuesday evening: redundant, effective immediately. Marcia sat on her veranda step and checked her bank balance first. It wasn’t much. Then her phone started buzzing for real…Paulette asking if she wanted to come for dinner, Dwayne saying he had a lead on a…
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When Lie Tek Plane and Gone, Truth a Walk a Come
Why critical thinking must help truth find its feet in the age of AI By the time Camille got home from work, three people had already asked if it was true that she’d been fired. She hadn’t. Somebody saw her leave early for a dentist appointment. By lunchtime, a WhatsApp voice note said she had…
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Wah Ah Fi Yuh Cyaan Un Fi Yuh
What is meant for you cannot be taken from you. Every Jamaican has heard the saying, “Wah ah fi yuh cyaan un fi yuh.” It usually comes after disappointment. You didn’t get the job. The relationship ended. The house sold before you could make an offer. Someone else received the promotion or launched the business…
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Forward Ever: Celebrating Jamaica’s Independence
On August 6, 1962, the Jamaican flag rose over a nation whose people had survived more than three centuries of British colonial domination. That history included the enslavement and brutal exploitation of generations of trafficked Africans and their descendants, the violent seizure of land and labour, the destruction of families, the suppression of resistance and…
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Before Monkey Buy Trousers ‘im Haffi Know Weh Fi Put ‘im Tail
On Planning for the Parts of Yourself You Cannot Leave Behind Picture the monkey standing outside the tailor shop window, admiring the trousers hanging there. Sharp crease, good fabric, the kind of trousers that would make anybody look like they have their life together. The temptation is immediate. But any monkey with sense pauses before…
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Falla Falla Get Lef
On the Cost of Borrowing Somebody Else’s Path Many Jamaican children have heard it from a mother, an auntie, or a teacher standing with one hand on a hip: Falla falla get lef. When we always follow others, we get left behind. It usually came after someone copied a friend into trouble, jumped on the…
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Mout Cut Crossway Fi Say Anyting
On Living with Integrity in a World Where Everybody Has Something to Say Spend enough time anywhere in Jamaica and you’ll hear it. A vendor in Coronation Market calling customers. Taxi men debating politics while they wait to pick up riders by the bus depot. Two women standing by a gate catching up on everything…
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Any Dutty Wata Can Cool Hot Iron
Before electric irons, people heated heavy metal irons over hot coals or a fire. A seamstress had to judge the temperature by experience. When the iron grew too hot, water helped cool it before it touched the cloth. The proverb begins in this earlier household scene: the iron is hot, the cloth is waiting, and…
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Nuh Trouble Trouble ‘Til Trouble Trouble Yuh
Imagine a crocodile sleeping beside a quiet river. It has not moved in a long time. Its eyes are closed, the water is still, and nothing is in danger. You notice it from a safe distance. You could keep walking. Instead, you pick up a stick and poke it. Whatever happens next is a problem…