Tag: #JamaicanProverbs
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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…
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Goat laugh, everybody find out sey ’im nuh got no teeth.
Why the Loudest Performance Often Reveals the Deepest Vulnerability The goat wanted everyone to notice it. It certainly succeeded. Every person and every animal in the yard now knows one important fact: the goat has no teeth. The goat was trying to show confidence, energy, and personality. Instead, it revealed something it probably would have…
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Di olda di bull, di stiffer di horn
In Praise of the Backbone That Only Experience Builds There is a softness that comes with youth, a necessary openness, a willingness to take things in without yet having the framework to evaluate every claim or challenge every assumption. The young bull is impressive. Its strength is visible. Its energy commands attention. It carries the…
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Small axe cut down big tree
What Consistency Can Do That Power Cannot Bob Marley knew what he was doing when he put this image in a song. Small Axe was a message to the three large record labels who dominated Jamaican music at the time, a clean and confident declaration that size is not the only thing that matters when…