There are many things that make me proud to be Jamaican – like when I’m on foreign soil and a random person recognizes our flag, meeting a foreigner who can name a famous Jamaican who’s neither Bob Marley or Usain Bolt, and whenever the national anthem plays at an international event. Hearing the familiar sounds of patois when I’m abroad also brings a special kind of joy.
But there are also things about my country that make me sad. Government corruption, classism, and antiquated and oppressive laws that mainly target the marginalized. I’m bothered by the fact that almost 60 years after independence we still have the queen of England as head of state. Why does Jamaica have so many colonial era laws on the books? Better yet, why do we still to enforce them? Take for example, the law against so called “bad words”.
In my opinion, the existence of a law that criminalizes the use of ‘bomboclaat’ directly contradicts the Jamaican Constitution which guarantees certain fundamental rights and freedoms including freedom of conscience and freedom of expression.
The Constitution also states that the enjoyment of these rights and freedom is subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and may be suspended in the public interest. The question must then be asked if a person saying ‘bomboclaat’ is a threat to public interest. It’s also time to ask how exactly words like raasclaat and bomboclaat challenge public morality.
Under section 9(c) of The Town and Communities Act any person who shall make on any fence, wall or other building, any obscene figure, drawing, painting, or representation, or sing any profane, indecent, or obscene song or ballad, or write or draw any indecent or obscene word, figure, or representation, or use any profane, indecent or obscene language publicly can be subject to a fine not exceeding $1,500 or to imprisonment with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding thirty days. While the Act was amended as recently as 2014, its many absurdities were retained. Such as which businesses are allowed to be open on Good Friday and Christmas Day (pharmacies and places that sell newspapers, bread and ice in case you were curious). It’s the same law that empowers police to arrest street vendors at will having breached the act by “exposing goods for sale” and criminalizes lying drunk on the street.
This absurd law has had real consequences in particular for Jamaicans in the lower strata of society who are regularly hauled before the courts for using ‘bad words’. But perhaps the most egregious of all is the 2012 case of 25-year-old Kayann Lamont, shot and killed by a police officer who was attempting to arrest her for allegedly using indecent language. Ms. Lamont was eight-months pregnant when she lost her life for using so-called bad words; the officer was subsequently acquitted all charges. Something is wrong with the law.
Britain, which ruled Jamaica in 1834 when these laws were first enacted, has long rid itself of such antiquated laws. Rather, UK law today focuses on hate speech and speech that ‘incite violence’ instead of judging the obscenity of individual words. Many developed countries (we love to mimic them) have laws that broadly define hate speech. In the US for example, a white person calling a black person the n-word is not in itself criminal without some act that seeks to deprive the individual of their rights.
And despite the painful origins of the n-word, African Americans have embraced and transformed it into a word for empowerment and endearment in their communities. Among friends and loved ones, they have actively chosen to remove the harmful power the word once had and have adopted it into their daily vernacular.
The same can be said for the ‘claat’ in Jamaican patwa. Bombo-raas-claat have long moved past their repulsive origins as descriptives of women’s vaginas and menstrual cycles. Some still argue that these words are oppressive to and dehumanize women. I say not anymore! In the 21st century, we must accept that language changes, culture changes, and laws should change as well. There are few alive in Jamaica today who even know what a ‘bombo cloth’ is, and for most of us, the only meaning we attach is the one we use for empowerment – the one that simultaneously expresses amazement, frustration, anger, and national pride.
Both the JLP and PNP are guilty of sitting on their laurels and fiddling their thumbs, failing to advance the country in any meaningful way in the six decades they’ve had to do it. They prefer to posture in parliament and act like kids on the playground calling each other nicknames instead of dealing maturely and decisively with the business they were elected to do – amend or repeal antiquated laws that no longer serve us today and pass new ones.
In 21st century Jamaica, no school should be debating whether a student should be allowed to wear dreadlocks; no one should be denied service from a state agency because they’re not “properly attired”; and no-one should be going to jail, much less losing their life, for saying bomboclaat.
We free to raasclaat man! Time fi we act like it tpc!