Jamaican Culture essay

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:English

Document 1

Most of the dancehall music played in Jamaica is not perceived well and is viewed as the cause moral decay in the Jamaican society. Jamaican culture highly holds very strong prejudices and sentiments against homosexuality. According to Lovell, Jarret S. “we are Jamaicans: living with and challenging the criminalization of homosexuality in Jamaica. ” Contemporary justice review19. ” Social and Economic studies (2011): a debate concerning the homosexuality issue takes place between the Jamaican government and the international homosexual lobby. The Human rights watch also attacks the government of failing to protect the rights of the homosexuals but still the debates do not bore fruit as culture has taken roots on the stand that homosexuals should be killed. As reported by Keon West “why do Jamaicans hate gay people” from the research done it is evident that the male gender is very important in Jamaica and greatly determines education, age and even religion.

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This means there is more meaning to being a man in Jamaica. The perceptions that the male gender is stronger could also contribute a lot to increased homosexuality. This shows that Buju Banton was really insisting on the murder of the homosexuals. It should be understood that the words batty man and batty bwoy are defamatory terms for a gay man in Jamaica. This means if anybody is listening to the lines batty bwoy in Boom Bye Bye, he should replace them with any common defamatory abuse for “gay. ” The word batty in Jamaica Patois means butt. So batty man means butt man and batty bwoy means butt boy. Probably also this indicates that homosexuality goes against the country’s social norms and culture and that the laws and rules of Jamaica do not recognize gay people.

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Hence the message from the song is that if gay people are murdered then the country will be fine. It is also clear that in the video large crowds of both men and women are interacting together in the same place and moving towards various directions. The implication here is that there are two genders and both men and women should interact to avoid homosexuality. There are two men also in the video moving towards each other with very serious faces but the female faces look full of smiles. According the church, homosexuality is a crime before God, in short, gay people are sinning against the Lord. It should be noted that religion matters a lot in Jamaican society, people get moral teachings of day to day life from their religions, hence a good number of people will take seriously what is said in church and this makes the act of homosexuality being inappropriate in society.

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And this probably gives the reason why some people for example Buju Banton would suggest that gay people be murdered. Buju Banton even says that if the church says that homosexuality is a crime, then what wrong does he do in saying that gay people should be murdered? Homosexuals are not represented anywhere in the song. Men and women are featured everywhere and even the two men approaching each other look very serious and furious implying sexual violence, but women’s faces show happiness indicating that interaction of a male and a female brings happiness. Like the perception that males are stronger than women. But it is important to understand that the world is not on a standstill and things and times are changing bringing about change in people’s lives, behaviors and norms.

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