Jamaica promotes patois scriptures for Lent

For 40 days and 40 nights Jamaicans are able to access scriptures and religious guidance written in their local patois Bible.

Announced in promotion of a campaign to provide relatable spiritual engagement during the Lenten season, the island’s Minister of Culture Olivia Grange explained that the collaborative agreement with the Bible Society enables daily scriptures via transmissions from social media platforms.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are already connecting Christians with literature sourced from Love and Faith World Outreach Ministries.

“Our patois is such an important part of our Jamaican identity and it is important that we promote it and celebrate it and use it in ways to inspire confidence and pride among our people.”

According to the minister anyone interested in the daily sustenance can visit @mcges.Jamaica.

In her role as the official government spokesperson, Grange advocates the needs of four portfolios incorporating gender, entertainment, culture and sport. She announced the campaign on Feb. 21, Fat Tuesday, saying that the campaign to promote the local language started the following day on Ash Wednesday.

On the eve reserved for Mardi Gras and carnival, the campaign also marked International Mother Language Day.

The minister described the campaign as a “celebration and promotion of every aspect of Jamaican culture.”

More than a dozen years ago, a team from the University of the West Indies in partnership with theological institutions on the island successfully adapted the traditional Holy Bible to creole translations of Di Jamaican Nyuu Testiment.

The project took 10 years to complete.

Commonly referred to as the Patois Bible, an original Greek translation was revised by members of the Bible Society in Kington.

They agreed “Jesus wept,” the shortest verse in the Gospel of John could best be expressed “Jiizas baal.”

And that the St. James version of the Angel Gabriel’s visit to the virgin Mary to inform her she will birthe a baby boy named Jesus — “And having come in, the angel said to her, ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women” should be replaced saying “De angel go to Mary and say to ‘er, me have news we going to make you well ‘appy. God really, really, bless you and him a walk with you all de time.”

On completion of the phonetic, adapted, religious, patois chapters Rev. Courtney Stewart, the organization’s general secretary promoted the work with a launch of the translated Bible in London, England.

Jamaican citizens there welcomed the trailblazing literature, some invested by purchasing the book. Ironically, in each city in the former Mother Land, Stewart described his mission as ‘colonization in reverse.’

He attributed the genesis of Jamaica’s patois to British colonial occupation and did not mince words in detailing the need for its representation as “our own language.”

In addition to promoting the words of God, the patois salesman said his principal aim is to elevate the language from its stigmatized, second-class status.

He vowed then that with national acceptance “all will understand what it means that we have two languages in our country, that is, Jamiekan, the mother tongue and standard English, the second language, with bi- lingual education being the order of the day.”

An electronic audio version of the patois Bible has also been launched in Jamaica on ITunes and via mobile phone applications.

“We hope that people will feel blessed and inspired by the readings.”

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