Even in 2022, Jamaican laws are still laden with remnants of colonialism and the oppression of our foreparents.

This stretches from sources of law as major as the constitution, which maintains The Queen as our head of State, to statutory Acts such as the almost 200-year-old Towns and Communities Act which still has what legal scholars describe as vagrancy laws.

During the post-Emancipation era, these laws were used to curtail the behaviour and movement of the newly freed slaves and to essentially keep them “in check” (Virtue, 2012). While some of the laws within the Act aren’t completely useless, and if reformed may be of good use, I must question the need for others. As it stands today, under the Towns and Communities Act, the public use of profane, indecent, or obscene language is punishable by law attracting a fine of up to $1,500, that is, more than 15 per cent of the minimum wage, might I add. In addition, ‘bad words’ were once described as 40-shilling words as that was the fine for using them under the rule of the colonial master.

What purpose does such a law serve to us today?

As history recalls it, this law was written in 1834 at a time when no such laws were on the English books, having been repealed in 1746. How could we not raise an eyebrow at the fact that the same white men writing our laws included in ours but left out of their own the criminalisation of swearing, simultaneously. One could infer that that means our swear words are criminal and theirs not. Why then, with this obvious inference, should we enter our 60th year of Independence with such a law that allowed for the criminalisation of our language. Upon Independence we were left with the templates of colonial law and never bothered to recognise that to enforce the laws of our oppressors meant to enforce self-hatred.

Through these laws we have been taught to hate and stifle an important part of our history…a history of African resilience and resistance of which Patois and its colourful catalogue of curse words are a symbol. This deep hatred of our dialect has even drawn blood.

In 2012, Kayann Lamont was fatally shot by a policeman after she was heard cursing in frustration at being robbed earlier that day. It was reported that the cop shot at her and her sister after Lamont tried to break down the word she had used to him. I imagine that what she began explaining to him was that the word was simply synonymous to a sanitary napkin. Now, what could possibly be so offensive and profane about this?

As a free independent nation, what do we find to be so criminal about these words anyway? Aren’t there more important matters for the courts to consider than these issues of our colonial masters? If social media has taught us nothing, it has taught us that even from the most respectable professionals in society to the average Joe uses these words. Even the police themselves, nowadays, curse like sailors while on duty.

Generally, people swear when there are no better words to describe their excitement, surprise, sadness, and frustration. They are fillers for where “good language” lacks, so it’s no wonder they are used in so many contexts. They have a legitimate purpose unlike the laws that restrict them. We cannot fancy ourselves a democratic country if we can stand by laws that clearly restrict free speech just because our oppressors told us that a few choice words are “bad” and “offensive”. If you’re angry enough at someone, whether you say ‘bbc’, make up a whole new word or use some other random word from the dictionary at them, they will be offended. So how can policing language in this way be effective or worthwhile?

The time is nigh. There have been countless calls in the past for the update of our statutes by removing obsolete laws and rewriting them in a more modern tongue and mindset. The need for such an update is blatantly obvious yet the reaction to these calls have been incredibly slow.

We’ve all heard the expert warning from our parents that “Haad ayse pickney bite rack stone” and bite rackstone we shall if we don’t heed the call for law reform. The Towns and Communities Act is a great place to start as it is a great show of our legislative incompetence since Independence. In addition to the purposeless provisions around swearing, the Act also provides: “Every person who … shall wilfully disturb any meeting or assembly, or any congregation assembled for religious worship, or for any religious service or rite in any burial ground, or disturb or molest any person thereat, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding four dollars.” Yes, you read right. A measly four dollars which isn’t even enough money to purchase candy at the corner store anymore. Therefore, as indicated by our laws we live in a country where having a colourful tongue is a more serious crime than restricting religious freedom.

A few truths stand out at the end of this. The first is that our legislations are laughable. And the second is that we must let go of colonial laws and begin to rewrite our own.

And finally, to quote Alexander Butcher: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

— Hugh Graham is Member of Parliament for St Catherine North Western, and CEO of Paramount Trading Company Ltd.