You can call it a spat over geography and cuisine, but comedian Majah Hype has found himself in the growing eye of a firestorm over comments he made recently on the Talkthatshhhh podcast. The comments appeared to disparage Guyana’s legitimacy as a ‘Caribbean country’ because of its geography and culture.

“It’s definitely curry chicken…the only person that you gonna hear say that is Guyanese people, and they not Caribbean,” Majah Hype said in response to a question about cuisine.

“…because it is in South America, we show dem love, we accepted them, but they not Caribbean…that is like the only English speaking country on the continent,” he continued.

The comedian posted a video clip of himself Wednesday listening to sides of a humourous raging debate with impersonations of Guyanese people disrespecting him, while he is seen munching on Fruit Loops or Rainbow Cereal. The post got over 9,000 likes and over 1,800 comments.

He captioned the post: “Me reading my dms for the last 6 days keep showing the world ignorance!!! They disrespecting 3 countries Jamaica Trini & Grenada and still #majahhype #jokesallday #ONECARIBBEEAN #WESTINDIESUNITED.”

Majah Hype, who is a popular comedian known for his hilarious impersonations of Caribbean people, seemed a little bit flabbergasted by the online vitriol.

“Out of the ten+ years of representing Guyana I never expected the level of disrespect and threats based off a comedic conversation which many only saw a 15sec clip but all things happen for a reason!!! I want the rest of the world to witness it!!!! I’ll be posting the messages also,” he said.

The online users dragged him, despite his attempt at self-deprecation.

“Accept your wrong & move forward. You wasn’t joking when you said what you said. The issue wasn’t you saying we in South America, it was the fact that you took God out ya thought to say ‘We Accept them’ like sir you been using Guyanese accent to forward your lame ass career for years, you’ve been to Guyana multiple times so you know how Guyanese get when sh** go down. Stop playing victim and own up to what you said,” one social media user said.

“Now pressure got and yuh beetee Bunin you coming crying to the media. Keep the same energy you had in the podcast.”

Another social media user urged the comedian to “throw away that bright-colored cereal and get some good cornmeal porridge.”

They continued to heap coals of fire on the head of Majah Hype with scathing posts. Another wrote:

“@majahhype Champ you still deflecting and acting like this is about curry or geography, it’s the bottom feeder language that came after, you’re very crafty at what you do but It ain’t gonna wrk, you can’t manipulate this situation like you did the Kirby thing!”

The Kirby reference was directed at an incident when the comedian was jailed in Georgia over charges for simple battery and felony charges in relation to a domestic abuse incident. The alleged victim in the case was Kirby, with whom Majah Hype had a relationship.

One social media user appealed for solidarity, saying:

“As a BORN GUYANESE I was wondering how you were gonna respond. Truth is! We can debate our heritage all day long. There’s NO DIFFERENCE IN WEST INDIAN/CARIBBEAN PEOPLE except for where the SLAVE SHIPS LANDED…. CONTINUE BLESSINGS MY GOOD MAN… WE ALL NEED LAUGHTER.”

Guyana is a member of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) of sovereign states, and was one of the founding members of CARIFTA in 1968. The South American country is one of the signatories to the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973 that established Caricom, the host of the inaugural CARIFESTA in 1972, one of three original signatories to the Caribbean Court of Justice as the region’s court of final appeal and the site of the Caricom Secretariat.

Guyana has also been a major contributor to the most celebrated West Indies cricket team, under its most successful captain, Sir Clive Lloyd, and produced outstanding players like Carl Hooper, Basil Butcher, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Colin Croft, Roy Fredericks, and Lance Gibbs.

Majah Hype was born in New York. His comedic career has been fueled by his skits using accents and mannerisms of various Caribbean nationalities.

Claude Mills