































 :::::: 

117 

 

Deconstructing Ideas of Violence and 
Homophobia in Jamaica 

Sharifa Patel 

Sharifa Patel is currently a graduate student at McMaster University, pursuing her 
Masters in Gender Studies and Feminist Research. She completed her Bachelors 
degree at the University of Toronto with a major in Caribbean Studies and a minor 
in English and History. 

Homophobia in Jamaica is a topic of international debate.  
From internationally known dancehall artists who sing about 
murdering or threatening physical violence onto homosexuals, to the 
media images of the political violence that is played out on 
vulnerable bodies, the representation of Jamaica as a violent, 
homophobic space is continually reproduced and perpetuated both 
domestically and on a global level. Undoubtedly, violence and 
homophobia share a malevolent relationship in Jamaica and this 
paper does not seek to deny that reality. Instead this paper will 
interrogate this popular narrative and investigate Jamaica’s violent, 
homophobic history and how it has been reproduced.  The 
organization of this paper is twofold: I will examine the historical 
roots of this issue in Jamaica, the proliferation and portrayal of this 
homophobic narrative on an international scale while also 
investigating how this violence is played out on the bodies of 
supposed sexual deviants.  Jamaica is not a uniformly homophobic 
or violent place nor are these attributes innately part of Jamaican 
culture.  These issues stem from a much deeper history of social, 
political and economic factors that the Jamaican citizenry must 
grapple with.  Jamaicans continue to be denied the ability to create 
meaningful conversations with their government, and in order to 
cope with this issue of powerlessness the populations must turn to 
different means, including violence, to reclaim their political 
autonomy.       

Ideas of acceptable sexual practices cannot be divorced from 
the legacy of colonialism.  Moreover, ideas regarding sexuality and 
its norms differ between time and place and thus, what is 
permissible in one space may not be so in another.  For instance, 
since Jamaican history saw the mass migration (predominantly 
forced migration) of peoples from Africa, India, China, the Middle 



SHARIIFA PATEL| 
 VIOLENCE & HOMOPHOBIA IN JAMAICA 

118 

 

East and Europe, sexual practices of their place of origin were 
complicated in a country with such a diverse population.  The 
colonial administration, however, regulated sexuality through 
different arms of the state apparatus including law and the religious 
doctrine.  The colonial ban on sodomy was not limited to same-sex 
intercourse but rather all non-procreative sexual activity was deemed 
evil and sinful.1  The nineteenth century colonial law, the Offenses 
Against the Person Act, stated under Unnatural Offenses and the 
section Outrages on Decency condemned anyone who engaged in 
buggery or committed “acts of gross indecency with another male” to 
imprisonment and hard labour.2  This law remains intact today 
prohibiting sexual relationships between same-sex individuals and 
there is no indication of its amendment.3  Colonial law serves as a 
strong influence for current homophobic sentiments in Jamaica and 
has remained embedded in these existing laws. To reduce 
homophobia and violence in Jamaica to simply a part of Jamaican 
culture disregards how foreign influences and laws have shaped the 
current circumstances of sexual deviants in Jamaica. 

The colonial government did not only use law to repress 
sexual deviants but also used religious infrastructure in order to 
manipulate enslaved peoples.  The enslaved populations were often 
forced to accept Christian doctrine and forfeit their belief systems for 
Christ.4  If enslaved peoples were caught practicing a religion other 
than Christianity these bodies could be subjected to torture until 
they at least appeared to comply5 with the Church.  While religions in 
the Caribbean remain syncretic and often serve as an instrument of 
resistance, in arguments against sexual deviance, the bible is 

                                                           
1 Suzanne LaFont. “Very Straight Sex: The Development of Sexual Morés in 

Jamaica” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 2:3 2003 

2Offences Against the Person Act. Jamaica. 

http://www.vertic.org/media/National%20Legislation/Jamaica/JM_Offences_ag

ainst_the_Person_Act.pdf 
3 Current Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller suggested during her campaign 

that the Buggery Laws should be revised and that she would allow homosexuals 

to serve in her cabinet.  Since then the laws have remained further discussion 

on the topic has been limited. 
4 Isaac Julien, The Darker Side of Black. 1993. 
5 Many enslaved peoples participated in Christian religious practices while 

simultaneously practicing religions from their place of origin or developing 
religious hybridities that appropriated different aspects of different religions.  



CARIBBEAN QUILT | 2013 

119 

 

constantly quoted.6  Sodom has become a key point of reference for 
those who wish to find a religious basis for assaults on sexually 
deviant communities.7 The word “sodomite” has become 
synonymous with homosexuality and we see that this word has 
continually been used to show contempt, scorn, and hatred 
throughout dancehall music.8  What is particularly interesting about 
dancehall music is the way in which it has glorified conservative 
sexuality (or heterosexuality), as it encourages sexual practices that 
defy modest conventions.  Dancehall music graphically describes the 
act of sexual intercourse often including descriptions of the body and 
genitalia.  This musical form then has completely rejected colonial 
regulations of sexuality as it pertains to heterosexual sexual 
relationships while simultaneously appropriating the colonial legacy 
of homophobia and violence.     

Violence in Jamaica cannot merely be dismissed as innately 
part of Jamaican culture. This type of analysis contributes to a racist 
continuum that places Jamaica in the ‘uncivilized’ Global South 
where violence can be written into the narrative of the country 
without reflection on how this violence has come into being and how 
it is reproduced.  The western world has made the whole country of 
Jamaica into a crime scene; our television screens were plastered 
with images of Tivoli Gardens going up in flames when the United 
States extradited Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke.9  Tivoli Gardens became 
Jamaica.  It became a country ravaged by crime and violence; the 
international community saw populations that rallied in the streets 
to support a criminal.  It is these types of images that repeat in 
western media without any recognition of how the bodies seen on 
our television screens are fodder for political warfare.10  

The western media has given no airtime to the real situation 
in Jamaica.  Garrison communities such as Tivoli Gardens are 
poverty ridden and they have been stripped of the ability to actively, 
and peacefully, participate in political processes.11  The governments, 

                                                           
6 Julien 
7 Julien 
8 See Beenie Man “That’s Right” and Mr. Vegas “No Sodomite” 
9 CNN May 24, 2010 
10 Tivoli Gardens was a JLP enclave and Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke had close ties 

with former Prime Minister Bruce Golding. Lewis 
11 Obika, Gray.  “Rogue Culture or Avatar of Liberation: The Jamaican 

Lumpenproletriat.” Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1 (March 2003) 



SHARIIFA PATEL| 
 VIOLENCE & HOMOPHOBIA IN JAMAICA 

120 

 

in conjunction with dons in garrison enclaves, have turned these 
spaces into warzones and have broken their ability to create cohesive 
communities.12 Jamaican dons are well connected to the government 
and they are able to coerce and threaten their communities into 
going to war for their territories. Donald “Zeeks” Phipps, a don in 
Matthew’s Lane, is a good case in point.  He had extensive political 
connections, including a half brother who is a parliamentarian 
representative in central Kingston.13  When he was arrested in 1997, 
his supporters shut down the city for two days.14  Our television 
screens do not include the history of these populations and how they 
have come to these circumstances.  They do not include how the 
government has pushed its populations into these violent 
circumstances and used dons in these communities to carry out their 
control.  Instead the western media homogenizes Jamaica as a 
uniformly violent space placing these violent images in countries that 
do not face the same realities.  By using this medium Jamaica 
becomes the other of the west, a space that is poor, violent, and 
homophobic. 

Violence in Jamaica is real.  There is no doubt that it has 
one of the highest murder rates per capita in the world.15  Indeed this 
violence is played out on the bodies of the most vulnerable in 
Jamaica making women, children and sexual deviants in working 
class communities most susceptible.  The international community is 
very aware of Jamaica’s high homicide rates but the issue requires 
further interrogation as to how this situation emerged and why it 
continues to plague Jamaica’s youth. The revolving international 
dialogue insists that violence is a characteristic distinct to Jamaican 
society. This notion must be deconstructed and a more critical 
analysis of Jamaica’s current circumstances in conjunction with its 
colonial history must be called into question.  It is true that we 
cannot reduce Jamaica’s current situation to solely a product of its 
history but we must examine how it cannot be detached from that 
history.  Colonial rule in Jamaica ushered in spectacular violence and 
enslaved bodies became the site for sadistic brutality. The 

                                                           
12 Lewis 
13 "The Americas: Bubba, Bobo, Zambo and Zeeks; Crime in the Caribbean;" The 

Economist 373, no. 8400 (Nov 06, 2004): 60-42. 

http://search.proquest.com/docview/224018010?accountid=14771. 
14 ibid 
15Eric Goldschein. “The 20 Mosts Homicidal Countries In the World.” Business 

Insider. Dec. 1 2011 



CARIBBEAN QUILT | 2013 

121 

 

mutilations of enslaved bodies were public displays for all to see16 
and by making a spectacle of these bodies in public spaces we can see 
how violence can then be exercised to demand compliance.  Public 
violence produces a society that constantly remembers the threat of 
violence and uses the display of mutilated bodies to regulate society.  
Even subsequent to the abolition of slavery many draconian colonial 
laws remained intact and in the 1960s there was even intensification 
on corporal punishment: in 1963 serious crimes became punishable 
by flogging and hard labour17 and the 1965 Regulation Law 
elaborated on colonial laws as it permitted the use of the “cat-o-nine-
tails” and the tamarind switch in prisons.  Colonial administration 
and the inheritors of the Jamaican government followed 
colonialism's institutionalized violence. Jamaica’s current situation 
then is based on a trajectory of violence.    

This history of violence has never been reconciled.  Bodies 
continue to be mutilated in public spaces and the threat of violence 
still looms heavy on Jamaica’s citizenry.  As in the colonial era, 
violence continues to be a means to regulate bodies.  Violence has 
become a government strategy, exercised by gangs in working class 
communities, to suppress popular resistance.18  It also has to be 
looked at as a means for citizens to cope with their inability to 
produce meaningful dialogues with their government.  There is a 
difference between politics and governance:  governance refers to the 
bureaucratic and fiscal systems of the state. 19  Politics affects state 
activities, and influences concepts of liberty and the how political life 
is carried out.20  Even though Jamaica has a ‘democratically’ elected 
government, democracy is not major feature of Jamaican politics 
and this must be modified to take into consideration contrary 
practices.21   

                                                           
16James Bewer Stewart. Venture Smith: The Business of Slavery and Freedom 

(Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010)  87 
17 Obika Gray. Radicalism and social change in Jamaica 1960-1972 122 
18 Obika Gray. Demeaned but Empowered. (Mona: University of the West Indies 

Press, 2004) 4 
19 Rupert Lewis. "Party Politics in Jamaica and the Extradition of Christopher 

“Dudus” Coke." The Global South 6, no. 1 (2012): 38-54. http://muse.jhu.edu/ 

(accessed November 23, 2012) 
20 ibid 
21 Gray. Demeaned but Empowered. 4 



SHARIIFA PATEL| 
 VIOLENCE & HOMOPHOBIA IN JAMAICA 

122 

 

There is a severe disparity between Jamaica’s working class 
communities and their government because of their inability to 
influence the decisions their government makes.  The 1980s saw the 
Jamaican government formulate agreements with the World Bank 
and the International Monetary Fund which ushered in Structural 
Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in order to reduce national debt.22  The 
most disenfranchised populations suffered most under SAPs as the 
government cut funding for social services and subsidies.23  The 
Jamaican population, particularly women, had to find new avenues 
of generating income including migrating without their children in 
order to send remittances back home.24  Much of the blame for the 
increasing violence in Jamaica was placed on women for leaving 
their homes without structure25 but we must consider how women 
were forced to search for the financial security that their government 
denied them.  Dons in garrison communities were known for their 
liaisons with government personnel; if a don could coerce their 
community to vote for a certain party, that party would allocate 
funds to that don’s community.26  Dons became powerful in that they 
could provide the enclave with some social welfare but it came with 
violent repercussions.27   

 
The Jamaican government neglected the basic needs of 

Jamaica’s youth enforcing idleness on them.  This enforced idleness 
translated into gang rivalry as they defended their neighbourhoods 
in working-class communities.28  Youth were caught in a state of 
powerlessness, unable to have any control over the decisions being 
made by their governments.  Power over themselves, and other 
bodies for that matter, could only be appropriated through violence 
and exerting force over other human beings.  With that said 
vulnerable bodies could then be targeted, including homosexual 
communities.  Their bodies could become the site for power to be 
regained.  The rise of garrison communities and donmanship placed 
certain members of these partisan populations in positions of great 

                                                           
22 Beverley Mullings. “Neoliberalization, social reproduction and the limits to 

labour in Jamaica” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. No. 30 (July 2009): 

175 

23 Mullings 180 
24 ibid 
25 ibid 
26 Mullings 181 
27 ibid 
28 Gray 5 



CARIBBEAN QUILT | 2013 

123 

 

power.  In some cases they have become even more powerful than 
the government personnel with whom they were once affiliated.29  
The gun trade was a lucrative business so it was to their advantage 
for the dons to be thoroughly embedded in these operations.  It was 
highly gendered work that reinforced hyper-masculinity as guns 
were not only synonymous with a man’s strength but the spaces in 
which they were traded were male dominated.30  In hyper-masculine 
spaces, homosexual men can find themselves othered and violence 
becomes a means to express manhood and power.  Lesbian women 
have not been excluded from such abuses.  Jamaican LGBT rights 
activist and poet Stacey-Ann Chin describes how she was sexually 
assaulted by several men because of her sexual preferences.31  She 
explains that these men did this in attempt to exercise their 
masculinity and her body became the seat where this could occur.32  
Men in working class communities sought to regain power and 
vulnerable bodies have become the conduits with which this power 
could be expressed.    

The transnational community has become increasingly 
aware of the violence in the area and LGBT rights groups have 
lobbied in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom to 
keep dancehall artists who sing homophobic lyrics from entering 
countries.  The Stop Murder Music coalition was able to keep Beenie 
Man out of Miami and he was also pressured to give a public 
apology.33  Dancehall artists’ ability to reach global audiences 
projects the image of Jamaica as a homophobic space to the 
international community.  Canada’s national post published an 
article named “Jamaican ‘Murder Music’ Doesn’t Belong in 
Canada,”34 implicitly saying that murder music belongs and should 
stay in Jamaica.  The article then states that “Akim 
Larcher…Originally from St. Lucia… moved here a few years ago to 
escape the anti-gay violence that he says is too prevalent in 
Caribbean culture.” There is implicit racism not only in this 

                                                           
29 ibid 
30 ibid 
31 Stacey-Ann Chin. National Equity March. 2009 
32 ibid 
33 Serwer, Jesse. "The Great Dancehall Freeze-Out of 2010." The Village 

Voice,2010http://search.proquest.com/docview/613371080?accountid=1477

1.  

34 “Jamaican ‘Murder Music’ Doesn’t Belong in Canada.” National Post.. 

CanWest MediaWorks Publications Incept. Sept. 22, 2007 



SHARIIFA PATEL| 
 VIOLENCE & HOMOPHOBIA IN JAMAICA 

124 

 

statement but in the article: The Caribbean becomes a space where 
homophobia can exist because it is simply a part of the culture – a 
culture separate from that of its close Western neighbour. Articles 
such as this share the negative connotation that homophobia in 
Jamaica only becomes a hard-edged problem when it is exported to 
the Western world. However, if homophobic artists remain in 
Jamaica and continue to preach for violence against homosexuals 
then it is seen as a non-issue as it is viewed as a conventional feature 
of the culture and society. Homosexual bodies in Jamaica can be 
subject to violence that homosexual bodies in the western world are 
able to avoid simply because of their geographical location and the 
support systems that lay therein for LGBT communities.    

 What we see then is that the Caribbean, and more 
specifically Jamaica, gets glossed over as a uniformly homophobic 
and violent space as it is often reiterated that Jamaica is the “most 
homophobic place is the world.”35  Jamaica has become an archetype 
of Caribbean homophobia on the international scene and dancehall 
music where violent and  homophobic lyrics has gained popularity, 
with increasing global recognition. Songs such as “Boom Bye, Bye” 
by Buju Banton and the more recent hit “Chi Chi Mon” by TOK have 
echoed in the global community and caused much backlash from 
LGBT rights groups internationally36 because these songs promote 
the murder of homosexuals. T he focus of homophobia has been 
placed solely on Jamaica with little recognition that similar 
homophobic sentiments exist elsewhere in the Caribbean but since 
dancehall is used as a medium to communicate homophobia to an 
international audience this has enabled Jamaica to be a focal point of 
international debate concerning the correlation of violence and 
homophobia.  Dancehall music, however, becomes the only voice of 
the Jamaican citizenry, disregarding the voices that do not hold the 
same position. 

The dancehall scene is dominated by “rude bwoys” who 
overtly practice and uphold macho ideals. Dancehall music expresses 
the violence that is real in working class communities and those who 
participated in the violence in these communities are also present in 

                                                           
35 “The most Homophobic Place on Earth.” Time World. April 12, 2006.  Even if 

one place “The most homophobic place on earth” into Google, the first page of 

links name Jamaica.  
36 Jesse 



CARIBBEAN QUILT | 2013 

125 

 

the dancehall itself.  Now it is debated whether the dancehall is a 
space controlled by males or females,37 but what is important for this 
argument is that it is a space that reproduces homophobic music and 
that it is surely not a safe space for sexual preferences outside of 
heterosexual affairs. Even in these spaces, however, deviation from 
heteronomativity still exists.  More recently, men in the dancehall 
scene are taking on an image that deviates from an accepted 
heterosexual aesthetic.  These men may dye their hair blonde, shape 
their eyebrows and wear fitted pants.38  They take to the dance floor 
more frequently instead of staying on the peripheries.39  These men 
take on an image that would conventionally be understood as 
homosexual, however these men are generally accepted,40 and 
indeed welcomed, in the dancehall.  So even in a space that is 
globally understood as extremely hostile to homosexuals, there is 
room for sexual deviation and certain ambiguities.  The dancehall 
then has the ability to juxtapose the hyper-masculine ‘rude bwoy’ 
with the male dancer who appropriates the physical attributes that 
conventionally defy heterosexuality.  This image of a completely 
homophobic Jamaica must then be deconstructed because 
inconsistencies and interruptions do occur in the narrative.  Those 
who create these interruptions specifically should not be forgotten 
and overwritten by the international community.     

The international community glosses over the Caribbean as 
uniformly and innately violent, producing narratives for Jamaica and 
drowning out the voices of Jamaicans.  In so doing,   Jamaica as a 
whole becomes violent and homophobic without any recognition of 
those who work to reconcile these issues within the country.  
Sexually deviant populations do exist in Jamaica and their presence 
within the country deserves recognition.  When Jamaica becomes a 
space that is understood as inherently violent, the autonomy of this 
portion of the population is completely stripped away.  Institutional 
organizations such as JFLAG do extensive work to resolve this issue 
of homophobia in Jamaica and they deserve recognition as both 
Jamaicans, and citizens who demand sexual autonomy.    In Jamaica 

                                                           
37 See Carolyn Cooper “Lady Saw Cuts Loose” 
38 Nadia Ellis. "Out and Bad: Toward a Queer Performance Hermeneutic in 

Jamaican Dancehall." Small Axe 15, no. 2 (2011): 7-23. http://muse.jhu.edu/ 

(accessed March 5, 2013). 
39 ibid 
40 I have come across one song that is not supportive of men who take on this 

aesthetic: “Bun a Tight Pants and a Square-Front Shoe” by Trinity Chris 



SHARIIFA PATEL| 
 VIOLENCE & HOMOPHOBIA IN JAMAICA 

126 

 

institutional groups, such as JFLAG, work to mediate between 
civilians and the state, and often work to correct human rights 
violations.41  There needs to be an acknowledgment of the 
interruptions in the trajectory created by those who transgress sexual 
norms and these interruptions return agency to the Jamaican public. 

Homophobic violence in Jamaica does deserve international 
attention but the trajectory of violence and homophobia must be 
analyzed responsibly.  The Jamaican citizenry is active and has not 
passively accepted the circumstances that their government has 
produced.  Vulnerable bodies have indeed become the sight for 
political violence, but further research is required to truly 
deconstruct this problem as it relates to Jamaica’s history and 
Jamaica’s place in the global economy.  Jamaica is not uniformly 
homophobic or violent; these issues have a history that needs to be 
recognized and the international community must consider that to 
divorce Jamaica from the true issues that plague their political 
structure is to turn Jamaica into a violent space.  This view can have 
dangerous consequences and can very easily produce a discourse 
based on racist understandings of Jamaican culture.  It is in this way 
that Jamaica can then be associated with a culture of violence to 
which its citizenry will continue to be subjected. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

                                                           
41 Lewis 



CARIBBEAN QUILT | 2013 

127 

 

Works Cited 

Chinn, Stacey-Ann. National Equity March. 2009  

CNN. May 24, 2010 

Ellis, Nadia. "Out and Bad: Toward a Queer Performance Hermeneutic in 

Jamaican Dancehall." Small Axe 15, no. 2 (2011): 7-23. 

http://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed March 5, 2013). 

Goldschein, Eric. “The 20 Mosts Homicidal Countries In the World.” 

Business Insider. Dec. 1 2011 

Gray, Obika,.  “Rogue Culture or Avatar of Liberation: The Jamaican 

Lumpenproletriat.” Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 52, No. 1 (March 

2003) 

Hope, Donna P.. "Passa Passa: Interrogating Cultural Hybridities in 

Jamaican Dancehall." Small Axe no. 21 (2006): 125-139. 

http://search.proquest.com/docview/195805048?accountid=14771 

 “The most Homophobic Place on Earth.” Time World. April 12, 2006. 

Julien,Isaac. The Darker Side of Black. 1993. 

“Jamaican ‘Murder Music’ Doesn’t Belong in Canada.” National Post.. 

CanWest MediaWorks Publications Incept. Sept. 22, 2007 

Jesse, Serwer. "The Great Dancehall Freeze-Out of 2010." The Village 

Voice,2010 

http://search.proquest.com/docview/613371080?accountid=14771. 

LaFont, Suzanne. “Very Straight Sex: The Development of Sexual Morés 

in Jamaica” Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History 2:3 2003 

Mullings, Beverley. “Neoliberalization, social reproduction and the limits 

to labour in Jamaica” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. No. 30 

(July 2009): 175 



SHARIIFA PATEL| 
 VIOLENCE & HOMOPHOBIA IN JAMAICA 

128 

 

Offences Against the Person Act. Jamaica.  

http://www.vertic.org/media/National%20Legislation/Jamaica/JM_Offe

nces_against_the_Person_Act.pdf 

Stewart, James Bewer. Venture Smith: The Business of Slavery and 

Freedom. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 2010. 

 

 


