Jamaican Patois Words with African Origin

Akan language is also spoken in Ivory Coast.

I’m Nigerian, from the Igbo tribe and I definitely know a lot of these words.. “Unu” “atu” etc. much love to all my Jamaican cousins ❤️

I am Congolese and I confirm the words: poto-poto, ndundu, etc. Good job my sister

I’m from Dominica 🇩🇲 and we use a lot of these words, like juk ,mumu, jumbi. All these years I thought we made those words up. Thanks for shining a light on this.

I always thought we should have at least one African language taught in every school so we can reconnect with our esse. Unfortunately we prefer European cultures over our own.

This is amazing! I always suspected that some of our patois had originated from the great continent of Africa. We are one people.

kungkus = gossip in patois . Kokonsa gossip in akan. this is so spot on. Patu/apatu, Obeah (obeyie), bissi dorkunu, mumu, ackee (akye), ananse etc . The Ghana presence in Jamaica is really strong

Jamaica IS Africa WE love our Jamaican familly ! MORE LOVE!

Thanks for this video. It reminds me of some of the words my grandmother and people of my community used during my childhood years in Jamaica. One example is the word “jumbi”, which means ghost. One inescapable fact is that Jamaicans descend from the countries which make up West Africa today. Back in the day, before the enslavers and colonizers divided up Africa, West Africa was a region with kingdoms or peoples. I have always maintained that one can see the various peoples of West African countries in the Jamaican population. Some think we have connections with only Ghana, but it goes much wider.

"Nyam" (to eat) also exist in Cameroonian bantu languages, not only in western african languages

My lovely husband Leeroy was London born of Jamaican parents. He died of cancer before we could go there together. I heard some of these words before and love your Patwa Academy. Thanks Shan

Jamaican Akan memory is so beautiful and moving to me as a Ghanaian who is globally ProBlack and PanAfrican. Bob Marley's maternal grandfather called him Kubina (as documented in the book Catch A Fire). It was intentional on Omeriah Malcolm's part. Kobina/Kwabena's a boy born on Tuesday. 06Feb1945 was a Tuesday.

I'm Jamaican 🇯🇲 and I always feel that connection when I meet up with my African friends in the US. Most words we use here in Jamaica 🇯🇲 that you mention is quite familiar to them. We have strong African roots. Out of Many ONE People.Nuff ❤❤❤❤❤ to my African family❤

I've heard a majority of all of these terms growing up, but never know how they connected with Africa. Thank you for helping me to put the pieces together.

This was very informative and intriguing, thank you for taking the time to put this one up. Kooya/Kuya was one of my favorite sayings as a kid growing up.

This is great. Thanks for sharing. It's interesting because growing up using words like nyam was considered improper. Colonization has taught us to dislike so much about ourselves and our roots.

I'm from Ghana 🇬🇭. Akan is one of the dominant tribes in Ghana. The people of Akan speak Akan language. Twi and fante are two major dialects of Akan. Other dialects include sefwi, nzema, anyii/burosa, ahanta. Twi has "sub-dialects": asante (not Ashanti which is just the whiteman's corrupted version), assin, twifo, akyem, kwahu, wassa, akwapim, bono, denkyira, akwamu, others... Fante (better known as mfantse) also has sub-dialects: abura, guae (of Oguaa or Cape Coast) edina/komenda; gomoa, ekumfi, agona (arguably more twi than fante), enyan, breman, nkusukum, ajumako & others. In fact, one will struggle to identify the difference with the sub-dialects of TWI on the one hand & fante on the other. What I'm sure about is Asanti Twi, Akwampim Twi, Abura fantse & Oguaa fantse are the ones currently written as examinable languages of the Akan FANTSE & TWI language in schools. Never say asante & twi languages. It is even worse to say ASHANTI!! There's is a large Akan tribe in La Cote d'Ivoire.

Wow! We really are one people! I am Igbo and I am amazed at the connection !

Very informative. I have a greater appreciation for Patois/ Patwa with every video I watch. THANK YOU👍👍

Great video! I am glad someone took the time to highlight the origin of the various words that we use every day in Jamaica. I am sure this is true of every Caribbean countries.