# Is England to blame for widespread Jamacian homophobia?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-england-to-blame-for-widespread-jamacian-homophobia/290283>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 16, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-england-to-blame-for-widespread-jamacian-homophobia/290283 "2005-02-16T01:08:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-england-to-blame-for-widespread-jamacian-homophobia/290283/1 "2005-02-16T01:08:09Z")

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When you love Reggae music, but despair over it’s homophobic attitudes you’ve got to reach … that’s it strreeetch back across the centuries… and blame England! Ahhh that’s it! Much better than holding those darling reggae artists responsible for their own hate filled lyrics.

[Jah Division Free speech, cultural sovereignty, and human rights clash in reggae dancehall homophobia debate](http://villagevoice.com/music/0507,oumano,61118,22.html)

> [@](#):
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> Slavery and colonialism are gone, but Jamaica’s 1962 independence masked the economic abandonment of an absentee plantation worked past profitability. The queen gifted her former colony, though, bequeathing Jamaica her church, Bible, and buggery laws. That little-old-lady-in-the-Cotswolds mentality is more recent, and therefore, more vivid in the Jamaican consciousness than any dim genetic recollections of pre-colonial Africa. Even the Rastaman who rejects church as part of the Babylonian West is not immune. Folded into his message of black self-reliance (and for some, separatism) and an African utopia is good old-fashioned King Jamesian fire and brimstone for Babylonian abominations like homosexuality. Yet mounting academic research suggests that the West’s legacy to Africa is homophobia, not homosexuality. Yes, Buju, Beenie, and Bounty—gays, lesbians, and bisexuals lived comfortably alongside heteros in many African tribes, long before the white man.

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**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-england-to-blame-for-widespread-jamacian-homophobia/290283/2 "2005-02-16T02:24:41Z")

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I’m not sure what there is to debate here. The reggae artists bear full responsibility for their own actions. If what the article says about the status of homosexuality in Jamaica in pre-colonial times is true, that might be a mildly interesting factoid, but it’s completely inapposite to the delegation of responsibility. Sounds like the author is just trying to incite controversy.

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**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-england-to-blame-for-widespread-jamacian-homophobia/290283/3 "2005-02-16T06:25:02Z")

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Moved to **IMHO** at (e-mail) request of OP.

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**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2005, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-england-to-blame-for-widespread-jamacian-homophobia/290283/4 "2005-02-16T09:46:22Z")

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“Mounting academic research”? Cite! {Heh heh. Mounting. He said mounting. Heh heh.}