Great Jamaican stories to highlight Heritage Month

JAMAICA’S HISTORY and heritage are replete with stories – folktales, Anansi stories, duppy/paranormal stories, sorcery, tragedies, legal and family dramas, political scandals, stories of persecution and bigotry, ‘bangarangs’ and brouhahas. Hollywood writers have nothing over us. They can only imagine.

We are a storied people in a storied space, and we love to tell stories, some of them blatant lies to create mischief, some fabricated purely for entertainment purposes, narratives that have no beginning and end, and those that were sown, germinated and grown in evil, demented, tormented, tortured and twisted minds. And then there are those that we keep telling, but do not know whether they are true or not. They are too sweet and juicy to keep, so we tell them anyway.

For the month of October, Heritage Month, The Gleaner will be telling stories, some that are already out there, others that are not well known. Some of these are mentioned in our everyday sayings, but we have never stopped to think about the origin ... the backstory.

Take for instance the saying, ‘From Whappie kill fillup’. What does it mean, and where is it coming from? Sometime ago, The Gleaner set out to find answers to these questions, and came upon two versions, one more newsworthy that the other.

The research came up with The Daily Gleaner of June 13 and 14, 1951. It is reported that on the night of June 11, 42-year-old Aston Jolley, aka Whappie King, attacked and robbed two people on the Palisadoes Road that connects Port Royal to St Andrew. He “bludgeoned and stabbed” one of them to death, leaving the other to die. One of the victims was named Philip, and that ‘Whappie kill Phillup’ might have evolved from ‘Whappie killed Phillip’.

The case involving Jolley was a very popular one. The Daily Gleaner front page of June 14, 1951 has ‘Rasta man charged with Palisadoes murder’ as its lead headline. The story says Jolley is a bearded Rastafarian of Dung Hill, West-end, who is charged with the murder of 19-year-old Sidney Garrell. He was also charged with robbery with violence and the rape of 18-year-old Bernadette Hugh, who witnessed Garrell’s murder.

Hugh was taken from her sick bed at Kingston Public Hospital to identify Jolley at the Cross Roads Police Station. He was caught by the police in a dragnet on Salt Lane and detained at Cross Roads. For his brutal acts, Whappie King was convicted and sentenced on November 12, 1951. He was hanged on April 5, 1952.

A search on the Internet came up with some very interesting explanations for the term. There is one that gives a most contrasting explanation to The Gleaner story. On April 13, 2013, on the website House of Arts, a Kori Solomon posted the following.

“The Jamaican colloquial expression ‘from Whappie kill Phillup’, meaning basically, ‘since time immemorial’, recalls a shooting murder resulting from a domestic dispute between two brothers, William and Philip. The murder occurred in the 1940s in the parish of Portland. At that time, such a crime was exceedingly rare and made screaming headlines in the local newspaper. The event became a sort of historical landmark. William’s nickname was ‘Wappy’ and Philip got corrupted to ‘Phillup’.”

Now, to which “local newspaper” is Solomon referring? And he needs to say exactly when William killed Philip. The 1940s is much too broad. Talking about folklore! From Whappie kill Phillup nobody no know wha ‘Whappie kill Phillup’ really mean. The research continues, and who knows what it will unearth. Your family name?

And you might also want to know who Lewis Hutchinson was. Where and why did the 1867 Scandal take place? Who were the Desperadoes of the 1960s? How did the Swift River flood in Portland unfold? In which creature were some important documents found? What is the black blood of Bleby? Where was the ghost of Phillip Fitz-Ritson seen? Who flung the first stone during the Morant Bay Uprising? And did you know that the French occupied Jamaica for a month?

The answers, among others, will be revealed in Great Heritage Month Stories, starting, Tuesday, October 2.