Moncrieffe, Joy

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Everyday forms of violence in Jamaica
Interviews among 6–9-year-old children
Six-year-old girl:
Miss, my mother and my father died (sobbing). My
mother dead by gunshots [Gunshots killed her].
(Children in Jamaica commonly address
women as Miss and men as Sir.)
When did it happen?
From I was two years old, Miss, and me [I] don’t
know her.
How did your father die?
I don’t know; they don’t tell me about him.
Who do you live with?
I live with my grandmother and my uncle and aunts,
all in one yard. (A yard is a shared compound,
which houses a number of families.)
How do they manage?
They don’t have enough money to send me to school.
Today mi neva was gwine come [I was not going to
come] because mi grandmother neva have no money
[because my grandmother had no money].
Boy, eight years old
Miss, my two brothers died. One went off with my
father and someone shoot him off in the water and him
drown [someone shot him and he drowned].
The other one, it’s the police who shoot him. (I was
later told that members of this boy’s family
are associated with gangs.)
Why did it happen?
I don’t know why it happened. The last time, I was
sleeping and my mother woke me and told me that my
brother died. He was 16. 
Girl, eight years old
Miss, two persons died in my community. They died
last week. 
How did they die? 
Police shoot them Miss.
A little boy was eager to continue the story:
Miss, I know the two persons she was telling you
about. Miss, one neva have on no shirt and one had on
a shirt [one was wearing a shirt and the other
wasn’t]. They go [went] down to their mother’s
house and ask for $50 buy bulla [bulla is a local
cake] and on their way, they see a police car, so they
stood at the wall. The police searched them. Miss, in
the news it say that the police didn’t find any guns on
them. Yet, the police shoot them: X got four shots, two
in his head and two in his chest; you could see his
tripe [intestines]. 
Did you see the bodies?
Yes Miss. The dead truck [hearse] neva want teck
im up [didn’t want to pick up the body] and they
call a next one and the next one teck him up [they
called another and this second one picked him
up]. And one police woman shot X2 inna him [in
his] head.
51
Excerpt from Making and Unmaking
the Young ‘Shotta' [Shooter]:
Boundaries and (Counter)-Actions in the
‘Garrisons', IDS Working Paper 297
Joy Moncrieffe
IDS Bulletin Volume 40  Number 1  January 2009   © 2009 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Institute of Development Studies
Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA
The same boy then told a story about the effects
of gang wars.
Miss, people always die in my community. We had a
war between my community and another one and them
[they] give mi [my] uncle ten shots in his head and
mi next uncle say him can’t teck it no more [my
other uncle said he couldn’t bear conditions
anymore] and went to country and one youth go
country and shot him. (A young man went to the
country to execute him. In Jamaica, urban
residents normally refer to the rural areas as
‘country’.)
The six year-old, who had earlier recounted her
parents’ deaths, explained that her house is still
a target.
Gunmen walk in the yard with guns and when mi
[my] grandmother talk, [when my grandmother
protests] they come like [behave as if] they want
to bait up the yard.
What does this mean, ‘bait up the yard’?
Someone explained that it is a common tactic in
gang warfare. Gunmen make it appear that they
are based in certain rival locations (yards). The
police are alerted, raid these houses and may
kill, often the male occupants, without question.
Gunmen bait up di [the] yard (the little girl
continued). Every night time them deh inna di yard
[every night, they are in the yard]. Every night
they come. That makes me sad. 
Moncrieffe Excerpt from IDS Working Paper 29752


Excerpt from , IDS Working Paper 297

https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/20.500.12413/8148/1/IDSB_40_1_10.1111-j.1759-5436.2009.00008.x.pdf

Excerpt from , IDS Working Paper 297

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