Born Fi' Dead
A Journey Through the Yardie Underworld
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Among the ethnic gangs that rule America's inner cities, none has had the impact of the Jamaican posses. Spawned in the ghettos of Kingston as mercenary street-fighters for the island's politicians, the posses began migrating to the United States in the early 1980's, just in time to catch and ride the crack wave as it engulfed the country.
Laurie Gunst's provocative exposé of the Jamaican politicians' role in creating this problem is also a moving and compelling tale of suffering and exploitation. Leone Ross' substantial afterword examines further the issues raised by the book from a British and Jamaican perspective
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nothing encapsulates the sad story of 20th-century Jamaica better than the name the island's poor give themselves--``sufferers.'' Their suffering is the result of political battles between left and right, the latter supported by the U.S. The posses--street gangs made up of very poor people brought up on American westerns, kung fu and Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies--were converted into political strong-arm groups; the warfare reached its high point in the election of 1980, with about 800 political killings. Many posse members then emigrated to the U.S., where they channeled their violence into the crack trade. Gunst, who taught at the University of the West Indies in Kingston and wrote her doctoral dissertation on Jamaica, explores the line between the underworlds of New York and Kingston and shows just how ill-fated the island has become. The title is island patois for ``born but to die.''
