Caribbean Food Made Easy from Caribbean Food Made Easy by Levi Roots

Levi’s sister’s house. From left to right, Levi’s niece, Janice; great niece, Camese; great nephew, Randy; sister Cynthia; great niece, Cherise; family friend Brandon; and his sister Marcia

Levi with family friend Gifford (‘Duece’)

Local women cooking for members of the community in Cockburn Pen, a suburb of Kingston

‘Yu tan deh call’ yu wuddah never get come!’ (‘No matter how much you shout I ain’t gonna come!’) – those words are legendary in Content. They were my words, the words of a young boy growing up in 1960s Jamaica. What I was saying, or shouting, was a defiant response to a call from my beloved grandmother. She was always calling me. What she was doing was teaching me as much as she could; but at times I saw it as chores. Family and friends always greet me with those words whenever I return to my home village of Howell’s Content, in Clarendon parish. When I call to them, they shout back yu tan deh…!’ and it is always hilarious.