Bull Buck and Duppy Conqueror

Recently, my youngest who is in the throes of her ‘no I will not stage’ was standing with her arms folded at her chest, eyebrows knitted, looking up from under at me. Her father walked by and snickered and all I could think was, “Look at this little girl trying to scare me as if she’s some Bull Buck and Duppy Conqueror.”

Bull Buck and Duppy Conqueror, Bull Buck and Duppy Conqueror!! Very few of us in the world have the distinct pleasure or occasion of using such a fine idiom. It’s totally Jamaican and possibly one of the most colorful terminologies that I remember from my childhood. I don’t even know its origin but Bull Buck and Duppy Conqueror always conjured up images of a swash buckling obeah practitioner facing off in a head to head match up, against an untamed, fearless animal and emerging victorious.

Therefore when I had, my first instance to use the saying and use it in the context it has always traditionally been used, to describe a defiant child, I felt a bit as if I had received the gauntlet passed from a previous generation, preserved in my memory to be brandished at this particular time in this particular way and hopefully to be carried on in my child’s memory to the future. Heady stuff!! I wonder if I will ever have the privilege of using it again? Maybe not. But trying to say the entire phrase five times really fast can be great fun. Selah.