1979 was de year I got locked up

Jun 24, 2026 Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists

Dem Boys Seh…

(Kaieteur News) – Dem boys seh some lines does stick in yuh head like old chewing gum under a school desk. Yuh can’t get rid of dem. Every now and then one does pop up from nowhere and start marching through yuh brain like a brass band.

One such line is: “1979 was de year I got locked up.”

Now dem boys seh every time dem hear dem words, dem mind start wandering all over de place. Is not that dem boys get lock up in 1979. Dem boys wasn’t even old enough to get lock up. Some of dem couldn’t even lock a bicycle properly.

But de phrase got a certain rhythm to it.

“1979 was de year I got locked up.”

Nowadays if yuh hear somebody seh dat, yuh does immediately ask, “For what? Facebook post? WhatsApp message?”

Dem boys seh in Guyana people getting lock up for all kinds of things nowadays. One man get lock up by he wife because he come home two hours late. Another get lock up by he bank account because he can’t remember he password. A third get lock up by bureaucracy and still waiting on a document he apply for since Burnham time.

One old man tell dem boys that he got lock up in he own house. Every time he try to leave, he wife hand he another chore. By de time he finish painting, fixing, sweeping and shopping, de sun done set.

“1979 was de year I got locked up,” he seh.

“What happen?”

“I get married.”

Dem boys nearly fall off de chair.

Another fella seh he get lock up every month when de bills arrive. Electricity lock he up. Water lock he up. Internet lock he up. Mortgage put de handcuffs on tight.

Dem boys seh de funny thing is that some people spend years trying not to get locked up and then voluntarily join committees, boards and political parties where meetings last four hours and decisions take four years.

That is a different kind of imprisonment.

So, whenever dem boys hear de famous line, “1979 was de year I got locked up,” dem does smile.

Because in Guyana, plenty people walking around free. But somehow still locked up.

Talk half. Leff half.

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