A major Yaadology collection
People, Legends
& Living Memory
Some names live in records. Some live in songs, warnings, paintings and stories. Here, documented history, folklore and oral tradition are held together, but never confused with one another.
01 People
02 Legends
03 Resistance
04 Hidden Histories
05 Community
Featured visual story
Three-Fingered Jack
A Jamaican story where history, resistance and legend meet. Presented as a four-part visual reading sequence from Shelly-Ann Shaw’s cultural storytelling work.
Read the Story
Available visual stories
Four stories.
Four kinds of memory.
Enter through documented history, folklore, resistance and belief. Each kind of account is identified for what it is.
Meet the beings of Jamaican folklore
Not mascots. Not monsters for display.
These profiles look at what people were taught, how stories travelled and where descriptions differ.
The archive names folklore as folklore. It does not ridicule belief, and it does not pretend every telling is the same.
PROFILE OPENRiver MummaWater, guardianship, warning and inherited belief.
PROFILE IN DEVELOPMENTRolling CalfAwaiting reviewed stories and source notes.
PROFILE IN DEVELOPMENTThree-Foot HorseAwaiting reviewed stories and source notes.
COLLECTION PATHWAYDuppy TraditionsWill hold variation by family, place and religious tradition.
Browse by pathway
Follow the Kind of Story
Each pathway will grow as authentic artwork, writing, oral histories and research are supplied.
People Who Shaped the Story
Artists, cultural workers, leaders and people whose influence travelled beyond one life.
Alexander Bedward →Folklore & Legends
Stories held through belief, imagination, warning and oral tradition.
River Mumma →Resistance & Freedom
People and acts that challenged enslavement, colonial power and injustice.
Three-Fingered Jack →From the Community
Elders, storytellers and everyday Jamaicans whose memories deserve preservation.
Oral histories forthcomingHow Yaadology tells story
History when documented.
Folklore when remembered.
Uncertainty when it remains.
Where accounts conflict, Yaadology makes room for multiple perspectives and identifies the kind of evidence being presented.