Barbados
Jamaica
Montserrat
Trinidad & Tobago
noun
A white plantation owner.
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Belize
Jamaica
noun
Any white person, particularly one in a position of power or authority.
also known as
backra beke, buckra, payul
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Suriname
noun
A white person from the Netherlands
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10 comments
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Lucé Sainte-Luce
8 years ago

Does anyone know the etymology, where it comes from? Backra and bekes (thaht we use in Guadalupe) are very close to, are they related?

Jamaica
Jamaica
Paula
8 years ago

Both Cassidy (Dictionary of Jamaican English) and Allsop (Dictionary of Caribbean English) say it's a form of the word for "white man" among the Efik people. The word is used throughout the English speaking Caribbean and among the Gullah/Geechee people of South Carolina. In modern Caribbean usage it refers to any person in authority; usually one's employer.

Suriname
Suriname
Margie
7 years ago

Bakra in Surnamese is white person from the Netherlands.

Guyana
Guyana
Denise
5 years ago

Bakra means white people. She fader dem a Bakra.

Belize
Belize
5 years ago

yes we say bakra in belize. it is also considered offensive to be called a backra. it's like saying your spoiled and white. mon yu de wan backra!

Jamaica
Jamaica
Bobby
3 years ago

Bakra wuk neva done.

Suriname
Suriname
2 years ago

Bakra means white people. Suriname was a colony of the English first, before the English and Dutch signed a treaty and it was switched with the Dutch for Guyana. According to my grandma the word was already in existence, but Surinames call most white from the Netherlands bakra, they are the lnes who mostly came to the country.

Jamaica
Jamaica
Tony T
2 years ago

Bakra actually mean (Back Raw) from when slave masters use to whip slaves over their back until the skin on their back were torn, so their skin became raw. thus came the name Bakra (Back Raw). So hence the name "Bakra Man" - Raw Back Man was the man doing the whipping. I was taught that by a wise old man about 60 years ago, I'm 68 now.

Suriname
Suriname
Joyce
2 years ago

In surinam bakra just stand for white person wich started during time of colonisation of surinam then referring to the white slave owners but then became a word for the white people in general..

Trinidad & Tobago
Trinidad & Tobago
Akra
9 months ago

I remember hearing that it meant..if you're poor,you sat in the back row, thus backra