Rhyging | |
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Born | Ivanhoe Martin 1924 Jamaica |
Died | September 9, 1948 Lime Cay, Jamaica |
Charge(s) | Robbery |
Ivanhoe "Rhyging" Martin was a Jamaican outlaw and folk hero who died at age 24 of gunshot wounds sustained during a shootout with police officers on September 9, 1948, in Lime Cay, Jamaica. Rhyging is regarded as the initial rudeboy.
Often alluded to historically as the "Jamaican Dillinger", Martin managed to escape from prison, elude a massive dragnet, and live a life of crime for years with the help of the Jamaican public before his last stand at Lime Cay.
The term rhyging is a Jamaican patois word meaning wild, hot, or bad. Martin was nicknamed this by the locals due to his flamboyant criminal activities.
Rhyging's acts made him a folk hero for the poverty-stricken residents of the Jamaican ghettos of the 1940s. Ska musician Jimmy Cliff referred to him as a sort of Jamaican Robin Hood, who was "very much on the side of the people".
Rhyging continues to play a role in Jamaican culture as a duppy (bogeyman) used to scare children.