Becoming Zinky (Part 1) - The Story Behind the Name

Oct 23

Peter and his grandparents in the mid-1980s.

Left to right: Peter/Trevor (Zinky), Mas Wilmore (The Original Zinky2), and Grandma Daisy Mullings.

Nayah: Okay so how did Mas Wilmore, otherwise known as Theophilus Wilmore Mullings, how did he become Zinky?

Zinky: Yeah well the story goes that you know he was at like a general store. You know rural Jamaica, so it was like a general store that everybody shop at. They did everything there too, they would sell rum and all of this.

So I think that the men had gathered and they were all talking about - they were having their drinks.

Nayah: Mmm hmm.

Zinky: And so then Grandpa Wilmore started talking about his aspirations. Like he would say,

“You know what I’m going to build a four room house and I’m going to Zinc it too!” - Mas Wilmore (Anglicized from Patwa)

Nayah: So “zinc it” meaning, like, to put a different type of roof on?

Zinky: Yeah yeah yeah so because back then, I mean we’re talking about rural Jamaica and also olden Jamaica as well. We’re talking [19]50s. And so the houses then, they had like a thatched roof.

Nayah: Uh huh.

Zinky: So Zinc, or corrugated steel, was like the thing. I mean, you know, most people now, that was like a major aspiration to go from thatched roof, which thatch is like coconut leaves and stuff like that - to go from that, to like Zinc. So that’s what Zinc is.

…yeah, so then, the people there, because of course grandpa was so poor, so the people there were like “Please, that’s not going to happen.” So they then started making fun of him and started calling him Zinky Too.

So I took that name because I was like here’s an opportunity for me to pay homage to him, but also just show that - because he did do it.

Nayah: Yeah.

Zinky: He did do it.

Nayah: Yeah.

Zinky: So Zinky 2!

(Laughter)