O'Nika Princess Auguste

What is Jamet Theology?

Jamet Theology is a sacred rebellion. It reclaims the so-called “loose” woman the jamet as holy, powerful, and spiritually necessary. Rooted in Afro-Caribbean culture, biblical reimagining, and unapologetic embodiment, Jamet Theology honors the women who were pushed to the margins: the Jezebels, the winers, the whores, the queens, the goddesses, the rebels.

In Trinidad, Saint Lucia, and Dominica, the term jamet (or jammette) historically described a woman deemed crude, sexually unrestrained, and defying colonial notions of respectability. She sang. She cussed. She wore too little and meant too much. But what if she was never the problem, what if she was the prophet?

Jamet Theology asks:

What makes a woman sacred in a world that fears her freedom?

Can we find the divine in waistlines, feathers, sensuality, and rage?

What if God dances, too?

This section of the site is where I explore the holy lives of women like Jezebel, the Song of Songs woman, Mami Wata, and the jamets who remind us: holiness isn’t about silence. It’s about freedom.

Here, we study scripture with glitter on our faces and liberation on our tongues.
Here, the jamet is theology.

A Queer, Caribbean Feminist Theology Rooted in Women’s Resistance — from the Ancient World to the Carnival Stage 

What is a Jamet?

The term originates from the French word diamètre, which linguists understand as a reference to an imagined social boundary that distinguishes the "respectable" members of society from those considered undesirable.

The  Message

Holiness does not require:

• Silence
• Shame
• Respectability
• Or clothes.

Jamet Theology centres:

• Waistline wisdom: dance as divine
• Bodied resistance: reclaiming flesh from purity culture
• Feminist memory: from scripture, Carnival, and history

Not all sacredness is polite.
 Not all feminists are quiet.
 Sometimes, holiness looks like whining your waist to soca.

Jamets Through Time

From temple priestesses to Carnival queens, Jamets have always held power.

Enheduanna – 2300 BCE, Sumer
First known theologian. Priestess of the moon god. Wrote erotic psalms.

Jezebel – Ancient Israel
Queen, spiritual leader, defied Yahwist nationalism. Slut-shamed by the empire.

Mami Wata – Africa & the Caribbean
Divine seductress. Water spirit. Wealthy, feared, desired. Worshipped by sex workers, healers, and hustlers.

Veronica Franco – 1500s Venice.
Poet and courtesan. Accused of witchcraft for writing about sex, power, and womanhood.

The Jamet is history’s sacred bad gyal.

Where to Find the Jamet Now

Jamet Theology lives in:

• The soca song you feel in your pelvis
• The Bible verse used to shame you — and how you reclaim it
• The goddess who holds both rage and beauty
• The woman dancing through grief on Carnival Tuesday
• Your damn mouth
• The historical woman who defied gender norms

A Jamet is not a fallen woman. She’s a risen one. In glitter

Jamet Theology is a queer, Caribbean, feminist spirituality that reclaims the holiness of women who have been labelled “too much.” It centres the wisdom, resistance, and sacred sexuality of women who exist outside the lines of respectability, the hoe, the sex worker, the single mother, the wining girl, the rebel, the mystic, the women who defied norms, etc.

It is rooted in:

Caribbean feminist thought

Postcolonial theology

Embodied ritual (dance, dress, sensuality)

Caribbean history and Carnival culture

Decolonial readings of scripture, myth, and history

There is no contradiction between God and the waistline; spirit and skin, holy and hot.

2. Jamet Herstory
Definition:
Jamet Herstory is a radical retelling of women’s lives from ancient queens and biblical rebels to so-called dangerous women and goddesses. It reclaims women cast as dangerous, deviant, or disposable and tells their stories as sacred, powerful, and revolutionary.

This includes:

Warrior queens (e.g., Zenobia, Nzinga, Tomyris)

Mythical seductresses (e.g., Lilith, Mami Wata, Oshun)

Erotic mystics, witches, courtesans, outlaws, and prophets

Real women erased or vilified by the empire, history, the church, and the canon.
Jamet Herstory brings the “bad gyal” back from the shadows with glitter, rage, and receipts.

3. The Bad Gyal Scriptures aka Jamet Bible /The Waistline Bible
The Waistline Bible is a decolonial, feminist re-reading of scripture through the lens of the Jamet. It seeks the stories of “loose” women, the Gomers, Jezebels, Vashtis, and the Salomes and treats them not as cautionary tales, but as sacred case studies in survival, sensuality, and resistance.

This is Jamet Biblical Studies, an irreverent, embodied, and liberatory approach to reading the Bible. It centres:

The outcasts

The demonized

The “unrespectable” women

The unnamed or unnamed-for-a-reason women

Queer, Black, and Caribbean interpretations of scripture.

Created and Written By Princess O'Nika Auguste June 18th 2025