Meaning
Untidy, disorderly, messy, or done in a careless, haphazard way. It describes anything in disarray — a cluttered, upside-down room, sloppy and slipshod work, or a chaotic, badly run situation. The doubled, rattling sound of 'chaka-chaka' itself suggests things thrown together anyhow, and the word is a common, expressive put-down for a lack of order and neatness, whether of a place, a piece of work, or the messy handling of an affair.
Examples
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Di room chaka-chaka, tidy it up.
The room is a mess, tidy it up.
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Him do di work chaka-chaka.
He did the work carelessly and sloppily.
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Everyting chaka-chaka since di boss lef.
Everything's been in disarray since the boss left.
Origin
A reduplicated word — repeating 'chaka' for emphasis — a word-building pattern common in Jamaican and in the West African languages that shaped it.
How it’s used
The doubling is part of the word; you don't say 'chaka' on its own. Always negative, describing mess or disorder.
Gloss adapted from A Learner's Glossary of Jamaican, Open Grammar Project, licensed under CC BY 4.0. View the source work · CC BY 4.0