Meaning
Pigeon peas — a small, round legume borne on a bush, especially associated with Christmas in Jamaica, when the fresh green gungo comes into season and is cooked into gungo rice and peas or a hearty gungo peas soup. Dried, it is stored and used year-round much like red peas. Its coming ties gungo to the festive end of the year, and a pot of gungo rice and peas is part of the Christmas table, so the little pea carries a whole seasonal, celebratory feeling.
Examples
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Christmas time wi cook rice an gungo peas.
At Christmas we cook rice and gungo peas.
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Fresh gungo peas soup sweet dis time a year.
Fresh gungo peas soup is delicious this time of year.
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Shell di gungo peas fi di pot.
Shell the pigeon peas for the pot.
Origin
'Gungo' comes from an African (Kongo) word for the pigeon pea; the crop is closely tied to the Jamaican Christmas season.
How it’s used
Note 'peas' = beans/legumes in Patois. Especially a Christmas food when fresh.