Meaning
Suffering, hardship, and oppression — above all the long, grinding struggle of the poor and downtrodden to survive against want and injustice. A 'sufferer' is one who lives that struggle, and 'sufferation' names the whole weight of it: poverty, oppression, and the daily fight to get by in the ghetto and the hard places. One of the great themes of roots reggae, sung with sorrow and defiance, the word gathers up the burden borne by the little people and the cry against the system that keeps them down.
Examples
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Di ghetto youth live inna sufferation.
The ghetto youth live in hardship.
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Di song chant bout di people sufferation.
The song sings about the people's suffering.
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Nuff sufferation inna di land.
There is much hardship in the land.
Origin
Built from 'suffer' with the ending '-ation', a reggae and Rastafari word for collective, ongoing suffering and oppression.
How it’s used
Weightier than everyday 'suffering' — it names the systemic hardship of the poor. A 'sufferer' is the person enduring it, a common figure in reggae.