Rastafari complacency
AS I surveyed the artiste fraternity backstage at Gregory Issacs tribute show, held at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Thursday, November 18, I couldn’t help thinking what a positive force Rastafari has been in channelling the minds of Jamaican youth, especially many of those who have become involved in the cultural industries, since the 1960s.
In our national quest to define who we are as individuals and as a people, inspired by the early Marcus Garvey Movement, a significant number of Jamaicans who felt alienated from the prevailing power structure have rejected Europe as their spiritual centre. Instead, they have looked to Africa, the ancestral homeland of the majority, for a better understanding of our history, folk traditions, art and other cultural forms, and adopted or adapted many of these in their daily lives.
From the late 50s, the emerging potential power of Rastafari to be a countervailing influence on the brightest, more conscious youths began to occupy the minds of the ruling and political classes. During the turbulent decade of the sixties, two parallel trends developed. Simultaneous with the many atrocities being meted out against Rastafari communities across the island, the most famous of these being the Coral Gardens massacre on Black Thursday, the day before Good Friday 1963, and the Back-o-Wall deportations of 1966, on the grassroots level, the movement took on a greater participatory role in cultural, national and geo-political issues, concerning universal peace, love and harmony, race pride and African decolonisation.
This in turn inspired the works of many musicians and artistes, some even adopting the tenets of the movement in guiding their lives. Musicians, beginning with Ras Michael, Don Drummond, Ernie Ranglin and many more; along with Mortimer Planno, the quintessential Guru, spurred a second generation, including Jacob Miller, Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, Dennis Brown, Gregory Issacs — warts and all. While the list is much longer, of course, I have singled out these dreadlocked cultural super-icons to make my point, because since their untimely passing (when any perceived threat to the status quo has been neutralised), each has been embraced, to varying degrees, by the local establishment; at least their prolific musical catalogues.
Now also, high-profile Rastafari abound in almost every sphere of our lives, including media, politics, law, academics, medicine, public/ private bureaucracy/technocracy, engineering and business, as well as the arts, making valuable contributions to our international profile, development and society, in general.
So, I am forced to reflect on the continued prejudice and discrimination experienced by Rastafarians in Jamaica today, and I ask myself, why does this state of affairs still persist in our country?
These are some of the issues that the late Professor Barry Chevannes grappled with in his research, writings and social activism. If we truly want to make his posthumous Order of Jamaica award meaningful, we should begin to legislate against these irrational, outdated public policies. Two examples suffice. Firstly, Rastafari is still not recognised as an official religion in Jamaica, because this requires an act of Parliament, which has not been forthcoming. Secondly, dreadlocked children in our school system are required to wear tams, and their tams can’t be knitted with red, green and gold — the colours of their religion.
If the entire Rastafari community in Jamaica had been united over the years, many of these barriers would have already been smashed, however to quote an elder, speaking at a recent Rastafari Millennium Council press conference, “Fifty years of experience has taught us that disunity has stymied our progress significantly.” He adds succinctly, “Comfort made Rasta complacent.”
In closing, I wish to express my condolences to Paulette and the kids, while being grateful, and paying respect to Professor Barry Chevannes, who was one of my mentors for most of my adult life. Through the years, he kept me on the straight and narrow, shared his research, insight, and frequently gave me feedback on these columns.
During the last fortnight we also lost Jamaica’s pioneer female record producer, Sonia Pottinger, who was honoured by JARIA in 2009, and Keith ‘Yellow Bird’ Stewart, of ‘Enid & Keith’ fame. May their works live on in perpetuity.
Email:che.campbell@gmail.com