LET'S PUT SOME QUANTIFIABLE OBJECTIVES BEHIND FUTURE REGGAE MONTH OBSERVANCES

As we wind down the clock on Reggae Month 2022, I am reminded that it was in 1951, that the beginnings of the Jamaican Recording Industry peeped out of the proverbial “gate” when Ken Khouri and Stanley Motta recorded and released the first 78 RPM discs. Stanley Motta had recorded Rupert Linley Lyon a.k.a Lord Fly while Khouri recorded Byfield Norman Thomas a.k.a Lord Flea. Not only did this kick-start the recording industry, but it also birthed the biggest grass-roots industry that the country has seen even to this day. This was the birth of Jamaican music, and the resultant gifting to the world by the island of some eight genres of music comprising Dukonoo, Mento, Nyabinghi, Ska, Rock Steady, Reggae, Dee-Jay, and Dancehall. Today, celebrants of Jamaican music loosely apply the term Reggae as a descriptor for all music that comes out of Jamaica, granted that such description is heavily weighted against the Reggae and Dancehall genres.

It has been more than 70 years since the discs from Lords Flea and Fly respectively rolled off the press, and in the course of that time Jamaica’s music has been carried to cities and states around the globe multiple times by various yard-born practitioners from the bowels of Kingston inner-city communities largely on the wings of sheer talent, and the support and belief of an enterprising few with the capital to spare and the guts to match. Any assessment of the history of the development of Jamaican music will show a general disregard for the music by both holders of private capital on the island and government planners who have always maintained a ‘hands-off’ approach.  The result has been one in which the music industry in Jamaica has remained largely, a ‘cottage industry’ in both design and operation where participants look out for themselves only, consistent with the “eat-a-food” mentality that looms large in every sphere of Jamaican life.

In 2008, the Government of Jamaica officially declared February as Reggae Month. The proclamation was supported by a series of events and concerts, mostly in and around Kingston. Ostensibly, the Reggae Month celebrations are organized by the Jamaica Recording Industry Organization (JaRIA), the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport. This recognition assigned to Reggae came seven years prior to the UNESCO pronouncement naming Kingston as a Cultural City underlined by its acknowledgement of the capital’s contribution of six of the island’s eight genres of music gifted to the world. Three years later the same UNESCO granted Cultural Protected Status of Reggae Music.

Today as we enter the last week of the12^th annual observance of Reggae Month,
 it is in my opinion a good time to assess the accomplishments of the stakeholders not only over those 12 years, but also the extent to which Jamaica and Jamaicans not only value its music, but also the level of value that the industry contributes to the economy. One question that burns into such a discussion is the extent to which Jamaica has capitalized on the global acknowledgement of Kingston as a Cultural city? A second question would go to the degree to which we have made economic use of the classification of Reggae Music as a protected cultural artifact?
At present there is little or no agreement as to the economic value of the Jamaican music industry. This view is supported by Entertainment attorney Lloyd Stanbury who acknowledges in his book Reggae Roadblocks that accurate data on the economic performance of reggae inside Jamaica and internationally has been very difficult to come by.  Any meaningful measure of medium to long term economic contribution must be based on this value. The best estimates that we have are based on a World Intellectual Property Organization 2007 report which indicated that copyright-based industries generated about Ja.$29 billion in producers' value to the Jamaican economy, or 4.8 per cent of GDP. There is an urgent need for accurate measurement if we are going to be able to attract meaningful financial resources into the industry.  

There is also the issue of the degree to which Jamaicans are confident enough of their culture to not only want to identify with and celebrate this musical heritage but to also invest their capital in it. This may sound strange given the reaction that those of us who live outside the island or who travel internationally receive when the question of Nationality is raised. Everyone everywhere else wants to be Jamaican or wants to visit Jamaica, the island of “cool’ and Reggae music. Jamaican Ethnomusicologist, Dr. Dennis Howard speaking on a TVJ program as well as on yaawdmedia.com's Sunday Scoops refers to this as "a lack of cultural confidence." According to Dr. Howard, "it is by overcoming the post-colonial trauma that will allow us to see in ourselves the power that we have and the value that we can and have created." This is a major step that we have to take as a nation.

I believe that the JaRIA and other stakeholders in the industry need to use its proximity with the Culture Ministry to have music taught in schools starting at the Primary through to grade nine in our secondary school system. This would help to address the cultural confidence issues as well as assist young Jamaican students who wish to obtain a better understanding of how the industry works. From there, those with the desire to pursue a career in music would then continue through to grade 11, with an introduction to the business of music. This is the challenge that I am issuing to the JaRIA and the Ministry of Culture in celebrating Reggae Month. Let us set some quantifiable objectives. There is work to be done.

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WITH LADY SAW'S PLANNED RETURN, WILL DANCEHALL BE NICE AGAIN?

 

“Dancehall a goh Nice again….” screamed the commentaries on social media to news that Minister Marion Hall aka ‘Lady Saw’ or ‘Mumma Saw’ had decided to abandon her social media preaching platforms for the quipped dancehall stage. “To all Christians and non-Christians who’s been coming up against my ministry. Congratulations on your mission to bring me down. You’ve successfully done so. I’ve now decided to step away from my calling in order to fulfill your desires. I will no longer be preaching or keeping the church on any social media platform. May God forgive me,” she said in a post on Facebook on her Minister Marion Hall verified account. Any immediate speculation generated from the initial post that she was merely announcing her end to pulpit sessions that she hosted weekly rather than returning to dancehall, were clarified by a second status update that Lady Saw is walking away from her Christian life, and the short-lived Minister Marion Hall has been put away until further notice.

Marion Hall was born in Galina, St. Mary, Jamaica on July 12, 1969, and attended the Galina Primary School in the parish. At the end of her school years, she held a sewing job at the Kingston Free Zone while dabbling in the DJ business from as early as age 15, with the Stereo One sound system in Kingston. She was particularly impressed by the DJ stylings of an upcoming “Tenor Saw” and in 1987 christened herself “Lady Saw,” and would soon attract the attention of local record producers. Her early compositions "Love Me or Lef Me," "If Him Lef" and Jamaican chart-topper “Find a Good Man," led to her first album in 1994 entitled “Lover Girl,” which featured the raunchy hit single “Stab Up Di Meat.”

The success generated by her first album led to the release of a second album, the sexually explicit “Give Me the Reason.” It was this album which cemented Lady Saw as the most sexually explicit female deejay in Jamaica’s Dancehall, a moniker which she bared on records, dub plates and on dancehall stages across the island and in the international space. Her June 1997 album “Passion” went to #8 on the Billboard charts, spawning the singles “Healing” and “Under the Sycamore Tree.” Her Billboard success was followed by the 1998 release of “99 Ways” which charted at #18. This was followed in1999 by her major US hit “Smile,” a collaboration with Vitamin C, which peaked at number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts which was also a major hit in New Zealand and Canada, which was certified gold with over 500,000 sales.

Saw’s 2002, collaboration with No Doubt “Underneath It All” reached number three in the US and sold more than three million copies, reaching triple platinum certification and snagged a Grammy Award for 'Best Performance by a Duo or Group' The cut demonstrated that Lady Saw was a major contender on both the local as well as on the international stage. By 2014, she had released 7 studio albums, largely punctuated by her brand steamy sexual content. To her audience her stage lewdness was as riveting as it was entertaining and in 2015, after a raunchy performance to close that Year’s Sumfest’s Dancehall Night, the 47-year-old Dancehall veteran DJ Lady Saw walked away from the genre claiming to have embraced religion.

Six years later, Saw is re-sharpening her blades for a re-assault on the genre, preceded by what must be seen as a coordinated social media campaign replete with challenges and verbal swipes aimed at current Dancehall personalities Spice, Shenseea, and Jada Kingdom, and with other female veterans like Macka Diamond, and Lady Ann joining into the fray. The reality is that the music business is just that; it is a business where investors who place their monies expect a return on investment. In that context, Lady Saw was once a brand that despite her leaning at the time, commanded a significant following and if she feels that she still has something to offer, it is up to her, her handlers, and her fans to decide her fate. I believe that an artiste with the time and credentials to her name does not need to be publicly suggesting collaborations with names that are yet to be in her league. It is for those artistes to be seeking collaborations with her and not the other way around. Saw just simply need to build a couple of riddim tracks and overlay them with lyrics based on her experience and let that do the talking. It does not have to be a return to the loose or decadent lyrics of the current crop of artistes.

Jamaican Dancehall is today racked by three scourges. The first is the gun and death lyrics that has been with us for decades and currently being partially blamed as one of the causes of our current crime wave. The second is the slackness that has been a part of the genre for decades and of which Mumma Saw was its Empress but no less lascivious than the men in Dancehall. The third question is the hypocrisy that most of us can easily identify-women are judged by a very different standard than men.

Another question that is worth waiting to be answered is whether Lady Say at 53 can go toe-to toe with 19-30 plus year-olds who now populate the dancehall space? The fact is that Jamaicans love the hype, and in the current social media dominated environment, getting a “forward” or accumulating a few million likes on these platforms is the path to stardom, even if it is only for a few weeks or months. That and the fact that Covid 19 has eviscerated the live entertainment industry (the church included) as money has been tight.

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DANCEHALL-THE STONE THAT JAMAICAN BUILDERS STILL REFUSES

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Dancehall in Jamaica is an industry with a value that requires accounting and analysis. A largely cottage industry, Dancehall has long overflowed those banks and has spread to the continents of Africa, Asia, North and South America, as well as in parts of Europe.

In 2020, Jamaica's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was listed at just under US$16 billion. Even if Dancehall's value is estimated as one percent of GDP, this could be worth well in excess of US$100 million, considerably more than the US$20-$25 million suggested by culture minister Babsy Grange in 2017 that all the island's cultural events contribute. What is a fact though is that any such benefit is being sucked into the chasm that comprises the gaping underground economy.

Dancehall's problem is further compounded by the country's sectarian approach to owning its history and recognizing those at the lower rung who are involved in its development. It was born in the bowels of the country's inner-city communities and as a consequence, it has always been met with resistance at every level. Like its big brother Reggae music, Dancehall has been met with the Government's promulgation of night-noise legislation, supported by overzealous policing, to curtail its activities and its growth. We need to acknowledge that the cultural and creative industries of the people of Jamaica have contributed immensely to Jamaica's global image and brand Jamaica, and that contribution needs to be recognized, respected, and appreciated. It is equally important that we remove the stigma attached to Dancehall, including the view that sees the genre and its culture historically as non-professional, non-commercial folklore of the lower socio-economic segments of our society.

In many of our inner-city communities, Dancehall is the backbone and fabric of the resident's survival. Within these communities, dancehall is an industry that extends way beyond the DJ on a recording. The Dancehall industry employs hairdressers, barbers, tailors, dance-hall fashion designers, dancers, caterers, promoters, etc. The industry, while embracing huge tracts of untrained talent, makes the largest use of the talent pool developed through the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts, and provides the best representation of Jamaicans with a penchant towards self-employment. It is for this reason that every dollar spent at a dance in a community recirculates within that community for at least a month, touching more people that do traditional employment. Not appreciating these factors means not appreciating the economic value beyond the entertainment value, particularly, their economic value and contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) which has been woefully undervalued, resulting in the sector not being seen as a major contributor to the national economy.

Whether we want to accept it or not, Dancehall has become one of Jamaica's biggest exports except for Tourism, reaching more continents than any manufactured product or service. From Japan to South America, from Central to North America, Africa, and sections of Europe, Jamaican Dancehall is a steadily growing export that no policymaker in Jamaica is prepared to embrace.

Nevertheless, like the phoenix, still, Dancehall rises.

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PRIORITIZING JAMAICAN MUSIC BEYOND EMPTY TALK

                             Richard Hugh Blackford's original painting "The Mento Quintet"
 

Jamaica’s Reggae Music enjoys “Protected Status” and the City of Kingston, has been deemed a Creative City, two titles earned by our music, the sojourn into which began inauspiciously enough in July of 1947 when Jamaicans were encouraged to record their voices or instruments at 76 West Street in Kingston, for a small fee. In August of the same year the public was invited to a special Gala at Kingston’s Glass Bucket Club to record their songs backed by the club's resident Orchestra. The event identified one Byfield Norman Thomas also known as Lord Flea with his Mento rhythms.

The success of the abovementioned event led to the Gleaner newspaper leading a campaign for the commercial development of recording on the island. Spurred by this interest, in 1951 Jamaican businessmen (mainly of Middle Eastern descent) took up the challenge and invested their monies in setting up recording operations. Two of the early pioneers were Ken Khouri and Stanley Motta who recorded and released the first 78 RPM discs circa 1951. Motta had recorded Rupert Linley Lyon also known as Lord Fly while Khouri recorded Byfield Norman Thomas (Lord Flea).
 
In the same 1950s period, journalist Vere Everette Johns would enter the picture with his Vere Johns Opportunity Knocks concerts at the Ambassador theatre in the Trench Town area of Kingston. The concerts identified singing talent among the throng of Kingston youths and provided a growing pool of talent for record producers hungry for material to satisfy the shifting taste for the developing sound system movement mushrooming across the island.

Taken together, it is inarguable that from both developments was birthed the Jamaican music industry. It had very little structure (if any at all) and in principle, its major players would have been the little man with his god-given singing or otherwise musical talent, and it would remain largely the same even to this very day. That notwithstanding, this setup would result in Jamaica gifting eight genres of music to the world between 1950 and 2000. These genres are: Mento, Nyabinghi, Ska, Rock Steady, Reggae, Dub, DJ, and Dancehall. Of the eight genres, it is important to know that the City of Kingston was responsible for the creation of at least six of those genres.

By the mid to late-1960s, Britain became the overseas gateway for the Jamaican music product. Fueled by this accessibility, Jamaican music culture has underpinned the success of Jamaican cultural exports to the point where today, our music has been embraced by almost every country in the world.  Jamaica is among a small group of countries that has successfully exported its culture around the globe.  Reggae Music is known, played and performed in most countries and its companion Rastafarian culture has grown in lock step with its popularity. Dancehall music and culture is equally big in the Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas and provides a magnetic pull-effect in many tourist markets.

In December of 2015, the United Nations Education and Scientific Council (UNESCO) designated the city of Kingston, Jamaica a “Music City” in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. At its core, music and other cultural activities are the primary social and economic activity drivers of the city with the largest inventory of recording studios in the world, it is little wonder that the island reports as producing the highest volume of recorded music in the world per capita.   Yet, despite this designation, the country does not have a designated space where the music can be freely and publicly performed. This issue became the source of a contentious exchange between Roots Reggae singer Chronixx and then Minister of Culture Lisa Hanna in 2014 as the singer flayed the government for being long on talk but completely empty on action when it came to supporting the (Reggae) music.

No one can realistically argue against the fact that no other aspect of Jamaica's culture has contributed more to the country in economic and social terms than its music. One would have thought that the UNESCO declaration in November 2018 that “Reggae, the Jamaican music that spread across the world with its calls for social justice, peace and love, to be a global treasure that must be safeguarded,” would have spurred some urgency within the country’s political and economic management realms, to concrete action. According to the UNESCO statement, “Reggae’s contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual.”

All of this is quite “heady” stuff. Announcements of Protected Status and Creative City status are the kind of stories that provides both great headlines and photo opportunities, but when it is not followed by action, it is meaningless and gives value to Chronixx’s and the arguments of other critics. I believe that much of this inaction comes from the historically held inherent bias from well-to-do Jamaicans and those who control the purse strings of capital to Jamaican music.  Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the South Korean government’s treatment of its own K-Pop industry. Here the government treats the music in the same way the Americans treat its automobile and banking industries, providing them with protected status. This includes building massive multi-million-dollar concert auditoriums, refining hologram technology, regulating karaoke bars and protecting the interests of the genre’s stars.

It is disappointing that after 70 years, the same biases still exists and while we in Jamaica are dithering, others in far off lands are enriching themselves off Jamaican music.

THE GUNMAN SHIFT…A SOH DI TING SET

 

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to engage with former Third World Band member and current lecturer at the Edna Manley School for the Visual and Performing Arts, Mr. Ibo Cooper on my Sunday Scoops streamed program on yaawdmedia.com. In the course of our discussion Ibo made reference to a tune called “Gunman Shift” which he indicated was the rave within the current Dancehall circuit. The lyrics for the tune was penned by new dancehall sensation “Skeng” and apart from providing him with the proverbial “buss-out,” has been dominating the YouTube charts with more than 8 million streams since it was released on August 23, 2021. Gunman Shift has worked its way into the hearts of many, including some who claim to abhor violence reciting the haunting and violent lyrics.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WESTERNS
The criminal use of guns in Jamaica, dates back to 1940s gunman Vincent Martin aka “Rhyging” on whom the 1972 Perry Henzell written and directed film “The Harder They Come” was loosely based. It can easily be argued that the proliferation of Western movies including “Gunfight at the OK Corral” an extremely violent flick by the standards at the time which I saw at the Rialto in Kingston where the crammed-in patrons reveled in the violence and braggadocio of the Claytons as much as they regaled the bravado of the two leading men. Months later, Franco Nero graced the Rialto screen in Sergio Corbucci’s Django, and the patrons went wild in response to the cavalier gunplay. The film would open the floodgates for other western flicks which seared Clint Eastwood into the imaginations of many Jamaicans, including the writers and directors of Jamaica’s epic film “The Harder They Come,’ including a snippet of the Django film in its reels.

The significance of these westerns though, was that it served to elevate the value of having a firearm and to glamorize the raw power that a gun holder wielded. One could make the argument that Jamaicans love affair with guns were developed through the images shown on screen. The Harder They Come’s lead character Rhygin (played by Jimmy Cliff) gave more than a glimpse in those early days, of a larger-than-life criminal who saw himself as a revolutionary. That his character was cut down in a hail of bullets failed to transmit any fear of death to real life wannabe bad men.

DRUG TRAFFICKING
It was around this time that Jamaica begun to change as political ideologies presaged the division of communities supplemented with the raising up of political garrisons. Combinations of adversarial ideological politics, serious economic stagnation, and ganja smuggling created the conditions which mass-produced the ubiquitous gunman. Initially they bore the label of “political gunman” but in time they separated from politics to pay more attention to smuggling weed and later cocaine. As the trafficking expanded so too did the influx of guns into the island, a necessity for the protection of turf.
It did not help that since that time meaningful investment in many of these communities disappeared. Itinerant hustlers, including the vending of drugs birthed the “Area Don” who quickly usurped the traditional community leader. The Don had power and a kind of suborned prestige, and in time, most youth not only aspired to be a Don, but even more so, a significant number of these youths in these inner-city communities romanticized about being able to get their hands on a gun.
Guns protect turf-whether it is protection for drugs or the now ramped up scamming trade. The unattached youths are engaged and armed to run the ‘gunman shift” and provide protection- the message of “Gunman Shift”

In 1997, the Jamaican film “Dancehall Queen” was released in Jamaica to popular public acclaim. Apart from fielding a cast of well-known Jamaican faces, the film capitalized on predominantly local themes of social and economic struggles that flayed the average Jamaican, their desire for social and economic advancement and the dream of making it big through Reggae/Dancehall music. It exposed as well, the underbelly of Jamaica, racked by drug distribution and gun running and it placed the spotlight on our biggest deterrent to curbing criminal activity on the island, the anti-informer culture. This was borne out by lead actor Paul Campbell’s chilling line “Walk and live, talk and b****-claawt dead.”
Unfortunately, the Jimmy Cliffs and Paul Campbell’s of my time have long been replaced by more forceful screen characters, all of whom have migrated from the screen and into the communities and are certainly more powerfully armed.

"GUNMAN SHIFT" IS A SPOTLIGHT
As raw as Gunman Shift is, it is nonetheless a spotlight...a recitation of the unmitigated violence that is omnipresent in most inner-city communities every single day. It is a statement of acceptance by not just DJ Skeng who compiled the lyrics, but most youth who resides in that environment, that “a soh di ting set.” Skeng is doing what artistes within similarly affected communities forty and fifty years earlier, have always done. They write and sing about those experiences and in the same way that we may not pray or wish away the violence, Skeng’s lyrics tacitly accepts the state of affairs no less than the average Jamaican has accepted that “murder is a everyday ting.”

I say this against the background of political handwringing and finger-pointing that continues at home while the body count continues to rise. Last month, an average of four Jamaicans lost their lives to the unrelenting violence and over the 11-month period, January to November, a total of 1,285 Jamaicans has been murdered.  It is no comfort that the police have predicted that by year end, they estimate that approximately 1,400 Jamaicans will die violently; a continuation of the reckless abandon that drives murder and the extent to which its omnipresence have made us so numb that we have accommodated the scourge of murder as a part of our daily regimen. It is the Gunman Shift ting… a soh di ting set.


Thanks for taking the time to read our blog, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we appreciate your feedback. We also invite you to check Sunday Scoops our Jamaican music streaming and commentary program every Sunday from 2-4pm on yaawdmedia.com feel free to share with your friends.

IT IS WAY PAST TIME FOR ROBERT NESTA MARLEY -NATIONAL HERO

 There has been a growing call form sections of the Jamaican population for the naming of the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley), O.M, and the Honorable Louise Bennett-Coverly (Miss Lou), OM, as the country’s latest National Heroes. This call has been echoed and re-echoed over the last three decades and has crossed the desks of the responsible individuals across political administrations. To lay the blame at the feet of one or the other political administration would be a useless exercise as both sides have had multiple opportunities to field this issue. It is interesting that consistent with the political inaction, is the public sentiment expressed by the handful of individuals across the political divide. I would therefore like to, through the use this column, wade into this issue.

It is generally accepted that a hero is a person who is admired and acknowledged for their courage, outstanding achievements, and noble qualities. By extension, a National Hero is someone who, beyond that, has made significant positive contributions to the growth and development of society, and someone who represents the vast majority of all of us. In the circumstances, I am prepared to state that both Bob Marley and Miss Lou already fits that bill. It is my view also, that there are some highly placed Jamaicans with significant influence who are opposed to the elevation of Marley to this status and as a result, drippings of the paint from that brush, washes across any consideration for Miss Lou.

The Honorable Robert Nesta Marley, OM, is proclaimed and accepted worldwide as the “King of Reggae” having charted his own course in the music industry with passion and creativity as a song writer, singer, and performer. Marley successfully transcended three Jamaican musical genres from the 1960’s through to the early 1980’s – Ska, Rock Steady and Reggae – his most influential musical form. And, after almost four decades since his death, his music is still relevant to millions of people across the globe. The consequence of this is that no matter where you travel in the world, people will undoubtedly know of Bob Marley. His legacy is loved and respected by many, and his music is practically a religion on its own. It is intriguing that while many are familiar with his music, they may not know who he was and what his impact was on Jamaican culture. Yet we in Jamaica who are aware of his impact on the island’s culture, are unwilling to give him his due.

Author Timothy White in his book “Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley” hailed him as the “most charismatic emissary of modern Pan-Africanism and regards Marley as one of the greatest musical legends of our time. For my part, having seen Marley perform live on two occasions, the first being Sunday, December 5, 1976, at the Smile Jamaica Concert at National Heroes Park, and the second being the One Love, Peace Concert on Saturday, April 22, 1978, I can attest to the magic of his performances as his passion overflowed the stage and into the consciousness of his audience.  At 33 years of age, the philosophy that guided his existence was omnipresent in his music; a philosophy which primarily emphasized peace, love, equality, and his spirituality. His commitment to his Rastafarian faith and his views on social issues were the cornerstone of his music. It was this passion which to this day, has served to influence the acceptance of Reggae music by people worldwide, particularly in Europe, North America, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Reggae music originated in the bowels of Kingston’s inner-city communities in the second half of the 1960s, just a few years after Marley had moved from Nine Miles in St. Ann to Trench Town in Kingston. The music was largely scorned and rejected by mainstream Jamaica and made up less than 5 percent of the play-list on the island’s local radio station. A decade later, Marley had three albums in rotation and several entries from each had slipped into both the RJR and JBC record charts. Over the next five years, Robert Nesta Marley would be principally responsible for Reggae’s acceptance as a major music-form not only in Jamaica but across the entire world. This fact was underscored by the 2019 declaration by the United Nations that Reggae, the Jamaican music that spread across the world with its calls for social justice, peace, and love, be declared a global treasure that must be safeguarded. According to the citation published by the Paris based UNESCO, “Its contribution to international discourse on issues of injustice, resistance, love and humanity underscores the dynamics of the element as being at once cerebral, socio-political, sensual and spiritual.”  

Jamaica’s Reggae music and Rastafarianism together combine as integral components of the island’s cultural exports and are together responsible for pulling hundreds of thousands of tourists the world over into the island. Admittedly, the unmistakable and most recognizable face of that export is Robert Nesta Marley. In this regard, Marley’s contribution to music and to Reggae has been internationally and locally recognized with his song, ‘One Love’, voted the best song of the 20th century, while the album ‘Exodus’ which was released in 1977 and which stayed on the UK’s music chart for 56 consecutive weeks, was voted the greatest album of the Century by the US based, Time Magazine. Both accomplishments must rank among the most the most outstanding achievement any artiste could possibly desire.

Marley, despite living in Jamaica in a period marked by harsh violence-driven political divisions, did his best to remain ‘A-political’ a decision for which he almost paid with his life. He suffered gunshot injuries in an attack at his home at 56 Hope Road, in Kingston on December3, 1976, a warning against a decision that he had made to perform at a concert dubbed “Smile Jamaica” and slated for December 5, 1976. The attack had the effect of elevating Marley in the eyes of a majority of ‘salt-of-the-earth Jamaicans’ as bigger than the island’s divisive politics and as a local hero who had triumphed above the adverse intent of his attackers.

Having been born a mulatto in 20^th century Jamaica, Marley suffered considerable derision over his complexion. As he put it at the time, “My father was white and my mother black, you know. Them call me half-caste, or whatever. Well, me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white, who give me this talent.”
One could say that his own life experiences led him to championing the fight against oppression and inequality and to support the cause of the underprivileged. It was no surprise that he was invited to play on the April 17, 1980, Zimbabwe Independence festivities, a concert for which he personal paid all the costs of attending. Marley, in playing the Zimbabwe concert gave Jamaica its loudest voice and a permanent and prominent face in the culminating struggle against oppression and racial discrimination in this Southern African State.

In 1981, Marley was awarded Jamaica’s third highest honor, the Order of Merit, for his outstanding contribution to Jamaican culture. Forty years later, his contribution to the country has multiplied exponentially.  Across the world, Marley is celebrated as a Prophet, while Jamaicans revere his work but criticize his Rastafarian lifestyle, replete with his ganja smoking and the multiple women with whom he had sired children. Ironically, ganja today has been legalized (as it should always have been), and in respect of his womanizing, none of his children (his seeds) have been allowed to sit on a sidewalk and beg bread. I say this to say that none of us as Jamaicans are without sin and in that regard, Robert Nesta Marley is one of us, warts, and all. No other Jamaican comes remotely close in terms of their local or global reach and impact. Of the seven current National Heroes, except for Marcus Mosiah Garvey, none has the current and lasting social and economic impact. Robert Nesta Marley provides the ethos of the Jamaican “can-do” spirit. He exemplifies the realizable potential of every single Jamaican who is willing to put in the necessary work.

To the powers that be, I say that the time has come to make the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley the country’s eighth National Hero.


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THE REPUBLIC OF BARBADOS AND A CASE FOR MORE JAMAICAN HEROES

 

On Monday, November 29, 2021, the island of Barbados celebrated its 55^th year as an Independent country by executing two decisions that will not only usher significant change in the political, social, and cultural front on the island but also provide a marker for the other territories that comprise the Caribbean archipelago. On that day, Barbados buried its ceremonial shackles to the British monarchy by removing the Queen as its Head of State. In disrobing from the accouterments of its 1966 Independence from England, Barbados commemorated its new status as a parliamentary Republic.   

The move from a constitutional monarchy to a parliamentary republic fulfilled a promise made by then Governor General Sandra Mason that it was time for Barbados “to fully leave  its colonial past behind and make a Barbadian person Head of State.”

Fittingly, the island’s first President is the said Sandra Mason, and Mia Mottley remains as the Head of the Barbados Government. Mason in her first presidential address to the nation stated, “Since Independence we have built an international reputation anchored on our characteristics, our national values, our stability, and our success, drawing on the lessons of those intervening years, possessing a clear sense of who we are and what we are capable of achieving.In the year 2021, we now turn our vessel’s bow towards the new republic, and we do this so that we may seize the full substance of our sovereignty.”

As the celebrations continued, Prime Minister, Mia Mottley then named Ambassador Robyn Rihanna Fenty as the nation’s 11^th National Hero. Rihanna has for years been Barbados’s most famous citizen and in 2018, she was appointed an official ambassador for culture and youth. She has never softened her Bajan accent, and her music, while tapping into pop, R&B, and dance music, has remained connected to her Caribbean heritage. Mottley said the superstar commanded, “the imagination of the world through the pursuit of excellence with her creativity, her discipline, and above all else, her extraordinary commitment to the land of her birth”.

The 33-year-old Rihanna was born in the parish of Saint Michael and raised in the capital, Bridgetown. She vaulted to fame after the American producer Evan Rogers recognized her talents. Her 2007 single Umbrella confirmed her as one of the world’s biggest pop stars, and in 2008 the then prime minister, David Thompson, announced an annual Rihanna Day. In addition to making music, Rihanna has enjoyed a highly successful business career with her Fenty group of companies. In August Forbes estimated she was worth $1.7bn (£1.3bn), about $1.4 bn of which comes from the value of her cosmetics company, Fenty Beauty, a partnership with the French fashion giant LVMH.

The Barbados announcements have set tongues wagging across the island archipelago, particularly in Jamaica, which was generally thought of as among the most socially and culturally progressive islands in the region. Many had imagined that Jamaica would have been the first to shed the Queen’s robe long before others, having fielded discussions over decades regarding taking such a plunge. Of course, we have only succeeded in demonstrating that we are long on talk but short of anything that requires taking action. Then there is the matter of naming another National Hero, in a country that isn’t short on iconic figures.

The decision by Barbados to accord Rihanna National Hero status has prompted a revisit of a long-running debate in Jamaica about naming additional National Heroes.  Long before Rihanna was even an idea there was the Honorable Robert Nesta Marley, OM, and even before him, the Honorable Louise Bennet-Coverley (Miss Lou), OM, OJ, MBE. Both individuals have distinguished themselves significantly in their individual fields. Though long deceased, both in their lifetime have laid down solid bodies of work which (to this day) brings joy and pride to Jamaicans at home and abroad.  The ground-breaking nature of their individual contribution to Jamaica’s culture serves today as eternal beacons in marketing the island around the globe. It is for these reasons that for years, many have advocated for the naming of both of as the 8^th and 9^th National Heroes of Jamaica.

One wonders why the hesitancy on the part of Jamaica in taking this step? A National Hero doe not have to be a paragon of virtue or someone of unblemished character. What is important is the contribution that such individual(s) make to the development of society, the admiration they bring to the country’s nationals, their outstanding achievements, and the extent to which their efforts enriches the lives of those who identify with them.  

It appears that none of our leaders in the last three or four decades sees such value in either, but would rather skirt the issue while our smaller neighbors demonstrate the ultimate confidence in the small gems that fall to their shores.

Congratulations Rihanna…very well done Barbados.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below, we appreciate your feedback. We also invite you to check Sunday Scoops our Jamaican music streaming and commentary program every Sunday from 2-4pm on yaawdmedia.com feel free to share with your friends.