Mutabaruka
Master Of The Spoken Word
Photography and
Article by Diane “Livonn” Adam © 2005
Mutabaruka Embarks On His First Book
Tour To Promote First Poems/Next Poems
Mutabaruka
is
a multi-faceted and complex personality. As an
international artiste he moves in a seemingly effortless way from radio, Reggae music
recording and performing to acting in films. He
has gained recognition for his world-renowned program, The Cutting Edge.
His poetry has transcended the confines of the printed page as he has been
crowned the Prince of Dub Poetry for recording and performing his mind-expanding poetry to
a Reggae beat for all who have ears to hear his profound words. Mutabaruka’s stern and revolutionary character
can also be seen on the silver screen, most notable in the groundbreaking film Sankofa by Ethiopian director Haile Germima.
His prolific Rastafarian thoughts can also be heard as he is interviewed in
the new film, Coping With Babylon directed by Oliver Hill which will have its U.S. world premier
at the upcoming 7th Annual San Francisco Black Film Festival at the Eureka
Theater at 7pm on June 9th. Coping With Babylon also features interviews with
leaders of the Rastafarian movement, Ascento Fox, Prince Emmanuel and Barry Chevannes as they discuss the present state of the
Rastafarian movement and their feelings about the biblical city of Babylon as it relates
to the Western world. Coping With Babylon also features footage shot in
Shashamanie,
Ethiopia.
Mutabaruka
was happier and more talkative than I have ever seen him before. As we waited for the live feed from KPPO to arrive, Muta spoke to the audience and
read poetry from his new book, First Poems/Next
Poems at Marcus Bookstore in San Francisco
on April 12, 2005. First Poems/Next Poems was published by Paul Issa who also published Mutabaruka’s
original work, First Poems in 1980. It was an historic event for all those in
attendance and, for those who missed all or some of Mutabaruka’s discussion at Marcus
Bookstore due to the lateness of the KPPO feed that simulcast the latter part of the
event, you can now read it in its entirety. The
discussion took on a life of its own as Muta gave us a deep insight into his life,
thoughts and poetry.
The
entire First Poems/Next Poems book tour was
thoughtfully arranged by Daniel Frankston of IReggae.com who hosted the event at Marcus
Bookstore in San Francisco. Daniel is also the
Reggae Review webmaster among many other Reggae
artists web sites that he designs and hosts including, Mutabaruka’s at http://www.mutabaruka.com. After Mutabaruka’s book reading/talk at Marcus
Bookstore, he headed straight for Berkeley for his live reading at Ashkenaz, a sit down event that featured Muta
reading his poetry without musical interruption. The
show at Ashkenaz was also a Tribute to guitarist Fazel Pendergast who recently died in an auto
accident in Northern California.
Mutabaruka Speaks at Marcus Book
Store on April 12, 2005
Audience: What are you doing
now?
Mutabaruka: What we are doing now is reading poetry in
bookstores and different places but I’ve been touring a lot. We came here 20 odd years ago with a band touring
the United States. We started writing the
poems and putting the poems in book and this was the book that started it in 1980 (showing
the 2005 edition of his new book’s reverse side First Poems) when it came out
(An audience member produces a
copy of a 1980 edition of Mutabarka: First Poems)
Mutabaruka: This is a Mutabaruka lady! (crowd and Muta
laughing). This is how it was done originally
until we included a picture on the back but she has it raw…this is how it was. So this book (Mutabaruka:
First Poems published, 1980) is actually this
book (showing the reverse side of the 2005 edition of
Mutakabuka: Next Poems) and this (First Poems)
was released in 1980 before we started to tour America as a Reggae artist. We wrote the poems in books and then we started to
record the poems out of the book. So a lot of
the poems in this (First Poems) came up on our 1st,
2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th albums. So this book (First
Poems 1980) was out of print. I don’t
know you look like you don’t read this book it’s so new! (crowd laughs) It looks
crisp! I have one at home and its not like
this. I’d like to swap it.
Mutabaruka: Before we started to tour America, this was
Mutabaruka as a literary poem, a literary artist. Then
we started to put these poems on CDs because in Jamaica most people they really don’t
read poetry and the people who read poetry in Jamaica that was not the people who we were
catering for. So we decided to make the people
hear the poems. So we started to perform the
poems and then we started to put the poems on  records on CDs. So Mutabaruka became a Reggae artist and we started
to tour America as a Reggae artist doing what they called Dub poetry. So that book was out of print and we have been
doing CDs from 1982 until now we been doing the CDs without even having a book actually. This book is very sweet to have two books this way
and that way. This book represents a lot of
the poems we have recorded in the 90s and early 2000s.
So there’s are a lot poems in this book dat has been on the Melanin Man CD, Life Spirit CD and the Outcry CD. So
we decided that we don’t want to make the people dem buy two different books. So what we did was to combine the book that was out
of print with this new book and call it Mutabaruka: First Poems, Mutabaruka: Next
Poems. And we have come 360° because this
is how we started out. Before we started to
tour America this is what we was doing before we decided we was going to the studio, we
were writing the poems in books. Now we have
come back now and we have written the poems again. We
have taken the poems from the book and put it on CDs, now we have taken the poems from the
CD and put them in a book. (audience laughter) So,
what we have here now is Mutabaruka touring not as a Reggae artists but as a poet, a
literary poet and we have been doing this for the past 2-3 years without music and I must
say, I have enjoyed it a lot because its without the pressure of 7-8 men behind
me…pressuring me for hotel rooms for themselves, and per diem and all these things. I can really go now and just travel with me and mi
lady and she is doing what she is doing looking about books and ‘tings and Daniel, I
must give thanks. Daniel heed to the call and say ‘yeah’ he will setup a book
tour. This is the first time in my life I am
going to do a book tour. I have always been
doing CD tour where the record company set up the this and set up the that. Now this just like three people involved in this,
me Daniel and mi lady, Jacqueline. Just the
three of us involved in that. So it’s
really nice! We started in San Diego this time
around and I must say I was overwhelmed because the same amount of people that would come
to the Reggae show with the band is the same people that come to the poetry reading by mi
self. So I feeling that maybe I should just go
on and do it by mi self. Maybe I’ll
collect more money (audience laughter) if I do it by mi self.
Mutabaruka: We have been all over the world. Last year we was traveling all over the world doing
the poetry in Barcelona, we was in England, we went to Zimbabwe South Africa and, I must
say, that the spoken word has taken off quite tremendously and I’m glad to know that
I can sit on the fence between a Reggae artists and a literary poet. If someone call me to do a Reggae show I can call
mi band and someone say come and speak I can just call Danny. Really I am here now to read poems and KPPO don’t come yet and I’m getting
tired of talking. (audience laughter) I was
hoping that while I was talking they would come but they not coming. So, I don’t know? (asking the audience) What you think? Just go on?
(audience pushes him to go forward though the live feed has not been setup) O.K.
Audience: They’re (KPPO)
usually on time.
Mutabaruka: They usually on time? We usually say on time and in time…(audience
laughs)
Mutabaruka: All right!
What happened here just...you know over the years we’ve been writing the poems because we feel there’s a
need to express mi self. As a youth growing in
Jamaica with so much things happening. In the
late 60s it was the Black Power Movement who taken over even in the African Diaspora where
you find a lot of youth was moving towards clenched fist and Black Power Movement and
things and everybody was finding themselves with big afro and dashiki and sandals and all
these things and I am no different from a lot of ones that was doing this, I was part of
that era of young people who was reading Malcolm X …who
was listening to the Last Poets, Junior Sanchez…and these people who was very
inspiring to a young Jamaican who didn’t know that you ‘ave Black people who
write because we were not taught that in school. We
were taught about Shakespeare, Keats, Milton and ‘tings. So, it was really weird fi hear that you actually
even have Caribbean people that write poems. We
never know no Caribbean poet, you know? It was
unheard of to hear that someone was writing poetry in the Caribbean. But, because we didn’t know of any Caribbean
poets, in school we turned to the American poet. As we mentioned, the Last Poets. You know I have all the Last Poets’ CDs and
its strange that now I meet these bredren and they say ‘you know you influenced me a
lot’ and I say, what? You influenced me!
That shows that me old! But over the years,
listen, I also was very fortunate to have Marcus
Garvey’s son teaching me in school. Marcus Garvey Jr. use to teach engineering at a
school that I use to go to called Kingston Technical School and that help to shape my mind
in terms of my Pan Africanist thinking and my world view in relationship to
anti-capitalism, anti-sexism and every aren’t that you think of we were anti all of
dem. (audience laughter) We just grow up that way and we feel that we coulda’ change
things too in Jamaica, not just speaking about it but physically change things! So we would get involved in community things and
plan tings that was even illegal. In Jamaica,
reading a Malcolm X book in the 60s was illegal. Maybe
a lot of you don’t know that. But reading
a Stokley Carmichael book in Jamaica was
illegal it was like finding you with Ganja. If
you were found with a Malcolm X book you could go to jail!
And I remember we had all these Malcolm X books and Stokley Carmichael and
Black Panther and all these things stored up inna a place we use to have community work
and its fortunate that we heard that the police was going to raid the place and each
member of the organization took some books and carried home.
As a youth, teenager, I can remember these books and my mother see the book
dem and she start to get scared and she said, ‘Lord God! Police are gon’ come
and take the books dem and carry dem and go throw dem down the gully’ because she
said she didn’t want the police come raid her house and tings. But, this was the time when we had the blackest
Prime Minister ‘cause there has never been another Black Prime Minister like the one
who banned those books in Jamaica. So, it was
something else to know that we wanted to make a difference and not only a difference in
speaking but we actually was an organization that was attempting some really serious move
‘pon the system at that time. A lot of
the men that was ‘round me was ready to do some serous tings in Jamaica. But, when you dress back and you think and you say
now, as a youth we don’t really know if this was the best way to deal with it. So this how the poetry start to take shape, because
they say that the pen is mightier than the sword it that case it was a gun! So we used the pen instead of turning toward this
what dem call revolution that was in we that was fashioned and shaped in us. Marcus Garvey Jr. and some other teachers helped us
to move in a different direction because Marcus Garvey Jr. founded an organization there
that was hell bent on changing the political system. So,
we started to write the poems and we started to send the poems all over the place,
different magazines, different this, different that and one magazine took up one of mi
poems. I remember getting $4 for the poem and
that was really ‘nuff money for a school youth to write a poem and get $4 for it. Big ‘ting dat!
To get $4 for a poem that means that tings caan work! So, the publisher of the magazine asked us to keep
sending poems every month, it was a monthly publication.
And we start to send the poems there until eventually he called me and said
‘why don’t you just mak we put all the poems that we published in a book?' And I said, yeah, dat naw nothin’. I mean, teenage youth who would have a book, big
‘ting dat. Because we don’t know
another little youth in Jamaica wit did write poems that was meaningful enough to be
publish in a book. Because as I said, I
didn’t know no poet in the Caribbean. So the publisher took the poems and put them in a
book and they called the book Outcry, which became the title of my second CD and
‘Outcry’ is featured in this book. And
out of that book we started to do poetry readings at different community centers and dis
and dis and dis and dat. And when we started
to read the poems now…ahhmm…should I be givin’ you ‘dis biography?
(audience says yes! In unison) All right, I
still hoping that KPPO might come. When Outcry came out there was no, no book like that in Jamaica. There was no youth inna Jamaica wit have a poetry
that had a glass cover and well printed writing because most of these books was stencil. Remember those stencil machines whe’ use to
stencil things? Especially these underground,
revolutionaries use to have stencil, they never use to have glass cover, you know? It’s just recently now we see Black Power
Movement and radical people have stencil cover and glass cover books and all these things. I personally, coming from where I’m coming
from, to see a big magazine in Jamaica actually publishing a little book with glass cover
and mi picture ‘pon the back and mi poems dem in there and all dem ‘tings –
it was something else! So, the book come out
and we started to be a poet, you know? And the
poems start to go all over the place and we start to read poems all over the place. It was like 1980 that Jimmy Cliff decided to keep a concert where him
come from, where him born. Jimmy Cliff had
this big concert and a bredren name Mortimer
Planner who was very familiar with mi poems, listening to me reading all over the
place. He suggested that I should come up to
Jimmy Cliff’s house and rehearse with a bredren by the name of Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith. At that time Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith was the
leader for the Jimmy Cliff musicians, Oneness, the band was called Jimmy Cliff and Oneness. So, yeah well, I never go no musician nothin’
yet. I a poet, just a talk mi poem dem, I
don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no music, cords and dis and dat. So, we went up there and Chinna was the one to tell
me must say the poem that I wanted to do on the stage.
So, I start to recite the poem and Chinna start to play the music and that
was something else ‘caa I never understand those things. I was just a poet.
I never know you coulda’ put music to poem. So, Chinna construct a music to this poem and we
went on the stage, it must been ‘bout 10,000 to 20,00 people out there. And we went on the stage and dem say, ‘Ladies
and gentlemen, we have a youth here by the name of Mutabaruka’ and me come out and
say, every time I hear de sound, de sound, de sound…and the whole place mash up! And that started Mutabaruka as a Reggae artist! Because after that concert, Chinna invited us to Kingston
to record that poem. It was the first poem to
enter the pop charts in Jamaica and really go up in the top 10. And out of that
tune we made an album, that album named, Check It. Now it was about 1981, the same band now Jimmy
Cliff was on the show and Sunsplash was the
biggest concert, biggest Reggae concert, everybody know that they was the biggest Reggae
concert, because Sunsplash is not there anymore.
But at that time Sunsplash invited us to perform on the stage and it
was the same band. I remember dem say dem
gonna pay me $2,000 Jamaican dollars. That was
‘nuff money to me because I use to read poems free.
I never know you coulda get money off of poetry. I use to read my poems and, I never know you could
make money off of poetry. So when dem say dem
gonna give me $2,000 and the person who negotiated it say dem gonna take 10% out of it and
the band dem haff to get $300 each, which was ‘bout five men, it never bother me
neither! Tha’ dat gonna end up ‘bout $200. (audience laughs)
It never really bother me. So,
we go ‘pon the stage and we do about four poems, because we have a next poem called,
‘It no good to stay in a white man’s
country too long’ and dat was freakin’ out a whole heap of people. (audience
laughter) Because dem never hear an artist
come ‘pon the stage and talk that way because dat was Mutabaruka not even having a
Visa sayin’ dis ting. And this poem was
inspired by Lynton Kwesie Johnson who say, England is a
bitch. And when Lynton in England say, England
is a bitch, so we must say if England is a bitch, why you stay inna her! (audience laughter)
And him come from Clarendon so I wrote a poem and I say, ‘So you leave Clarendon to go a Brixton and you
check say ‘tings cool in Liverpool but InI didn’t know that ‘tings a get a
blow it no good to stay inna white man’s country too long.’ And I play this for Jimmy Cliff and Jimmy Cliff say
dis a poem gonna make it big. Jimmy Cliff was
the first man that listen to that poem and say, yeah dis poem ‘ere! And the rest is history. But when down at Sunsplash, and eventually were
invited to UCLA where every known popular Jamaican artist was on and we went on the stage
with some chain on we hand and two flag, a Russian and an American flag. And I never know you couldn’t walk ‘pon a
flag in America. I think it was just a normal
ting to just throw the flag ‘pon the ground. And
that scare everybody! That scare everybody but
actually some people ‘dere that was not scared and we eventually start to tour and I
must say that our first road manager and driver Mr. Jeff
Roth is here and I wanna hail him up! This
man is a part of the history of Mutabaruka in America.
Touring, I mean every crevice on every corner that you can think of , we
have been there as a Reggae artist. So, we
talking about our Reggae artist days. Now, we
still on the same part but we taking a different direction to reach the same goal. You know they say, so many rivers is one sea and so
many leaves is one tree and there are so many paths to the same house and we all have to
understand that there is no one set path, there is no formula for freedom. Freedom come by way of how you interpret as you go
along, you feel as you go along. There is
straight road and say, dis a how freedom ‘gon come or this is how freedom ‘gon
come. You learn through experience. So we come with a book and when we start to read
before, I didn’t want nobody call me poet you know!
No, I no poet say Rasta, I just a talk what me haffa inna me mind. So the first poem in this book was a poem named, ‘Call me No Poet or Nothin Like Dat:
i
shall not never
write
for lovers or
dream makers
lilies
and moonshine romance
never
unless they are me free
i have no time
there are police beatin’
brothers for being themselves
runnin’ around in streets
7’oclock
what?
call
me no poet
poem are for lovers
and actors
poems are for joy
and laughter
shakespeare/milton/chaucer
still drenchin’ the souls of black folks
tryin’ to integrate
in my life…your life
poems…poems…poems
and we are still shittin’ in pit toilets
runnin’ up and down
whistlin… nothin’
be wise and realize there must be no poets recitin
recite
about
snow
where?
jones town?
trench town?
poems cannot heal
feel
batons and bullets…and
die away poetry
call
me no poet
or nothin’ like that
whores in new kingston
man with molotov
babies dyin’
rastas wantin’ to be free
no poems, no poems please
poets get black…back
black poets move
this is no time to be dramatic
about abortion/food shortage
tax increase…life
shake speare must lay dead forever
No recitals
no recitin’
no poems
no poems
please.’
Ironically,
I am now know as a big poet. (audience laugh
and applause)
Mutabaruka on the term, Dub poetry
Mutabaruka: That name was given to this genre by Lynton Kwesie Johnson. Lynton say he was inspired by the DJs of the time, Big Youth and U Roy and in that time there was a genre of the
music that most people tend not to remember, right? You
hear people talk about Ska, Reggae. You hear
them talk about Dancehall and Rocksteady. But
Dub music was a very important part of the whole thing.
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Scientist, Jammy, Mad
Professor…these man produce music that the engineer become the artist. This is where Dub music is…Dub music is when
you strip the Reggae bare and like you have the bass and drum and den the engineer use his
skill to manipulate the board and give it different effects.
I credit Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry for Techno music because if you
listen to Lee ‘Scratch’ music, all you have to do to get Techno out of it is
quicken the CD. Just move the CD to the
highest level and you ‘ere all the effects that is in the Techno music. And I have experienced that in Barcelona just last
year. I realize that’s a serious thing. Because I hear of a brother by the name of Francious K, I don’t know if much of you
‘ere know Francois K, he is a big mixer in New York.
And what Francois K show me and I ‘ave experienced is that he’s
playing these old time…Rocksteady…I mean not even Rocksteady…Dub music. You know dat music whe’ U Brown and dem man
Campbell and all dem guys there dem use say. So,
some serious rhythm and bass line whe’ some serious bass line use to drop ‘pon
de music dem! And dem use to slow…you
know in Jamaica we call Ganja music not cocaine music.
Cocaine music carry you ‘pon a (waves his hands wildly) and Ganja music
carry you ‘pon a (wavering his body in a mellow style) …you know, just make yah
easy. But when I listen to dem music and I am
listening to this music and I am seeing the bredren moving the control notches to notches
and everybody sitting there going like dis…you talkin’ ‘bout 10-20 thousand
youth out deh, Spaniards. And dem just dere
‘pon a ting like so (swaying back and forth) and the more move you can see the body
dem a…and when de (DJ) move you see everybody deh…and when deh (DJ) move
(demonstrates the progressive feeling of euphoria and excitement the DJ controls as he
manipulates the sound board) and den the effects, and this is all like King Tubby’s old music ‘em doing this
way, the movement from the normal zero to a pace of maybe like forty and den he’s
using this quickness and mixing and Techno…what dem call it? Electronic music into it, you can’t tell the
difference. You really can’t tell the
difference. So I’m really saying that Lee
Scratch, I credit him because Lee Scratch do some things with that board, unbelievable! You try to figure out where him get dat sound there
‘pon the board! These echoes and these
reverbs and these dis and dis and dis and dat now…and when you looking…you go to
some Rave…I’ve been to Europe with some  Rave parties mon and people selling oxygen in ‘dere mon! Everybody doing oxygen. I thought it was Ganja but its oxygen, Oxygen Bar,
you know. But no music is that time is that
period of Jamaican music when the bass and the drum was the dominant thing. Like Rap music have guitar in it, Dub music is the
bass and the drum. So Lynton says that after
listening to all of dis music by these DJs, which it was like the flip side of most of the
Jamaican music. You did have the singer
‘pon one side and den dem have the Dub version. Until
the Dub version now become the “A” side! You
have albums with pure Dub music! Hundreds of
albums come out with pure Dub music. Even now
you have labels that only release Dub music. You
have a bredren in England named Adrian Sherwood – Dub Master! You have Mad Professor. You have Bloodfire
label dat dedicated to Dub music. Well, Lynton is saying that because he is a poet and he
is recognizing the version of the music as the main part of the music where he would say
his poem he’s calling it Dub poetry. So
that is how dat name, according to what I ‘ere, because I never use to do Dub poetry,
I was just doing my poetry. Lynton I hear now
saying he’s a Dub poet, and now I don’t hear Lynton say dat he’s a Dub poet
anymore. He does not recognize himself as a
Dub poet, because somehow the Dub poetry label kind of limit you to a period in Jamaican
music that you really don’t want to connect with in dis time. Because whatever music I feel will enhance my
poems, dat is the music I use. So when you
listen to a Mutabaruka album its not just Reggae or Dub you listening to. You’re listening to all different kind of
music and its very interesting that nowadays the spoken word is so popular now that a poet
can now make an album without any music. It is
amazing that people is actually standing up and listening to people just reading poems. Thousands of people.
And you have shows now with pure poets.
We have been to so much…I toured South Africa with 3 poets, toured all
over South Africa and every show sold out. It
remind me when I just came to America. But as
I mentioned, Jeff Roth ‘ere and I have to mention the next sister who was very
instrumental in movin’ Mutabaruka from one level to the next level in America and her
name is Pele (Pele Lanier). She came from this part of America, San Francisco. Pele died about 2½ years ago and we was on the
road for twenty odd years movin’ from every crevice and every corner and she died
from cancer and I wrote this poem and it’s the first time I ‘gon read this poem
you know? And the reason why I’m going to
read this poem is because I’m in San Francisco and I see Jeff Roth…I ‘ave
to make you know dat. Because it Jeff Roth who
introduce me to Pele and it is in San Francisco I met alla
these people, even the manager Blackwood
who was a Jamaican, him also was in San Francisco. San
Francisco mean a lot to me because this is where I draw the biggest crowd. I remember I use to go to Greek Theater…I
caan’t believe say when I look ‘pon Greek Theater, Mutabaruka use to play there. It’s amazing?
KPPO
arrives and the rest of the reading is broadcast live
Mutabaruka
recites his epic poem, Pele:
Tears cannot wash away the memories
of hours spent on the road
Searching for the next hotel or venue
Tears cannot drown the many times we lost and found
The pain of memories lingers forever
Yet joy awaits
Pele Lanier
We share so much years of searching
Finding
The music filled our dreams
We live
You knew me
Like a mother on the road
A woman strong and assertive
Tears cannot wash away memories of poetry
Of music of tours filled with joy and sorrow
Lost and found
Like a calm breeze I felt safe
No questions asked
Tears cannot was away the memories
Tears can only wash the heart that touched the soul
Tears free the mind of pain felt
Of the burden of longing for
Pele Lanier
How yu mean fi leave me?
We neva finished yet?
She made the journey that we all make
Yet hoping to stay forever
Knowing the journey is for a time
We laugh we cry
Life’s strange attributes
We search hoping to find the journey of infinity
Elusive dream at least for now
The journey is made
Never ending never coming to end
It takes all of lifetime to come to this point
The joy the pain
All together makes life journey meaningful
Meaningless if we give up on life’s journey
But who knows she came partook left
Weep not world of the living
We all must take that journey’s end
Tears will flow
The only comfort for the disturbed soul
I cry
In my car I cry
I cry
In the studio I cry
In the market I cry
I cry because I know you won’t be there when
I ring your number
When I can’t be bothered to speak to
Promoters or news reporters
I cry because of how you love me
How you love my work
My faults
My love
I cry because I know like many others
When they say again your name
You will not answer
Tears will not wash away your memory
Not now not ever
I will cry me a river
And know that it will flow and keep flowing
Till my soul is cleansed of the pain
Pele Lanier
We will keep on
For you for me
For the time you spent keeping on for us
May your life works keep touching others
Like the river that becomes the ocean
Mutabaruka: (continues going right into his next poem, Eyes Of Liberty without introduction)
On that bridge I look and see
The symbol of your justice and equality
Standing tall with her torch of flame
Now I ask what is your aim
You invade Grenada
You invade Nicaragua
You bomb Hiroshima
You bomb Philadelphia
But the eyes of liberty is watching you
Watching all the things you do
The eyes of justice is crying out
What is your democracy all about
The true owners of your nation
Is force to live on a reservation
Now I see you in my land
Making all kinds of plans
Spending billions of dollars every year
To keep us all living in fear
Economical pressure is your game
Liberty reaching with her torch of flame
Yes the eyes of liberty is watching you
Watching all the things you do
The eyes of justice is crying out
What is your democracy all about
Talk of invading Libya
You never talk ‘bout invade South Africa
But you invade the Sandinista government
Using Jamaica as your Caribbean investment
And the Palestinians are your biggest resentment
Terrorism is the order of the day
Where will the children play
You invade Grenada
You invade Nicaragua
You bomb Hiroshima
You bomb Philadelphia
The symbol of true justice and equality
Stands erect for all to see
Making plans for the Haitians
Helping to keep down the Black Americans
But the eyes of liberty are watching you
Watching all the things you do
The eyes of liberty are watching u
To yourself u must be true
Mutabaruka: What the eyes of liberty is, it is that
statue that is in New York that is a French woman that was given to the Americans by the
French government. Recently, we hear the
Americans are trying to change the name of french fries to freedom fries. Don’t know if that will help the Iraqi’s
but uhmmm….we coming from Jamaica…you have to understand that when we look from Jamaica
in America, we see a different thing from you looking from America in America. And we find it…it was very laughable on the
radio in Jamaica. People was
laughing…people was saying, ‘are these Americans crazy?’ Don’t they know that french fries has nothing
to do with France! More people didn't’
know that really! But ahhmm…it’s
about the Statue of Liberty, you know, and we see that America love to take liberty with
people…they still taking liberty…with people.
Now we see a new thing happening now and we have to address it because, I
don’t have nothin’ to do with it, but I feel the brunt of it, you know. American Airline is now saying that each passenger
is allowed 50 pounds per baggage. So another
words now, I use to carry 140 pounds which is 70 pounds, two 7s, 140 lbs (70 lbs per bag). Now they saying dat it is 2 baggage, which is 100
lbs so its 40 pounds less that they are offering us to carry on the airline. So, I am going to these people and say so, why are
we 40 pounds less? And they say, we have to
take into consideration the fatness of Americans nowadays. I say, you serious and she say
yes…so I say why don’t you just weigh the people instead of weigh the luggage
because you caan’t discriminate against me because me…I am at my right weight
and I must pay $25, if your luggage weigh 70 lbs you have to pay $25 for the extra 40 lbs. So, I am actually paying some plane fare for some
big, fat, obsess American, McDonald, Kentucky Fried Chicken belly person! It kind of get me a way because say look ‘ere
now, do something about the fatness nah Rasta, make McDonald’s illegal. We use to have some shops in Jamaica we called it
‘Cold Supper Shop’. We use to sell
good food, like what your grandmother cook, ‘caah you know the mothers can’t
cook nowadays, the grandmother you have to turn to, the grandmother who cooking, because
every mother now is career woman. She has to
go out and she come home too late so she turn to Kentucky to bring home her dinner, so
there is no really ‘cooking’ that is taking place in the house again. It’s only on Thanksgiving and all these days
that you go to your grandmother’s house where deh prepare a good meal for you. But, we who use to know about cold supper shop, it
was pre-Kentucky fast food where we get good food fe eat.
You know the good ole Jamaican Ackee & Salt Fish and Calalliou and these
things and dem tings are done now inna Jamaica. If
you come to Jamaica right now, McDonald is everywhere, you would be amazed to know dat! Maybe there is more McDonalds in Jamaica than there
is in San Francisco, really! Kentucky (Fried
Chicken), Burger King, Wendy’s, they even had a Taco Bell the other day that
‘ave to close. I don’t think the
people dem get use to Mexican food yet. But
they was promoting that way, but as soon as their borders become more porous and more
Mexicans start to come in ‘der, you will see Taco Bell selling the real Mexican
‘ting. But remember the cold supper shop
we use to stop at, we coulda eat anything, it was like granny’s cooking –
(Muta
launches into his next recitation of Junk Food
mid stream)
…corn dumplin’ and ackee
from big fat Mattie
stewed peas and rice
use to really taste nice
now ice cream stand
teckin’ ova de land
junk food fullin’ up de place
this is annada disgrace
junk food fullin’ up de place
a now good food a guh guh
to waste
You know dat sweet will
Rot your teeth
But is only ice cream you a guh
Get fi eat
Jooks pon de corna a tek in
De scene
Puffin up your belly wid ice cream
Do scene get mean
Junk food fullin’ up de place
Dis is annada disgrace
Junk food fullin up de place
A now good food a guh guh
To waste
Run you must
But your belly might buss
Gun shot clap
One a you friend drop
Flex out time
Flex out time
Leaving your ice cream behind
Junk food fullin’ up de place
Dis is annada disgrace
Junk food fullin’ up de place
A now good food a guh guh to waste
Folla fashion is de order of de day
Cyaa get nuh food dat is wat dem she
Miss Mattie shop affi move
Granny cooking out a groove
De disk jockey she
Announcin’ de openin’ of a
Ice cream stand
In de parish of St. Ann
Next month in Westmoreland
An annada one in Clarendon
Watch out Portland
Strawberry ice cream
Raspberry ice cream
Dem a bury wi
You no si?
Ice cream ice cream
Hot dog ice cream
Livin’ de american dream
Mutabaruka on religious life in Jamaica
Mutabaruka: Like most Americans very church going,
Jamaicans, very church going but I must say, my mother have a disdain for Roman Catholic
priests, she don’t like Roman Catholic priests and I guess it rub off on me. But in Jamaica where we come from, there is a
situation where, because we never own no house and we never own no land and ting, we keep
moving. So a typical Jamaican family, and when
I say family ‘ere it’s only the son and the mother because the father was never
there. So my mother and myself we use to move
up and down the place because whenever the rent raise, we decide wha’ she can’t
afford it, she have to move. So, we was living
all over da place but ironically, that the places that we live was just concentrated in
one little area. I remember my mother moved
from one side of the road and go over the next side of the road because the man raised the
rent to on this side of the road and she get the rent cheaper over there, so she
just…we was walking with the furniture cross road late at night (audience laughter)
bed and every ting, table, chair and every ting, we walk cross the road. But we wait ‘til night…we wait
‘till middle night. Jamaican people when
you movin’ with people rent, nuff Jamaican people move on people’s rent…you
move out inna de night. The land owner him
always come look ‘pon him house inna day and at night him go home and he don’t
get the rent…alright…‘boy don’t ‘ave no rent today but if you
come tomorrow you will get the rent’ and you know say, tomorrow every ting move out. So when the landlord come back and see an empty
house, him say ‘Lord God dem wicked people move with me rent now’. It’s a Jamaican ting whe’, I don’t
know if it happens here so, but we move with people rent and we live in one room and we
just move all over de place. So, it so
happened that to go to church it was a priority. We
have to go to church! Every Sunday. I use to hate it!
Because why I use to hate it that my mother
keep saying, I can’t eat no breakfast until I come from church. Because if you take communion you don’t want
nothin’ ‘pon your stomach when you take the flesh of Jesus Christ…I said
Lord God. (laughter from audience)
Audience: Must be a cannibal.
Mutabaruka: You know dem way deh? So, it so happened that the biggest Roman Catholic
church in Jamaica on the Caribbean was in the area where my mother use to move. She move from one to…it like she move
‘round the church. She always a move
‘round the church you know, but we always end up going to this church and this is
where now, I started to examine the whole perspective of church-going. Because when I come to my grandmother’s
house, which was way over in the next ghetto name Jones Town, she use to go to the Baptist
church. Now in the Baptist church, the bread
and the wine is served to everybody so the person walk ‘round with the bread and the
wine and everybody’s drinking bread and wine in church, it feel good like you ah
Pope. But in the Roman Catholic church you
have to go to the alter and bend down in front of the parson, de priest and he do some
ting like that (making movements as the priest would) and he take the little ting and put
‘pon your tongue and you caan’t eat it. You
not suppose to eat it, it suppose to melt way in your mouth.
This is called the communion. And,
in that church, its mostly rich people sit down inna de front, poor people like me and my
mother sit down inna de back because when the collection plate come ‘round, you know,
it was easier to get the envelopes than to get the coins, so the envelopes went into a big
round plate and the coins went into a little bag with a little metal ting so you drop your
coin in, nobody see. But when you have the big
plate you could see all these big families you know with dem envelope. And it kinda pressure mi mind. Den we see all these little altar boys, use to go
to St. George’s and all these schools, and den we see…I have never seen a slim
priest. There was no McDonald’s at that
time. I have never seen a priest that was like
my size and I am a big size. The was always
big fat belly white people. In Jamaica, I
never use to see black fathers it was always white people who was talking this strange
language that I eventually started to realize they say it was Latin. So I say, why we sitting down in the church
listening to Latin. I don’t know what the
guy is saying, I love the communion but I hate it because I never eat no breakfast.
So, over the period of time we examine the church and we write, this was
teenager poem I must say, this book most of the poems here was written in my teenager life
and I still share the beliefs dat most of these poems (First Poems), sentiments with these poems. But I have a poem here, sound like I’m
passin’ out…you can turn to page 44 of the book the First Poems (audience laughs as Muta conducts a
classroom style history lesson) and I will read two poems from page 44 and page 45
it’s called, Church I and Church II,
Muta
continued in his recitations with his poems, Church
I, Church II, The Priest & You, My Poem Your Mine and all My Friends Are White.
He
continued his talk saying,
Mutabaruka: Rasta go though ‘nuff things over the
period of 70 odd years that we evolved over in Jamaica.
There was a time when Rasta couldn’t walk ‘pon the street inna
Jamaica, we were beaten. It was a time when
people use to use Rasta to scare dem children. In
other words, Rasta was the bogeyman of Jamaica. If
you want the children to eat something you known him don’t like they say,
‘Rastaman gonna come for you…the blackheart man.
Most of you are familiar with the classical album by Bunny Wailer, Blackheart Man.
But, that is how the use to view Rasta, dem say Rastaman dem ‘ave a black
heart. Because we really use to say we have a
black heart because blackness we a deal wit and ting…but dem couldn’t understand
how we get we hair that way, dem use to say we put cow dung inna it…mix cow dung and
wax it…out of dat now come this terrible, according to them, dreadful look so they
label it ‘dreadlocks’. A lot of
persecution, I remember a very famous singer too…Cedric Myton of the Congos. I
witnessed police cut off him locks, just like that! And
this was not an unusual case, that was happening in the 60s and early 70’s whe’
dem just broke a bottle and some people just hold down the Rastaman and broke the bottle
take the bottle and cut off him locks….say, ‘yes Rasta, you see your locks
‘ere! Dem way there, and when you hear
the police dem you have to go run and go down in the sewer dem and go
‘round…some serious tings happen to Rasta! Well,
we see tings and times change. The philosophy
of Rastafari has influenced a whole heap of people even though we don’t have no
church or we don’t have no specific leader than can carry and say dis is it…but
through stringently and levity that we project out there as a people dispersed and
domiciled in that former slave plantation island known as Jamaica. We have been able to manifest a certain way of
life that has surpassed the established system and has gained recognition through
something named Reggae music. Reggae music is
the only secular gospel music that we know. It’s
suppose to be outside of religion but yet still it profess and preach more religion than
any other music that I know. Its amazing that
people listen to the Reggae music to strengthened themselves, which is really a music that
is suppose to be outside of strength and power, but it help!
It help most people first contact with Rasta came through the music. Most people will tell you dat dem listening to Burning Spear and Bob Marley and all these people while dem start to
get a little clinch of Rasta. Now there is an
aspect of Rasta people find very difficult to deal with, especially in Jamaica. Because people accept the red, gold and green, they
will accept the locks…and (singing now) ‘one love’ (audience joins him in
laughter). Its amazing that people singing
this tune that Bob Marley sing…and when you look, most of those words are not Bob
Marley’s words, it’s Curtis Mayfield,
people must know dat! Its Curtis Mayfield
words that Bob Marley turn round very ingeniously, very poetically and make it into a
powerful song. When Bob Marley sing dat
song…him talking about him community. Just
like how now you have violence in Jamaica, the same way inna dem time you have violence
and most of the artists was singing for the people dem to really bring a kind of unity to
the people. Well, you see dem turn and twist
‘round the song now and it become the song of the century and ray, ray, ray, ray and
all these things and people hug it up and twist it up and say yes, this is really one the
greatest Bob Marley songs ever! And Curtis
Mayfield was looking for him long time and den Curtis Mayfield dead. So the notoriety don’t go to Curtis Mayfield
that way. But uhmm, Rasta go through nuff
things and we still here and survive. The
influence of Rasta is so great and people will sing the song, they wear the red, gold and
green and thing but there is one thing, an aspect of Rastafari that ‘ave Jamaican
people really, really weird and its this idea that Emperor
Haile Selassie I is The Almighty. A wake
of people cannot come to grips with that part of Rasta, which is really the essence of
Rastafari. Not accepting that and sayin’
you a Rasta is like the Pope come out and saying look ‘ere I didn’t say I was a
Roman Catholic. Rastafari is the name of Haile
Selassie before him was the emperor of Ethiopia and in order for Rastafari to survive, it
must be clear that Emperor Haile Selassie is The Almighty.
Now in order of this cultural perspective, you a take the culture, now deal with
the theology. Deal with the theology. Now did the Rastaman come up with this idea? Where did he get this idea from? Our people that was living in filth and dung and
squalor could rise up with such a universal idea of man being God. Who taught him dat when him was in a colonial
society and neo-colonialist society that was telling you that Jesus Christ is in the sky
and is going come out of the sky and save you. How
did that set of people rise up with this idea? That
has now taken over and has influenced millions of people all over the world! Well, that is the next reasoning that me have to
come back and deal with…
(Moves
into his poem, I Am De Man)
i am the man
you love to hate
i use to sit down in the slums of
Ghost Town
and Trench Town
Back’o’wall
no cloths
to hide my nakedness
filth and mosquitoes smelling
biting 400 years of black flesh
scared by whips and sticks
i am the man
locks entangled in
your nightmares of
medusas and gorgons
unkept religious beliefs
that pierce the side of
your jesus in the sky
your vinegar has turned to blood
your water to mud
crucifix
choking on your life
of neo-colonialistic attitudes
yes i am de man
that came in
clouds of ganja smoke
choking you to death
yet
not killing you
my eyes
seeing a black god
casting doubt in your
mind about your
unexposed spiritual being
black shadows
casting clear pictures
of an existence
drowned by
false concepts of reality
black was beauty
until i walked
with my barefeet
touching your tar and pavements of
sadistic heat
u would have accepted i
if only i came via
time magazine
and vogue
if only you were exposed
to life
beyond your
middle class gate
yes
i am de man
you love to hate
look
I am now your
next door neighbor
Mutabaruka: Well, I guess
most of you ‘ere live in San Francisco and I don’t know if you gone to take the
train to Berkeley considering I just did half of the show (free) that I am going to do in
Berkeley. (audience laughter. We was going to
take the questions and answers and den we going to Berkeley, we are suppose to be reading
poetry at Ashkenaz. You can still catch it, I’m not there yet! (audience laughter)
So if anyone has questions we ‘ave to wrap up dis ting and sell some books. We see about 50 people inside here so we can sell
at least 50 books. And I must say it is an
honor to ‘ave this lady ‘ere in front with dis book (First Poems). I’m really feeling touched to know that dis
book was the first way that dis book was published and she still ‘ave it as crisp as
crackers...yes, I love dis! Trust me! It was $10...only dat you pay for it? So dis (Next Poems) is a steal, now you have two of
dem.
Muta on the
book promotion
Mutabaruka: Yes, we
promoting this book without making no qualms about it.
It is this book we come to make the people dem have because you have always
heard Mutabaruka on CDs now we want you to take a note, you can go by yourself and read
the words and see if you like me or you don’t like me.
When we just come to America a lot of shows never want me ‘round
because dem say ‘boy, Mutabaruka is a racist, him don’t like white people. Yet still, Jeff Roth was the road manager and he is
the whites man inside here come. (audience laughter).
He was the road manager for years! And
him have the most photos and clippings of Mutabaruka on the road. And we still dere’ here you know after so much
years we still dere’ read the poems dem and go through.
Yes, some people now kinda realize it, him not so bad after all, you know,
him kinda understand certain things. So we
give thanks for that and we give thanks for this lady. (looking at the woman who has the
Book, First Poems)
Woman: Will
you autograph it?
Mutabaruka: Of course, I
will do more than autograph it too, I will buy it from you! (big laughter from both Muta
and the audience) You know, it’s really
nice to see that. We want to say give thanks,
give thanks and give thanks for you being here, give thanks to come and as we say we going
up the coast and hope that when you hear the name Mutabaruka you will come to the shows
and...its just that. We just hope say you are
not getting bushwhacked. Because we are
keeping abreast of what is happening in America here you know. I’m scared...I’m really scared because I
thought that Jamaicans people would make Americans scared but I am really scared of
Americans now because I don’t understand how the president is down in Iraq behaving
like everything is going chanty-danty and nice and sweet when people dem wrecking dem own
country. You know its a serious thing! We hear of Iraq...for years Mesopotamia the Garden
of Eden, Babylon, Euphrates, the first country in the bible four countries, Ethiopia and
the Euphrates...and now we see dem mash up de whole place.
Dem mash up Babylon, dem mash up where dem say Abraham come from, dem mash
up all the ancient civilizations that were dere before America ever existed. Dem mash up and Americans just floating back to see
the person...amazing, its amazing! I
don’t understand it. And you know the
people who be fighting is getting old and the young people dem is so MTVish and McDonalish
that dem don’t understand how struggle suppose to go, so dem not really taking it
serious so they are susceptible to the news reports and all the things that’s around
dem, Levi jeans and de Nike boots and all des things.
So it kinda get funny, get crazy. Because
I am looking from Jamaica and I am looking at what is happening here and saying, wow! How the people dem get bushwhacked! Dem never have to come and bush you, dem bushwhack
you! It get weird. San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland – the first
time I come to this place, I was holding a blackheart and march against apartheid. Thousands of people from Berkeley and everything
and I say yes! I remember Black Panther Party and all these power and
feminist movement and Janice Joplin...and everybody was really into it now everybody turn
coat and tied people so tall intercontinental building drinking coffee and tea...its kinda
amazing.
Mutabaruka: Well I tell
you something now, you see first time we use to have to go outside to get Americanized. Now you can stay in the living room and get
Americanized. You see cable TV is a serious
cultural...its one of dem imperialistic machinery that grab you and you never know that it
grab you. Most Jamaicans have 140 odd channels
to choose from...inna dem bedroom and most of dem is American channel. A little voice crying out in the wilderness say
look ‘ere...something drastic ‘ave to happen for the people dem say, no...you
know...you ‘ave to find a finger in McDonalds...like dat...they find a finger inna
Wendy’s all of the Wendy’s soup dem. Something
like dat will make Jamaicans don’t do these things.
It something ‘ave to drastically happen.
But normally just going out there and saying like Mutabaruka say
it...boy...you have to show dem some serious points. You
know like all the guy who make the thing ‘bout McDonalds (Super Size Me) and him get nominated inna de
Oscars dem. The McDonalds thing where him say
him eat McDonalds morning, noon and night and him totally get bushwhacked. It’s these things that have to happen in Jamaica
fe it don’t take hold. But it take hold,
it take hold right now. The same problem we
see all over the world, American imperialism, what dem call it now? Dem have a new word for it, globalization. They use it as a big words now, they say this is
globalization, it’s new world order, one world so everybody loose them sovereignty. There’s no sovereign state anymore you have to
come under what dem call democracy! I
don’t know who you can demand somebody have democracy, kinda strange. People say, democracy or die! This is not democracy,
I don’t know how it come dat way. I
don’t understand it, I don’t understand it.
I never go to no university and I don’t understand how you can point a gun and
say, look ‘ere, democracy you know, or else you gon’ to dead. I think democracy was something people choose offa
dem own free will. I am now getting to
understand a new perspective of democracy by what I am seeing taking place all over the
world now. So, we just a say it’s each
individual you know. Its each individual. We have a saying in Jamaica, ‘one, one coco
full basket’ its like you have apples, one apple inna the basket look empty but many
apples going inna the basket will full it, and we need each individual to change dem
selves instead of ya try to change the world, you change yourself and the whole world
change. That’s just how it go.
Mutabaruka: Question? You can’t keep KPPO dead air you know, you
have to have something (audience laughter)
Audience:
Asked about guitarist, Fazel Pendergast who
recently died in an auto accident.
Mutabaruka: They are
having a tribute for him after I read the poems tonight at Ashkenaz and for those of you
who know Fazel will take part. He was buried
yesterday. Fazel Pendergast was one of the
first rhythm guitarist that I toured with its strange that I came right in the middle of
tributes and funerals and dem thing there. Fazel
Pendergast died about two Fridays ago. They
having a tribute for him. He is a bredren that
we share many moments with even in Europe some really...I have to tell you this...I have
to tell you this moment in Europe not take long. One
time we was traveling inna Italy with the musicians dem, Fazel was the cause of this one
and we always ‘cuss him fe it. We had a
show in Genoa and I was very anxious to go to Genoa because you see Christopher Columbus
come from Genoa, you know? We was traveling on
this big bus and we a tell the man, watch ‘ere, every man smoke off him herb before
him reach the border now Rasta because we don’t want to get turned back this border
you know. Every man smoke off him herbs, we
reach the border the man dem take us out of the bus and let in the dog inna the bus man. No herbs inna de bus but the dog dem smell the
ganja (audience laughter) and every time the dog go so (sniff) and him come out, its Fazel
him go to and because dem smelling the herbs dem turn the bus upside down and we end up
late for the show. The first show in my life I
ever late for was that show in Genoa. And its
Fazel now argue with the man dem and know say him did a smoke the herb, so I say
‘bredren you no have the herbs ‘pon you they just smell ‘pon you, they
can’t lock you up to you smell the herbs, they have to lock you because them find the
herb’ and him a gwan bother and ‘cuss and gwan bother and ting and the man say
‘alright’ and dem turn the bus upside down and look for the ganja but dem never
find none still but we eventually missed the show. The
first show Mutabaruka miss ‘pon a road. But
a little story still, next!
Audience:
Can you tell us about your involvement with Sankofa
and were you ever in other films?.
Mutabaruka: We was in
some show before that still but it was not as big as that one. Sankofa,
I don’t know if anybody here know what Sankofa
is, most white people know me as a poet, most black people know me as an actor. (audience laughter)
It’s a serious ting. Sankofa is a movie that was out ‘dere, a slave
movie that was shot in Jamaica and Ghana. Most
of it was shot in Jamaica and I was one of the main characters in it in playing a part
named Shango. The producer (director) of that
movie is Haile Gerima he is an Ethiopian that
teaches at Howard University who said he was going to make this movie and tell the story
from black people’s perspective. Where
you didn’t have any white people come in ‘dere to save black people in the
movie. Because most every movie you always
have a little white man ‘dere to help or a little white woman ‘dere to help
black slaves, like black people never use to free dem selves. So, what Haile did was create where all the team,
all the people in it, the main characters was slaves.
So it was telling the story of the slave him belief system and ting and he
called the movie Sankofa, its really a
Ghanaian word – its a bird name Sankofa – that you go back to examine things to
bring what you can forward. He was in
Washington and some people...him said he was looking for the character, Shango. I was told that the sister that did Daughter of The Dust, she told him that look
‘ere, you see Shango him dere in Jamaica, its a bredren name Mutabaruka and him
don’t have to act the role dere, him just... Him
come to Jamaica and find me and give me the script and say I want you to read the script
and see what you want to do and I say, yeah sound like me and I just do and that is how we
do it, we never really questioned or seconded it but we have done other little small
things and some little things but not as a major role like that.
Mutabaruka: Oh, yes, One Love...Kymani
Marley star in One Love yeah...I was in that
movie too and never remember that, but that was a major role actually. Land Of Look
Behind is a documentary actually and Bongo Man
too but Sankofa is a major role because Sankofa was the most successful independent movie
in America and that change and turn and twist lives of many people. I was told that the character Shango was a very
significant part in that revolution.
Livonn:
I want to ask you about poetry and the divinity of woman, you’ve talked about that
more than I have every heard any other poet that’s not a feminist or a female and I
wanted you to talk about your feeling for the divinity of the woman.
Mutabaruka: You see the
Roman Catholic ting that we tell you about a while ago, whe’ we go to church and God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and we say what kind of family is dat? (audience laughter)
Where’s the Mother? You
can’t have a family without a mother. In Jamaica
where I come from is mostly the mother is dere, the father always gone. So I don’t know how you ‘ave two man and
one ghost! (audience laughter) It kind of get ridiculous. Me think it should be
God the Father, God the Child and God the Mother. So,
the church took out the feminine energy out of the concept and the idea. First they tell you say that woman bring sin into
the world by way of Eve and them try to correct it by giving you this woman name Mary who
was a virgin, never have no sin. It kind of
get crazy. But then now when you listen to
them say only Mary, Mother of God! I say,
O.K., Mary is the mother of God, who was first now, God or the mother. It kind of get ridiculous, but the other day I was
listening to the Pope, the funeral, and them was all the Pope, him body and soul, is given
to ‘Mary’ not to Christ, to Mary dat
she can ‘ave him dere in purgatory and do whatsoever she want to do with him and den
see if he is worthy to go to the son! (audience
laughter) It kind of crazy this idea is come. So, I am looking into these ideas and I am saying,
what Lord something wrong, something wrong! Because
it my mother did know, my mother did know and when I saw my mother look mean and over the
years I have to dig deep into my consciousness and realize say, you can’t ‘ave
God who is ‘He’ and don’t ‘ave a God who is ‘She’. It’s crazy, you can’t have a
‘He’ God and no ‘She’ God. How
dat go? Because in the Bible when dem teach
we, God never make woman, him make man and it is the desperation of man why woman make
according to....(audience laughter)...yeah because dem say man get lonely. I don’t know him must lonely and he never did
know loneliness of a woman. (audience
laughter) Even the idea of saying that kind of
get crazy to me. So we start to examine these
things and we start to read, get information and we come up in a system where it very
patriarchal. The Judo-Christian
mindset...actually with every religion...every religion oppress woman! Every one of dem!
And we start to examine the ting and even in Rastafari. Rastafari was taught from a patriarchal
mindset based off of Judo-Christian ideas. We
come to understand Haile Selassie and when den we say, when Haile Selassie was crowned him
crown him wife the same time. Which is not the
tradition of Ethiopia to crown the woman the same time, its like 2 weeks after. So we see Haile Selassie break that tradition
whe’ the emperor and empress was crowned simultaneously. And Haile Selassie make mention of an nation
without a woman, its really a crippled nation. So
all of these things that we listening to Haile Selassie saying these things and referring
to now what was taught in the schools led me to think that, yeah, maybe I’m a
feminist by heart. We start to look on the
whole thing and we start to push it, we start to push that line even on the radio in Jamaica. We start to declare to the Rastas in Jamaica, say
you can’t hail Haile Selassie I and no hail him wife, you know? We say greetings in the name of Emperor Haile Selassie I and his wife Empress Menen.
It’s kind of ridiculous to just keep saying, HAIL THE I RASTAFARI! It’s disrespect. You can’t go to Ethiopia and hail the King and
don’t hail the Empress. So that is
something that we are trying to instill in the Rastafari community over the years that if
you hailing Haile Selassie you ‘ave to hail the Empress. Now we see, Rastafari community start to celebrate
Empress Menen’s birthday. Last
week we celebrate Empress Menen’s birthday and it was a big gathering and we feel
good fe know dat! We feel good fe know
say...at the beginning man use to kind of say, ‘what Muta talk ‘bout Rasta, hailing Empress Menen its Selassie I we a
deal with’ he start to come round too it because we start to articulate it in such a
way whe’ him have to understand say, its not a patriarchal ting. You can’t just keep saying ‘he’ this
and ‘he’ that and ‘he’ this and ‘he’ dat because den now the
‘Mother’ which we the dun say, ‘Mother of All Creation’. The ancient Rasta use to say, King Alpha and Queen
Omega! But we use to go to what we call the
‘our lines’ that predate Rastafari,
what is still Rasta. Dem use to sing, ‘Oh
Mother of Creation’ there is a famous Rastafari that talk about the Mother of
Creation. That is what the Rastaman dem use to
sing but somewhere along the line it get lost in the whole macho business and penis power. My lady make a serious statement to me one day to
say ‘you know you want stop the war dem make every man walk up and down naked because
den every man woulda see every man’s penis and den realize the other man’s penis
to big so him can’t deal with the man der. (audience laughter) Serious ting, because
it’s all about penis power. It’s all
about the ego and sex chakkra whe’ you
know man just feel say yes...I think if Saadam would see Bin Laden and Bush cloistered up
inna stadium naked woulda love one another. (audience laughter) You see the whole war thing is ‘bout penis. You see how dem make the rocket dem is a penis that
penetrate the sky. You see the bomb that go
down inna the earth is a penis that penetrate the earth.
The bullet dem that come outta de gun...its all about the penis power. So we start to examine dem things and realize that
no, it caan work! And me couldn’t give
credence to a patriarchal mindset as a Rasta. And
because me couldn’t give credence to that we coming in argument a lot of times with
the Rastafarian community. But we still keep
it because we have a voice in Jamaica ‘pon the radio that most Rastas don’t have
and the media is a very powerful way fe ... dem say, ‘repetition is the greatest
propaganda machine’ so you keep repeating the same thing over and over and over and
it start to infiltrate in the mind of the people dem and we see right now it bear fruit. You know dat Rastafari has come a long way in dat
consciousness of Empress Menen, recognizing Empress Menen as part of that Trinity. So, we don’t really give create to no virgin
birth and no Mary and Adam and Eve story and God the Father, God the Son and God the holy
duppie. Don’t work! So we think we should ‘ave done that question.
Muta expressed
how he feels about the controversy over moving Bob Marley’s remains from Jamaica to Ethiopia:
Mutabaruka: Is him say he
want to go deh? Yeah man, I mean, him no sing
it man, him say it too! Bob Marley say...well
a bredren did ask Bob Marley what him think ‘bout Jamaica and Bob Marley say, being
Jamaican mean being Rasta! I have to deal with
my Father deh, and my Father in Ethiopia and deh so me ‘ave to go! So we never bother argue the argument. Its hypocrites dem in Jamaica what a tell you
‘bout say, ‘Bouy, Bob Marley must stay a Jamaica’. It’s tourism dem feel Bob Marley can generate
tourism money. I never know say a dead
Rastaman would get so important. It’s
ironically that its a dead man, a Rastaman at dat, is so important to the Jamaican society
all of a sudden, which dem never use to even recognize Bob Marley. So we a really watch what dem a say. Rastaman a say, you can’t give up a continent
for an island. And its years Rastaman say dat! So Africa still der ‘pon we mind and its just Africa,
you know? So dead or alive a Africa. You know the Pope say there’s no physical
heaven or hell, you know? It’s the most
profound statement I ever hear a Pope say...
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