“THEY THINK WHAT WE KNOW IS JUST WHAT THEY TELL US… Part II
Reflections on the Greek and European Financial Crisis; PBS’ “Small Island” mini-mini tv series; and the UWI’s Rasta Studies Conference, in light of Jamaica’s on-going paroxysms of passion and pain, at the turn of the 21st century.
By Don Rico Ricketts
As “‘Mothers’ Day” approaches, a wider and deeper look at the spiritual, philosophical, ideological, socio-political, economic, and personal impact of the role of Mothers and “Mother Cultures” become more relevant than ever; as the ‘profligate’ socio-economic behavior of Greece — “Mother Country” to worshipper of South European culture — threatens to drag Europe into another, less friendly, kind of relationship; particularly so in contention with the socio-economic ‘discipline’ of the Northern European Germanic “Fatherland.”
A “Small Island” and Jamaican Woman-Power
Hortense, the central Jamaican female protagonist in “Small Island” the BBC ‘mini-series’ recently shown on PBS, is a striking (really!) literary example of the prevalent post-WWII mind-set (and settings) that continues to shape Jamaican thoughts and actions even at the turn of the twenty-first century. It was/is a foreign-mind-shaping now clearly evident even among alleged Rastas and the New Artisteocracy, instilled via Academization and Jamaican-style Hollywoodization.
In “Small Island,” Hortense epitomizes the educated, strong – even ruthless – Jamaican woman. Such women (Rastawomen among them) and their drive for ‘so-called ‘higher education’ and ‘success’ are sure to figure in any meaningful and honest future reasonings, especially among Rastas. This particular on-screen story of totally colonized African minds could have provided much more nutritious food for thought, and future conversations. Unfortunately, the brevity of that particular story of (Jamaican) Blacks in post-WWII England – via what turned out to be merely a mini-mini tv series – clearly exposed a real rush to show off the supposed racial tolerance of the British to their ‘subjects.’
Those who saw “Small Island” (the tv version) will no doubt have noticed how very abruptly (and unconvincingly) the story jumped (leaping over half-a-century of very real social and racial disharmony) from England immediately after the war; focusing on an interlude of inter-racial sex; the resultant mixed race baby, whose white mother admits (as she hands it off to the Jamaican woman) to being unable to deal with the racial hostility she’s sure will come. Immediately thereafter the ‘drama’ jumps to its forced conclusion; featuring a very brief appearance of the descendants (apparently successfully and happily integrated) of the afore-mentioned mixed-race baby, in the “present” day.
Thus is history dis-assembled, and re-assembled, re-arranged, literally, before our very eyes…via the arts, and the literature, of the literati…literally.
Those of us who were born below North Street, or lived south of East Queen Street in Kingston in the 1950’s, can remember the blowing of the “Banana Boat horn” (by HMS Producer, I think; but I was a small child) and the excitement the sound induced in the minds and imaginations of the denizens of Central Kingston. It was a sound that whispered excitedly; Somebody was on their way ‘home’ to “Mother England” and on to presumed success. Those of us of the immediate post-WWII generations therefore need little to enable us to sympathize somewhat with the Jamaican heroine of “Small Island” (a teachers’ training school graduate, no less) and the other Jamaican characters (well played by actual Jamaicans) who people this BBC-produced television drama.
The desire to be welcomed, embraced, and validated by one ‘Mother Country’ or another, is clearly and permanently on display, even today. It is understandably so in most people, including Rastas, real or imagined; Mother Africa. Mother Greece. Mother England. Mother Europe. Mother(Auntie?) America. Mother (Mater) Jamaica. Mother Greece…again.
Who knows…maybe if the new Rasta elites, who have been positioning themselves for leadership “in the house of the rising sun” (to quote Marley), ever really find time to grapple with the ecological implications (personal and societal) of the Emperor’s challenge to be bigger than mere nationalisms…better than mere religionistas, who knows? Maybe I&I, RasTafari, will give some urgent attention to “Mother Earth” (starting with a re-visiting of I&I personal and communal attitude to the Jamaican ecology and agriculture). Maybe I&I will even (indulge me, I dream) make a real reconnection to the parenthood of the Mother-and-Father cosmos…again.
Revisiting Rasta-Chic
Naturally and Itally, some of I&I remain concerned about what it is that Rasta has now ‘become,’ now that it has become soooo very fashionable and ‘cultured’ and so Euro-style Rasta-chic-to-be-Chic (not to mention academically, socially, and financially quite profitable) to imagine and re-imagine the actually lived reality of real people, real struggle, packaged as mere marketable (and malleable) mythology…notably as part of “Brand Jamaica” and its attendant stories.
Still, after years of hoping, I am still waiting to have the Academized and Hollywoodized so-called Rasta leadership (Rasta’s ‘Talented Tenth’) explain exactly how their version of apparently ‘trickle-down’ socio-economic benefits will accrue to ordinary poor Rastas. I&I have heard such professings before. They all have somethings in common with what is presently being promised by those now preparing to front Rasta: (a) Such professings have always sounded sincere and plausible (at least to the inexperienced and gullible), and (b) they mostly come from the ‘educated’ (I use the word loosely) elite, who are most often the already pre-co-opted ones; i.e. pre-co-opted by the very ‘education’ and its presumptions which they claim as the basis of their imagined credibility.
An open examination of the very real and absolutely un-avoidable problems faced by His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, and the government, and people of Ethiopia, as a result of ‘educating’ people for the progress of their country and themselves, must be the core of any discussion involving RasTafari.
A case in point: A group of college-educated-and-organized Rasta “Empresses” who claimed (initially) that they had an interest in developing a “Rasta Curriculum” seems to have very quickly lost interest – at least they seem to have lost interest in my (publicly-invited) participation. They have studiously (punning again…) avoided all my attempts to prompt them into saying, or doing, something that would indicate that they were/are serious. I think it has something to do with my pointing out that a Pan-African Curriculum and a Rasta Curriculum are not necessarily exactly the same thing, and that a first step had to be recognizing just what each could/would/should be.
To be fair, maybe I turned them off (figuratively speaking) by insisting that I&I, Rasta People, have to start any re-education by re-thinking even how I&I think about Thinking. No wonder they fled the scene; To many ‘modern’ Rastas, this is an example of absolutely insane…well, you know…Thinking?
Maybe those Sistas were ‘smart’ (see Marley’s “Big Tree”) – ‘smart’ enough to not wait around for me to ask, as I’m known to do, for open discussions about the implications of the evidence that women (including and especially ‘liberated’ Rasta Women) are likely responsible for making what are probably the majority of spending decisions in households, maybe even in the society itself. Particularly so, as women (presumably including Rasta “Empresses”) have become more and more ‘independent’ and ‘successful’ and often heads of single-parent households.
I could go further out on a limb by saying that I suspect that women (including Rasta “Empresses”) have long had a majority interest and influence over the economics of entire societies, through their overwhelming control of their male family members, fathers, uncles, sons, nephews, lovers, spouses, friends, and associated networks. But that would risk being entirely put out of the bedroom and into the cold of female disapproval …and male fear.
What’s that you say? That I’ve already been put out of the bedroom?…from way back in the early stages of my… “Crazy Rasta” thinking? Oh yes! That’s true. I almost forgot. Forgive me, and my digression…
Now, where were we…?
Oh yes, reversing into the future at deliberate speed…
Where Are We, and Just Where Are I&I Headed?
In trying to get my bearings, and attempting to re-check the calibrations, in space and time, and desirous of moving I&I beyond mere celebrations, this much I-man sense as necessary:
As much as some of I&I are concerned about the always-impending ‘Fall of Babblewrong,’ I-man have to be just as concerned about what will be ‘risen up’ to replace it. One would be well advised to use caution in approaching, let alone entering, a burning or otherwise-compromised structure, Rasta.
It is a foolish person who, seeing that his enemies house has collapsed, who then takes the same building material, without careful examination, to build his own edifice
A reminder to I-Self and to the new (now Rastasized) and up-coming elite: Rememba dat God naw sleep…
Rastafarians, Pelican People, techno-politicians, and other paid-and-un-civil servants, please take note!
Now Here’s A Question for Rasta Intellectuals: In a capitalistically materialized and monetized global culture, how is I&I ital-and-indigenous Rasta knowledge to be appraised, valued, and monetized…and by Whom? And exactly Who a-go protect Roots Rasta S&IPR from indigenous – or home-grown – Rasta-looking predators, or Rasta-imposters, dressed in academic garb?
Dem prob’ly try fi intoxicate Taam; but dat nuh mean seh him choopid. TaamSista – Maat – been watching all this all along, and I-man can feel the wind from her wings on my face. Justice cometh, attended by WiseMind… Hopefully Mercy accompanies Them.
Rasta and Religion; Rasta as Religion
Rasta People, it is important to remember that two of Jamaica’s most charismatic and influential political leaders, Eddie Seaga and Michael Manley, representing two versions of power acting in concert, used Religious Manipulation to rule Jamaican people.
Maas Eddie studied it (and us) at University and then raised up Kapo (artist and mystic) as the effective African-themed spiritual-artistic symbol. Michael (even the Joshua), another ‘well-educated’ leader, trumped Eddie’s African-themed religio-political leverage by employing the then-emerging ‘modernized’ Rasta movement with Marley as its spiritual-acrtistic icon; in much the same way as ‘Blinds’ had done with Kapo’s Revivalism, but with even better strategic timing and results. Gerry Grindley (see below) and his Grimax advertising agency is taking most of the credit (or responsibility?) for the consent-engineering applied by both parties. That is news only to those who hadn’t lived through that period.
It was the start of what I-man refer to as “The Uptown-ing and Brown-ing of Rasta” …a de-indigenization and un-ghetto-izing of Jamaica’s Rasta culture, courtesy of Joshua and (by Grindley’s own admission) Grimax advertising, public relations, and marketing — and some would say, propaganda.
Rasta had arrived. But where? And as What?
(The reader may have guessed by now that I-man, like Marley, am hugely under-whelmed by scholarly conferencings. And moreover, highly insulted at the offer of the ‘opportunity’ to be side-show purveyors of Rasta ‘cultural’ entertainment and de facto validators of Rasta bourgeois coup attempts.
I am sure that Rex Nettleford, in whose name the Rastafari studies conference is being convened, would aprayseelove I-man insist-stance against Rasta being used –literally used– to be part of some ‘cultural side-show’ providing the very same kind of “minstrelsy” the famed professor himself spoke and wrote so eloquently and passionately against).
A few of the ‘Selassie-Rod-of-Correction’ episodes during Jamaica’s perennial religious-political battles would be quite hilarious- if they weren’t also the tragi-comic lead-in to the start of the Jamaican Age of Politically-Motivated Murdering. And as usual, it was those people who live(d) in the slums and hovels of the island, and their children, especially in Kingston and St Andrew (with one of the world’s the densest concentration of churches) who paid the price as the dead or the “living sacrifice.” (Again, Marley)
Let’s be clear about where Jamaicans and Rastas started down the road of societal disintegration; because many Jamaicans, even now, will try to pretend that it was/is otherwise; because by now they think that most of the victims/witnesses/evidence have been bought-off, or killed off, or otherwise disposed of.
Therefore, let us be very clear on this – since this has always been the case — that the planning for the arming, and enabling, and unleashing, of the perpetrators (life’s perpetual traitors) of Jamaica’s post-Independence carnage took place on uptown verandahs, and in uptown parlours over expensive drinks, and in well-furnished bedrooms, and in well-appointed business boardrooms, in Jamaica and overseas. The planning took place, for the most part, far away from ordinary rootsman ganja camps, or most downtown rum bars. That is, assuming that anything more than intoxicated talk could even take place in those much-maligned spaces frequented by the underclass.
This is not any new or particularly revealing thinking; as more and more people are being forced to see now what many have seen for a long time. It is now more evident than ever how socio-political-ideological and economic terrorism has been the instrument of keeping the Jamaican cog in the global death-by-debt-machinery Greeced…sorry, greased — ever since Columbus “come bus’ us” half a millennium ago
As they say; predators/hunters win the power to write their own stories, and their own versions of history. It is also said that when lions learn how to write, then that will be a different story. Then it will be the hunters who will have to scramble to protect their own asses.
Amen, Amun. Ah, Man…
Copyright © 2010 Don Rico Ricketts / The Maudhonna & Gilbert Findlay Foundation / The Art&Glory Foundation
