Jamaica is world renowned for its
Reggae music gifted to the world by legendary Rastafarians such as Bob Marley
and Peter Tosh. The edgy looking Jamaican Rastafarian locks have come to
represent the emblem of a rapidly growing rebellion against the status quo so
much that it has become normative behaviour and a widely accepted lifestyle
choice for many. The Rastafarian movement now has an estimated one million
persons scattered across the globe and the movement is still gaining momentum. Yet the movement emerged from a people on
the island of Jamaica who have suffered a history of structural, physical,
emotional oppression.
Rastafarians are a set of people
rooted in a cultural specific way of life who are indigenous to Jamaica. They
clamour for specific rights based on their historical, ancestral and spiritual
ties to Africa. Their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other
populations is that that are often wear their hair uncombed (a statement of
resentment against the status-quo and to assert their common identity) and they
uphold Pan-African social and political desires. Most Rastafarians spiritual
divinity is rooted in a belief of Haile Selassie as God personified. Their
political aspiration is an emotional and, in some cases, physical repatriation
to Ethiopia. There are three main pillars of Rastafari: the Bobo Ashanti, the
Niyabinghi and the Twelve Tribes of Israel. There are two components of
Rastafarianism: the lifestyle and the doctrine. The lifestyle includes wearing a
dreadlock hairstyle, eating natural food devoid of sugar, salt and other
processed chemical additives; the doctrinal tenet draws in part on the
Abrahamic faith. Rastafarians also believe Haile Selassie is God incarnate and
that he will return to Africa members of the black community scattered abroad
who are living in exile as the result of colonisation and the slave trade.
In Jamaica, Rastafarians are
often despised for their culture. They
are often ridiculed and marginalized, abused, and denied the right to
self-determination and to practice their spiritual and cultural beliefs. The
state apparatus in Jamaica has long ignored the recognition of Rastafarians in
line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The Jamaican government has shown some sympathy toward the Rastafarian movement
yet most of the state’s engagement has been historically patronising. Up until
recently there was a lack of political will to protect and promote their full and
effective participation in important Human Rights matters that concern them.
While rights organisations in the
US and Western Europe have continuously garnered statistical data about police brutality and stop and search
episodes of black and ethnic minorities, the routine stop and search by the
Jamaican police of Rastafarians in Jamaica bear no statistical importance. Thus
aggrieved Rastafarians are left only to ‘forget
their troubles and dance’ according to the Late Robert Nesta Marley. We know
that Black Monday refers to Monday October 19th 1987, when stock markets around
the world crashed shedding a huge value in a very short time but who the heck
cares about ‘Bad Friday’ in 1963 in
Coral Gardens?
‘Bad Friday’, 11th of April 1963, was a very gloomy day
in the historic struggles of Rastafarians in Jamaica. The then Prime Minister
of Jamaica Sir Alexander Bustamante made an order to the security force to ‘Bring in all Rasta’s, dead or alive!’
Six Rastafarians died and hundreds of others were rounded up, wrongfully
arrested tortured and imprisoned. It was a grave crime against humanity that Rastafarians
have not forgotten. There has been a long and protracted lobbying of Rastafarians
for state reparation and an official apology
by the Government of Jamaica for this atrocity.
Earlier this year in Jamaica, I
had the distinguished honour to be introduced by the late Clive “Kuba” to Ras
Iyah V, the President of the
Westmoreland Ganja Farmers association. Ras
Iyah V is a fervent campaigner for reparation for
Rastafarians and the victims of the Coral Gardens atrocities. At the meeting he
became very emotive about the JLPs’ involvement with the Coral Garden massacre
and the Back O Wall displacement of
Rastafarians. He was unhappy that the
victims of both incidents were not offered apologies and reparation. I, too,
felt that these incidents were the Achilles heel for the JLP, creating a wedge
between the Party and the wider Rastafarian movement. A redeeming feature of
those conversations was Ras Iyah V acknowledgement of the JLPs Mike Henry’s
contribution to a debate in Montego Bay in 2007 that a Coral Gardens Committee Commission
was appointed by the Jamaican government in March 2009.
Ras Iya V and Dub poet Mutabaruka
have been at the forefront of social advocacy, actively lobbying Government
officials and seeking reparation for victims and survivors of the Coral Garden
massacre. The incident was triggered by a land dispute where a Rastafarian was
shot, injured and imprisoned unjustly by the criminal justice system at the time.
As revenge on his release from prison he started a riot fire by burning a gas
station that eventually ended up with a number of fatalities. Eight persons
were killed; this included two police men and the rebellion leader. Incensed by the scale of the riot- the then
prime minister ordered the police to restore order by shooting Rastas as on
sight. A strong detachment of police from neighbouring parishes was dispatched
to Coral Gardens and surrounding areas where more than 150 Rastafarians were
rounded up and arrested, beaten and tortured. At the heart of the uprising was
social injustice, lands rights, social inequality and the unfair distribution
of justice.
Fifty three years later, on the
back of constant lobbying, a documentary screening about the Coral Gardens incident
premiered at the Smithsonian Institute, resulted in several protesting voices
and a public march staged by Rastafarians in Mandela Park. Resulting from a 2009
Government led public enquiry Rastafarian’s voices are only now being heard.
I have voiced my opinion in
private with my JLP colleagues about these two incidents and the deportation of
Walter Rodney. I am deeply dissatisfied by the manner in which Rodney, a
Rastafarian aficionado, was banned from Jamaica when he returned to the island
after he attended a black writers' conference in Montreal, Canada in October
1968. The Hugh Shearer led JLP cited, among other things, trips to Cuba and the
USSR as justification. It was an open
secret that his growing popularity among the Rastafarian community made the Government
very uncomfortable. Speaking through the Political side of my mouth my viewpoint
is that, as a party, the JLP need to redeem its credibility with Rastafarians
by also offering an unreserved apology.
There is still a failure by the
state institutions in Jamaica to ensure the Rastafarian’s right to remain
distinct and to pursue their own priorities in economic, social, spiritual and
cultural development is protected. Attitudes have begun to shift; Senator Mark
Golding, Jamaican Justice Minister, has shown remarkable sensitivity on the
rights of Rastafarians. It was at his behest on Monday 2nd June, Cabinet
approved certain changes to the law relating to ganja that will in part benefit
Rastafarians. Under his watch, approval was given also to a proposal for the
decriminalization of the use of small quantities of ganja for religious
purposes. This was done on the recommendation of the 2003 Chavannes Report.
This will go far in ridding Rastafarians of unwarranted police harassment and
criminal convictions that prevent them from access to work, social exclusion
and the prevention from overseas travel.
So you all can imagine how the
graves of elder scribes of the Rastafarian movement, such as Leonard Howell,
Mortimo Planner and Samuel Brown Graves, must have jolted with the news of a
final settlement broken by my beloved mentor, Adrian Frater of the Gleaner
Western Beuro. This settlement proposed reparation for the
victims and survival of the callous Coral Garden Massacre of 1963. It was
reported at a meeting of the St James Parish Council in Montego Bay Jamaica
that the Public Defender, Arlene Harrison, presented a member of the Coral
Gardens committee with a copy of the enquiry Report. The Public defender stated
in her findings that a great discourtesy had been done to many Rastafarians at
the time. She outlined a raft of recommendations to be acted upon by the Government
of Jamaica, such as an apology from the Government to the injured party. She
called for the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to take the lead for developing
a culturally specific centre for the preservation of Rastafarian culture. Most
important, the report, according to Adrian Frater, includes a suggested
reparation component of ten million Jamaican dollars to the families and
victims of and survivors affected by this historical atrocity. This figure, in
my opinion, falls way below the value of compensation that deserves and should
be revisited .The matter is now squarely placed in the lap of the Jamaican
government to implement these recommendations.
The right of state compensation to the victims
and survivors of Coral Gardens are enshrined in Resolution 60/147 of 16
December 2005 of the UN General assembly. The resolution lays out basic principles
and guidelines on how the state should act on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violations of
International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of International Humanitarian
Law.
The preamble of this UN
resolution reaffirms the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and
Abuse of Power. This includes that victims should be treated with
compassion and respect for their dignity, have their right to access to justice
and redress mechanisms fully respected, and that the establishment,
strengthening and expansion of national funds for compensation to victims
should be encouraged, together with the expeditious development of appropriate rights
and remedies for victims of such atrocities.
Those who know me well will
attest to the fact that I have an unswerving bias to the principles of the
Jamaica Labour Party. However in terms of human rights I hold principle above
my political leanings. The Coral Gardens incident presents a pivotal moment for
political convergence for bi-partisan confluence on such an important and
sensitive issue. Rastafarians in Jamaica have long been alienated from the
political system based upon the way in which they are falsely perceived; they
have contributed so much to our rich cultural heritage. The means by which we
tackle class prejudice is not by offering comforting political platitudes but
by swift and concrete actions that enable a fair distribution of justice. I see within every Rastafarian what I see in
myself despite my secular leanings. Out common humanity it what unites us:
not how we speak, look and worship. The victory of the Rastafarians in their
struggle for equality and the right to self-determination raises the level of
our cultural cohesiveness as Jamaicans. It can also reaffirm and adds value to our
common heritage. Blessed Love Iyah V.
This article was written by Donovan Reynolds CEO and edited by Ann
Smith Managing Editor of Kingston-Mouth .com.
Donovan Reynolds is an Independent Blogger and Human Rights Activists
who is of a Jamaican descent and a legal academic that has an interest in Human
Rights, Culture and International Development Issues.
