The Earth Most Strangest Man: the Rastafarian
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THE EARTH MOST STRANGEST MAN THE RASTAFARIAN BY MORTIMO PLANNO © 2006 Lambros Comitas An explanation of Mortimo Planno’s The Earth Most Strangest Man: The Rastafarian - by Lambros Comitas - Late in the summer of 1969, while visiting anthropology students in Jamaica, I tried to find Mortimo Planno, a Rastafarian who I had briefly met on an earlier field trip to the island. With Claudia Rogers, then one of my students working in West Kingston, we found Planno in his Trench Town yard. A powerful, well-built man adorned with imposing dreadlocks, Planno was a striking figure, a many-faceted individual with whom I developed over the years that followed a warm yet somewhat implausible relationship. I remember that day in 1969, we talked about race relations and civil rights, Rastafari settlements around Kingston, his stay in the United States and the consequential televised debate he had with Malcolm X, we even talked about 35mm cameras and a newfangled videotape machine that I had hauled to the island. Clearly in the course of that conversation, we were also both probing, each assessing the strange other before him. For me, it was a friendly encounter of contrasts, one with an unanticipated outcome. As our talk wound down, Planno casually declared that he could organize a Rastafari gathering at the Dungle, the slum of Marcus Garvey fame, to show me something of Rastafari belief and, probably more important to him, something to be captured for future consumption by this new video contraption. Apparently, this particular bit of new technology had very much caught his attention. I long knew Planno was interested in communication, in the spreading of the word, and therefore, in the technology that made it possible. In this regard, I can still remember the scores of audiotape cassettes stacked behind a cot in his barren room and thinking then that these recordings must contain years of Rastafari reality in Jamaica. In any case, Planno’s unexpected offer seemed a golden opportunity and was accepted with alacrity. The actual happening took place on August 5th, 1969 in the shanty that housed the Ethiopian World Federation Local 37 in Salt Lane and a portion of that possibly first videotape of the Rastafari is viewable on www.cifas.us. There was a second surprise. A few days after the event, Planno proposed I write a book about Rastafari. This was a time when little published material existed about that movement and its followers. Although flattered, I turned this intriguing suggestion aside saying, quite truthfully, that my knowledge of the subject was superficial but that a book about Rastafari authored by a knowledgeable Rastafarian would make much more sense and would be a much more worthwhile contribution. So, “Brother Kumi, you write the book, you’re absolutely the right person”. He thought a moment and replied, “How do you write a book?” A day later, after being given a school notebook containing many blank, blue-lined pages, he asked, “How do I know when it’s finished?” Easy, came the glib answer, “When all the pages are filled!” And, as memory holds, Mortimo Planno handed me The Earth Most Strangest Man: The Rastafarian, all filled one hundred hand- written pages, just three weeks later. Who is the author? Born in Cuba in 1929 of a Jamaican mother, Mortimo “Kumi” Planno was brought to Jamaica in 1932. He grew up in the Back-O-Wall section of West Kingston and lived much of his adult life in the neighboring Trench Town slum. Long active in the development of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica, Planno was one of the few Rastafari representative on the 1961 Mission to Africa, an official Jamaican delegation that traveled in Africa to explore the possibilities of repatriation. He played a pivotal role on April 21, 1966 (now known as Grounation Day) when Emperor Haile Selassie arrived for a historic visit to Jamaica. On that tumultuous occasion, official protocol and police control broke down as some hundred thousand wildly enthusiastic Rastafari and their sympathizers excitedly awaited the arrival of the Living God. It was Planno who almost single-handedly calmed the crowd, restored order and allowed for a dignified imperial disembarkation. He was among the few selected Rastafari Elders who met with His Imperial Majesty during a momentous three-day stay. He was the influential teacher. Undoubtedly Planno’s star student, Bob Marley often “reasoned” with Planno in Trench Town during the hectic years of the mid-sixties when teacher would expound on Rastafarian principles, rites and customs to a budding international celebrity who eventually would become a dedicated and outspoken adherent of Rastafarianism. With only two years of formal schooling, Planno had become an esteemed mentor, a studious individual, an exceptional orator with an abiding concern for the welfare of all Rastafari,, and a staunch adherent of Haile Selassie as Living God known and respected by Rastafari brethren worldwide. For well over a half century Planno was an exemplary Rastafari. Death came too quickly in 2006. THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT The original manuscript was written using multiple colors; the facsimile text is completely in black, text colors utilized by author in the original were black, red, green, yellow, blue, light blue, orange, and brown. The size of the notebook used by he author is 8 X 10 3/4 inches with a soft gray paper cover. It contains 100 two-sided, blue-lined ii pages, each page numbered on the front, upper right hand corner. The entire text is in long hand. In addition to text, the manuscript contains seven drawings and two charts, each digitalized and placed in the appropriate text place. THE TRANSCRIBED TEXT This document contains a transcription of the original text. Except for the printing, this transcription reflects, with very few exceptions, the original manuscript which contains elements of Rastafarian argot and Jamaican Creole. To have standardized the text to fit the canons of America or British English and a linguistically “correct” presentation would have undoubtedly altered the meanings embedded in the Planno manuscript, a manuscript that should be interpreted directly by the reader. Consequently, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and syntax as well as the ordering of headings and paragraphs utilized in the original manuscript were transcribed without change. The few exceptions involved minor formatting issues: each page of text was forced-right justified: any text centered or indented from the left margin and left justified (e.g., poems, lyrics) was centered without left alignment; spacing between headings and paragraphs were standardized; and, background and text colors are white and black respectively. iii Man's Immortality Lives in His Progeny Memories! They are like echoes, always come back. So, also with the Memories of Slavery. Slavery Has caused the world to be aware of a cancerous growth in race relationship between Black and white people in every country both races are domicile: Only a direct Confrontation of Both Races can prove the theory of those observer who continually forecast the out come of the Hypocritical Psychologies of the Slavemaster in Disguise of Truth. The Rastafarians has a peculiar type of truth which only can be recognise by careful studies of the Rastafarian movement. Such Movement has two Professional Papers written by Professor's of Univercities. The Rastafarians believe that a Univercity is an institution liken unto a Research Centre. The Role of a Universcity therefore is to make new discovery known unto the world through Educational Interpretation. Here Colombia Univercity offer through Professor Ambrose Comitas the opportunity of Pubilication of a Paper on themselves which would be published in a Book form. One thing worth mention is this Author was one of the Brethren who figure in Most of the Movement representatives activities He wrote The former Governor General of the British Colony of Jamaica, the Then Sir Kenneth Blackbourne in 1959 (3/3/59) -- who forwarded his letter to the Then Minister of Home Affairs The Hon. Dr. Ivan Lloyd, who met a delegation of 12 Brethren of the Rastafarian Movement 10/3/59 This Author wrote the Principal of the U.C.W.I. Professor Arthur W. Lewis asking him to survey the Rastafarian Movement and Report his finding to the proper Authority with his own Recommendations which was done in 1960, and a Mission was sent to five free states of Africa in 1961 on account of Professor Lewis's Recommendation. I also went on this Mission. The Mission on its Return was called upon to Sign a Comprehensive Report and I did not sign which this opportunity will enable I to Explain why I did not sign. It will interest many Readers to imagine how a Rastafarian think, and why do he think that way, and most of all How He became a Rastafarian Himself. approach. The Echoes of the Memories of Slavery resounded in the minds of the yet unborn of those who passes through the tribulation of Slavery Truth can only be identified by Truth. So I approach the Haunting Memories of Slavery! I may caution here that I 1 believe, that Education should be a Right and not a privilege, yet I Education is limited as the Colonial System Represent. There is an old saying. "They have to fool mi to Rule mi" The British has completely fool our ancestors to Rule them. But we are made products of our own produce, by our acceptance of their Political System. Here is where I am trying to paint a picture that can be seen by even the Color Blind. The British I an I Slavemaster write various conflicting Histories on African Slavery, lies, lies, lies, most of the Truth of African Slavery has been written in other foreign languages but not the British.