DOCSLIB.ORG

Connecting at the Intersection Conversing Identities on a Street Corner in Cape Town

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Connecting at the Intersection Conversing Identities on a Street Corner in Cape Town REMI CALLEJA (CLLREM001) 2019 Connecting at the Intersection Conversing Identities on a Street Corner in Cape Town In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Anthropology Faculty of the Humanities UniversityUniversity ofof Cape CapeTown Town This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: 1/11/2019 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town Table of Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................................... i Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ ii Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 I – Literature Review .................................................................................................................. 18 II – Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 28 III – Ethics ................................................................................................................................... 39 IV – At the Corner ....................................................................................................................... 40 V – We are the KhoeSan ............................................................................................................. 58 VI – Why am I a Rastaman? ........................................................................................................ 74 VII - Healing Nations, Introducing the Occupation. ................................................................... 93 VIII - I Man a de Bush Doctor ................................................................................................... 110 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 124 Limitations and Takeaways ....................................................................................................... 126 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 129 Annex: Pictures from the field experience .................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. Acknowledgments First, I deeply thank Simon, Jo, Gad, and Naphtali, for their time, patience, and crucial con- tribution. The four healers shaped and nurtured the research. Without the group of young men, this work would not have been possible. I also thank additional contributors, such as Zeb, Rambo, Tank, Denver, Carlo, and Bradley, who contributed to the development and articulation of the various steps of the enterprise. I thank Dr. Marlon Swai for his help and supervision throughout the process. He permitted me to expand my understandings, deepen my approaches, and open my interpretations. His teachings, ad- vises, and the discussions we shared contributed to shaping my framework of thought and analysis. The entire UCT Anthropology Department also played an important role in the articulation of the work, especially Francis Nyamnjoh, Fiona Ross, and Lesley Green who contributed to my develop- ment as an anthropologist and researcher through their courses. Asonzeh Ukah’s teachings on African religions also had an important influence on the conceptual framing of the work. Finally, I thank my family and friends for their involvement, help, and fruitful comments. Without their support, I could not have achieved the research. i Abstract The research proposes to unpack the process of identity negotiation among a group of Cape Bush doctors, as well as to reflect on my own negotiation. During the time spent together, these claimants of a KhoeSan identity presented a permeating Rastafari sense of belonging and reconnected with their Indigenous identity through their work with herbs. The research participants challenged hegemonic perspectives on identity, culture, health, and respectability. They carried out their practices and beliefs within an urban environment represented by the space of the street corner. A central relational ontology emerged throughout the research, em- phasizing the multiple underlying connections and interdependencies that structure their worldview and deeply influencing my personal development. The negotiation of their identity was shaped by constant processes of re-appropriation, adaptation, and re-composition and contributed to bridging historical, cultural, and social gaps imposed by years of colonisation, oppression, and marginalisation. I argue in this research that understanding the production of identity through a dynamic and fluid framework of knowledge participates to foster reinter- pretations of agency, power, wealth, and marginality. To contend with the plurality of crisis we face in the contemporary moment, We must learn from these alternative worldviews. ii Naphtali was standing in front of me, visibly excited to tell about his weekend and how he found the precious Red Carrots. ‘I was in Plettenberg Bay, my lord. I went there with my woman. You know, even when she was pregnant, she would come with me and help to find medicine. She would dig, my brother, with the baby inside her, she would dig better than anyone and pull out roots, herbs, plants, everything...’ He recalled. ‘Now look, we are in the mountain over there and, at some point, I feel something. You see, my feet are connected, my toes are one with the roots underneath, I can feel the energy, the power, and I know where the plants are. It's like if the soil is speaking through my feet, through my body, then, I know. So now, I tell the others “there!”’ he said pointing an imaginary spot in the concrete of the road. ‘So, everyone digs, my lord, and do you know what we find? A big Red Carrot, huge my King. Yo, we found a lot of medicine that day.’ Jo showed his respect, his hands symbolizing the Trinity, the Solomon seal, imitating the gesture made by Emperor Haile Selassie I, ‘Respect, my King.’ Then, he completed Naphtali's words. ‘Now, let me explain to you, Remi. We are the Indigenous people; we are the people from the Earth. In the mountain, we can feel the ancestors, they are all around, they guide us. That's why we must know where we come from, not deny our origins and who we are but embrace it. I'm telling you, Remi, you have to connect, to feel the relations all around, to open yourself and feel what is there.’ Introduction ‘I'm telling you, Remi, you have to connect, to feel the relations all around, to open yourself…’ advised Jo. But why connecting? Why this emphasis on relations? Our world is in a constant situation of motion, hosting movements of goods, people, and ideas. Therefore, contacts, exchanges, and borrowings structure global as well as personal developments. We compose and re-compose our identities through multiple connections. We dynamically and fluidly negotiate who we are as individuals and as members of a group. We need to connect to exist. That must be acknowledged and promoted. Throughout my Honours’ research on the ‘reactivation’ of the KhoeSan identity in the Western Cape today I have observed the great variety of ways to express that specific belonging among the claimants. This Master’s thesis contends with the KhoeSan identity reclamation as a tumultuous set of responses to socio-political conditions and transitions that, although is often called a resurgence, reclamation, or reactivation, has been in continuum since the founding of the colony and way before 1 as I argue along with the likes of Barnard (1988), Biesele (1993), Haacke (2002), Lewis-Williams (1984), or Low (2004)… I understand these reclamations and actualizations of Indigeneity in the present moment to be a necessary and prescient response to the current conditions that we face. I am genuinely captivated by the profound respect and dignity that Indigenous communities present and I was called to write particularly about the plurality of socio/political/spiritual/cultural/natural resources that they are able to wield. More specifically, I propose to concentrate on the process of identity negotiation1 among a group of young men who identify as Bush doctor or traditional healers. They ‘work herbs’, healing nations on a bustling four-way intersection in the heart of urban Cape Town. Juggling with boundaries and categorisations, these claimants2 of an Indigenous identity are also experiencing a powerful Rastafari belonging and draw from various additional heritages. They connect. After Naphtali’s recollection of his weekend, he, alongside Jo, Simon, and Gad, continued their daily life, working herbs, exchanging with passers-by, and sharing knowledge. Remi, who stood out through his clothing, skin tone, and eventual behaviour was standing among the four
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Lyrics and the Law : the Constitution of Law in Music
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-2006 Lyrics and the law : the constitution of law in music. Aaron R. S., Lorenz University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Lorenz, Aaron R. S.,, "Lyrics and the law : the constitution of law in music." (2006). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 2399. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/2399 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LYRICS AND THE LAW: THE CONSTITUTION OF LAW IN MUSIC A Dissertation Presented by AARON R.S. LORENZ Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 2006 Department of Political Science © Copyright by Aaron R.S. Lorenz 2006 All Rights Reserved LYRICS AND THE LAW: THE CONSTITUTION OF LAW IN MUSIC A Dissertation Presented by AARON R.S. LORENZ Approved as to style and content by: Sheldon Goldman, Member DEDICATION To Martin and Malcolm, Bob and Peter. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project has been a culmination of many years of guidance and assistance by friends, family, and colleagues. I owe great thanks to many academics in both the Political Science and Legal Studies fields. Graduate students in Political Science have helped me develop a deeper understanding of public law and made valuable comments on various parts of this work.
    [Show full text]
  • Chant Down Babylon: the Rastafarian Movement and Its Theodicy for the Suffering
    Verge 5 Blatter 1 Chant Down Babylon: the Rastafarian Movement and Its Theodicy for the Suffering Emily Blatter The Rastafarian movement was born out of the Jamaican ghettos, where the descendents of slaves have continued to suffer from concentrated poverty, high unemployment, violent crime, and scarce opportunities for upward mobility. From its conception, the Rastafarian faith has provided hope to the disenfranchised, strengthening displaced Africans with the promise that Jah Rastafari is watching over them and that they will someday find relief in the promised land of Africa. In The Sacred Canopy , Peter Berger offers a sociological perspective on religion. Berger defines theodicy as an explanation for evil through religious legitimations and a way to maintain society by providing explanations for prevailing social inequalities. Berger explains that there exist both theodicies of happiness and theodicies of suffering. Certainly, the Rastafarian faith has provided a theodicy of suffering, providing followers with religious meaning in social inequality. Yet the Rastafarian faith challenges Berger’s notion of theodicy. Berger argues that theodicy is a form of society maintenance because it allows people to justify the existence of social evils rather than working to end them. The Rastafarian theodicy of suffering is unique in that it defies mainstream society; indeed, sociologist Charles Reavis Price labels the movement antisystemic, meaning that it confronts certain aspects of mainstream society and that it poses an alternative vision for society (9). The Rastas believe that the white man has constructed and legitimated a society that is oppressive to the black man. They call this society Babylon, and Rastas make every attempt to defy Babylon by refusing to live by the oppressors’ rules; hence, they wear their hair in dreads, smoke marijuana, and adhere to Marcus Garvey’s Ethiopianism.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Tosh Into the Counterculture Hall of Fame
    Roger Steffens’ Induction Speech of PETER TOSH into the Counterculture Hall of Fame by Roger Steffens In addition to presenting daily multi-media shows on Peter Back in 1998 the burgeoning annual Amsterdam gathering of and Bob, I was invited to The Temple to be a “celebrity judge” herbalists sponsored by High Times, known as the Cannabis Cup, of 21 sativas and 63 indicas. Let me state immediately that this decided to create a Cannabis Hall of Fame. Bob Marley was is not humanly possible, not even for someone with more than an obvious choice for its initial member. As a biographer of the four decades of Saigon-Commie-Weed initiation puffing behind Reggae King, I was invited to come help induct him and celebrate him. But I did give it the old college try, once the afternoon show his efforts toward the re-legalization of Jah Holy Weed. Part of was concluded. Andrew Tosh was an almost constant visitor to the award was a nearly two-foot long cola presented to Bob’s the aerie climes of The Temple – five stories up a terribly narrow delighted widow Rita, who promptly cancelled her flight home. staircase whose boards were thin as rulers. Once we were there, “How can I leave this behind?” she asked me later in her hotel surrounded by shelves of jars of strains in contention for the Grand room, as she rolled a snow cone spliff the size of a small tusk. Prize (which could mean for its creator, we were told privately, as Ten years later, the Hall broadened to include other bohemian much as one million dollars or more in added seed sales because fellow travelers, and changed its name to the Counterculture Hall of this “honor”), there seemed no reason to leave.
    [Show full text]
  • Samson and Moses As Moral Exemplars in Rastafari
    WARRIORS AND PROPHETS OF LIVITY: SAMSON AND MOSES AS MORAL EXEMPLARS IN RASTAFARI __________________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board __________________________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY __________________________________________________________________ by Ariella Y. Werden-Greenfield July, 2016 __________________________________________________________________ Examining Committee Members: Terry Rey, Advisory Chair, Temple University, Department of Religion Rebecca Alpert, Temple University, Department of Religion Jeremy Schipper, Temple University, Department of Religion Adam Joseph Shellhorse, Temple University, Department of Spanish and Portuguese © Copyright 2016 by Ariella Y. Werden-Greenfield All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT Since the early 1970’s, Rastafari has enjoyed public notoriety disproportionate to the movement’s size and humble origins in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica roughly forty years earlier. Yet, though numerous academics study Rastafari, a certain lacuna exists in contemporary scholarship in regards to the movement’s scriptural basis. By interrogating Rastafari’s recovery of the Hebrew Bible from colonial powers and Rastas’ adoption of an Israelite identity, this dissertation illuminates the biblical foundation of Rastafari ethics and symbolic registry. An analysis of the body of scholarship on Rastafari, as well as of the reggae canon, reveals
    [Show full text]
  • Steppin Razor the Life of Peter Tosh Free Download
    STEPPIN RAZOR THE LIFE OF PETER TOSH FREE DOWNLOAD John Masouri | 496 pages | 01 Sep 2013 | OMNIBUS PRESS | 9781847728364 | English | London, United Kingdom Steppin' Razor: The Life of Peter Tosh What makes the film even more eerie is that it is narrated by Tosh himself. Inthe Rolling Stones record label contracted Tosh and released the album Bush Doctorwhich introduced Tosh to a larger audience. Now on the Rolling Stones label, he produced a couple of great albums in succession such as Bush Doctor and Mystic Man which features some sensational production by Robbie Shakespeare and Sly Dunbar. Peter would often some into the studio with nothing more than sketches for his songs, show them to his band, and once his vocals had been recorded and some of his great wah-wah reggae wash, he Steppin Razor the Life of Peter Tosh sit in the control room and consume enormous amounts of ganja. Edit page. The film is like a vivid dream: it's so short but it means so much. This because the last episode on his legacy, was for me not necessary and even disturbing. Average rating 4. Edit Did You Know? I guess he needs the money. The critical British press on him is another interesting theme, and justly Masouri is critical about the arrogance in some British press pieces vilifying Tosh as inadequate or even fake. Colin Grant achieved this better, I think, in his Steppin Razor the Life of Peter Tosh on Garvey. Director: Nicholas Campbell. Refresh and try again. Intro to larger audiences Inthe Rolling Stones record label contracted Tosh and released the album Bush Doctorwhich introduced Tosh to a larger audience.
    [Show full text]
  • Legalize It PR
    LEE JAFFE “LEGALIZE IT” September 8 - October 6, 2012 OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, September 8 from 7 to 10 PM Dem Passwords is pleased to present, "Legalize It," a photo and video exhibition by Lee Jaffe. ! ! Bronx born Jaffe's narrative unfolds out of filmmaking, performance and conceptual art into music and photography through the lens of an itinerant activist insider. Politicized as a product of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights era and in league with a transgressive milieu of artists extending from the United States to the Caribbean, down to Brazil and overseas to West Africa, Jaffe has hewn a path for rebel expressionism into and outside of the mainstream since the late 1960's. ! From 1972 to '76 Jaffe traveled with and contributed to the energy of the Reggae music explosion led by Bob Marley and company. What remains is their spirit embedded in images rich in modern celebratory energy, ordered by Jaffe's rural topophilia, but more exotic for their rawness.!Peter Tosh!rides a donkey. Bob and Peter hang out by a window in a long-take video. Peter poses in a red clay ganja field. These are young men in touch with a dangerous energy that at the time these images were captured, was only beginning to manifest.! ! The 1974 international breakthrough of "Natty Dread" crystallized their contemporary impact, fertilizing the marketplace for Tosh's solo output and the advancement of their revolutionary politics.! ! Jaffe's collection captures Peter Tosh in the Spring of '76 just months before the release of his now classic debut solo album “Legalize It”,! 11 years before his assassination.! ! "…the divine spirit that we was born and raised with, it teaches us to multiply nothing with nothing and get something.
    [Show full text]
  • Sly & Robbie with Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt
    Ms. Griffiths toured with Bob Marley from Sly & Robbie with Marcia Griffiths, 1974 until his untimely passing in 1981. Judy Mowatt & Cherine Anderson ~ 10:00 She has released a number of singles as a solo artist including “Electric Boogie,” Sly & Robbie in a showcase with Bob Marley’s I-Threes harmony singers originally written and recorded by Bunny Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt who along with next generation artist Wailer, which was remixed in 1989 and Cherine Anderson will perform some of the classics from the Bob Marley made the line dance the Electric Slide an and the Wailers catalog as well as individually on tracks that established each international craze that continues today of them as solo artists. on dance floors globally. Expect our own dance party on the ROTR 2017 stage Sly & Robbie during her set and in a highly anticipated I-Threes tribute performance. Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare have performed as a drum and bass duo on an estimated 200,000 tracks and are considered the most recorded Judy Mowatt musicians in all of music, A harmony vocalist with the I-Threes regardless of genre. The working alongside Marcia Griffiths and duo are responsible for Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt is also credited ushering in the digital as a writer on two songs from the Wailers’ era of Reggae with album Burnin, “Hallelujah Time” and their production and “Pass It On”. As a solo artist, she has live performances as released seven albums and created one part of the group Black of Reggae music’s all time classics, the Uhuru using computer 1979 release Black Woman.
    [Show full text]
  • Steppin Razor the Life of Peter Tosh Free
    FREE STEPPIN RAZOR THE LIFE OF PETER TOSH PDF John Masouri | 496 pages | 01 Sep 2013 | OMNIBUS PRESS | 9781847728364 | English | London, United Kingdom The Life of Peter Tosh : Steppin' Razor | Reggae Vibes Looking for a movie the entire family can enjoy? Check out our picks for family friendly movies movies that transcend all ages. For even more, visit our Family Entertainment Guide. See the full list. Title: Stepping Razor: Red X On a fall night inthree men forced their way into Peter Tosh's home in Kingston, Jamaica. Inside, they drew guns and forced their way upstairs where they confronted Tosh and some friends. Tosh was beaten, pistol- whipped and then shot several times. Five others were shot before the gunmen fled. The victims were rushed to the hospital, but it was too late for Tosh. He died shortly after. Stepping Razor: Red X, the documentary, explores the life of the late Peter Tosh, reggae artist, Jamaican folk hero, prophet and radical political activist. Based on his personal taped diaries, the Red X tapes, the film reveals the inner thoughts of this volatile musician. His closest friends and associates talk about the many sides of Peter Tosh, explaining his fiery career and dramatic death. Archival interviews with Tosh and rare Steppin Razor the Life of Peter Tosh footage fill Steppin Razor the Life of Peter Tosh this picture of the Rasta visionary. Written by Clint Weiler. When reggae star Peter Tosh was murdered in his Jamaican home inhe left behind a legacy of not only his brilliant music, but also a legacy of his political struggles for equal rights and justice in Jamaica.
    [Show full text]
  • Mick Jagger © Felix Aeppli 04-2020 / 09-2021
    Memo From Turner Mick Jagger © Felix Aeppli 04-2020 / 09-2021 1001 July 26, 1943 Born in Dartford, Kent: Michael Philip Jagger. 1001A Late 1961 Bob Beckwith’s home, Bexleyheath, near Dartford, and/or Dick Taylor’s home, Dartford, Kent: LITTLE BOY BLUE AND THE BLUE BOYS, SOME OLD SONGS (Download EP, Promotone / iTunes, May 27, 2013: cuts 1-6, 8 [1, 4, 5 plus repeats of 2, 3 all incomplete]); THE ROLLING STONES FILES 1961-1964 (BT CD: cuts 1-6, 8 [1, 4, 5 plus repeats of 2, 3 all incomplete]); THE ROLLING STONES, REELIN’ & ROCKIN’ (BT CD: cuts 1-5 [all incomplete]); DOWN THE ROAD APIECE (STONES TOURING HISTORY VOL. 1) (BT CD: cuts 1, 9 [1 longer, but still incomplete]); HOW BRITAIN GOT THE BLUES (BT CD: cuts 2, 3, 6, 8), BILL WYMAN’S BLACK BOX (BT CD [VGP]: cuts 2, 3, 6, 8); GENUINE BLACK BOX (BT CD box set [Disc 1]: cuts 5, 11-13); REEL TIME TRIP (BT CD: cut 7): 1. Around And Around, 2. Little Queenie, 3. Beautiful Delilah (all Berry), 4. La Bamba (Trad. arr. Valens), 5. Go On To School (Reed) [not Wee Baby Blues (Turner, John- son)], 6. I Ain’t Got You (Carter), 7. I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone (Kesler, Taylor), 8. Down The Road Apiece (Raye), 9. Don’t Stay Out All Night (Arnold), 10. I Ain’t Got You (Carter), 11. Johnny B. Goode, 12. Little Queenie, 13. Beautiful Delilah (all Berry) MJ: vocals; Keith Richards: guitar, Bob Beckwith: guitar, and maybe harmonica (13); Dick Taylor: bass, guitar, drums (probably 13); Alan Etherington: maracas, drums, back-up vocals; – NOTES: Cuts 1-13: 30 minutes reel-to-reel tape of which the original was bought by Mick Jagger at Christie’s auction house, London, May 25, 1995, for £ 50,250; Cut 10: Existence unconfirmed; Cuts 11-13: Might come from a January, 1962, session at Dick Taylor’s home; – In spite of respective rumours, LITTLE BOY BLUE AND THE BLUE BOYS just rehearsed in their parents homes and never had a public appearance.
    [Show full text]
  • Eva Presenhuber
    EVA PRESENHUBER Press release June 2019 Lee Jaffe Jean-Michel Basquiat June 28 to July 26, 2019 39 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012 Opening on Thursday, June 27, 6 to 9 pm Lee Jaffe’s music career was almost over before it began. Following his decision to drop out of Penn State University before his senior year, Jaffe’s band had their musical equipment stolen before they ever played a single show. Musically inclined from an early age, one of Jaffe’s lifelong goals was to play the harmonica alongside Muddy Waters. Despite this goal never being realized Jaffe says with a laugh, he’s now content with the musical accomplishments that are on his CV—band member, Bob Marley and The Wailers. Jaffe met Marley at a hotel in New York in 1973 where he was visiting his friend Jim Capaldi after his group, Traffic, had performed in Madison Square Garden. Marley, whose band had just completed their first album for Island Records, had a cassette of the record and Capaldi insisted Jaffe hear it. It proved to be an epiphany. Marley’s label president, Chris Blackwell asked Jaffe if he would help to organize a North American Tour. Though Jaffe preciously considered a return to Brazil—where he had lived and collaborated with seminal Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica—Jaffe decided to accept the invitation and departed with Bob to Kingston. After a ten-day stay with Marley, who introduced Jaffe to all of his associates, Jaffe decided to remain in Jamaica. The chance encounter led him to witness the evolution of the Wailers from local heroes to global phenomenon—eventually recording on Bob’s third Island Records album, Natty Dread and performing live on the supporting tour.
    [Show full text]
  • Songs of Experience the Relationship of Drugs to Writers and Their Work
    Songs of Experience The relationship of drugs to writers and their work Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades einer Magistra der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Eva SCHACHNER am Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik Begutachter: Ao. Univ.Prof. Mag. Dr. Hugo Keiper Graz, 2010 Table of Contents 1. Introduction........................................................................................................................1 2. On the origins of drug use..................................................................................................3 2.1. Shamanic practices....................................................................................................5 3. The Drugs...........................................................................................................................8 3.1. Cannabis.....................................................................................................................8 3.1.1. Botanical description...........................................................................................8 3.1.2. Psychoactive properties......................................................................................9 3.1.3. History................................................................................................................11 3.1.4. Prohibition..........................................................................................................13 3.1.5. Medical use.......................................................................................................15
    [Show full text]
  • International Reggae, Democratic Socialism, and the Secularization of the Rastafarian Movement, 1972–1980 Stephen A
    Eastern Illinois University The Keep Faculty Research and Creative Activity Communication Studies January 1998 International reggae, democratic socialism, and the secularization of the Rastafarian movement, 1972–1980 Stephen A. King Eastern Illinois University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/commstudies_fac Part of the Communication Commons, and the Music Commons Recommended Citation King, Stephen A., "International reggae, democratic socialism, and the secularization of the Rastafarian movement, 1972–1980" (1998). Faculty Research and Creative Activity. 12. http://thekeep.eiu.edu/commstudies_fac/12 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Communication Studies at The Keep. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Research and Creative Activity by an authorized administrator of The Keep. For more information, please contact [email protected]. International reggae, democratic socialism, and the secularization of the Rastafarian movement, 1972–1980 Stephen A. King During the 1970s, the Jamaican people appeared to rise “up in rebellion and revolt to . improve their social conditions” (Panton 31). After a decade of struggle against an increasingly repressive Jamaican Labour Party (JLP), Jamaica’s poor and dissident groups embraced the candidacy of People’s National Party (PNP) leader Michael Manley, the son of former Prime Minister Norman Manley, for Prime Minister in 1972. During the national election campaign, Manley attempted to appeal to the Rastafarians and Jamaica’s Black Power movement. Manley even adopted the Biblical name “Joshua” and promised the Jamaican people deliverance from oppression. Two years after winning the election, Manley formally declared Jamaica a “democratic socialist” country.
    [Show full text]