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When I first wrote about Caribbean Cosmopolitanism and the potential for ethnographies of cosmopolitanism in the 1990s the ideas involved perhaps seemed strange and out of place. Nowadays cosmopolitan perspectives in social inquiry and the notion of methodological cosmopolitanism are commonplace and ubiquitous. This essay looks at some of the theoretical contexts for that change in the study of the Caribbean and some of its implications. This is a contribution to the 2018 revised edition of Gerard Delanty's Routledge Handbook in Cosmopolitan Studies.
This video which inspired this essay/presentation can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlgfwDUjcI I consider Michael Freund's video to be a masterwork, and encourage you to see it before deciding whether to read my own analysis. This essay was presented at the Global Reggae Studies Conference in Kingston, Feb. 20, 2008, shortly before I left Jamaica. It has not been published but the presentation was filmed by the University of the West Indies-Mona. ABSTRACT: The influence of dub--a Jamaican innovation--and the social influence of people who carried this musical culture into Europe are examined through the lens of a music video directed by Michael Freund. Utilizing a Sly & Robbie remix of the Dubblestandart song “Heavy Heavy Monster Dub,” Freund constructs a densely symbolic visual storyline about what appears to be double vision in the experience of an Afro-diasporic man in Austria. The analysis is in three registers: 1) I place this song/video within the context of the spread of dub and techniques in Europe; 2) The video shows a sophisticated understanding of the potential of cinematic visual narrative; 3) Drawing on interviews with the director, and Dubblestandart founder Paul Zasky, I argue that “race” often over-determines our readings of visual culture. Revisiting the concept of “I and I” consciousness in these registers (dub music, film, and “race”), I suggest that the interpenetration of European and Afro-diasporic cultures is central to an understanding of the broad influence of Caribbean culture in Europe, and to the power of narratives in multiracial contexts to inspire multi-voiced interpretations which cannot be contained by the intentions of artists.
This paper provides an introductory discussion of the leadership of the Back-to-Africa Movement in the African Diaspora. Concentrating on the experiences of the Rastafari Movement in Jamaica, it demonstrates the connections between Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa Movement and the Rastafari Movement, particularly in terms of a quest for renewal, wholeness, and for the redemptive power of a re-connection with the Father as a corrective for the dysfunctional families that proliferate as a result of the experience of enslavement in the African Diaspora. Through an examination of the idea of Father in the work of the Rastafarian teacher, the foundation logic of this multilayered concept is engaged in order to determine the extent to which the Rastafari Movement has successfully tackled the problematic developed in the West concerning fatherhood and male leadership in general. The conclusion is that in light of the Movement's work and given its operational context, both the problem of male leadership and fatherhood can best be viewed through Mortimo Planno's analysis. It is argued that Mortimo Planno's reading constitutes a New Faculty of Interpretation that is committed to the project of African Redemption.
Authentic Blackness/”Real” Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Culture and Literature, ed. Martin Japtok (Peter Lang, 2011).
This reflective essay is a parting shot as I was about to leave Jamaica in 2008, written when a friend and colleague asked me to write "something polemical" about "race in Jamaica." It is at once scholarship, and a sort of "literary journalism." The chapter critiques an obsession with the “white other” in Jamaican culture, focusing on two aspects of Jamaica’s fixation with a non-“black” other: A) A compulsive othering of “brownness” in Jamaica; B) a fixation on “white appropriation of black culture,” resulting in a rejection of ideas crucial to the “second emancipation,” including the notion of “One Blood.” The roots of this othering of “brown peoples” in Jamaican history are explored. Those who were visibly mixed, a small slice of Jamaica society, were often viewed as a “middle-man” between the white-man-as-oppressor, and the black-man-as-victim. Yet there is also a lengthy history of brown people who fought for “black liberation.” An acrimonious debate about the role that skin color had in the success of Bob Marley, Jamaica’s best-known “brown culture hero,” is described. This includes resentment about “one love” being held up by foreigners as emblematic of Jamaica’s “black” culture of resistance. The racial myopia in Jamaica is compared to the versions of mestizaje or mixed-race identity in the surrounding world.
This paper seeks to broaden the notion of the African Public sphere to include the historical Diaspora by highlighting the works of Mortimo Planno, cultural historian – Rastafari luminary and plenipotentiary – in closing the void between Africa and its Diaspora, through examining
2015
The Rastafari movement is a socio-political and religiously inspired resistance movement which agitates against the (neo)colonial, capitalist, imperialist, racist and Eurocentric power structure which they call Babylon. It emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s after the coronation of Haile Selassie as Emperor of Ethiopia, who is seen by many Rastafarians as divine. With their critical perspectives on religion, identity, economics, 'race', racism, politics, culture and other issues, Rastafarians present a significant counter-hegemonic force, not only in the Caribbean but globally. This article is based on original field research, course work and literature study executed in four countries: Barbados, Jamaica, Canada and The Netherlands. Its central question is: 'In what ways does Rastafari, as a counter-hegemonic social movement, present ways of resistance to neoliberal and neo-colonial authoritarianism?' The first part of the article shortly discusses the concepts of hegemony and counter-hegemony, and how these relate to the Rastafari movement. The second part shows how Rastafarians resist authoritarianism, for example through critical reggae music, a focus on self-sufficiency and 'leaving the system', the rejection of a white God and belief in a black God, an Afrocentric identity, dreadlocks, and political action. The research shows how the movement has successfully been able to present a counter-hegemonic narrative for 85 years, despite the strong and at times violent repression by colonial and neo-colonial state actors. It also testifies to the significant positive changes that they have brought into the consciousness of the oppressed masses. Even though the " Babylon system " still exists, the spirit of Rastafari resistance has encouraged people worldwide to stand up against authoritarianism. Their resistance tactics remain applicable in the 21st century, and other liberation movements which fight against capitalism, imperialism, neoliberalism, neo-colonialism, classism, corruption, and racism could learn a great deal from Rastafarians.
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