Mutabaruka and Rasta
This image is a single frame from the Oliver Hill documentary Coping with Babylon: The Proper Rastology. It has the moment with Mutabaruka saying, “Mutabaruka had to take the poetry out of the book.” Here in the rasx() context, he is saying that his was the task to put words that could be put on a shelf back into the sound of the voice on the streets. Before Mutabaruka there was no such thing as a “spoken word artist” in the modern world. This does not say that he “invented” anything. This is to speak of the times of his elder generation and his very active involvement in it.
The documentary exposed complexities in Rastafarianism—especially in the Jamaican “controversy” of Mutabaruka—not known to me. I have found nothing better to introduce others into these complexities than the 11-part YouTube.com series hosted by Ian Boyne, compiled at Mutabaruka.com. This series reminded me that the river from Middle Earth passes through Ethiopia before it gets to Egypt. It also taught me the meaning behind the phrase “I and I.”
Also, watch Mutabaruka in my collection, “def poetry six rasx() mix,” here in the kinté space. To keep the dub poetry going, this one can’t hurt either: “Linton Kwesi Johnson: Inglan Is a Bitch.”