Perspective: Buju Banton’s Impending Release
Our Prophets Will Rise Again …
We do not intend to question the sanity or lack thereof of the whole antics of law enforcement offacials of the Drug, Alcohol & Firearms Body in the USA that apparently entrapped and paved the way for Buju’s subsequent incarceration and ultimate conviction for drugs. It is possibly fair game to use whatever means possible to get a conviction. Good for them.
Fan Support
Never before have we seen a convicted felon continue to warm the hearts of so many … enough said. Injustice to one is injustice to all. Buju, it can be said made mistakes also. We sometimes pay dearly for our errors. Ignorance is not always bliss.
Anticipation
Music fans and the industry have been counting down the days for Buju’s release from prison. Who will be granted the first interview is no ordinary question?. Also where will he do his first stage act? Trinidad was rumored … we hope it will be Jamaica. Prison has been known to boost many a career. Did Buju write many new songs while incarcerated? He had a lot of time on his hands to be creative. If reports are accurate he was locked down some 20+ hours per day in solitary confinement.
Welcome
Buju’s welcome could be an internationally covered event … his star appeal is tremendous. One local TV station in Jamaica has been nightly counting down the days for his release. It is like when we were children counting down Christmas.
Commentary
Eagle
It is virtually impossible to keep a good man down. Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Barak Obama to name a few of our prophets who have been targets for harrassment, betrayal or assassination by either the CIA, FBI or other fringe elements hell-bent on trying to keep the black race down. Dispite these obstacles we continue to rise like an eagle. Soaring ever higher in our upward flight. “On eagle’s wings” as one writer has immortalized this line.
Rasta No Inna Bangarang … patois
Rastafarians are renowned for being peaceful people with no appetite for raucous. Their motto is: Peace and Love. They use ganja as their sacrament in their religious observance as Christians use bread and wine in theirs. The use of the herb or ganja as a Sacrament has been made legal in Jamaica thereby legally recognizing the Rastafarian faith as a religion.
Like the proverbial Phoenix, Buju will rise from the ashes of betrayal to new heights of love & peace which is devoid of bitterness.
What is your perspective? Feel free to disagree.
Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is SIC for Vision newspaper Canada.
