Editorial

Commentary And Audio Of Song “Crucial” By Bunny Wailer.

March 11, 2021 | Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie |

Photo of The Legendary Bunny Wailer (Random Google Image)

This Commentary in the form of a perspective is on the Song Crucial and its background.

There was a dark chapter in Jamaica’s not so distance past when certain purges occurred.  There was a form of cultural suppression by the powers at be. Certain lyrics for some reason was in my view, seen as a threat or a challenge to the constituted authority. They apparently argued and their analysis was that they  must managed any perceived dissent to minimize any political damage to the image of the government. It was a highly volatile political atmosphere.

Undeclared Civil War

The cold war internationally was being waged and locally there was a bitter divide over ideologies. Capitalisms verses communism causing blood to flow in our streets. The society was so bitterly divided  that not only communities were at war, but also households. This was in the late 70s to 1980. The General Elections of 1980 somehow cooled things a bit. The JLP swept the polls in a landslide. The PNP was decimated. They got only 9 nine of sixty seats. This undeclared Civil War was fueled by a counter insurgency financed by the CIA. Even a US ambassador to Jamaica was expelled. Declared Persona Non Grata.  It was like no other time. As Charles Dickens wrote in The Tales of Two Cities.

“It was the best of times and the worse of times”.

It was a period of great uncertainty.

This song Crucial said it all,  so it was banned in the 1980’s under a former Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government.  They were not amused at the lyrics.

Things have changed since those dark days, thankfully, when songs and other forms of literature were banned. For example  “The Abeng”  a politically slanted newspaper published by the Communist leaning Workers’ Party of Jamaica under the leadership of Dr. Trevor Monroe as President experienced it’s printing facilities mysteriously torched.  The crackdown started under then PM Hugh Lawson Shearer then later by Edward George Seaga, who took over as JLP Leader in 1980. Walter Rodney was banned from Jamaica. Not sure if he was actually deported or denied reentry after travelling overseas.

Social Commentary  

Mark Wignall, a talk show host and columnist said inter alia on Friday March 5, 202,  on Nationwide News Network (NNN) that:

“A Crucial it Crucial” was one such song banned by the then JLP government in the 1980s”.

They were sensitive to the views expressed by Bunny Wailer.

 “The lyrics were seen as a social commentary of a political nature to embarrass the government.”

So asserted Mark Wignall on Friday March 5,  2021 as stated above.

As stated above Crucial was written by Bunny Wailer the song highlighted the shortages of certain basic food items like flour and rice at the time.  Due to the scarcity of foreign exchange.  The country was experiencing dire financial straights at the time.

There was a definite policy to filter public information and or dissent, that was in fact a form of suppression of oral history and cultural expressions. You can call this a form of cultural desecration.

Canada

In Canada it appeared that there has been widespread and deliberate policy at cultural destruction also. This was directed mainly at the Indigenous folks aka Fist Nations or American Indians who were the first or original inhabitants in the Americas now comprising The United States Of America (USA) and Canada.  For example, Residential schools were established and other forms of schemes like reserves designed as a form of social engineering.  There have been horror stories of sexual assault and other forms of inappropriate occurrences believed to have been done to achieve certain undisclosed objectives many believed to be of a questionable nature.

Photo of The Legendary Bunny Wailer (Random Google Image)

Was The Lyrics Of Crucial a Political Statement?

If you listen carefully to the words of Crucial you will see how graphic the lyrics are and how this could possibly have been viewed at the time. This in my view, was the artist merely expressing or commenting on what he is observing in the society as a social commentator.  It could have been a political statement as well. We may never know the true motive for the commentary imbedded in the song.

 Constitutional Safeguards

Whatever it was, the artist had every right to comment as he saw it fit without fear or favour. Censorship should not have occurred in what was supposed to be a free and open society.  Freedom of thought, association and assembly were not banned or were not supposed to be illegal as far as was known by all. The Jamaican constitution did allow for such safeguards and they were deeply enshrined in supreme law of the land. They were in fact constitutional safeguards for the protection of all.

Mr. Wendel Wilkins QC, host of “Legally Speaking” aired weekly on Nation Wide News Network (NNN), hosted by Vernon Derby on his “At Your Service” show has repeatedly said:

“The Constitution is the supreme law of the land.”

It is with this in mind that I say that it is my further perspective that the 1962 Jamaican Constitution had those rights enshrined in same for good reasons. So for any administration for whatever guise to have disregarded in such a blatant manner those rights is inexcusable.  Well thinking Jamaicans should frown on such trespassing of their rights.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is a poet, elegist, satirist & veteran journalist. Also a social commentator with a keen interest in politics. He has international exposure

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