http://youtu.be/pCecw8cCXVA

In ‘Sunday A Come’, the late dub poet Mikey Smith alludes to a new consciousness: ‘but a like how yuh scratch dem drum/fi know yuh name an whe yub come from/for dat note is a long note/too long fi I sing it straight.’ The drum and identity, the stress and syntax – all bound in coherent meaning, something that Kwame Dawes might call the reggae aesthetic. Knowing that grammar is a kind of morality helps explain a lot about language, from how it develops to how it shapes perception and makes meaning out of experience. Nation language (i.e., the vernacular) challenges the old orthodoxy of language. The movement of Rastafari lingua into the Jamaican mainstream and beyond in the last generation is part of a sea change in the long project of decolonizing Jamaica, invoking a set of ideas about identity, history and language itself.

And in a broader sense, if we want to know Jamaica’s post-colonial life, argues Dawes in his remarkable new book, we need to understand how reggae gives voice to an ethos. ‘Reggae is a cultural phenomenon that is rooted in a spiritual and ideological context which has shaped not simply the way singers sing or musicians make music but in the way in which people talk, the way artists paint, the way Jamaica sees the world, and the way the world sees Jamaica and Jamaicans.’ Dawes’ new book will appeal to anyone for whom these subjects are matters of interest.

This volume of literary, musical and cultural commentary is part of a continuum of Dawes’ conception of something he terms the reggae aesthetic. He writes that an understanding of Caribbean writing of the last 30 years needs to be fortified by knowing what reggae is and how it functions. The reggae aesthetic comes out of ‘a working class art [that] asserted itself in its own terms and through a language and discourse that would in time shape the way an entire society defined itself and its artistic sensibilities.’ From its beginnings, reggae music registered the changing political and social consciousness of its time. Jamaican literature lagged behind, says Dawes, because it resisted speaking nation language and felt uncomfortable about Africa. While Jamaica has a tradition of literary nationalism, it was usually marked by European standards and conventions.

Why is it important? As my teacher Walter Ong has said, the more words you know, the more ideas you can have. Or, as critic Robert Benson notes, coming to terms with social change means coming with terms that adequately express it. That means expanding the field of discourse beyond the establishment’s. By widening the vocabulary lyrically and musically, reggae opened vistas of expression in social shape-shifting ways.

Dawes is an ideal grammarian for the reggae aesthetic, his voice the estuary where his energies as a poet, professor and one-time musician are poured. He bears a gift, rarer than it should be in academia, for intellectually processing his subject and still yielding enlivening writing: ‘For me, a vershan break, a shift to solely drum and bass, is a thing of beauty – it moves me. In the same way, the vacuum left behind by the withdrawal of the drum and bass, leaving the high-ended dance of guitar and keyboard, represents a moment of strange anticipation that affects my whole body. And when the drum and bass enter into that space that has been throbbing with possibility, I am forced to move, to turn, to react. I call this sheer beauty. I call the lyrical grace of Marley, his brilliance as a poet and visionary, a thing of beauty. I find…’ many things, occasionally in an effulgent chant, always in a disciplined and empathetic form.

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson in 19th century America, Dawes has a group of ‘representative men’ whose lives speak to history and human nature in Jamaica and who helped define the reggae aesthetic.

Don Drummond typifies ‘jazz and the reggae poetic archetype,’ at once defining himself as an artist on his own iconoclastic terms and as a representative of the values or the working class and the Rastafari. These influences contributed to the development of a distinctly Jamaican art form – ska.
Dawes’ commentary on Burning Spear, an archetypal ‘prophet,’ is fascinating. His point of departure is Spear’s cover of the Grateful Dead’s ‘Estimated Prophet,’ which comes initially as a surprise. Those of us who find the reggae/Dead crossovers better marketing than music may want to rethink things in this instance. Dawes locates the virtues of the reggae aesthetic in the song’s post-colonial sense and its artistic self-containedness. Burning Spear completely reconstructed ‘Estimated Prophet,’ singing it in nation language, making it pulse with a juggernaut reggae beat and adding traces of his signature ‘Marcus Garvey’ horn line. The song was then stamped with a fresh imprimatur, one that signified Spear’s prophet of black identity, Marcus Garvey. ‘And it is by this brilliant and respectful transformation of an American rock anthem into a totally Third World and Jamaican construction, that we see again the distinction and distinctiveness of the reggae aesthetic.’

Another surprising choice – Lee Perry’s From the Secret Laboratory (1990) – becomes a chapter centre-piece. Improvisatory, experimental, destabilizing in art and life is Lee Perry, who represents the Jamaican psyche just as he does a madman-artist figure favored by (mostly white) reggae fans outside Jamaica.

Again and again, Bob Marley emerges as the transcendentalist, defining the local moment with the power of Biblical verity. ‘Burning and Looting,’ for example, is elevated from ‘a cry for actual violent insurrection and social defiance … to an act of intellectual and spiritual guerilla activity’ whereby the line ‘Burning all illusion tonight/Burning all pollution tonight’ signifies ‘A cosmic expiation of the sins of the oppressor and enactment of the “fire next time”.’

Natural Mysticism is a wide text not because Dawes is comprehensive – he readily admits how much remains to be done with the reggae aesthetic with respect to specific reggae artists and to other Jamaican music and art – but because he allows for a multi-vocal treatment of his subject in the course of his deep meditations. Blending rigorous analysis with autobiography and poetry, his anatomy of reggae culture stands as a groundbreaking work quite nearly resembling a manifesto.

Poverty rears its head and often gives those of us who are eaten up by its claws are given little or no alternative. This toddler belongs to a market vendor in Africa who tied him to her stall to prevent him from wandering off. To some , the shoddy tie may look abusive, but to those of you with whom poverty’s head is familiar , what say you and what would you have done if he were your and you had no choice? Do you think this is abuse?

The Islamists occupying northern Mali on Wednesday gave a couple 100 lashes of a whip for having a child out of wedlock as they continue enforcing sharia law, witnesses told AFP.

“At Sankore Square in Timbuktu, a man and a women got 100 lashes for having had a child outside of marriage,” said local official Mohamed Ould Baby.

“People were watching it was like a show. I was there, I saw the youths arriving at the square, I saw them being whipped, it is the first time I have seen something like that.”

The official said Islamist group Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) carried out the punishment.

Ansar Dine, which seized control of the north of Mali flanked by other rebel groups, has been implementing strict Islamic law, sharia, since late March, but this is the first time a couple has been punished in this fashion.

They have asked women to wear veils, whipped smokers and destroyed cartons of cigarettes while banning the sale of alcohol.

According to sharia, 100 lashes of a whip is the punishment for “fornicators” or those who have sex outside of marriage.

A hospital source in Timbuktu said the couple had sought treatment at the hospital after the beating.

An Islamic police official in the town said six other women who had had children outside of marriage would soon be “punished by Islamic law.”

The age of the children was not mentioned, however with Ansar Dine only in charge for about three months, they would have been conceived before the group seized the city.

While majority Muslim, Mali has long had a secular and moderate culture, with the ancient city of Timbuktu a meeting point for various tribes and religions.

via Nation

Psalm 54

1 Save me , O God, by your name;
vindicate me by your might.
2 Hear my prayer, O God;
listen to the words of my mouth.
3 Arrogant foes are attacking me;
ruthless people are trying to kill me —
people without regard for God.[c]
4 Surely God is my help;
the Lord is the one who sustains me.
5 Let evil recoil on those who slander me;
in your faithfulness destroy them.
6 I will sacrifice a freewill offering to you;
I will praise your name, Lord, for it is good.
7 You have delivered me from all my troubles,
and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

TRUE CONFESSION: I slept with our driver to give my husband a child

I am not a loose woman. I am just a woman who loves her husband very much and didn’t want to lose him. I just did what I had to do to save my marriage even though I feel guilty sometimes.

It was not easy but I slept with my driver so that I could give my husband a child, but instead, God gave me twins, a boy and a girl…

I was married to Philip for eight years. We had no child. “The worst was that I never got pregnant even for a day.” His mother became so impatient that she started breathing down my neck as she gave me no breathing space at all. She moved in to live with us and practically made my life unbearable – in my matrimonial home.
I cannot drink water and drop the cup because she must insult me. It got to a point that she stopped eating my food because, according to her, I should be feeding my children so that they would grow healthy and stronger and not her.
“Monica, if you had children, you are supposed to be feeding them with all these food so that they would grow healthy and strong. I am getting old so I don’t need all these nonsense you call food. Take them away and give me grandchildren,” she would scream. She also stopped talking to me, however, the only time she talks to me is when she wants to insult me and remind me of how less a woman I was.
Even after she had left, I could still hear those insults in my head so I decided to take a bold step – I seduced and slept with our driver, George. Geroge is a young man in his late 20’s. He is a graduate of Mechanical Engineering but because he could not get a good paying job, he opted to become a driver. I promised to get him a good job if he sleeps with me just once but I never disclosed the reason for this.
However, George thought I just wanted to cheat on my husband with him. I planned it during my ovulation so that I could get pregnant, although it was not easy sleeping with another man. I knew I was betraying my husband but I saw it as a necessary action. After a month, I discovered that I was pregnant. So, as promised I got a job for George in a friend’s company where he started earning almost 75,000 per month. When I told Philip that I was pregnant, he was so excited. “Sweetheart, God has finally answered our prayers. I am pregnant,” I revealed.
When I was five months pregnant, he informed his mother and she immediately returned to the house. She pampered me like a baby and also took good care of me. I never wanted to do any scan but my mother-in-law insisted. When I finally did the scan, it showed I was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. My mother- in-law and husband were extremely happy while I felt much fulfilled. “God thank you for compensating me with a set of twins after eight years of barrenness,” I muttered.
When the twins were born, the girl took ill for some time. It took a while before she fully recovered after several treatments and this got me worried. Philip and I insisted that blood test be carried out on them to determine their blood group and genotype and then came the shocking revelation. The doctor informed us that although their blood groups are both A, however, their genotypes are AS for the girl and AA for the boy meanwhile Philip and I are both AA. I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up because I felt Philip would ask questions but to my surprise, he did not. He just said, “Sweetheart, let’s go home. We have had quite a long day, you and my babies need to rest.”
Three months later, he held me closely and said, “Monica, don’t be scared. I don’t want to know who the father of the twins is. I know whatever you did, you did to save our marriage and I am very proud of you. I promise to always love you and my babies. I promise this will be a secret between us. I love you sweetheart. I know we will have our own children someday.” I wept as he wiped my tears with his hands.
I KNOW WHAT I DID WAS WRONG:
But at least my mother-in-law is extremely happy with me, that is all that matters. Although, everyone is happy but I feel guilty that I selfishly used an innocent man to achieve my aim. But before anybody judge me; just put yourself in my shoes and think for a moment what you will do?