rootsandculture

W.A.R. Stories/span>: Walter Anthony Rodney: This film covers the life of world renowned, historian, author, and activist, Dr. Walter Rodney who was assassinated on Friday, June13, 1980, at age 38, in his native Guyana. It’s a story of a man who dedicated his life, and ultimately, gave his life in the struggle for equal rights and justice. He did so through his considerable intellectual gifts and actual grassroots involvement everywhere he went. He went everywhere. The people who knew him weave a tale of how they related to him and him them. In the process we see the growth of their friend, his ideology and how that changed over the years from his coming of age in racially divided Guyana through the cold war, the Black Power Movement, Pan-Africanism, Caribbean independence, and the idea of self emancipation. It’s about the influence of places on him and him on places as evidenced by the riots in Kingston, Jamaica, his role in Southern Africa's struggle for independence and ...

M y father died in 2007 from complications caused by diabetes. It was not a good thing. He was 85 years old with a mind that could last another 15 years, easily. So whenever I meet folks and they say, sometimes so casually, that they are diabetic, I ask questions. Everywhere in the Diaspora, Africa, the Caribbean and particularly North America, our people are under siege from this epidemic. So when recently in Clarendon Hills, close to the beginning of the Rio Minho, Auntie Nuncie mentioned here condition, I listened. Frankfield, Clarendon, Jamaica is deep country in terrain and lifestyle. Yam is King and the pig queen…., no Jack. Stories are told over a meal of roast yam and roast salt fish washed down with boiled rainwater and Auntie Nuncie is a skilled proponent of all but not since the diabetes, the arthritis, and the ‘pain in the flesh’. But a story, well, she can still tell and she has plenty like them pills she takes one for the ‘pain in the flesh’, one for the blood press...

. (Taken from the forthcoming book, Walter Rodney: A Promise of Revolution, published by Monthly review Press ) I looked at ‘Western’ movies growing up and I, like every one in the cinema, would cheer as the cavalry would be coming over the hill to rescue these poor beleaguered White people that had been attacked by Indians. Then I came to live in this society and began to learn the history of both slavery and what happened to Indians in this country and what deliberate genocidal approach that Europeans had towards any other race they met. Both in terms of what happened in the Americas, like what happened to Indian people, with Cortez and the rest of them. That really impacted me politically and that is when I started to ‘dread’ my hair. It did not come through religious conviction of Marcus Garvey or belief in Haile Selassie; it came because I wanted to be different and outside of that cultural influence. It was the first thing I thought about. That I would dread my hair and step...

Many of our regional commentators, intellectuals and politicians have correctly placed the struggle strangling West Indies cricket within the global economic battlefield. We have recognized that our players are selling their skills in a global marketplace. Usain Bolt flies to Europe and the IAAF World Championship to make a living, and Chris Gayle flies to India and the Indian Professional league. It is not of their creation. They bear no responsibility for capitalism and its excesses. It is the legacy they inherited from us. Noted commentator, Trevor Campbell correctly placed sport in the context of the information revolution and globalization. He effectively identified the sources of the forces that pushed and pulled our people across the globe and continue with even greater force today. Yes, we seek to follow capital and the means of maximizing our ability to earn. Yet, I sense a kind of dissatisfaction with the examples our sportsmen and women represent. They are described as s...

The stalemate between the WICB and the nucleus of the West Indies Team is a labor dispute. There are many other issues like performance and profits that come to the fore in a labor dispute. But it’s only in this context, labor as a commodity, that we find a real solution: abolition. Labor disputes and the struggles of working people form an essential part of the Caribbean history: Its culture, its creed, its cricket. It is a region the ancestors of whose inhabitants, in the overwhelming majority, were brought to the region for their labor. Moreover, as noted Caribbean economist, Dr. Clive Thomas, opined, “I don’t think that we can easily forget that this was the cradle of capitalism. We really forged in many ways through the plantation, and through slavery, through all those experiences, the prototypical capitalistic institutions” [1] . Slavery and indenture paid for the machines that powered the age of industrialization and its excesses continue today in the advance of technology a...

The Parish of St. Elizabeth is country. It’s far away from the hustle and bustle of Montego Bay or Kingston. It’s a place for fishermen and farmers. Calabash Bay in the Parish of St.Elizabeth is even more country but also hosts the annual Calabash International Literary Festi val. As usual, I never plan too far ahead. So when a friend said, “Calabash Bay”, I booked a ticket. That was a Wednesday. When he said, “George Lamming”, I bought a T shirt. That was Thursday. Friday I landed in Montego Bay. The trip from Mobay to St. Elizabeth included many stops through Maroon country. In Middle Quarters that beautiful girl in the shop introduced me to a new drink: Hennessey and Nutrament. It’s the worst drink in the world. It still never digest. Distracted, I mistakenly paid her with a Trinidad and Tobago $20 bill. “How much this worth?” She said. “About three US” I replied. She smiled and I knew I was not getting it back. I left and went to Black River to buy a sim card. I. arrived in Treas...

Deo came out a little flustered. Over the deafening noise of about a half dozen dogs, rice-eaters, he said, “Mawnin...”. Visitors don’t’ usually comes this early his eyes said. He looked me over carefully as he motioned for me to come around and through what looked like fishnet. No one enters the yard given the number of dogs. But I was from the 'Scheme', dogs need not apply. There had been some viol ence in the area; hence the dogs. He pulled a hidden string and the net dropped to the ground. If you came at night, and didn’t know, you would be all tangled-up in net and captured. “Come. Come,,, could I help you”. The Courantyne is a place full of history and mystery. It’s a place where governors and generals became famous, where captured Africans rebelled and won: some 40 years before St. Domingue. Its mystical an mythical. It’s that area, the eastern extremity of Guyana, which follows the Courantyne River: The river that separates Guyana from Suriname.

Montego Bay (Mobay) twenty years ago and recovering from the rage of hurricane Gilbert seemed strangely more alive than mobay today. Twenty years ago the train still ran from Mobay through the Blue Mountains like links to the necks of captive laborers; both vestiges of colonialism. The new colonialism and dreams of socialism meant the end of the train now replaced by a bus: the air conditioned Knutsford Express. Also available was the leave when we full, not so, express, minibus. The Knutsford Express meant no more random sermons at each stop like the train. No more sales of strange foods, some still alive. Only a ten minute stop in relatively safe Ocho Rios.

Hands off Gayle and Gang Good fighters need good handlers to win championship belts and better handlers to hold on to the belt. In cricket it’s the trophy. In boxing, at a minimum, you need a good straight-right to win a fight. It may even get you a championship belt, but a straight-right is not enough to defend the belt. You need a good left-hook. But even if you have both weapons you still need good handlers to succeed. West Indies (WI) promptly returned the recently won Wisden Trophy to England and mostly as a result of poor handling and perhaps the absence of a straight-right or left hook. A few shorts months ago, in the 2nd innings at Sabina Park, Jamaica, Jerome Taylor was the straight- right for WI. He knocked England out for 51. England went down in the first round. Taylor was not only straight but fast and turned out to be the punch that won the belt. The rest of the fight consisted mostly of good defense with the occasional flurry as WI held on to draw the remaining rounds...

Our team arrived in South Africa in two groups one week before the big fight. The manager and I arrived together and went directly to a reception held to welcome the fighters, raise funds for a local charity and as well as promote the bout between Laila Ali and Gwendolyn O’Neil. There we met the rest of the team: the fighter, Gwendolyn O’Neil, her husband and her trainer. We all held the hope of meeting Nelson Mandela since he was an ex-fighter and a big fan of the game. The fundraiser took the form of an auction. One of the auctioned items was a dress modeled by the opponent, Queen Bee Laila Ali: daughter of the Greatest, Muhammad Ali. She modeled the dress in an actual boxing ring and looked awesome. Damn, I thought, why did they not ask our girl to model an outfit?

W hen the curtain finally came down on the 16th Annual “Rebel Salute”, in St. Elizabeth, Jamaica, patrons straggled out in good spirits given no spirits were permitted at the show. Most had been there about twelve hours from early the night before. Hosted by reggae star, Tony Rebel, the show featured carefully selected artistes who subscribe to the general tenets of a civil and more just society and to the exclusion of many notables who subscribe to the gang violence that haunts the island and many of our communities around the world. There was some of the anti gay rhetoric but deci dedly more pro heterosexual than the usual threats of violence directed at gays. So I Wayne and a few others did ask the question as to why a man or woman would ignore the obvious gifts of the opposite sex and opt for same sex experiences. The reception was mild and not the usual wild fireballs and horns. Rebel the night before In addition to the ban on alcohol, meat and meat products were also excluded f...