HOMAGE TO THE ANCIENT RASTA
Part 2
HOMAGE TO THE ANCIENT RASTA
By Nzinga Nzinga
To Morgan Heritage, children of Denroy Morgan (Black Eagles). It is their song which provided the theme of this tribute to the Ancient Rastas Also to their father, Denroy, whom I had the honour of meeting in Jamaica. Brother Denroy, I have enjoyed your songs tremendously. Blessed love!
♪♪Could you live thru what the ancient Rasta lived thru?
Would you hold on to your faith if you’d been thru what they’ve been
thru? ♪♪--Could You Live Thru’? Morgan Heritage
Although we see and know that our real enemy is white supremacy, yet we
must be aware that the practice of oppression on our people is not limited to
the white race because the hands we see against black people are black hands.
The hands which sold us into slavery to the white alien race were black hands.
Please exclude Diallo-of-Senegal-in-Harlem and his forty-one (41) bullets from
the hands of three white law enforcers who escaped with impunity. Let’s back
up. The hands we saw raised cruelly against the ancient Rastas, were black
hands. I saw some of this wickedness with my own frightened eyes when I was a
child, mis-taught to see these black dreadlocked folks as criminal and
dangerous blackheart men to be avoided at all cost.
I can’t seem
to stop crying for my black people, at home and abroad, oppressors and victims
alike, for being so ignorant and misguided, for want of more appropriate words.
Let me get up and swallow some Swedish Bitters and chew some Calamus Root to
bear this pain I am going through. Please forgive us, Ancient Rastas. You knew
the truth which you have passed on to us and it has set people like Bob Marley
and me free. Thanks and praises to you. Selassie I, Jah Rastafari, please
comfort us!
Although the founding Fathers and Mothers of Rastafari of
day-before-yesterday who refused to let ‘them change them or rearrange them’
were faced with the choleric and punitive judgement of the Jamaican system,
they survived to hold the Faith for the younger disciples of yesterday today
and tomorrow.
“Rasta
brethren and sistren of today, could you live thru what the ancient Rastas lived
thru without losing your faith?”
Yes, Sons and Daughters of African ancestry, our ancient Rastas were
punished and denigrated because they dared to castigate Babylon with tongue
lashings and so upset the puppets, sycophants and stooges of those white
British monarchs, King George VI & Queen Elizabeth II, descendants of
slave-traders. So they were beaten, brutalized and thrown in jail for the least
little thing, like smoking or possession of a herb called marijuana, ganja, or
kaya or sensimilla (sensay). I personally do not use kaya. However, no serious
government would pass laws to convict its bona
fide
citizens for smoking ganja while the nicotine inhalers and the alcohol imbibers
get away scotch free. But then, who said these dreadlocked folks were bona fide citizens of Jamaica?
Year after year, the records show that most traffic accidents can be
laid at the door of diminished performance of drivers operating under the undue
influence of alcohol. Yet it is the poor ganja smoker who is causing no
accidents who is thrown in jail. The majority of ganja smokers who are thrown
in jail don’t even drive motor vehicles! They haven’t got the wherewithal to
buy bicycles or motorbikes much less motor vehicles.
Now, though many non-Rastas smoke ganja, the first ganja smokers I knew
of were Rasta people. We, children, didn’t get close up to them because we were
told to run away from them because they were blackheart men. Of course we
believed. Why not? They presented a dread appearance with their natty dread
locks and long beards and they were as black as midnight. From our perspective,
they looked like criminals. At that time, black was not yet beautiful and Rasta
was the blackest of the black. Rastas were regarded as most undesirable,
outcasts and untouchables.
To be continued
All the images were taken from the Internet and I claim no copyright.
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