Buju is Back…We’re Over It.
Stop asking us about Buju Banton: we’ve got bigger fish to fry.
This is pretty much the take home message from some members of the Caribbean’s gay community. The controversial reggae artist was released from an American prison earlier this month and the clamouring for soundbites has been frenetic. On paper, the charges were related to drugs. There are still murmurs that they were actually a smokescreen for the international backlash over ‘Boom Bye Bye’ — a dancehall track made public by an unsanctioned release in 1992 by the then teenaged artist. It explicitly promoted the violent death of homosexual men. That is another conversation.
The intro & opening lyrics to Buju Banton’s infamous dancehall track Boom Bye Bye
Buju’s release after seven years in prison made the reggae-loving public lose its collective mind. Sporting some seriously Killmonger-esq biceps, “Gargamel” returned to his native Jamaica like the “conquering lion of the Tribe of Judah”. A fitting epithet given his early career about face from salacious lyrics and hate speech to the conscious, positive spirituality espoused by the Rastafarian faith. He’s working with long time friend and superfan DJ Khaled on new music and a movie produced by Ivan Berrios. Dancehall hot ticket Spice is quoted elsewhere as saying that Buju’s return will be a boost for the genre and she predicts an uptick in tourist arrivals for his March 23rd concert entitled Long Walk to Freedom.
The trailer for ‘Buju Banton’ was recently released by DJ Khaled on social media
Many of the issues plaguing young poor people — gay and straight — are still grubby, thread bare patches in the Caribbean’s social fabric. This is one of the key points being made by groups lobbying for an improvement in the rights and conditions of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer people in society. Organizations like CAISO — the Trinidad based Coalition Advocating for Inclusion of Sexual Orientation. It’s Director of Imagination, Colin Robinson is demonstrably irritated about the renewed furore, saying other social ills affecting the most vulnerable in society should be highlighted as the issue returns to public conversation. He explained, “Buju’s deportation and return to society … ought to be a powerful occasion for public debates over…drugs in Caribbean communities and who brings them there. The weaknesses of our popular leaders. Decriminalization of cannabis. The prison industrial complex, justice, race and restoration. Instead we are squandering it on an ageing debate about “Boom Bye Bye”. Using it as an opportunity to perform homophobia and racism on social media. It’s not a conversation we want to join.”
More tellingly perhaps, Executive Director of the Jamaican rights group JFLAG, Jaevion Nelson, refused to comment at all. While providing useful statistics on the plight of Jamaica’s LGBTQ community, he would not be drawn into public comment on Buju’s release. Why should he? The numbers around the human rights abuses affecting them tell their own story.
In its 2018 Annual Country Status Update, JFLAG listed incidences of violence against the LGBTQ community ranging from verbal assault to mob attacks all the way to poisoning. “ For the period January to June 2018, there were 26 reported cases of human rights violations. Seventeen of these cases were regarding incidents which occurred this year.” it stated. This is an increase from 2017 in which “there were 24 reported cases of human rights violations. Fifteen of these cases were regarding incidents which occurred within the year.” The Update, dated Friday July 13 2018 also lists the continued criminalization of consensual sex between men, chronic underreporting of offenses to the police and a lack of legislative protection. The report states that many people who suffer violence and discrimination do so in silence.
One commentator asked angrily: “ Why are these white people in the cold still flogging the tail of this dead horse, with all the racism they did before? Another chorus about this irredeemably, superlatively homophobic Caribbean of their imagination. Look at all the changes Caribbean LGBTQ people have made in the law and society since! And they want to spend all this energy on Buju’s decades-old words.”
There’s some truth to that. The JFLAG report summarizes “there have been significant policy advancements including:
The Jamaica Constabulary Force Policy on Diversity which explicitly prohibits police officers from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation
The National Youth Policy was tabled in Parliament in November 2017 which explicitly prohibits sexual orientation discrimination in the implementation of the policy
The Sexual Offences, Offences Against the Person, Domestic Violence and Child Care and Protection Acts are currently under review which could lead to positive law reform in the disparate treatment of anal and vaginal rape in law.”
For context, there has been much musical water under the bridge since the offending lyrics were first uttered. In 1995 Buju released ’Til Shiloh — a watershed album which extolled the virtues of a spiritually conscious life and provided a relatable soundtrack for the socially disadvantaged. Yet the Stop Murder Music Campaign, organised by UK group OutRage! in collaboration with JFLAG ultimately saw 28 of Buju’s concerts cancelled between 2005 and 2011. In an attempt to quieten the haranguing — some would say justified — that followed him from concert to concert, he, Beenie Man, Sizzla & Capleton, signed the Reggae Compassionate Act. In it they agreed “not to make statements or perform songs that incite hatred or violence against anyone from any community.”
If you do the math, that’s a 16 year campaign against the hate speech of a Grammy winning artist who, in 1992, eclipsed Bob Marley’s record for No 1 singles in Jamaica. Other artists have done worse, been forgiven and regained public favour in less time. Many artistes grab low hanging fruit at the start of their careers to generate interest and stay “relevant” but often change ideological course as they come into their own as performers and public figures. Is this an evolution we grant Buju?
Keron “Scratch Master” Hector is a Trinidadian Music Engineer
Trinidadian Music Engineer Keron “Scratch Master” Hector most certainly does. “ You have some artistes that they sing one thing and they do another. Buju, genuinely, when he changed from the slackness to a more conscious nature that was [his] life. When you watch interviews with [him] and his opinions on different aspects of life he means what he says through his word.” The Programme Director of Barbados’ SLAM 101.1 FM also deeply resents the hypocrisy of using the utterings of a troubled insecure 15-year-old to convict him in the court of public opinion in perpetuity. “Sometimes you have to wonder what more do people want?” he asked. Additionally, he hinted at a deeper agenda by the LGBTQ community to use “Boom Bye Bye” as a rallying point to heighten awareness to the tangible dangers of hate speech.
Donnya Piggott is the Executive Directorof Barbados — Gays, Lesbians and All-Sexuals against Discrimination
One Barbadian activist has articulately come to terms with the damage his earlier music did, while acknowledging that Buju’s later music took her on a jubilant spiritual odyssey that, as a Caribbean woman, was vital to her evolution and sense of regional pride. Donnya Piggott is the Executive Directorof Barbados — Gays, Lesbians and All-Sexuals against Discrimination and before taking to Facebook, she confided to me how conflicted she felt over loving the gravelly voiced Salt Lane native’s music while abhorring the hate speech in arguably Jamaica’s most infamous dancehall track.
“We can’t pretend that we have this idea of moral absolutism where someone is all good or all bad. Caribbean people do not necessarily subscribe to that kind of idea. I just feel the same way about Buju. He has given us so much.” she stated passionately. Piggot also points to a one-dimensional Western media narrative that confines Buju to this one song and the furore it caused. Admitting she abhors the lyrics in “Boom Bye Bye”, the Queen’s Young Leader has still publicly acknowledged the upliftment provided by later tracks like Destiny and Not an Easy Road. She points to the impact of those songs on her life and on the lives of countless gay and straight young people whose lives are gnarled and twisted by abject poverty. For some, Buju’s music was their only escape.
Donnya Piggot’s Facebook post about Buju on the day of his release.
Another anonymous poster spoke to the duality of both loving the artist and hating some of his words: “Buju’s is an iconic voice for my generation, even for LGBTQ people, to whom his other work speaks powerfully.”
The power of those lyrics was and is up against a most daunting apex of racism, poverty and homophobia. In another JFLAG report: The Developmental Cost of Homophobia — The Case of Jamaica “The data provides evidence of discriminatory experiences unique to the Jamaican LGBT person. Despite various deliberate attempts to conceal their LGBT status, these persons feel that they are denied participation in the economy, representation in the legislature, and access to spaces free from stigma and discrimination.” The economic impact of a society racked with fear and homophobia lies in brain drain. The 2016 study’s executive summary concludes “Many LGBT persons surveyed, a percentage of whom were either in or already completed college or university, were desirous of leaving the country, denying it their contribution to national development.” One shouldn’t be surprised. Healthcare, a space deemed ‘safe’ by many, is also an area fraught with the anxiety of being found out or being treated differently because of sexual orientation.
The report explains that “denial of treatment is not the only form of discrimination that can be demonstrated by healthcare providers. Most of the sample (52.5%) reported being forced to undergo seemingly unnecessary medical or psychological testing [by healthcare professionals]. A third of the sample (32.2%) also experienced inappropriate curiosity regarding their status. Approximately 17% felt they had not received equal treatment, and 15% declined treatment because they felt fear or discrimination or intolerance, and 15% also felt the need to change their general- practitioner or specialist because of negative reaction.”
It isn’t difficult in the face of these facts to see how present the problems of the LGBTQ community in the Caribbean are and how distant Buju’s words must seem. There is a gritty tinge of defiance ingrained in the social media utterings of his supporters. Yet, as American comic Kevin Hart quickly found out, the internet is the gift that keeps on giving. He was chosen to host the Oscars; a day later some homophobic tweets from nine years ago resurfaced; Oscar officials asked him to apologize; he refused and three days later his hosting gig was no more. Ironically this happened the same weekend that Buju was released. In the words of another anonymous social media poster: “Buju’s words are murderous and he’s a felon. Why are people celebrating him? He hasn’t taken them back, and only a fulsome apology will begin to redeem the harm”. It appears the face to face sit down with LGBTQ activists to put the issue to bed; his overall conscious lyrics and signing the Reggae Compassionate Act are still not enough for some.
Still, many banish his die-hard opponents to the minor leagues of the conversation around Buju. According to Scratch “If people have forgiven him? I don’t even think people see that as anything to tarnish his legacy. Buju’s positives far outweigh this negative that happened back in 2009. The whole Caribbean identifies with Buju; has been identifying with Buju”.
The world of hate speech, gender equality, reproductive rights and the LGBTQAI profile has hurtled headlong into the main stream in a way unimaginable when Buju first courted controversy. Yet the issue that sparked the media storm seems as polarizing now as it once was. More importantly, the discrimination affecting the quality of life of the Caribbean LGBTQ community is still taking much longer to unseat. Issues of social welfare are worsened if you are gay or trans and that’s what allies and activists are focusing on.
“Who can afford to run will run, but what about those who can’t? They will have to stay. Opportunity a scarce, scarce commodity in these times, I say” — Untold Stories, Buju Banton.
Originally published at https://medium.com on December 21, 2018.
