With Buju supposedly no end to the war comment reiterated on a radio program recently that has created a firestorm from the groups and individuals who are already incensed from the meeting with gay representatives in San Francisco they called for financial donations to JFLAG among other things which were deemed unrealistic. I am of the view that with heated exchanges and cross and counter cross bickering we won't see the possible solutions and or ideas for us to move forward.
Find more audio posts like this on GLBTQ Jamaica Members' LINKUP, send an email to lgbtevent@gmail.com to be approved
Scroll to the title that matches this post title double click or press play once highlighted to hear the audio response) (ignore snapvine references as they are now closed {March 31st 2010} as recorded then as my original audio hosts)
Mutabaruka's Cutting Edge Program - Buju Meets With Gays radio discussion with Buju via phone
(Muta photographed)
Buju Banton may never capitulate to the strong opposition from the GLBT community and in the backyard of the most powerful gay lobby community that there may be in the world. He is now reportedly relegated to smaller venues with patronage to the tour being just the West Indian community, some African Americans and a few white supporters which includes gays with some many dates cancelled upon last count by yours truly:
Find more audio posts like this on GLBTQ Jamaica Members' LINKUP, send an email to lgbtevent@gmail.com to be approved
Scroll to the title that matches this post title double click or press play once highlighted to hear the audio response) (ignore snapvine references as they are now closed {March 31st 2010} as recorded then as my original audio hosts)
Mutabaruka's Cutting Edge Program - Buju Meets With Gays radio discussion with Buju via phone
(Muta photographed)
Buju Banton may never capitulate to the strong opposition from the GLBT community and in the backyard of the most powerful gay lobby community that there may be in the world. He is now reportedly relegated to smaller venues with patronage to the tour being just the West Indian community, some African Americans and a few white supporters which includes gays with some many dates cancelled upon last count by yours truly:
50 dates booked and more in the works
App 32 shows cancelled
9+ reschedules
App 32 shows cancelled
9+ reschedules
these of course are figures known from the Cancel Buju Banton site
This obviously is not a successful tour as being hailed by his management and certain members of the local media. In fairness in looking at this issues and all sides contending Buju has made some comments following the meeting in presenting his new image including this one from a recent newspaper article:
"I love everyone in the world. I don't love no special group from another group. There are other needy organisations out there."
If Mr. Mark Myrie, Buju's real name has moved on from his naive youthful exuberance when he first recorded and performed Boom Bye Bye some 17 years ago which also raises the question about a youth's ability to come up with such awful lyrics at his age of 16 begs examination as well, why doesn't he and his management pull the song and distance himself from such horrible lyrics calling for the death of a set of persons he doesn't like?
If Rastafari is to represent love and he Buju Banton has seen the light then do the right thing, just separate himself from this evil past. Some critics like Mutabaruka, a Rastafarian poet and public persona I have a lot of respect for, has said as bourne in the recording above that Buju Banton has turned a new page and has not recorded lyrics that advocate hate and violence since his conversion to Rastafari then why doesn't Muta encourage Buju Banton then as a senior statesman in the Rastafari movement to pull the song from the market and disassociate himself from any such derogatory remarks of death and mayhem towards GLBT people?
The Record is 17 years old
In this digital age recordings be they audio or video have a longer shelf life and it's not like this recording is going to go away these are not the days of old vinyl 12'' and 45s recording where records get lost or damaged from overplay and poor care of the discs and fade from popularity, the public including young kids have direct access to this and similar kinds of materials, it's on YouTube and other social media and can be downloaded from free mp3 sites, blogs and engines just the same, so the argument that he recorded the song some 17 years ago is not the issue and is a poor excuse to justify the continued preservation of such materials.
In this digital age recordings be they audio or video have a longer shelf life and it's not like this recording is going to go away these are not the days of old vinyl 12'' and 45s recording where records get lost or damaged from overplay and poor care of the discs and fade from popularity, the public including young kids have direct access to this and similar kinds of materials, it's on YouTube and other social media and can be downloaded from free mp3 sites, blogs and engines just the same, so the argument that he recorded the song some 17 years ago is not the issue and is a poor excuse to justify the continued preservation of such materials.There will always be new listeners especially the impressionable youths would will believe this kind of rally cry and with all the craziness out there who knows there may just be someone who takes it literally and decides to act. I think we lost a golden opportunity to speak to Buju about this rationally without asking for unrealistic goals and basically insulting his intelligence in fairness to ask for him to donate money to GLBT people here. I am certainly not interested in any money from murder music and not asking him to "buy" his way into our favour.
We have get our heads clear and work when the dust settles to have continued meaningful dialogue where possible.
In the meantime still a deafening silence from the rest of the dancehall community including other murder music artists like Capleton, Sizzla, Elephant Man and Mavado.
Peace
H
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7 comments:
I have heard quite a bit of patois over the years, but still could not follow this programme easily.
Muta has a big mouth; I thought he would never stop. He was parotting many of the lies that are commonly heard about gay people (corruptors of little boys, etc.) I believe we are hearing this nonsense because Jamaicans are now very much thrown on the defensive regarding the treatment of gays in view of international opinion.
Buju came on by phone and was stupid enough to repeat the damaging (to him) statement that there is no end to the war betweeen him and faggot.
We, in the gay community, are supposed to hold all this power, yet he brags that he has easily out-manoeuvred us by booking other places, etc. So, my thinking is, "not bloody powerful enough!"
Would love to hear you do an audio blog in response to that show.
I think maybe they had you in mind as the person who's been feeding all that misleading information
to the foreign folk who are unfairly targeting him!
no it wasn't me they were talking maybe it could be the J
It was meant to be a joke...
Actually you don't even have to be in Jamaica to inform yourself about the issue of homophobia there. There's a lot of material available on the net, including stuff like the Human Rights Watch "Hated to Death" report. And at least some of the spotlight that has been shone on the issue is a direct result of the Dancehall djs' recordings, themselves.
Also, I am tired of hearing that their are no gay hate murders in Jamaica; just crimes of passion. These pontifications are based on just one or two high profile killings, like Peter King's or, more recently, John Terry's, even though we don't even know what led up to that one. You may disagree, plus there's issues of poverty, but you have to wonder what makes these boys snap. Even if it's a crime of passion, so-called, it takes place in a society where to kill a gay man is seen as acceptable, even praiseworthy, and where such murder is actively celebrated in the popular culture.
We keep hearing that "Boom Bye Bye" is 17 years old. That is true. Buju Banton's recent repeat of his "there is no end to the war between me and faggots" line, made during Mutabaruka's interview 10/14/09, is another hint that his views about killing gays haven't changed.
Mutabaruka is a Rastafarian like Buju Banton. It appears that the Rastafarians take the laws in the Old Testament of the Bible, such as the laws in Leviticus, literally. I understand they do not eat pork or shellfish, per Leviticus. Buju's line from "Boom Bye Bye," "dem [gays] haffi dead" ("gays must die") is like a command from God straight out of Leviticus and the Old Testament.
To his credit, Mutabaruka does distance himself from the call to kill gays. But it is unrealistic to expect Mutabaruka, the Rastafarian, to question Buju Banton's views about homosexuality.
Buju Banton appears to be performing "Boom Bye Bye" much less frequently. Probably the heat that he has gotten over the years from LGBT people has resulted in him performing this song less often.
It would be nice if the song could have less circulation from internet downloads from Amazon.com and compilation CDs.
Buju Banton and his paid employees at Gargamel Music Inc, say that Banton doesn't control the rights or the masters of "Boom Bye Bye."
Anyone can look up U.S. Copyright records at http://www.copyright.gov/records/ There are three U.S. copyright records for "Boom Bye Bye" and Buju Banton's name is on all three.
That having been said, it is difficult to know who gets the money from sales of internet downloads and the compilation CDs from "Boom Bye Bye." It is possible that Buju Banton does not have any control over releases of the song "Boom Bye Bye."
But even if he does not receive any money from sales of "Boom Bye Bye," he still benefits from the exposure of having the song available on the internet and on the CDs. It helps him to sell his other CDs and his performances.
I wish that I could do an audit of Buju's income and see how much he gets from "Boom Bye Bye." I am sure that he would never let anyone do that and publish the results.
Because of the U.S. copyrights that he holds on the song, he probably does get some income from "Boom Bye Bye."
while I agree with most of the points we also have to mindful of how we approach the situation we must watch the temper scale here on the ground else we run the risk of persons getting attacked in the name of defending Buju and now as we see in Denmark Sizzla is under pressure for his shows to get cancelled as well.
The approach must include gays on the ground in Jamaica and proper information on attacks, murders and stats taking into account the cultural and political implications and practices over the years.
Muta is very influential and can be a point of refernce as he understands the gay community to a certain extent probably more so than any other rastafarian public figure.
I dont believe in eternal punishment and I dont support the demand being made on Buju to profess a change in his support for homosexuality. If he is not advocating for violence against gays then we should let him prosper and be free to speak out against the poverty and under-education that plague the developing world (and give life to the violence he professed as a victim of the same.)
For may Caribbean gays and people who support gays in the Caribbean, this is where we part ways with the sometimes unforgiving North American culture.
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