“We Too Sing Jamaica – a tribute to a hero”
June 4th, 2013
This tribute to the memory of the late Caribbean academic Dr. Walter Rodney was written by Craig Dixon, aka Juleus Ghunta, 24, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Jamaica. It was presented at the tenth annual Walter Rodney Symposium held March 22-23, 2013 at Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.
The souls that thrummed the grounding drums in dungles, foraging for rice and rhythm, are raring to resurrect the riot against the ironies you reviled: hunting season in Coral Gardens – the national reburying of Garvey’s bones.
Pass laws, sus laws, the jailing of books, blacks – the prodigious banning of Apartheid’s stocks.
The haves-not clutching at withering dreams – a motto rehearsing the singleness of our ideals.
A “carnival of misery” engulfs the land, almost two generations after your ban.
See how mothers grab their children, as iron ogres uproot their shacks; how higglers tear from police across killing streets, desperate to safeguard their dreams stitched into the cheap cotton of commercial chemise and socks; how starving youth sell their skins on predatory streets at night; how black faces, bleached white, pray that the flames of lighter shades will set ablaze the ceilings of segregation and scatter the ashes into the triangular seas, amidst West Africa’s souls and spines.
This Grounder shall not be submerged beneath these tempestuous waves of ‘the other life’.The life that muffles our grounding drums, but cannot stop the skins’ dancing to the defiant rhythms of our palms.
Our tired hands are not tied, nor are our feet shackled in sand, our broken souls will mend and heal like the land. Let us relent in dissent only when our dreamright is as sure as the agony of yesterday’s abuse.
Rebel!
This land is our land; we too, sing Jamaica!
Juleus Ghunta is a dreamrighter; social activist; transformational speaker and creator of the D.R.E.A.M.R.I.G.H.T philosophy. His passion is helping youth to understand, affirm and exercise their right-to-dream. He is a two-time nominee for the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in Service – Contact him at: dreamrightmotivation@gmail.com – (876) 481-4855
photo credit: nicholaslaughlin via photopin cc
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About me:
“I am a Jamaican social activist, ‘Dreamrighter’, transformational speaker, creator of the D.R.E.A.M.R.I.G.H.T acrostic, and two time nominee for the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence in Service.
“I grew up in a small bucolic village called Pell River, in western Jamaica. I have been to many mountain tops – seen many things, tasted many things, conquered many things.
“I studied public relations and history at the University of the West Indies, Mona. I am an intern at the moment in the Spice Isle, Grenada, working the Roving Caregivers Programme which provides early childhood stimulation for economically deprived infants and toddlers. I want to be an anthropologist, focusing on literacy, peace and reconciliation.”
Contact me at dreamrightmotivation@gmail.com
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?
To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit: http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/
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