Dudus, Viv and Vybz

Abstract

Since independence, Jamaica has grappled with the sociopolitical legacies of colonialism in forging a new national path. Politicians and academics alike seem to be struggling to find solutions to the country's problems. Meanwhile, violence continues to grow exponentially, corruption is entrenched, and definitions of right versus wrong are highly subjective. The figure of the anti-hero or outlaw in Jamaican culture has long been prominent – we think of eighteenth-century rebel leaders such as Three-Finger[ed] Jack. More recently, the rebel rude bwoys of the 1960s morphed into rebels with a political cause in the 1970s; then into the nihilistic shottas, rankings and drug dons of the 1980s, who have attained and retained the status of outlaw/hero/anti-hero up to today. This essay explores the published writings on some of Jamaica's dons which seemingly seek to legitimise their activities: Duane Blake’s 2002 biography of his father Vivian Blake, drug kingpin and alleged leader of the notorious Shower Posse; and K. C. Samuels’ 2011 book on Tivoli don and international drug kingpin Christopher “Dudus” Coke. Both texts fascinatingly demonstrate the transnational scope of the dons’ activities, as well as their organizational genius, a representation reinforced by popular novels such as Prince Kofi's 2007 Yardies and Errol McDonald’s 2006 Legitimate Resistance, that also emphasize the theme of dons as freedom fighters and promote violence and illegal activities as a legitimate solution to society's wrongs. Meanwhile, the outlaw figure has always been reflected in Jamaican popular music; and of particular interest to this essay is the infamous gangster DJ Vybz Kartel's 2012 Voice of the Jamaican Ghetto in which he positions himself as a radical leader and social activist, again asserting that in the frontier society of Jamaica, new paradigms of order/disorder, of morality/immorality/amorality, of right/wrong, prevail.