Nettleford and Rastafari's Inner Landscape

Abstract

Introduction: Removing the plantation, redeeming the landscapeThe influence of the movement has been very, very far-reaching and deeply penetrating . . . which you [Rastafari] must take every credit for because you really have been forcing people in Jamaica to accept the fact that they are black. I have never seen a blacker country which is afraid of blackness. One of the marvellous things about the Rastafarian is, people like us are not racist. We are not that unsophisticated to be racist - only buttos are racist. But we are not that silly not to be raceconscious. And that's a delicate balance of sensibility which I first found among the Rastafarians . . }Bob Marley, Burning Spear, Bunny Wailer, Sizzla, David Rudder: these are just a few names which come to mind when we think of our articulate black resistance tradition today. This of course would be to confine our scrutiny to the realm of popular/ verb al oratory, without appropriately regarding the facility these artists have been afforded by the pioneering work of one of Jamaica's gigantic cultural magicians, Nettleford. It was Nettleford who, since his rise to national prominence in the late 1950s, was to be at the vanguard, re-presenting and securing a place for culture as the purview of the intellectual. From that space Nettleford was to advise the national and international directorates about the embodiment and integrity of the African Jamaican cultural heritage. To paraphrase Hilary Beckles, Nettleford became the chief consultant on obeah, or perhaps even the chief obeahman in this region.2The idea of African freedom and dignity as a journey, and the struggle continuing, are the key expressions of help and direction that I garnered from the late professor's work, wit and wisdom. A few years ago, I recall him saying after a panel of cultural studies scholars presented aspects of their work ranging from Kumina and Revivalism to Rastafari and dancehall research: The future is secure ... I can die now! When Nettleford made that statement I thought it morbid hyperbole. It was only after his passing, after I shared this comment with Barry Chevannes, also now sadly deceased, that I realised there could be a different reading, one that was not morbid but indeed celebratory, suggesting a sense of accomplishment, as in, work is done. I am now ready to return to my maker.I immediately gained a different appreciation of the years he had spent teaching, training, securing the African cultural presence. Indeed, Nettleford had inherited much from others such as Miss Lou and Mass Ran, Wycliffe Bennett, Ivy Baxter, and Rastafari brethren. It was a relay of sorts - the production, preservation and advancement of this cultural knowledge. And the professor always strived to play his part well. My mother described him as Rex the slave boy, referring to his complexion, his willingness to dance barefoot, half-naked, to the drums of our African ancestors - even quite late in his life. This was her way of commenting on his embrace of rooted Jamaican culture, despite his command of the Queen's English. Although African enslavement in the West crippled the ability to retain Africa or to garner achievement for our people, Nettleford, early in his career, turned this experience of enslavement inward, and upside down on its head. Indeed, where slavery attempted to remould the entire landscape to suit the plantations' need, Nettleford retreated to the inner landscape: a marronage within.For many, slavery was the manifestation of extreme trauma and commencement of a process of silencing. From the silence of slavery came the voice of Rastafari. This Rastafari voice is what Nettleford sought to engage in his treatment of 'landscape', particularly the conversation about the inner landscape. To this extent the 'inner landscape' metaphor employed by Nettleford is not unlike the Rastafari concept of 'word, sound, power' as a means of breaking the silence. In theorising the inner landscape, Nettleford debunks the plantation meta-narrative, having removed the edifices of the great house/plantation system. …