Dub poet and talk show host Mutabaruka

Well-known poet and talk show host, Mutabaruka, has been invited as an Artiste-in-Residence by Merritt College, in Oakland, California. The college, from which came the Black Panther Party revolutionary movement of the 1960s, has offered the controversial Rastafarian philosopher a semester, beginning April 2007, to lecture students about his poetry, his world view as well as his perspective of black issues.

"They have me an Artiste-in-Residence, effective April of next year," Mutabaruka told Splash. The host of the weekly no-holds-barred Cutting Edge programme on Irie-FM, added: "Dem di offer mi a semesta still, but how dem ah set it up, mi neva really waan stay up deh fi five months. Soh mi tell dem six week is OK, with di intention that mi can go and come from California every week. Is like dem aware ah di Cutting Edge. so dem allow mi dah privilege deh fi fly back and forth."

He further explained that the invitation was born specifically out of the institution's interest - as the alma mater of Black Panther founders, Huey P Newton and Bobby Seale - in the culture of the Caribbean people as well as Africa. No doubt, they were also influenced by the knowledge that one of the founding fathers of Pan-Africanism, Marcus Garvey, came from Jamaica and Stokely Carmichael, a prominent figure in the Black Power movement, was from Trinidad.

"Every year dem (Merritt College) carry a group of students down here as well as to Ghana. Here in Jamaica, dem goh BoBo Hill (a Rastafari Camp out by Bull Bay), dem goh Accompong (the Maroon settlement), dem really visit a lot of the indigineous places in Jamaica and dem go Ghana too," Mutabaruka explained.

"Some of the teachers dem kinda know of mi work and especially from the movie Sankofa [in which I appeared], because it's a movie weh a lot of schools use fi deal with black issues, legacy, and when it relate to slavery and thing, dem use di movie Sankofa. So dat was one of the movie weh propel we name among the black community and the scholars dem inna America," he added.

Continuing, he said, "Well, these teachers recognised the contribution weh wi mek over the years in terms of poetry and in terms of the part weh wi play inna di movie. So that was the criteria an the basis fi really invite mi to be an Artiste-In-Residence. So wi goin' do it fi six weeks. It's about dub poetry and the issues weh surround it. How it develop, the people dem who mek it and who create it. The idea round it, what create it, what form it, what allow it fi really reach weh it reach, yuh nuh."

But this is nothing new for the artiste born Allan Hope. One of the most toured Jamaican artistes, Mutabaruka did a stint as guest lecturer at the University of the West Indies during his assignment as Folk Philosopher in 2003/2004.

"Weh mi really a do a weh mi normally do. Is like, talk to students. Mi used to go to the different schools and talk. The Folk Philosopher was really a title, but before the Folk Philosophy, mi used to goh to different schools and speak. And mi tour a lot to different colleges. I've been to almost every major university in America and talk. I've been to Yale, I've been to Howard, I've been to Boston University, you name it. Any top ranking university weh inna America, I've been there speaking and that was like long before the Folk Philosophy period, yuh nuh. Is not like mi a do sup'm outside a weh me know. They don't call upon mi fi goh study things, weh dem call upon mi fah, is fi just talk and lecture to di students. Just talk to dem about my worldview, my perspective of black issues, knowing that Oakland is like the genesis of the whole Black Power Movement inna America inna di '60s. You did have like di Hippie Movement, you di have the Black Power Movement and the Black Power Movement round dah area deh was the main thing that propel black America and it came from that part of the world inna Berkley, San Francisco, Oakland.

The author of a number of books on poetry sees this as a springboard for more of such engagements in the not too distant future. "This is just a beginning for Mutabaruka to go into other universities around the area. Because they feel that it is necessary and important that a voice from the Caribbean that deal with black consciousness, and is in the performing arts, to be visible to the students dem in America. Especially black students, yuh nuh."

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