ELECTRONICA/REGGAE selector DJ Afifa urged a mostly revisionist university reggae music symposium last Friday to stop reminiscing about vintage reggae and look to modern reggae fusions.

DJ Afifa, born Michelle Harris, stated that fusion reggae was the best way to return the 40-year-old form to popular rotation in Jamaica.

“We need to see what else is out there, rather than only hanging on to what was,” she said.

Harris, who is also a doctoral candidate in government at UWI, was not fundamentally against vintage reggae music, calling it the most “influential and inspiring” musical form. The symposium, entitled ‘Going Forward to our Rootz: Reclaiming the Healing Power of Reggae Music’, was held at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, as part of International Reggae Day activities, on Thursday, July 1.

She was among the youngest panellist at the symposium; others would have first listened to reggae as teenagers about 40 years ago. Currently, Jamaican popular music is dominated by dancehall whose proponents are seen as rebels, not revolutionaries. The conference reflected on the positive and revolutionary aspects of vintage Jamaican popular music as a response to the killing of 73 in Tivoli Gardens by the security forces in May.

Harris urged fellow deejays to explore new forms of reggae, which infuse techno, rap or rock, and incorporate it into radio and dance mixes.

“In order to advance reggae we need to as deejays incorporate other genres. Deejays need creative mixes and sounds to develop the interest amongst people, in order for deejays to expand our understanding of music,” she added.

Harris played mixes by international groups, including Thievery Corporation, DJ Spooky and an anonymous artiste. One song mixed Mr Brown, the reggae classic by the Wailers, with techno beats. Another single mixed U-Roy with North African beats — the result was modern and not revisionist, she explained.

The symposium was organised by Dr Michael Barnett (Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work) and Professor Carolyn Cooper (Department of Literatures in English), to reflect this aim, and to address the general theme that has been adopted in 2010 by International Reggae Day founder and producer Andrea Davis — ‘The Role, Power and Responsibility of Music and Media to Change Jamaica and the World.’

According to Dr Barnett, in these turbulent times, it is very important that reggae music be utilised as a positive force in Jamaica.

For Andrea Davis, reggae day convenor, this year’s observance has been the most challenging period in Jamaican music since the birth of the International Reggae Day concept in 1994. Reggae music is one of the few Jamaican resources that can be used to quell the anxiety that has gripped the nation.

Arguably, International Reggae Day inspired the inception of Reggae Month in February 2008, and as such can rightfully claim its just due for keeping the flag flying for Jamaica’s unique gift to the world, reggae music, for all of these years.