TODAY, veteran roots singer Kiddus I stages the inaugural Rastaman Vibration show in Cheapside, St Elizabeth. While several leading artistes will perform, he is quick to point out that it is more than a concert.

He will use the event to promote the Moringa tree and hopes by next year Rastaman Vibration becomes a cultural extravaganza that attracts thousands of fans to the south coast.

“It’s a live show this year but in 2015 we want to have a one-week festival. Next year, we want to incorporate a marathon and a surfing competition,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The Moringa is at the forefront of Kiddus I’s Green Fa Life project which he launched five years ago. He has pitched its attributes to farmers and other business interests in St Elizabeth and plans to provide seedlings for planting throughout the parish.

The Moringa tree, which is found mainly in Africa and India, is popular in health circles. Its leaves and seeds are used to produce olis, body butter, capsules and powders. In the last three years, Kiddus I has produced a wine and powder from the Moringa.

He hopes to add other derivatives to his catalogue this year to encourage a healthy lifestyle. “People would come off things like the coloured (sodas) water and drink more natural juices which would cut out diabetes and other illnesses.

We can have a new economy (on the South Coast) if we get the support,” he stressed. Kiddus I (Frank Dowding) had a similar concept during the early 1970s when he operated the IC Oxford Road culture centre in St Andrew.

The venue was a hub for top reggae acts and producers of Jamaican art and craft. Most in music circles know him for his starring role in the 1978 movie Rockers and the song Graduation in Zion.

His latest album, Topsy Turvy World, was released last year. Luciano, Mikey General, Jesse Royal, Mystic Revealers and ‘home boys’ Raging Fyah are some of the acts on Rastaman Vibration, which is a joint production with guitarist Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith’s Inna De Yard project.

— Howard Campbell