Reggae

artiste Buju Banton is speaking out against a ruling by Jamaica’s Supreme Court

regarding Kensington Primary School’s denying access to a child for her

dreadlocks hairstyle.

Banton

shared his views on Instagram yesterday, August 3, following the ruling handed

down in favour of the school last Friday.

In a video to 1.1 million followers, the artiste born Mark Myrie, said that Rastafarians are under threat once again. “ So yes, once again, Rastafari is under threat. We’ve come a far way, now to a point where even the ‘herb’ [marijuana] legal; everybody a mek a money offa it, but yuh still a hamper our education and our children’s ability to be educated in your schools and I see that as discrimination, because you would never do that to a Jew or ask a Muslim to remove their kopf, which would be religious discrimination,” the Blessed singer said.

He

continued, “So, why you want the Rasta man dem children to trim dem hair? When

you refuse to give us our own schools to educate our children in the way that

they should be educated, cause we refuse to be what you wanted us to be, enuh.

We can’t be that anymore, because our eyes are opening, and the people’s eyes

are opening every day. So, dem bakra master judge and dem system yah and

‘isms-skisims’ weh we have a fight against Rasta…Rasta need fi wake up and

become industrious.”

The

Supreme Court’s written judgement was made public yesterday, spelling out its

rationale behind declaring the school’s policy as not violating the seven-year-old’s

constitutional right.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Buju Banton (@bujuofficial) on Aug 3, 2020 at 8:02am PDT

Justice

Sonia Betram Linton, said “While I am in

agreement that people have a right to express their religious beliefs, or

indeed any other conscientiously held beliefs to which they adhere, there is

nothing in this case that directs the mind of this court to believe that the

claimant’s right to freedom of religion has been breached, as she has not

adduced sufficient evidence to this court to say that the actions of the school

infringed this right, for example, by somehow encouraging or forcing the child

or her parents away from their stated beliefs — beliefs which I might add were

never disclosed.”

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Bertram

Linton added that the claimant’s attorney failed to convince the court that

everyone with locks should be identified as Rastafarians, and should not have

to state their religious beliefs. “I cannot support this submission,” she said.

Dale

and Sherine Virgo filed a lawsuit against Kensington Primary School in St

Catherine, after their then five-year-old daughter was refused entry because of

her locked hair, which they said breached her constitutional rights.