Renowned radio talk show host and dub poet Mutabaruka was recently honoured by Masters and Celebrities for his contribution to music and culture at their annual Bob Marley One Love Football Festival held at 7 Basiks and More (formerly House of Dread).

CEO of Masters and Celebrities Clive “Busy” Campbell made the presentation to the popular, yet controversial talk show host. Mutabaruka, who has been on radio for three decades, was surprised by the honour bestowed on him.

“He understands the work I have done over the years, and he gave me a plaque for it and that is really good. It means that what we have been doing transcends all different kinds of fields and I appreciate that,” he said.

Mutabaruka, whose given name is Allan Hope, began doing dub poetry while attending Kingston Technical High School before transitioning to radio where he was able to reach a wider audience with his “teachings”. He currently hosts two shows on Irie FM.

“I moved over to radio from dub poetry and started doing two programmes; Cutting Edge is 30 years and Stepping Razor is about eight years,” he informed.

He revealed that a lot of people who were deterred from listening to him in his early days on radio have become some of his greatest fans over the years, extending invitations for him to speak overseas.

“When I just started out a lot of parents didn’t want their children to listen to me because they said I was a mad, bare-footed, dutty head Rasta. But these same youth who used to listen to me have gone to the most prestigious universities in America and a lot of times when I leave Jamaica, it’s by their invitation because they hear the professors saying the same things they heard me say in Jamaica on the radio.

“It is amazing to them that a person who has no university background [is] speaking the same things being taught by the professors at the universities where they paid a lot of money to attend. So that’s amazing, that’s really amazing.”

Determined to continue to bring a different perspective to popular thought and dialogue, Mutabaruka has promised to remain in place to challenge what is being taught to the young people on the island.

“I plan to continue the work. I won’t stop doing the work and I hope it is reaching and generating not only thoughts and arguments but getting deep into the understanding of the youth.

“We are giving them a different understanding, different from the normal way of looking at things to show them that there isn’t just one way to look at things.

“Logics didn’t just come from Europe. The first man who awarded a doctorate wasn’t a doctor.

“We know that there are understandings out there that we need to tap into to save ourselves and make ourselves a better person than the politics and the religion that they have given to us.”

Mutabaruka celebrates 30 years on the radio this month.

—Dwayne Richards