by SCOTT C

When you hear the conviction and power behind the words of Mutabaruka, it’s not hard to believe that this dub poet, actor, comedian, producer, publisher, entrepreneur and radio host has been dedicated to inspiring black people everywhere with his words of self-determination, empowerment and spirituality for the past 30 years. Drawing from Rastafarianism and the significant contributions of Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey and Malcom X, Muta’s words open the mind and offer insight into the deep-rooted ills of blacks worldwide. On his new album Life Squared, his first since 1994, Muta continues to explore the black liberation struggle through music and his riveting, eloquent and unwavering pan-African expressions. The Mirror spoke to Mutabaruka over the phone from Jamaica.

Mirror: For someone who obviously has so much to say, and has said so much over the years, why has it taken you so long to put out another record?

Mutabaruka: My thing is not about putting out records, y’know. I’ve been busy doing other things. I’ve been touring a lot, and I have a radio program here in Jamaica that takes up a lot of time. I’ve also been back and forth to Africa many times, the U.S. and Britain too, as well as running my bookstore. My time has been taken up by travelling instead of going to the studio.

M: Has the state of the world right now prompted this album at all, or has it just come back to the point where you have time to record?

Muta: I just decided that I have to make a CD of where I am at right now in poetry and mind.

M: Your words definitely have a way of sticking. They stay with you long after you’ve heard them, and I feel that Life Squared is very reflective of our global situation.

Muta: We all evaluate things and see things differently. Sometimes an artist sees the world a little different from a normal person. They see from another eye, so we reflect what people have in their minds but don’t have the opportunity to say publicly. People would say what I say in my poems if they had the same stage as me.

M: How do you see the situation in Iraq and the domino effect that it has set into play?

Muta: It’s all about the New World Order. It’s all about manipulation and control. It’s all about crusading, and the Western world trying to impose Christianity and democracy on people who have nothing to do with that idea and that consciousness. The capitalist world is under the impression that if the whole world is not Christianized and democratized, we will make sure that you are.

Road scholar

M: I understand you conduct "reasoning sessions" at the University of the West Indies?

Muta: Actually, yes. They gave me an honorary fellowship up there.

M: What does that entail?

Muta: What it does is allow a person who does not have any university or academic qualification, but is able to articulate philosophy, to mix and communicate with the students up there. My job is to interact with different ideas and thoughts, especially my views on Rastafari and the African perspective. People have heard me on the radio for 10 years and hear me saying certain things that is out of their normal mindset, and they want it to be qualified, so most of the things we discuss are about God and Rasta and world issues.

M: I’m interested to know how people in Africa respond to what you have to say to them.

Muta: Africa has so much problems going on within itself that it is very difficult for them to react to what is going on in the rest of the world. Many African leaders are not African-centred, and don’t understand the relationship between Africa and history, or the part that it played, and the part it can play in today’s world. They have this European dream, this European mindset that because they went to university in London and Paris they can carry that idea back to Africa and impose it on the people, who have no idea what it means to be a British or a French person. People talk about the end of apartheid in South Africa, but the end of apartheid is a political idea that has not manifested politically and economically. The wealth and means of production is still owned and operated by whites and foreigners. If Africans try to reclaim that economic power, they are stagnated by American blocks, and people who think that they are out of place and wrong for doing so. It’s backwards.

With DJ Prymtym and guests at le Medley
on Saturday, June 28, 7:30pm, $25+

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