A formative part of my journey has been my years at University in Jamaica, especially my encounter with, and love for the Rastafari movement. My reading materials, music and aspect of my talk during this period reflected this influence. Among the influences that are still there and reflected in my writings, is the Rastafarian poignant and stinging critique of the “Whiteman’s Bible”.In chanting down “Babylon” – all that oppresses - the Rastas have gifted the Caribbean imagination with one of the most effective deconstructive habit (long before the current pundits) of “mashing up” English words or as John Agard puts it: “mugging the Queen’s English”.
I can still recall in one of the many “reasoning sessions” that I have witnessed how a sage-like Rasta tore apart the word “justice” contending that there is nothing just about justice as Babylon has totally screwed us all. Splitting up the word justice into just-ice, he noted the frozen nature of justice (playing with the idea of ice) and suggested that what justice needs is a good “thawing out”. His whole discourse was grounded on the fact that from his experience as a marginalised and oppressed group and as a part of a larger group of the Black Diaspora – justice is more like a fantasy (or more correctly nightmare) - an illusion rather than reality.
I was, therefore, pleased to read from one of my favourite writers, Eduardo Galeano, about the illusionary nature of justice in our upside-down world. Noting a number of ironic contradictions in terms of who are labelled unjust or as terrorists, he writes: “who are the just and who are the unjust? If international justice really exists, why are the powerful never judged and sent away? Why are the authors of the most horrendous carnage never arrested? Is it because they hold the keys to the prisons?” [New Internationalist August 2009, p.33] Here is one example of that contradiction according to Galeano: “According to Foreign Policy magazine Somalia is the most dangerous place on earth. But who are the pirates? The starving people who attack ships or the Wall Street speculators who rob the world for years and years and now receive millions in compensation for their efforts?” Indeed, where is justice?
Perhaps this is why Oscar Romero suggested that justice is like a snake that only bites those who don’t have shoes. Even if he had shoes and was a bishop, Romero paid the ultimate price – death at the hands of the unjust. And we are still fighting for just justice in our world today. In this world of frozen hearts, chanting down Babylon is a mighty long haul: yet the small signs of hope continue to keep those who are committed to a just world, hopeful and fired up. The world maybe upside down – but there are also Divinities keen to turn things right-side up. One day soon that ice on justice will thaw out and our nightmares will be over!
copyright July 11, 2009
