Arts/Review

Origins of Rasta movement examined |

RASTA AND RESISTANCE. By Horace .

Campbell. Africa World Press. $13.95. At
the People’s Co-op Bookstore.

Rasta and Resistance is the story of the
Rastafarian movement which originated
in Jamaica. When this book came into the
book store I was delighted as I never had
understood what this movement was
about.

Author Horace Campbell presents a
study of black resistance which clarifies
the political and social origins of Rastafar-
ianism. He deals with the development of
this movement, along with other move-
ments for black consciousness and libera-
tion, all of which stem from the brutality
and horror of slavery.

The basic impetus for the Rastafarian
movement was the works of Marcus Gar-
vey, who founded the Universal Negro
Improvement Association shortly after
World War I. The UNIA was one of
the most powerful black organizations of
its time.

Garvey’s proclamation was “Africa for
Africans, at home and abroad,” and his
race consciousness and call for Africans to
return to Africa helped to lay the founda-

tions for the future ideology of Rastafar-
ianism.

Campbell writes: “There has never
been, in Jamaican history, a tradition of
materialist and scientific enquiries.” There
were individuals who were attracted to the
ideas of socialism, but these individuals
were never enough of a force to spread
ideas.

Rastafarian idealism is distinguished by
its vehement opposition to racial injustice,
taking as its cue Garvey’s point of view of
African heritage. Symbols of the Rastas
— the red, gold and green flag, the lion,
and the “dreadlocks” — all reflect a style
of resistance.

The rural poor in colonial Jamaica
identified, ironically, with the Ethiopian
monarch. Campbell says this identifica-
tion with Ethiopia was a profound
response to the racial oppression of capi-
talism, and that the Rastafarians were not
the only section of the black community
who watched with pride and identity the
crowning of an African king in an inde-
pendent African country: Haile Selassie,
the “Lion of Judah” who represented to
many of the poor and suffering the per-

Rasta style and philosophy developed
with events over the years. Jomo Kenyat-
ta’s freedom fighters in Kenya (the Mau
Mau) inspired the long uncombed
hair — the “natty dreadlocks” in Rasta
terminology. And the movement™ has
become known world wide through its
most powerful medium of expression, reg-
gae: the combination music and Jamaican
black nationalism that has shaken the
musical world, particularly for the young.

Campbell’s book is comprehensive. He
takes us from the early slave revolts, up to
the present day. He explores the various
stages of political and spiritual develop-
ment in the Rasta communities through-
out the Caribbean, Africa, North America,
Asia, and the black neighbourhoods of
Great Britain.

These communities vary, in political
and religious differences and many are
only imitative. Campbell labels some as
false, such as the Ethiopian Zion Coptic
Church, which was organized by whites in
Florida, and has great influence on the
movement, particularly in regard to the
drug trade. As an example of media distor-
tion, Campbell notes that the church was

the TV news commentary program, 60
Minutes.

This book repeatedly stresses the
movement as a response to persistent,
world wide white racism. And he docu-
ments the problem of going beyond ideal-
ism: even though Walter Rodney, one of
their influential leaders in Ghana, has
taught and lectured throughout the Rasta
communities to show the relationship of
racism and capitalism and present a social-
ist perspective, many Rastas retain their
idealism and reject formal politics.

“The Rasta communities have been
reviled, misunderstood, sabotaged, their
people jailed and many of their leaders
incarcerated in insane asylums,” Camp-
bell notes. However, Rastafarianism per-
sists as a vehicle for black resistance.

But its place .in history is not yet
assured. In his conclusion Campbell
observes: “Having survived fifty years of
social and religious intolerance, discrimi-
nation and harassment, the Rastafarian
movement is poised between becoming a
part of world history, and contributing to
universal culture, or being a passing phe-
nomenon of the 20th Century.”

sonal vehicle of liberation.

the only Rasta organization covered by

— Jonnie Rankin

Common folk prevail
in Down Under fantasy

THE NAVIGATOR: A Medieval Odys-
sey. Starring Bruce Lyons, Hamish
McFarlane, Marshall Napier. Directed
by Vincent Ward. At Cineplex Odeon
theatres.

Thin is the line between dream and
reality, according to The Navigator: A
Medieval Odyssey, an award-winning
New Zealand-Australia co-production
currently entertaining Canadian audien-
ces.

This premise might seem like mystical
mumbo-jumbo. But the gritty reality in
this film which begins in plague-ravaged
Europe in the 14th Century makes it
seem as if we’re being told that hard
struggle, whether of the mind or fact, can
overcome obstacles.

At any rate, it’s the common people
who save the day when a group of pea-
sants in the northern British Isles wind
up in the 20th Century on a quest to stop
the Black Death — the medieval name
for bubonic plague — from claiming
more lives.

This film starts off dream-like, with a
montage of quick scenes in which black
clouds scurry across the face of a baleful
moon and a young peasant boy, Griffin
(Hamish McFarlane), has visions of an
odyssey that he believes will bring salva-
tion.

He convinces others, including his
brother Connor (Bruce Lyons), who has
just returned from a journey among the
plague stricken adjoining regions, and
the grim-faced village leader Searle
(Marshall Napier). They form the
nucleus of a group who descend into the
deepest pit in the region, tunnel through
the earth with the aid of a primitive rock-
smashing machine, and surface on the
other side of the earth.

The film shifts from sombre black and
white to colour, and to modern times as
the peasant band emerges to view a city _
illuminated “‘by thousands of torches.”

They aren’t really aware of the time-
shifting nature of their journey, of

course. Instead, they come up with var-
ious feudal theories, including the notion
that this place must be heaven.

Whatever, their task is clear: to find a
foundry, have a cross -cast from the
unprocessed copper they’ve mined, and
place that cross on the spire of the tallest
church in Christendom.

In the course of their work, the various
members of the group meet three good-
natured foundry workers, cross a body
of water in a rowboat with a horse, are
nearly capsized by what appears to be a
sea monster — a surfacing submarine
— and go for an unscheduled and unap-
preciated ride on the front of an urban
rail transport vehicle.

Humour, mostly based on the pea-
sants’ attempts to come to grips with this
strange and somewhat terrifying world,
constantly bubbles through the ever-
present sense of urgency and impending
doom. Maintaining the balance between
these two contradictory elements makes
The Navigator first-rate entertainment.

This film suffers a few flaws, including
fast action-scene editing that tend to con-
fuse. On this score, Steven Spielberg or
George Lucas might have done better,
given the big budgets these Hollywood
film makers command, but one wonders
if they would keep their much-vaunted
special effects in check and maintain the
focus, as The Navigator’s makers have.
It is also doubtful U.S. studios would risk
this film’s double-edged conclusion.

And they likely would not approve the
creators’ choice of heroes. These are no
sword-swingers or laser-wielding indi-
vidualists, but peasants and their 20th-
Century counterparts — wage labourers
— working collectively for a successful
outcome.

Shot entirely on location in New Zea-
land, this award-winning fantasy is suit-
able for adults and older children, who
stand not only to be entertained but to
learn who life’s real achievers are.

— Dan Keeton

10 e Pacific Tribune, May 29, 1989

History of Central American

liberation plays May 29-30

Songwriter Eric Bogle (I), who wrote the anti-war anthem, ‘The Band Played Waltz- _

ing Matilda;’ and Britain’s streetwise singer-songwriter Billy Bragg play at the
Vancouver Folk Music Festival July 14-16 at Jericho Beach Park. For advance

tickets call the festival office, 879-2931.

So you want to learn Central American
history the easy way? Well, the opportunity
to do is at the Vancouver East Cultural Cen-
tre. On May 29-30, the show Cantata Cen-
troamericana presents the chance of the year
to hear a unique blend of music and theatre
and learn some early history of the region.

The 90-minute show, co-sponsored by
Tools for Peace and CUSO, was written by
its two actors, Ruben Pagura and Juan Car-
los Urena. They play two brothers who
span generations to witness continuous
invasions of their homeland over 400 years.

The actors are accompanied by a four-
piece band playing several types of Central
American music.

The image of liberty throughout the play
is the mythical bird Quetzal, which chooses
death over captivity. The bird is resurrected
several times along with succeeding genera-
tions of heroes, only to perish with the arri-
val of a new invader. The play’s final
message is that the Nicaraguan revolution is
a fact that even the Bush administration can

_ not deny.

Tickets are $10 and are available through
Tools for Peace, 879-7216, or CUSO, 732-
1814. Or phone the centre, 254-9578.

— Linley Shelton
eR ok

A benefit for Irish prisoners of war takes
place at the Irish Centre, 771 Prior St. in
Vancouver on Saturday, June 10, 8 p.m.
Included are folk musical performances and
traditional dance. It’s sponsored by the Irish
Green Cross and marks the 20th anniver-

sary of the entry of British troops into Bel-
fast. Tickets are $5.

* *

Tube talk: KCTS public television gives
us the musical goods with Leo Kottke: Away
from Home. Kottke’s compositions blend
folk, classical, jazz and several other music
forms. This performance documentary fol-
lows the innovative American guitarist on
the road and includes an impromptu jam
session with Doc Watson and Chet Atkins
and a performance in Toronto. It’s on Wed-
nesday, June 7, 10 p.m. for one hour.
Closed-captioned.

The Seattle-based station also presents
the award-winning documentary, The Life
and Times of Harvey Milk”. Milk, a gay
activist elected to San Francisco’s board of
supervisors, was gunned down, along with
Mayor George Moscone by city supervisor
Dan White during a climate of right-wing
backlash which saw the beginnings of the
Moral Majority. This 90-minute film played
to capacity audiences during a run in Van-
couver several years back. It airs Saturday,
June 17, 9:30 p.m.

Knowledge Network presents former
Monty Python alumnus Eric Idle in a 1930s
England version of the opera, The Mikado,
on Sunday, June 11, 9 p.m. Also on is the
National Film Board’s Our Last Days in
Moscow, a romance built around an inter-
national music competition in the USSR’s
capital. Airs June 12, 8 p.m. and June 14, 10
p.m. ‘