First published: Winter 2015
Deliverance is a theme that is often sounded in poetry, reggae music and other forms of popular culture in Jamaica. A reflection of an abiding hope for positive change – political, economic, social – and for justice and prosperity for all, it is rooted in teachings that are associated with Rastafarianism. Indigenous to Jamaica, Rastafarianism is a religion whose adherents worship the late Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I (1892–1975) as a deity and smoke marijuana as a ritual practice.
Mambee, Heroes’ Wall, mural
Its messages about redemption and deliverance, mixed with positive-sounding declarations about peace, brotherhood and understanding, provided some of the inspiration for the self-taught Jamaican artist Mambee’s mural, seen here, which he began painting several years ago on an exterior wall of one of a group of simple, concrete-block houses in a poor section of Kingston. Located on the southern coast of the island, Kingston is Jamaica’s dusty, traffic-choked capital. Today, many of its older, downtown neighbourhoods are physically run-down and have become centres of hardship.
This is an article extract; read the full article in Raw Vision #88
