The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

DR MICHAEL Darville and Ministry of Health and Wellness officials must be commended for rejecting the concert request of Bahamian promoters of the Reggae Valentine’s Day event featuring Jamaican dancehall artist Dexter Daps. Although the basis of the Ministry’s rejection is that “large gatherings are prohibited under the Health Service Rules for COVID-19 protocols,” I am of the belief that the event would’ve undermined the traditional and moral values of The Bahamas, which is dominated by the Judeo-Christian traditional framework.

Despite the alleged economic boost the concerts would’ve generated for Nassau and Freeport, the cons would’ve far outweighed the pros from a moral and sociological standpoint, owing to Daps’ hedonistic message.

Daps was scheduled to perform at the Carnival Grounds in Nassau on February 11 and at the Goombay Park in Freeport on February 12. This is probably a case of Bahamian promoters putting the cart before the horse. Approval should’ve been sought before booking the Jamaican artist, notwithstanding the perceived political pandering of those involved. Ironically, some six years ago, Jamaican attorney Helene Colely-Nicholson wrote an opinion piece in the Jamaica Observer in February of 2016, titled “Marriage matters.” Colely-Nicholson wrote that 100 Jamaican couples from Kingston, St Andrew and St Catherine had attended a Valentine’s Day banquet at Family Life Ministries in 2016, which was aimed at promoting marriage and to reduce the number of children being born out of wedlock. The Jamaica Observer writer said that a staggering 86 percent of children in her Caribbean country are born out of wedlock. Indeed, this is a shocking statistic. Yet this is the social and moral environment that Daps was raised in.

Born Louis Grandison in January of 1986, Daps is just one of many Jamaican dancehall artists to dominate the music landscape of Jamaica and the Caribbean. Other notable dancehall artists include Sean Paul, Vybz Kartel, Elephant Man, Koffee, Lady Saw, Spice, Mavado, Shenseea and Buju Banton. Jamaican musicologists have said that dancehall had evolved from the dub, roots reggae, ska, mento and rocksteady genres. While many of the dancehall artists listed above promote illicit sex and violence in their music, roots reggae artists, such as Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Luciano, Lee Perry, Jimmy Cliff, Garnett Silk, Burning Spear and Capleton mostly sang about social, political and spiritual matters. For example, Tosh’s last recorded album before his violent death in 1987 was titled Nuclear War. While Tosh was a Rastafari, evangelical Christians would have no issue with him voicing his displeasure with nuclear war, high unemployment and child hunger and malnutrition. How to rid the world of these social ills, however, would probably be where Tosh and Christians part ways. Marley, Tosh and Wailer were the original members of the Wailers. All three, including Rita Anderson Marley, dabbled with Christianity before their conversion to Rastafari in the mid sixties or thereabouts. In fact, Rita claimed in her autobiography, No Woman No Cry, that she once taught Sunday school. Consequently, if one were to compare the work of dancehall artists to those of the Wailers and other roots reggae artists, the latter would look like English Puritans compared to Daps and his dancehall colleagues.

For example, Daps’ popular songs FU, Squeeze, Jealous Ova, Morning Love, Weak To You, Vanish, Wicked Gyal, Leader, one Minute and No Underwear are risque, vulgar, and in most instances, downright sexually graphic and demeaning towards women. Small wonder Rastafari members of the Nyahbinghi Order and Bobo Shanti reject dancehall music as being of the Babylonian system. Some of the members of the more puritanical Rastafari groups had interpreted Bob Marley’s untimely death in 1981 as judgment from their god, Haile Selassie I, for his deep involvement with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records and his collaboration with secular groups such as Lionel Richie and The Commodores. This is not to suggest that these Rastas are correct in their reasoning for Marley’s demise. My sole purpose in mentioning this is to show to the readership that not all Jamaicans support dancehall music. So why should we?

While Daps might be talented, his music undermines the message of sexual chastity, the importance of monogamous marriage and the nuclear family by promoting, knowingly or not, sexual promiscuity. In a December 2020 Jamaica Gleaner article, an official at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation Jamaica said that there was a “significant increase in STI infections among the 16-24 age group” in her nation during the COVID-19 lockdowns imposed by the Andrew Holness Jamaica Labour Party government. Jamaican adolescents are constantly bombarded with the sexually suggested music of dancehall artists, who are adamant that it is morally acceptable to engage in premarital sex and other forms of sexual promiscuity. Ideas have consequences. This can explain the reason for the high rate of out of wedlock births and STIs in Jamaica. It also explains the prevailing hedonistic ethos of Jamaica. Dexter Daps would’ve added absolutely nothing morally and socially worthwhile to The Bahamas. We have enough problems as it is. Many of the criminals in The Bahamas come from broken homes. Why should we allow a foreign entertainer to compound our moral dilemma?

Consider the Ministry of Health and Wellness’ denial as an act of God’s mercy towards the Bahamian people...

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama

February 8, 2022.