JAMAICA | The crucifixion of Isat Buchanan

The ugly side of Jamaican society is the abuse of its people that is endemic to the way it was forged in slavery, tempered in colonial oppression and exploitation, and persists in the inequalities of today. 

Both men and women have been subjected to abuse for their skin colour, their culture, and their poverty. Girls and women expect abuse by virtue of their gender even from many who claim to love them.

At the bottom of the pile are those who live with a disability in a society that is unkind to them by default.

One of my heroes is the once destitute albino boy who lived on the sidewalk in front of an old people’s home that was burned down with the old ladies in it, and who has struggled his way out of the financial hardships to win international acclaim and respect. 

Were he a female, the oppression and abuse would have been much worse.

Raised in abuse, the victims abuse each other in their everyday relationships in their families and neighbourhoods, and even celebrate it in song. 

We see this phenomenon of collective self-destruction wherever people are oppressed and brutalized – in the ghettoes and reservations of the USA, the townships of South Africa, the slums of Manila and Port-au-Prince, for example, and all over Jamaica.

As a lifelong collector of all kinds of music, especially Jamaican music, I am turned off by the crudity, vulgarity, and violence of too many of today’s dancehall songs. 

Negative images were not invented by dancehall, but the songwriters have magnified them to the extreme where they grate on the sensibilities of many people like me.  

I confess that I have no Worldboss music in my collection. Even after reading his book about his self-appointed championing of “ghetto youths” and seeing the UWI students throng him and swoon over him more than any other guest speaker including Mandela and Belafonte, my ears and my spirit cannot handle his lyrics.  

Dancehall people celebrate him as the greatest.  Some have explained to me his brilliance as a songwriter, and pointed to the power of the messages they hear.  He has a lot of support among the working-class people who either don’t believe Lizard was killed, or think he deserved it – justified abuse!  

Then again, maybe evidence does not even matter to people who feel that they have been historically disrespected and wronged, and that the Babylon system is victimizing their hero.

To the supporters of Worldboss, Miss P is the face of the Babylon system that persecutes them as she prosecutes.  In everyday speech, both words are pronounced the same way, as if they were one; they seem to mean the same in the subconscious. 

Beyond the fans, there are mixed opinions on Miss P’s service. It is clear that the government will even change the constitution by sleight of hand and without consultation to keep her in the role.  

It’s another reminder of partisan interest that ignores corruption, tolerates the blatant vulgarity in the Parliament, makes excuses for not dealing with the gross attack on a woman with a stool, shows open disregard for those appointed to monitor the integrity of the political class, colludes with former and current imperialists to serve their interests, and increasingly seems flustered by the challenges of leadership in the interest of all citizens.

Their spokeswoman, who is usually in the picture with the athletes and artistes receiving their prizes and accolades, has led the denunciation, with righteous indignation, of Isat Buchanan’s hurling of his client Worldboss’ vulgar lyric at Miss P, with whom there is no love lost from their previous clashes. 

An instantaneous chorus has joined her, in defense of womanhood, and opportunistically to hang Isat Buchanan’s abuse on the necks of his political associates.  Promptly and appropriately, he resigned from serving on the Human Rights Commission of his party as the partisan assault from the assumed moral high ground caught the party exposed. 

 Supporters of the governing party who normally pretend not be partisans grabbed the opportunity to stand up for women as a pretext for standing up for their party.  After all, the moral high ground has been rare, and more often than not, they are making excuses and creating distractions from the moral low ground.  

There has been a lot of outrage, some of which should have been expressed for the attacks on the Integrity Commission, the covert war against the Maroons, the many instances of arrogance in power that invite speculation about authoritarian behaviour, and so on. 

In fact, this was a perfect distraction, in the defense of womanhood, from the constitutional change without consultation in the interest of Miss P and whoever’s interest that Miss P is expected to serve.

Isat Buchanan’s father has a vast repertoire of uplifting lyrics appealing to the people’s sense of pride, their yearning for freedom, and the celebration of their culture.  

It is difficult to bridge the gap between those lyrics and those of the Worldboss in general, and certainly the one that came to Isat Buchanan’s mind while addressing the “students” on the social platform, which was bound to go viral. 

At the same time, there is a kind of reflex in modern cursing – really, tracing – that has substituted sucking for raas.  This too is curious – that the tenderest and most sacred of human contact, the child suckling the mother, has been subverted into the most vulgar of meanings and abuse.

The backlash against Isat, which never flared against the songwriter he quoted, has cost him his media role, earned him rebuke from his professional organization, and threatens various aspects of his livelihood.  

As the defense attorney championing the cause of freedom for the Worldboss, Isat Buchanan is also a hero for the fans of the Worldboss.  In their minds, the persecution of Isat is an extension of the persecution of the Worldboss.

Apart from his father, his staunchest public defender is his recent colleague, the self-styled “teacher”, on the social media platform where he was offensive.  

In his plea, the “teacher” reminds his “students” that Isat Buchanan is really a good guy who, apart from fighting for Worldboss’ freedom, has volunteered his services to many people without the means to afford a lawyer, that he is not the only sinner, and that some of those casting stones are more guilty of vulgarity and worse sins against the people.  

He clearly regrets the attacks on his colleague, and in response, he has shifted to mobilizing the defense against the government, against Isat’s professional colleagues, against the representatives of the business community, and against hypocrisy more generally.  

In Leviticus, a scapegoat was a kid driven into the wilderness with the sins and impurities of the society while another kid was slaughtered.  In some African societies, a goat was stoned to death to get rid of the bad spirits plaguing the community.  

Traditional healers in some cultures distracted an injured person from his/her pain by inflicting pain elsewhere on the body.  Then there was the lamb of God who took away all the sins of the world.  Isat Buchanan is being crucified, but unfortunately, he cannot take away the sins against the people and the society.  

Instead, he has already started to pay a high price for his own sin, while yet to be rewarded for his many good deeds.  The distraction is only temporary, and as long as the Reggae Girls do well, but who knows how much and how long Isat Buchanan will pay for saying what his father would never have sung.

In Jamaica, we have many characters in search of scripts, and yet another tragicomedy to be written.

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