- Norman Grindley
The controversial Bob Marley statue by Christopher Gonzalez finds a home at last in Island Village Shopping Centre, Ocho Rios.
Amina Blackwood Meeks, Contributor
TWENTY YEARS ago, the Government of Jamaica commissioned a statue to commemorate the life and work of reggae icon, folk hero, Musical Ambassador, the Hon. Robert Nesta Marley, O.M. I have been meaning to ask Christopher Gonzalez how this honour fell in his lap and what his response was at the time. If you know Gonzalez's work, you know that like Peter Tosh, Christopher "doan joke wid serious tings" like identity, spirituality, ancestors, the irrevocable connection between all life forms and the importance of man's stewardship in this incarnation.
Long before any thought of a Bob Marley statue, Christopher had already attained folk hero status from a faithful following not because of his work that had gained acceptance but because of two pieces that had been rejected - both of them being representations of Jesus Christ. In the case of the first, Christopher dared to reveal the "manhood of Christ". I used to make frequent trips to Olympia Gallery to look at it just to hear myself say, to no-one in particular "So what dem tink Jesus was, neuter gender?" As in "bulla is a noun".
The second time around he had dared to represent Christ as a rastaman cast in black. That did sweet me even more and occupied my attention during the entire funeral service for dub poet Mikey Smith, up there at St. Jude's Church in Stony Hill. So anybody looking for a play-play, pretty-pretty tourist-attraction likeness of the man called Bob who straddles time and space like an Ancestral Spirit for all time and space, got it all wrong when they summoned Mr. Gonzalez.
The statue was roundly rejected. I do not know by which sections of the "public", but according to the official explanation from officialdom, it was not appropriate for the public space designated for it. As a consequence, it was made to live in the private gated community which houses the National Gallery of Jamaica - until Heroes Day 2002, appropriately. My own conviction is that it has always had a space in the hearts and livity of the ordinary Jamaicans whose aspirations and sense of self he so eloquently voiced.
As with the other Gonzalez rejects, there is one question demonstrating "for justice". Where are the television cameras? Here comes the question too big for just one placard: Exactly what is it about these representations which is so offensive and to whom? What truth do they speak which should be smothered? And what is the impact of this strangulation on the already bruised-struggling-for-recovery-98 per cent-of-my-people-black-98-per cent-poor national psyche? Okay, that's three questions so make it three placards.
The Bob Marley statue now rests in Island Village in Ocho Rios. At the unveiling, Christopher Gonzalez read the rationale for the interpretation, which was denied to the public at the time when they supposedly voted in favour of rejection. Thank you, Christopher for the education. But there are many people who did not need to hear it to fall in love with the piece or to see and understand, "I and I a de Roots" in all its glorious manifestations flowing through the work. Do hear Bob singing:
"Yes, I've been abused, many a time
Wrongly accused
But through the powers of the Most High
They had to turn me loose... what a lala...."
I have some questions though. My understanding is that ever since the statue was rejected, the people of St. Ann had been asking for it to be brought home to the parish of Bob's birth, a birthday place shared with Marcus Garvey and the Burning Spear. I did not see them at the unveiling, even though was delighted to see folks from Kingston, St. Mary and some residents of St. Ann who either were creative spirits themselves or they give consistent support to Jamaican talent and creativity. But what about "the people" of St. Ann? Who are they? Did they know of the event? Were they invited?
So when former Minister of Education, Burchell Whiteman, who did the official unveiling said, "Cultural heritage must be a part of the everyday experience of all the people", I wondered how I was supposed to receive that. Cultural heritage is indeed about the "everyday experience of all the people". Some of the people, however, have mystified it, appropriated it, made monuments of it, and have sought, deliberately it seems sometimes, to make it unreachable to the very people who gave birth to it in the first place and accessible only to those who "have the maturity to appreciate good works of art".
So lock up a Black Christ and an African-inspired ancestral representation of Bob Marley and curse the 98 per cent for hating themselves, and heap coals upon the heads of the 53 per cent for thinking that they would be better under colonialism. How am I to learn to love and appreciate myself if everything about me is steeped in formaldehyde, and kept in quiet spaces where the initiated few whisper in dulcet tones in a language I am not supposed to understand. Or else everything about me, every ideal that I hold dear is condemned, as not being appropriate to designated public spaces.
Bob Marley plan dis, yu hear. To demonstrate that, "all the plot dem a plot gainst I and I, they ain't go stop I." He reaches from beyond the grave to force a recognition that part of the national healing which must take place now if we are to move forward is not so much about economic policies as it is about healing the psyche, reclaiming the stones that certain builders refused and which must now become the cornerstones of who we are and the basis on which we move forward.
It is about how we facilitate that growing maturity, that appreciation not just of good art but of the heart which speaks to our collective redemption.
So after nearly 20 years, Bob's statue get emancipated from the National Gallery, a place that is not yet part of the everyday experience of all the people... Yes me fren!
Amina Blackwood Meeks is a story teller and communications consultant.
