Jamaica Music Museum to honour late Rastafari elder Douglas Mack

On Sunday, June 25, starting at 2 p.m., the Jamaica Music Museum will host a programme honouring the memory of the late Rastafari elder, leader and visionary Douglas ‘Dougie’ Mack at the Institute of Jamaica’s Lecture Hall, on East Street in downtown Kingston.

Family members, contemporaries and cultural beneficiaries of the late Douglas Mack will gather to reflect on his contributions to the establishment of Rastafari as a movement of black enlightenment and empowerment, whose work helped to shape Rastafari in Jamaica. Mack was one of four Rastafarian brethren on a government-sponsored group of 12 people who travelled to Africa, including Ethiopia, in 1961 to investigate the possibility of repatriation for Jamaicans.

He returned to Ethiopia in 1963 as part of a delegation, including Brother Fillmore Alvaranga and Samuel Clayton, sponsored by the Rastafari Brethren Repatriation Association to continue efforts to repatriate Jamaican Rastafarians to Africa. On both missions Mack had audience with His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I and was one of those awarded a gold medal on the emperor’s visit to Jamaica in 1966.

The event will include a video presentation on Mack’s life and work, and tributes to his vast and enduring impact. A panel discussion moderated by Habte Selassie, featuring Alan ‘Skill’ Cole, Jerry Small, Barbara Blake Hanna and Audrey Mack, widow of Dougie Mack, will also explore Mack’s legacy.

Director/curator of the Jamaica Music Museum, Herbie Miller, considers the late Rastafari elder an essential pillar of the awakening of black consciousness among the youth of the late 1950s and ‘60s, particularly in east Kingston, in framing their social, cultural and political ideologies. “By extension, his impact resonates with contemporary Rastafari livity. The role he played in facilitating Emperor Haile Selassie’s visit to Jamaica and the Caribbean in 1966 is a monumental achievement,” he said.

Music will be provided by The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.