Canadian professor inspired to write book on Peter Tosh

At the age of 17, his cousin introduced him to the lyrics of the man known as Peter Tosh, and music as he knew it would never be the same again. For Canadian Daniel Douek, this early introduction created a musical paradigm shift that consciously realigned the way he viewed people’s desire for both mental and physical freedom.

Douek was on the island recently for the 50th anniversary of Tosh’s Legalize It album event held at the Pulse Complex along Trafalgar Road. He shared with The Gleaner that his love for Tosh’s music and Tosh’s fight for Pan-African ideals had such a personal impact on his own life that he began writing a book about Tosh titled Here Comes the Judge: Peter Tosh a Pan-African Revolutionary.

Now a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, Douek said that ever since he was a teenager and held one of Peter’s albums, it has had a profound impact on him, and he began to grasp the concept of liberation in its many forms.

“Long before I went into academia, I was into reggae music, especially the Wailers music. My family loved music and would play lots of albums, and one day, my cousin showed me one of Peter Tosh’s albums, and I was hooked,” he said.

“This was right after he passed, and I said, ‘Who is this man?’ He had on sunglasses and just looked bad to the bone. I could just tell this guy was something different. I just could feel it, and then it just went deep from there. I respected both Peter and Bob side by side, but with Peter, there was just that mysterious figure who remained elusive in getting to know much about him,” Douek continued.

Intent on unearthing the depths of Tosh’s life and accomplishments, Douek said that not even half of the story of the man known as the ‘Stepping Razor’ has ever been told, and that is his mission.

“I am looking at Jamaican history and the history of Pan-African solidarity, revolution, and resistance through the lens of Peter. Through his songs and his activism in his lifetime, including his fight against apartheid in Southern Africa. I’ve been very fortunate and had the honour to speak to some musicians who played with him, and toured with him as well as Herbie Miller, who was his producer, plus Marlene Brown. So I have some of their stories to share and to put into perspective about what Peter himself went through,” he said.

Douek has previously written a book, published in 2020, on the insurgency and counterinsurgency in South Africa, based on his fascination, he said, with Southern Africa and its armed struggles for liberation.

“All of it is rooted in my love for reggae and involves Peter singing about Zimbabwe. I think there must have been a symbiotic relationship with the whole South African history and Peter’s influence on men such as Lucky Dube, who patterned himself after Peter. He was very clear in saying Peter was his hero and his idol, so how the South African experience and the Jamaican experience are so close is something that I’ve been feeling for a long time, and it definitely shaped my perspective and my writing.”

Winston Hubert McIntosh, better known as Peter Tosh, was born on October 19, 1944, in Grange Hill, Westmoreland, and moved to Trench Town at age 15. In 1963, he co-founded The Wailers alongside Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer, serving as a key vocalist, self-taught guitarist, and arranger. He left the group in 1974 due to creative differences and a desire to pursue solo work and militant Rastafari activism.

Tosh launched his solo career with the landmark 1976 album Legalize It, advocating for the decriminalisation of marijuana. His catalogue includes Equal Rights (1977), Bush Doctor (1978 featuring the Rolling Stones), Mystic Man (1979), and the Grammy-winning No Nuclear War (1987). He worked closely with international stars, notably recording the hit duet (You Gotta Walk) Don’t Look Back with Mick Jagger.

Peter Tosh was murdered on September 11, 1987, during a home invasion in Kingston. He was 42.

nicola.cunningham@gleanerjm.com