'Dudus': Victim of his generation?
Published:Sunday | June 13, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Tyrone Reid, Sunday Gleaner Reporter
THE CLERGY is divided on whether or not Michael Christopher Coke, otherwise called 'Dudus', is the victim of a generational curse.
Dr Raphael Thomas, pastor of the Annotto Bay Gospel Chapel in St Mary, says the Bible teaches that the sins of the father are visited upon the children to the third and fourth generations.
Coke, also known as the 'President' and 'Bossy', is the son of the deceased Lester Lloyd Coke, better known as 'Jim Brown', the progenitor of the Coke dynasty of dons who have ruled the west Kingston enclave of Tivoli Gardens for 25 years.
The elder Coke died in his prison cell in February 1992 while awaiting the results of extradition proceedings that would have determined if he would be sent to the United States to answer charges filed against him in that country. Jim Brown died on the same day his son, known as 'Jah T', was buried. Jah T was said to be heir apparent at the time of his death.
Today, another of Jim Brown's sons - Dudus - is on the run in an attempt to avoid extradition to the US.
Did young Dudus, who was 23 or 24 years old when he allegedly took control of his father's empire, have much of a choice? Some, like Dudus' math teacher, believe the writing was already on the wall, and that there was nothing he could do about the equation that had already been worked out for him.
Math whiz
Despite his father's notoriety, Dudus was described as a model student and math whiz by his former teacher during the five years he spent at Ardenne High School.
Dr Thomas believes the situation involving Dudus and his father presents like a classic case of generational curse. "It is possible that people suffer based on sins, of their ancestors," he said.
The Reverend Rennard White disagrees. White, pastor of the Tower Hill Missionary Church, agrees with Dudus' math teacher's assessment that the young Coke possessed the acumen to have become anything he wanted to be. And, he believes Coke did just that. "That's my take on it; that he could have been otherwise," Reverend White told The Sunday Gleaner.
The Tower Hill Missionary Church pastor does not espouse the doctrine of generational curses, as he quoted that the Bible also teaches that no longer shall the fathers eat the sour grape and the children's teeth are set on edge.
Right to decide
White believes every man has a right to decide his own destiny. "I'm not one who is strong on generational curses," he said.
White argued further that training and environment affected decisions, but insists that "people still have a choice. "Saying it is a generational curse is the easy way out."
However, the Reverend Fitzroy Thomas, president of the Jamaica Evangelistic Mission, believes generational curses are real and that they exist today. "If there is no repentance, you find that the children will likely follow what the parents did," he argued.
The Jamaica Evangelistic Mission president also thinks that Dudus could be a victim of a vicious spiritual cycle. "It is likely that he is the victim of a generational curse," he said.