Mutabaruka

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Mutabaruka

The reggae subgenre of dub poetry really only has two major entries — Britain's Linton Kwesi Johnson and Jamaica's Mutabaruka. Each in his own way has made it into a very political art form. While perhaps best known for "Dis Poem," Mutabaruka has remained uncompromising in every facet of his life — a remarkable achievement. Born Allen Hope in Kingston, the man who would become Mutabaruka started adult life as an electrician for the Jamaican Telephone Company at the start of the 1970s. However, his conversion to Rastafarianism proved to be quite life-changing, part of a soul-searching which had brought him to books by Eldridge Cleaver, Malcolm X, and others. He quit his job and left Kingston, moving into the country with his wife and children, where he wrote Rasta poems. From 1971 on, under the name Allen Mutabaruka (the name means "one who is always victorious"), his poetry was published and he gave readings. By 1973, he was mixing his words with music, but it would be the start of 1981 before he released his first record, the single "Everytime I 'ear De Soun," which put him on the map in Jamaica.

A performance at the Reggae Sunsplash festival later that year established him as a powerful performer, one who went barefoot and would wear no animal products and with a white streak in his black dreads. The debut album Check It followed in 1983 on Alligator, searing and extremely political, a polemic on racism. The following year, after signing with Shanachie, he issued Outcry and, in 1985, organized the charity recording "Land of Africa" with a host of well-known Jamaican names, the proceedings going to the Ethiopian Famine Victims. The Mystery Unfolds was his third album, released in 1986, with help from Ini Kamoze. Muta (as he was known) turned producer for the compilation of female dub poetry, Woman Talk.

Throughout the '90s he continued to record, albeit at a slightly slower pace, with The Ultimate Collection, a career retrospective, appearing in 1996, marking the end of an era. When he reappeared two years later for Gathering of the Spirits, the technique marked a return to the "old style" of live musicians called the Roots All-Stars in the studio, a marked rebellion against the increased digitization of Jamaican music. It was followed by Mutabaruka's first dub album, Muta in Dub. Although his career is in music, his three early books of poetry have remained in print and he stills tours, especially in Europe, where he remains popular

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