Manifesto
i am a jamaican born and raised dub.poet. it is my honour to be among the griots of the global afrikan village retelling our forgotten herstories. storytelling was taught to me by my mother. taught to her by her mother and her mother before her.
they weaved the divine struggles of everyday life in jamaica into quilted celebrations of worship | jubilee | sorrow | and dance. i learnt very early that life - beyond poverty | violence | (self) hate | abuse | inequity | and degradation - is about gratitude | humility | love | healing | and valuing struggle.
storytelling as offering. it is through this ancient snake womban creatrix place that i channel. storytelling as possession. storytelling grounded in responsibility and accountability to the community | a reflection of integrity.
ancestors ase. orishas ase. mother all womben before and after ase. freedom fighters ase. the spirit of your sacrifices live on in we. life in balance is a beautiful moon.
dub poetry
dub is word. dub is sound. dub is powah. dub poetry is nation language / performance / poetry / politrix / roots / reggae. dub emerged from the psyche/life experience of conscious ghetto youth in jamaica and england in the late 70s - early 80s (such as oku onoura. mikey smith. anita stewart. mutabaruka. jean binta breeze. poets in unity. linton kwesi johnson. and many others). they demanded an art form that would represent and reflect the working class linguistically, socially, and politically. coming from the roots of reggae, dub fiercely challenges capitalism. imperialism. patriarchy. and other forms of oppression. while riding a wicked reggae beat. through this old/new form of poetry/music, an outgrowth of the afrikan griot tradition, jamaicans and people worldwide continue to identify with revolushunary art and struggle.there are four main elements to dub:
one. language / originally story-told in the nation language of jamaica - a mix-up of west-afrikan languages/english/some spanish/some french, birthed from the colonial experience of the trans-atlantic slave trade - dub chants in the tongue of the under/working class. the form speaks to and for the people by breaking with british hierarchical linguistic rule and grammatically, syntactically, and stylistically represents the working class experience.two. musicality / at the time of the birth of dub poetry, reggae was urgently making a national and international name for herself. in jamaica, dance halls, street corners, the insides and outside of tenements were booming with the inventive sound. through the storytelling musical culture of reggae music dub poetry rode-di-riddim into the hearts of the people.
three. political content / dub insisted/insists on being a political form. based on the premise that people's personal realities are a result of political decisions, dub chants about grassroots working-class realities; emphasizing the cause and effect relationship between political action and social change. this analysis goes even further to de-construct the socio-economic decisions that lead to poverty and degradation and offers solutions towards change.
four. performance / dub is one of the many branches of mama afrika's griot tradishun. this ancient/present storytelling form demands musical, physical, and vocal creative embellishment of a story to engage the listener wholly and completely. live performance has the ability to transcend time and space and to magically transform a dub poet's story into a story for the entire village; prioritizing the spiritual connection between the storyteller and the people. dub is primarily oral. this fact however does not restrict it to the stage.
'defiant yet compassionate, d'bi. defines her artistic work by writing: 'there is no revolushun without pashun...' - sheila nopper, horizons magazine
