BY MEL COOKE, Freelance Writer
Bunny Wailer - FILE
ALMOST 30 YEARS after Peter Tosh delivered his legendary lecture on marijuana at the One Love Peace Concert, Bunny Wailer, made a definitive statement on the plant at a notable place.
Wailer's audience last Saturday night on the grounds of Jamaica House, Hope Road, St. Andrew, was much smaller than the one Tosh addressed at the National Stadium, Arthur Wint Drive, on April 22, 1978. Prime Minister PJ Patterson was present, as was then PM Michael Manley, although unlike three decades ago the leader of the opposition was not. And while the audience cheered on Tosh, a large number of the people who attended 'Party Time' to dance on Saturday night expressed loud, handclapping impatience with Wailer.
Signs of 'sensie-national' speech came before Wailer's fourth song, Bob Marley's 'Easy Skanking', after he had earned the audience's approval with 'Ballroom Floor', 'Ram Dancehall' and 'No Woman No Cry'. "Remember the good old days when we used to jump fence when police a come? Now we a hear bout hemp products," Wailer said.
OVERWHELMING RESPONSE
After 'Easy Skanking' Wailer warmed to his subject. "Ganja is a serious thing in Jamaica. Without ganja there would be no Jamaica. We know all de big store an dis big factory whe gwaan is de ganja, but dem woulda lock up a man fi a one spliff. But de people whe rich outa ganja, dem no bun spliff. Dem a de big shippers, de big exporters," Wailer said, and hit Tosh's Legalise It. The audience cheered and the song was 'pulled up'.
"I don' know what de Government a deal wid," Wailer said, criticising those who "know dat de resource of the people lie in ganja, but a play hypocrite". He started to sing 'Legalise It' again, calling on all ganja people to put their hands in the air. There was not an overwhelming response and Wailer said "some a oonu bun it an' hide an' lick inna oonu backyard... No fraid fe put up yu han', all a we a ganja people yasso". He adjusted a line in the song to "even President Clinton smoke it".
"When I go to America and I go down the highway I see big billboard, hemp cheese, hemp jam, hemp butter. All clothes mek wid ganja.... Why is it that Jamaica produce the strongest ganja in the world, why we don't have the strongest hemp products?... Yet yu woulda lock up a man fi a spliff an it deh pon de shelf," Wailer said.
"Yu see hypocrisy, it worse than obeah," Wailer said.
He spoke of reincarnation, saying that a person's deeds in their present life determine the form in which they will come back. As for the politicians who were hypocritical about marijuana, "you will be destined to be a rat, or a lizard, or a roach, because that is how yu mek people live".
"I man naa tek back dis talk... Like how I have dat fi sey it haffi said. Someone haffi say so. I am not a hypocrite," Wailer said.
"People, I want you to tek dis reasoning serious," Wailer said, as a few boos were added to the handclaps, which built in volume during his speech.
"I gwine come off de stage now. I not even going to sing a next song," Wailer said, to relieved cheers.
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to 