While doing my job covering entertainment events, I naturally am entertained at times. In fact, I have had some wonderful jokes, although at times I cannot laugh as loudly as I would like due to the circumstances.I had one of those moments at the 11th Annual Bob Marley Lecture, delivered by Dr Donna Hope at the UWI's Undercroft on Tuesday evening. She explored 'Dancehall Moral Conscience', using songs from Ninja Man, Spragga Benz, Busy Signal and Baby Cham, among others, to illustrate dancehall's concern with issues such as sexual abuse of children and avoiding jail.
When she was finished there was an extended run of questions and comments from members of the audience, and that is where my suppressed laughter came in. Almost no one addressed what Hope said in the well-put-together lecture, although most of the comments were negative. And no one addressed what I felt they wanted to really criticise, because Hope did not bring it squarely into the discussion in the first place.
That topic was, of course, homosexuality, a primary moral concern on dancehall, which Hope mentioned once as a topic under which the sexual abuse of boys (illustrated by the line "him wi even tek yu son as brawta" in Ifrica's
Daddy) falls. Then she spoke about the 'feminisation' of men in the prison system as one of the issues in Busy Signal's
Nah Go A Jail Again.
But at no time did she put homosexuality squarely on the table for those critics in the audience who have 'two' thumbs down for dancehall to attack.
So with their primary target removed, they huffed and puffed and a I chuckled away to myself, even as I took notes.
It must have been a frustrating period for them, as any number of the performers whose songs Hope used to illustrate the moral concerns she identified in dancehall also had songs denouncing homosexuality. In fact, part of the lecture's title and the quote with which she ended was "the full has never been told", which comes from Buju Banton.
And I know there are certain quarters who will never say "bye bye" to a certain 'boom' dancehall tune.
There is a b/man in many a dancehall critics closet and it is not a bogeyman. I found it highly amusing to watch them not address what Hope said while finding other reasons to criticise, champing at the bit, I believe, to bring their topic out into the open, but not willing to reach into the closet and drag it out, kicking and screaming.
Or, deep down, ashamed.
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