Repatriation and the Queens Diamond Jubilee

'Greetings from the rastafari brethren, domiciled on the former slave plantation island Jamaica. Jamaica is an island in the Carribean. They call it Carribean but if I remember clearly, it was carried-us-beyond-our-borders. Not by free will but by force. Force like in 1556 when John Hawkins was given a royal charter form her majesty Queen Elisabeth I of England, and her personal ship, the SS Jesus of Lübeck, to transport slaves from Zfrica to the West-Indies. As the history states these methods were crude though effective. He landed on the Guinee cost, seized 300 negroes and fared for the Carribean with his human cargo.' (Excerpt from Narration, on the album 'Grounation' by Count Ossie & Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, 1973)

In the best of us there is bad, and in the worst of us there is good. Queen Elisabeth I did a very bad thing, to bring us here as slaves. Now we have Queen Elisabeth II. As she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee, we expect her to make an announcement that she and her country will help with the settlement of those people in Africa who desire to go there. It's a logical part in the natural development of this planet and its relativeness.

We, the rastafari brethren, hold fast to the conception of redemption, which means repatriation to our mother home Africa. Every man shall sit in his own vine and under his own fig tree. (Micah 4:4) All these things that are written in the bible are part of the equation to make mankind more progressive as we move along. You cannot know the mysteries of life until the mysteries roll away. If we could clear up all misunderstandings, we would know so much more. So much, that the next generation would laugh at us. Settlement in Africa for those who desire thus, is part of that movement. It was also part of the petition that we took to the United Nations and to His Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I, in 1963, as part of the Second Mission to Ethiopia.

We don't expect the Queen to pay for this huge project from her personal bankbook. That wouldn't be practical. What she could do, is ask a contribution of all British industrialists. We're going to need tractors and tools, wire and building materials. We're going to need a ship, like the SMS Queen Mary, to circumnavigate Africa and drop off people here and there. Each company can make a contribution, like when you go to church and pay collection. The industrialists should be fully aware of the fact that whatever people are doing here is relative to the situation in Africa and to the resources that came from Africa to Europe. If each company could contribute 50 or 100 tractors, or cars, or tons of wire, whatever we need in Africa, every one would benefit. When we are there, planting the corn that people here can eat, with equipment from here, that would make things a lot easier. One hand washes the other. Life would be much more harmonious, everybody would get an equal share. Because love is the power, in everything.

How I met the Queen and Prince Charles

I see the Queen as somebody who would not be brutish as Elisabeth I. I met her, and I met her son. It's a different world we're living in now. We are more intelligent, including the queen of England. No apology. But there's a reason why the Queen has been living so strong and so healthy. These are loving people. I know, because I've met them.

We were in Scotland, at the Carribean Focus, and Prince Philip was there to open an art show. I heard that he was coming down this big red carpet. There was a large crowd of people there, the same day Nelson Mandela supposed to be free. We, Mystic Revelation of Rastafari were selected to give the main speech on this occasion. These were the same British who took us in slavery. That's how the mystic work, continually.

Prince Charles was coming down the red carpet, diligently, with Diana, greeting the people, separated by ropes. To attract his attention I made a sound, the same high pitched sound that the Ethiopians made when they saw His Majesty. Prince Charles looked around, saw where the sound was coming from and stepped over the rope. He came through the crowd straight to me. I didn't dare to move, afraid that the police might catch me, so I stretched out my hand to him.

'Where are you from?' he asked.

'Rastaman from Jamaica. We'd like to meet your mother.'

'That would be so difficult,' he said, and walked up to me and shook my hand. The Scottish people started to make pictures of me, and asked me for autographs. Suddenly I was there hero, because if it wasn't for me they wouldn't see their prince pass so close and rub shoulders with them. And nobody troubling him. It was a mystic moment. When I look up I look straight in the eyes of Diana, the eyes of a lioness. The same lions that I saw in the palace of His Majesty in Addis Abeba, orange-eyed. And Diana was a Leo. It's a relative world. Everything is everything.'

We've gone through this period of postcolonial, psychopathic stress disorder. That's what causes all the stress and disfigurement in our country. The queen is the one who can make this world a better place, by acting as a lever for repatriation. It would be the most beautiful jubilee present she could give to the Jamaican people, a gift of love for our 50thanniversary.

Brother Sam Clayton, Kingston, Jamaica

(Photo Prince Irie: The Sun)