from JFLAG In Britain OutRage!'s protest at the MOBO awards forced the issue of Jamaican musical homophobia into the headlines. Richard Smith charts the rise and rise of the murderous music called Dancehall and talks to activists, both in Jamaica and the UK, who are fighting back
Why man waan wine man in front a I man?
[Why does a man want to dance with another man in front of me?]
That caan gwaan inna my land
[That cant go on in my land]
From east and west, north and south
Get ready and guns out
J-Flag dem a brag and a talk bout
Out a di closet dem a go walk out.
But man nuh inna dat, dem betta stay inside and hide
[but Im not into that, they better stay inside and hide]
For if dem come out, they might be shot
Spragga Benz Nuh Inna Dat
To nominate one violently homophobic artist as Best Reggae Act may be regarded as carelessness. To nominate three looks like collusion. But that's what they did at the MOBO (Music of Black Origin) Awards in London last month. Voters could choose the band TOK, whose track Chi Chi Man urged the listener to shoot 'chi chi men' Jamaican slang for gay men and 'bun' (burn down) gay bars. If that didnt take your fancy, there was Capelton. On Bun Di Chi Chi, he sings, 'Blood out ah chi chi/Bun out ah sissy.' Still undecided? Then how about Elephant Man? His A Nuh Fi Wi Fault features the charming chorus: 'Battyman fi dead!/Gimme tha tech-nine/Shoot dem like bird!' To be fair, the MOBO panel would have been hard pressed to find many modern male Jamaican acts that have not recorded a violently anti-gay record. These Fiya bun songs have become something of a phenomenon over there in the world of Dancehall a modern, hyper-macho variant of Reggae that owes more to the 'guns and girls' world of Gangsta Rap than it does to the peace and love vibes of Roots artists like Bob Marley. Hard and fast homemade electronic music overlaid with sexist and violent lyrics, Dancehall is where all the baddest, the roughest and the rudest DJs (singers) come together, to be as nasty as they wanna be. And, but of course, Dancehall is as homophobic as hell. These songs don't just express a distaste for queers they demand our deaths. Recently their violent anti-gay references have seemed endemic, endless appearing in song after song after literally bloody song.
Log on and step on chi chi man
Log on from yu know she yu nuh ickie man
Log on and step pon chi chi man
Dance wi a dance and bun out a freaky man
Elephant Man Log On
It takes quite a lot to scare Peter Tatchell. But when OutRage! protested at the MOBO Awards ceremony at Londons Docklands, he says he feared for his life. There was a tube strike on that evening and Tatchell had arrived earlier than his fellow protesters. A gang of about 25 young black male fans spotted him and his MOBO Rewards Anti-gay Hate placard and went for him. 'It was homophobic mob hysteria,' Tatchell tells me. I was punched, kicked and spat at as well as being hit with coins, beer cans and a cigarette lighter. I was very lucky not to be seriously injured. I ducked and dived to avoid the blows and made my escape by jumping over a high metal barrier. For a moment I thought I was going to be beaten senseless. The hatred in those young mens eyes was truly terrifying. When fellow OutRage! activist Brett Lock arrived, a little later, he saw crowds of kids, some as young as ten, still baying for blood. 'They were shouting at us,' says Lock. And the really frightening thing was they were shouting direct quotes from the songs: ŒBattyman fi ded, ŒBun out ah chi chi. Its particularly scary that young kids are being drawn into that kind of prejudice. You can imagine what its like in the schoolyard. A journalist went over and spoke to some of the people who had attacked Peter. They told her that as soon as the cameras were gone, they were going to get us. The police said they couldnt guarantee our safety and escorted us out of the area. Lock says he first became aware of the explosion of Bun Chi Chi songs in the summer, after a number of visitors to the OutRage! website reported that the BBC were singing the praises of both Capleton and Elephant Man on their new website, BBCi, and that a Radio One DJ had put Elephant Mans Log On in his top ten Reggae tracks. To add insult to incitement-to-injury, the mega-budget TV ad for the BBCs new black music station, 1Xtra, began with an obvious sample from TOKs Chi Chi Man. After OutRage! protested, the BBC apologised and said they would no longer play the offending tracks. I dont think the BBC is taking this issue terribly seriously, says Lock. Theres absolutely no way a known racist band like Skrewdriver would get played at all even if they did a cover of Mull Of Kintyre. The furore finally made it into the pages of the British music press in September, when Janet Jackson released Feel It Boy a duet with Reggae superstar Beenie Man. The Grammy Award-winning Beenie Mans singles include Bad Man Chi Chi Man (Kill dem!) and the slightly more poetic Damn: 'I'm dreaming of a new Jamaica, come to execute all the gays.' As Miss Jackson has a huge gay following and has often hinted that she may not be 100 per cent heterosexual herself many fans were up in arms about her incongruous and offensive choice of collaborator. Some on her official website vowed never to buy another record by her again. Thus far, Janet Jackson has failed to comment. Damn it, Janet!
Bun out ah chi chi
Blood out ah chi chi
Batty dem ah fuck
And ah suck too much pussy
Dem ah deal with too much inequity
Capleton Bun Out di Chi Chi
There's an age-old old question about the politics of culture is it a mirror or a hammer? Does it reflect the society that its sprung from or does it shape it? These anti-gay Dancehall records certainly reflect the views of many people in Jamaica where homophobia is so rampant it seems like a state religion. Although its presented in the West as a holiday paradise, most of this Caribbean island is in a desperate state the legacy of centuries of colonial exploitation and, more recently, of malign intervention by the CIA and the IMF. In the past five years, more than thirty gay men have been murdered in Jamaica the actual number is almost certainly much higher. Queers have been stoned to death, chopped up with machetes, beaten with sticks, dowsed with petrol and set ablaze, blasted in the head with shotguns and chased into the sea until they drown from exhaustion. Male-male sex is illegal. Anal intercourse is punishable by ten years hard labour. The government have publicly pledged that they will not change their anti-gay laws. In October, two Jamaicans were granted asylum in the UK Jamaican homophobia was accepted as a serious threat to his safety. Unsurprisingly there are next to no visible signs of gay life in Jamaica. Understandably, J-Flag, The Jamaican Forum of Lesbians, All Sexuals and Gays, operate clandestinely from a tiny office whose address they dare not publicise. J-Flags Tony Hron is certain that Chi Chi Bun records dont just reflect, but also affect the views of their audience. Make no mistake, these songs support and perpetuate widespread violence against sexual minorities, especially gay men, he tells me via e-mail. The anti-gay abuse is probably as bad if not worse than you have heard, since most cases go unreported for fear of additional reprisals and a lack of support by the constabulary force. Among many of Dancehall's listeners, it doesn't matter what the intention of the artist was when writing the lyrics. The words simply confirm the popular belief that gays are evil, that evil must be eradicated, and that vigilante violence is an acceptable means of accomplishing this end. Just as there are braindead music critics in Britain who claim Eminems homophobia is somehow ironic, so there are some who claim Dancehalls homophobia is metaphoric. Capleton has claimed that the fire in his song Bun Out di Chi Chi is not really a physical fire. Is really a spiritual fire and a wordical fire, and a musical fire. But is people get it on the wrong term. People get confused. Confused? J-Flags Tony Hrons certainly isnt. The claims for the metaphorical intention of the lyrics seem at best naive, if not downright dishonest, he says. Take a look at the lyrics to Nuh Inna Dat [reprinted at the start of this piece] and judge for yourself whether or not it is metaphorical. You could also ask yourself how metaphorical Elephant Man was being when he spoke about the threat posed by chi chi men; We [Jamaicans] know that this thing is not right and we are not going to uphold it. The Jamaican heritage is deep, we love God and we are not involved in certain things. From the time I was growing up, I learned that chi-chi man fi get bun. Until we dead pon earth, the fire nah come off dem. A just straight fire a bun dem out. Or, as Elephant Man put it in another of his records; Battymen fi dead! Tek dem by surprise, ghetta in shot head. The title of the song? A quite literal We Nuh Like Gay.
The world is in trouble
Anytime Buju Banton come
Batty boy get up and run
Ah gunshot in a head man
Boom bye bye in a batty boy head
Buju Banton Boom Bye Bye
We've been here before, of course exactly ten years ago. The record causing the controversy then was Buju Bantons Boom Bye Bye which recommended that gay men should be shot dead. British black gay activist Ted Brown, remembers how he first first heard the record at parties in London. He couldn't believe his ears. And he couldnt believe that Buju Banton was getting away with it. So he decided to do something about it. We approached the record company and Buju Bantons management, Brown recalls today. They didn't respond, but we learned that Banton was due to appear at the WOMAD festival and alerted them. They didn't know what the lyrics meant. They independently concluded that the lyrics were contrary to the spirit of international solidarity that the festival was founded on and asked Buju Banton not to play the song. As they got no response, he was dropped. The press picked up the story which resulted in a now legendary piece on Channel Fours youth series The Word. I appeared, saying this is not on but using slightly stronger language, Brown laughs. So did Banton he said homosexuality runs contrary to my religious beliefs but he actually apologised, saying he did not mean to incite violence against any communities. But then there was a film of him in Jamaica, performing the song with a gang of guys carrying sticks. After the film there was an interview with Shabba Ranks in the studio, and he supported Boom Bye Bye. Ranks said, If you break the law of God you deserve crucifixion. There was uproar in the audience. Mark Lamarr jumped on Ranks and told him Œthats absolute crap and you know it! much to his favour. Soon after his appearance on The Word, Ted Brown was badly beaten up by a gang that barged into his home. This didnt stop him. Buju Banton was working hard to break through in the States his record company thought he could be the new Bob Marley. So Browns group, Black Lesbians and Gay Men Against Media Homophobia, hooked up with the American pressure group GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Media Defamation) and managed to get all Bantons TV appearances cancelled and his records taken off radio stations. Bantons plan for world domination was thwarted. Beenie Man is touring the States soon. American gay activists are planning a similar welcome.
The shit that you promote fightin, fuckin
Like you dont want to grow
You talking so much sex
But you no tell the youths about Aids
And you tell them about consequences no
You talkin like you a G
But you're a killer killin your own
Ms Dynamite It Takes More
Ted Brown was last in Jamaica a few years back. Its the only place I've ever been to where I had to go back into the closet, he says. That's after 35 years of being out. Brown sees several factors informing Jamaican homophobia. One is the macho desires of a lot of black men. They feel that being a black man requires them to be ultra masculine and one way of establishing this is to denigrate those who don't qualify. There is also, of course, the religious fundamentalism there, and attitudes between women and men are far more conventional. In 1997 Brown wrote a news feature for Gay Times on the worst recorded homophobic incident apart from the Nazi holocaust some Jamaican prison inmates had massacred sixteen men they believed to be gay. But Brown also remembers writing, around the same time, about the new South African constitution the most gay-positive in the history of the world. The point cant be made enough not all black communities are rabidly homophobic, he stresses. You only have to look at a place like Brixton, the Caribbean in London its been very gay for decades. Gay venues in Brixton have never had any trouble from the black community here. Similarly, black music has told us many different stories other than homophobic fantasies. There's a noble tradition of black male singers Little Richard and Smokey Robinson, Sylvester and George Clinton, Michael Jackson and Prince, David McAlmont and Craig David who have traded on their lack of machismo. And their self-presentation as feminised males ambisexual if not homosexual has been a key part of their appeal. Just for the record, neither TOK, Capleton or Elephant Man walked off with this years MOBO Award for Best Reggae Act. Sean Paul did. But the night belonged to Ms Dynamite. She scooped the awards for Best Newcomer, Best Single and UK Act of the Year. Quite right, too. The socially conscious South Londoner nouvelle feminist rapper had spent the Saturday before serenading the boys at G-A-Y. The chi chi men down there loved her almost as much as she loved them. We should never underestimate the importance of people like Ms Dynamite and Tony Hron at J-Flag and all our sisters and brothers who are prepared to sing a different song.
NOTE: J-flag desperately need financial support, as fundraising in Jamaica is very difficult. You can find out how to make a donation on their website. http://www.jflag.org/
