“Welcome to Jamrock": Rastafarian poetics and politics on the streets of Kingston
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2525-3123.gis.2019.151144Keywords:
Rastafari, Kingston, Toponymy, Narratives, Politics, PoeticsAbstract
In this essay I reflect on the ways through which Rastafarians have created and transformed Kingston by inhabiting the city with their presence, narratives, and lexicon. The Rastafarian Kingston is built on several semantic and political layers, and the question of toponyms emerged in the most diverse interactions I had with my interlocutors throughout fieldwork. I also reflect on their presence; bodies marked by indexes of belonging to the Rastafarian Movement; the decoration of walls and houses with Rastafarian colors and motifs, and the narratives of events that took place in certain parts of town. Exploring the Rastafarian occupation of Kingston is a way of unpacking how different individuals and collectives reflect upon and act on issues such as social memory, citizenship, belonging, the uses of and access to public spaces, the access to rights and reparation for the cycles of violence to which they have been subjected throughout history.
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