Edward Seaga

Dancehall is not only a style of music, but also a style of living. The antecedents go as far back as 40 years with incremental development through the decades until today.

The 'rude boy' period in the late 1960s introduced songs which reflected an emerging social problem, gun violence. Desmond Dekker ruled that roost (Shanty Town). Fashions in dress reflected the 'rude boy' mannerisms.

The ferment of deeper racial awareness 'black is beautiful', the black power movement and the changing fashions featuring Afrocentric modes (for example, the Afro hairdo) created a wave of change in racial relationships. This was a well-set stage for Michael Manley.

What started as a social revolution in the 1970s to remove barriers to change in master-servant links, privileged-underprivileged relationships and rich-poor differentials, had no guiding hand to monitor the pace of change so that the process could proceed festina lente (make haste slowly). The new- found freedom abruptly created by ideological licence grew with the encouragement of a political culture seeking egalitarianism by 'tearing down', not 'building up'. The age of permissiveness was born. It traversed the boundaries, plucking 'forbidden' fruits.

This was all merely groundwork for the ideological outburst of socialism which Manley unleashed with powerful crowd appeal condemning the social barriers in the society vehemently. The doors of old restrictions were forced open by the growing power of permissiveness. Traditional wealth and privilege held some grounds, but gave up others.

This conflict was joined politically by party confrontations when the economy began to weaken, then crumble. Gun violence started in earnest by protecting political turf. But what was really being protected by gangs, home guards, brigadistas and episodes of state terror, was the crumbling strength of the underlying ideology which tried to protect itself by encouraging permissiveness in the growth and glorification of militarism. Military camouflage uniforms became a new fashion. The music of that period was loaded with ideological 'backative' as another arm of support. Bob Marley's 'conscious' lyrics overlaid the ideological ferment with a musical, not militaristic, campaign against oppression (Redemption Song).

Ideological campaigns

Desmond Dekker ... one of the original rude boys.

After Marley died in 1981 and ideological campaigns became futile because of the new political perspectives of a change of government, the earlier permissiveness did not fade. It hardened in a new direction. Sexual explicitness was an area of wide-open social expression in the culture of folk society, particularly the inner city, but not publicly promoted. It was Yellow Man (Winston Blake) who stepped beyond the threshold of sexual permissiveness in music. 'Slackness' music was born. According to Yellow Man, "is slackness de people want and is slackness I ah give dem". What was thought to be a passing phase became more entrenched and more explicit, growing in the spirit of permissiveness until in the 1990s when the sexualcontent knew few bounds. Yellow Man popularised the deejay format in his songs.

Upsurge in murders

The upsurge in murders from 1991 exceeded the infamous 1980 figure of over 800 killed, growing to as many as 1,600 annually during that decade. This was a 100 per cent-400 per cent increase over the 1980s. The composers and singers had a new dominant theme for lyrics. A new format was also emerging. New compositions were expanding the range of rhythms rather than creating a new identifiable beat like ska, rocksteady and reggae. These new rhythms were a reflection of the indivi-dualism of the 1980s compared to the emphasis on state in the previous decade.

At the same time, the tradition of melodious music gave way to a cacophony in which melody played a minor role to lyrics and 'riddim'. Tunes that could be whistled did not count anymore. Where the ska, rocksteady and reggae had recognisable 'riddims', the new deejay music created a host of rhythms. The passion of permissiveness had pulled apart the traditional elements of songs: lyrics, melody and rhythm and redesigned the roles of rhythm and lyrics to be the dominant features.

Gun lyrics now appeared since crime was the dominant theme of the decade. Fashion changes reflected 'wildness', 'wickedness' and 'badmanism'.

Sexual explicitness was even more open. This was the dancehall of Buju Banton and Shabba Ranks. The themes of gun violence and sex became entrenched standards in dancehall music, although not exclusively so.

Throughout this metamorphosis, popular music always reflected the prominent themes created by dominant social and economic issues, not the other way around. Even at the end of the decade of the 1980s, Wild Gilbert by Lovindeer told us about the personal side of a national disaster, Hurricane Gilbert.

This analysis tells us that if we want to change the musical format, dancehall, for instance, it is the issues from which dancehall draws its strength that must first be changed: public sexual explicitness and the crime epidemic. These, of course, are more easily said than done, especially when there is an underlying drug culture which, while not expressed in music, gives financial support.

The challenge of change has to be faced because of the creeping involvement of violence in schools. So far incidents of violence in schools have been cases of indivi- dual assaults, many times with guns. The next phase will be when schoolboy gangs begin to evolve in schools. This could be the point of no return.

Licentious behaviour

Strong signals have to be sent to deal with licentious behaviour. The force of the law is not strong enough. Penalties for offences need to be much more severe, even if they seem harsh by comparison with other minor offences, because the problem is part of a much bigger problem which is not minor at all. Sanctions cannot be left to the sponsors of stage shows to reduce or abandon sponsorships.

Crime fighting seems to be adopting a more intelligence- driven style. This needs to be deepened. Why pick up every package of narcotics shipped? Let it move through its course to be picked up and follow the transport to the wholesaler.

Schoolboys who don't follow rules and who disrupt schools with violence need to be sent, with parental approval, to a military camp where they will be taught a trade under strict discipline. Alpha has been doing this without military presence for generations and has produced many good boys trained in various skills. An American school in St Elizabeth is engaged in the same programme of strict disciplinary training for recalcitrant boys.

This strategy is to take step one and monitor the results, not to wait until an entire programme of solutions is found. Sending a signal of what the society expects of its people and enforcing the measures, will provide better results than bemoaning the problem and crying 'wha fe do'.

That is the strategy of Greg Christie, contractor general, whose hand should be strengthened with stronger powers linked to the director of public prosecutions to cut out corruption by public officials. When I established the position of contractor general in 1983, it was to have a strong hand in curbing corruption. It took some 20 years to reach the right level of operation.

A part of the problem is the soft way in which we approach major problems. Appoint a special education unit with staff to deal with all cases of major indiscipline in schools, since teachers can't do the job, and provide powers to commit the misfits to military trade training camps. Parents would be happy because the boys who are uncontrollable at schools are usually uncontrollable at home.

My experience with discipline is that small effective moves, enforced, bring surprisingly productive results.

Edward Seaga is a former Prime Minister. He is now a Distinguished Fellow at the UWI. Email: odf@uwimona.edu.jm