Is Burning Spears vintage lamentation, No One Remembers Old Marcus Garvey, still relevant?
For sure, back in the day when that anthem bemoaning the lack of interest in and knowledge of the country’s first national hero, and above all, prophet, was released, it hit not only the record charts, but the nerves and conscience of a conventional value system. That hit song, in the classic sense of the word, is more than a work of artistic expression. It is a call for action from Burning Spear, who, like Bob Marley and Justin Hinds, hails from St Ann, the parish in which his most famous ancestor to whom he often pays homage in music, was born. It is therefore, no coincidence, that what was perhaps the biggest Marcus Mosiah Garvey birthday celebration ever was put on by the St Ann-based Irie FM radio station. The celebration of the 121st anniversary of the birth of this philosopher, held on the Irie FM grounds, despite the stormy weather, had in attendance the widest cross-section of society anyone could think of. The atmosphere was one of a Irie vibration. There was a cluster of veh
