OSWALD BROWN WRITES
WASHINGTON, D.C., January 26, 2019 — Questions have been raised as to whether the Department of Immigration exercised good judgement in granting permission for Buju Banton, the Jamaican reggae star, to perform in concert at the Thomas Robinson National Stadium in Nassau on March 30, 2019.
One of the main objections to allowing Banton to perform in a so-called Christian nation is that he is not considered to be a good “role model” for young Bahamians, many of whom are his most ardent fans, because he was recently released from prison in the United States after being incarcerated for eight years following his conviction on dangerous drug-related charges.
Since his Long Walk To Freedom tour was announced shortly after he returned to Jamaica in December following his release from prison, concerts planned in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago quickly sold out, which suggests that Immigration authorities in The Bahamas’ sister Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have no problem with Banton performing in those countries. This being the case, I certainly see no reason why Buju Banton’s drug conviction should prevent him from performing in The Bahamas.
Regarding concerns about him not being a good “role model” for young Bahamians, Buju Banton achieved international fame as a performer in an entertainment genre that is not noted for producing role models; moreover, there is widespread evidence suggesting that the vast majority of his die-hard fans are already in need of social rehabilitation.
Of far greater concern to me is that the high cost of tickets to see Banton perform could very likely result in an escalation of Nassau’s already out-of-control crime rate. There are reports that general admission for the concert is $65; VIP tickets are $125; platinum, $200; and an all access pass, $350. Sky Boxes are reportedly priced at $30,000 each, more than the annual salary of a nurse at the Princess Margaret Hospital, and a nouveau riche “numbers boss” reportedly has already shelled out $60,000 for two of them.
My concerns are based on the fact that unemployed young Bahamian males account for a huge percentage of the habitual criminals who have transformed some areas of Nassau into extremely unsafe places to be at nights, and in some areas in broad daylight. Surely, if these “menaces to society” want to impress their girlfriends by taking them to the Buju Banton concert and do not have even $130 for two general admission ticket, they will be tempted to resort to whatever means possible to get those tickets.
And given the proclivity of some Bahamians to “show off” and “live beyond their means”, in all likelihood, these “broke” criminal elements would be more inclined to purchase $200 platinum tickets or, at the very least, $125 VIP tickets; therefore, the hard-working members of our Royal Bahamas Police Force should prepare themselves for an escalation in criminal activities leading up to the concert.
Despite the high costs of the tickets, however, Banton’s concert in The Bahamas will almost certainly be sold-out, as was the case in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, where they were sold out in days after the March dates were announced.
I know that the biblically inspired phrase, “A prophet is not recognized in his own land,” may be partially responsible for the lack of support by Bahamians for Bahamian entertainers, but even an all-star show featuring the very best Bahamian entertainers would not come close to selling out a convention center at one of our hotels at the prices being charged for the Buju Banton concert, which is expected to draw a sold-out crowd at the Thomas Robinson National Stadium.
It has always amazed me beyond measure that Bahamians over the years have developed an deeply embedded “inferiority complex” when it comes to giving Bahamian entertainers the same level of support foreign entertainers generally receive. This is not a new phenomenon. Lack of support for Bahamian entertainers — some of whom could have been international stars, with a little bit of luck and more exposure beyond the geographical boundaries of The Bahamas — has been an inexplicable fact in the entertainment industry in The Bahamas from time immemorial.
In recent years, entertainers from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have enjoyed a similar degree of popularity in The Bahamas as some of the legendary Black American entertainers of the 1960s and 1970s who made regular appearances at well-known nightclubs in Nassau like the Cat and Fiddle, the Zanzibar and the Silver Slipper. This is primarily because music entrepreneurs in Jamaica and Trinidad have been very successful in marketing the music of those countries – Jamaica’s reggae and Trinidad’s soca — internationally, paving the way for some of their entertainers to become internationally known.
The obvious question this scenario invites is this: Why has there not been an international marketing campaign to promote Junkanoo as a popular music genre? I’m no musician, but it should not be that difficult to transform the exciting cadence of the music that brings Bay Street alive during the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parades into a standardized rhythm for songs that could be classified as a distinctly Bahamian.
Meanwhile, talented Bahamian entertainers have got to make a greater effort to arrange performances abroad to expose their talent internationally at least one or twice a year. When I previously lived in Washington, D.C., for 21 years before initially returning to The Bahamas permanently in 1993, the Mighty Sparrow out of Trinidad and Tobago and Byron Lee and the Dragonnaires out of Jamaica performed in D.C. at least once a year before going on to Philadelphia and New York.
Of course, these sort of arrangements are expensive undertakings, but as the saying goes, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
