Dub Poet Mutabaruka Returns To South Africa

Mutabaruka's voice is booming and full of bass, bursting with the flavour of Jamaica.

The Kingston-hailing dub poet (formerly Allan Hope) explains that his name is Rwandan for "One who is Victorious". "I was at school reading some poems about black consciousness by this poet Jean Baptiste Mutabaruka, and that's how I got the name, because the poem that I was reading refers to one very similar to one that I wrote as a young person and I just took the name."

He often refers to himself as "we".

Muta is returning to South Africa to perform at the Urban Voices Poetry Festival, which he featured in two years ago.

"I think it was the right time to come back, because I've got some new material, plus there's a lot of people who are interested in what I have to say. South Africa has been good to me, I have good friends there. I'm always excited to come over."

Muta is known for being a controversial poet. He usually performs with a band that plays reggae music which he recites poetry over. He received acclaim in the '70s from the new wave poets, and has spoken out strongly against discrimination and institutionalised religion.

Life and Lessons is the title of his new album (due for release soon), which features performances by some South African musicians.
About the new material, he says: "It's been one year since Lucky Dube died and he was a good friend of mine

. I wrote a tribute to Lucky and recorded it. A lot of the poems on the new album really refer to aspects of my perspective of South Africa and Johannesburg especially.

"The music is a mixture of Zulu and reggae. There's a poem on there named A Girl Called Johannesburg that is totally Zulu with the harmonies and everything."

I ask if he has landed in any trouble for speaking out against organised religion. "I wouldn't say trouble, but people take offence and some people think I'm too forthright with my reasoning. But I've been doing it for a long time. I have a radio programme here and I take task with the conventional wisdom in Jamaica that claims Christianity is the ultimate and the defining reality for people."

About our drastic recent South African political changes, he says: "Even though we are hearing about that, in Jamaica we are also hearing about the World Cup, so everyone's excited about that too. It kind of cushions the other negative news."

Finally, I ask for some Rastafarian words of wisdom. "As we always say, if you have no confidence in yourself, you are twice defeated in the race of life, but with confidence, you have won even before you have started. That is a philosophy that I always repeat, because it helps to strengthen me in terms of what I hope to do." -


Atiyyah Khan

The Reggae News Agency

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