Precis

Bob Marley and his homeland Jamaica were synonymous with reggae and its message of peace, justice and equal rights. 

How then, after Marley died, did Jamaica earn such a poisonous reputation that Time magazine once ran a headline, “The Most Homophobic Place on Earth?” 

Boom, bye- bye, in a faggot’s head, the tough guys don’t accept fags, they have to die – lyric from dance hall artist Buju Banton

It grew from dancehall, a raw musical sub-culture that exploded onto the scene in the 1990s, exposing a deep homophobia among some of its exponents. 

This small core of “murder music” artists thrived in a country where Christian churches and strict Rastafarians rail against gays, where murder and illiteracy rates are epic and where a so-called “Buggery Law”, providing jail terms with hard labour of up to 10 years, is still on the books.

Jamaica’s proudest brand, its music, had been tarnished. 

Bit by bit though, the tide began turning. Homophobic artists were shunned by international promoters and their online sales took a hit. So they began cleaning up their acts. They had little choice.

They either have to say ‘I’m taking this hard line fundamentalist Christian position’ or they say ‘Hell no, I want to live, I want to eat, so I’m going to forget about that’ – reggae historian Dr Carolyn Cooper

Now a new generation of reggae artists is seizing the stage – and channelling Marley – with songs of tolerance. 

Why can’t you accept me as I am? – lyric from Do You Still Care by Tanya Stephens.

The people who spread homophobic messages don’t represent all of Jamaica. They don’t represent half of Jamaica – Tanya Stephens 

Artists like Stephens and rising star Etana are finally giving young gay people a licence to be themselves.

Anything that creates divide and separation, I’m not part of it. If you look back at Bob Marley festivals, it was everyone - black, white, gay straight – Etana

Etana and band perform
Title over:
FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

[singing]

00:00

ERIC CAMPBELL: It’s a rhythm that changed music forever. From the mellow sound of roots reggae,

00:10

Dance club/Jamaica GVs

to the frenetic beat of dancehall, reggae has put this tiny island at the centre of the music world. 

DR CAROLYN COOPER: “The culture of reggae is really

00:19

Cooper

the culture of Jamaica, but really reggae

00:32

Kingston people GVs

started in the inner city of Kingston, the concrete jungle”.

00:36

Bob Marley murals

ERIC CAMPBELL: A jungle that raised Jamaica’s favourite son.

00:43

Rasta Priest

RASTA PRIEST: “Yes Bob Marley is a special one. He’s a prophet”.

00:46

Campbell to camera walking down street

ERIC CAMPBELL: “This is where reggae began in the tough slums of Kingston and it became a soundtrack of social justice, with songs calling for equality and peace and of course, one love. But along the way something bad happened”.

00:50

News report. Protestor

PROTESTOR ON NEWS REPORT: “We don’t want none of them in this town here”. 

01:04

JOURNALIST ON NEWS REPORT: “News spread that a gay man had sort refuge in a clothing store”. 

01:07

CROWD CHANTING ON NEWS REPORT: “We wanna see him! We wanna see him!”

01:12

ERIC CAMPBELL: “It’s a story of one love”.

01:15

Stephens

TANYA STEPHENS: “It just needed to change”.

01:17

ERIC CAMPBELL: “One hate”. 

01:19

Pastor

PASTOR OF CHURCH: “We condemn the act of being homosexual”.

01:20

ERIC CAMPBELL: “And one hope”. 

01:23

Etana singing

ETANA: [Singing/song lyrics] “Want to be a warrior. Break down every barrier with my love as my weapon, weapon, weapon, weapon hey!”

01:25

Bob Marley party

Music

01:35

ERIC CAMPBELL: It’s Bob Marley’s 72nd birthday and Kingston’s throwing a party.

01:42

Marley statue in park

The musical icon may have died of melanoma 36 years ago but Jamaica likes to keep his spirit alive. 

01:55

Vox Pops with concertgoers

WOMAN #1 AT CONCERT: “He has bring our music across the world so yeah, he was one of the greatest”.

02:06

WOMAN #2 AT CONCERT: “He inspires us. He teaches us more about each other”.

02:11

MAN #1 AT CONCERT: “He teaches us to love, respect each other and understand life”. 

02:15

MAN #2 AT CONCERT: “Bob is the king of everything”.

02:23

Birthday concert. Super:
Three Little Birds
Bob Marley performed by Capleton

Music

02:25

ERIC CAMPBELL: Every year his birthday anniversary kicks off four days of national celebrations.

02:36

The music he helped popularise in the 1970s not only put this tiny country at the centre of global culture, it gave a voice to the poor. 

02:58

Woman sitting on steps

WOMAN SITTING IN DOORWAY: “Yeah welcome to Jamaica”.

03:13

Jamaica kids/young men play soccer/women with kids

Music

03:15

ERIC CAMPBELL: For 300 years Spanish and British rulers brought slaves to this Caribbean island to work the sugar plantations. Reggae, with its African-inspired beat and politically-charged lyrics, called on people to be their own masters. 

03:26

TANYA STEPHENS: “He has become like a representative of the struggle.

33:44

Stephens. Super:
TANYA STEPHENS
Reggae and Dancehall artist

Of climbing, of you know of moving up, coming into your own, rebelling. Rage against the machine. He’s become kind of like that face, that guy you know?

03:48

Marley mural

The soundtrack of the revolution, the rebellion”. 

03:59

Cooper. Super:
DR CAROLYN COOPER
Author & cultural critic

DR CAROLYN COOPER: “Globally, the message of reggae has been consciousness raising, chanting down oppression..

04:03

Mural of Marley on Trench Town wall

Reggae became a ‘rhythm of resistance’ to quote Bob Marley.”

04:11

Fleet St, Kingston GVs

ERIC CAMPBELL: Marley’s best known song, “One Love” had a simple plea – let’s get together and feel all right. It struck a chord in the community plagued by crime and violence. 

04:17

Music

04:29

Sanjay. Super:
SANJAY RAMANAND
Dancehall artist

SANJAY RAMANAND: “It can be tough, it can be very tough. That’s the, I mean that’s the beauty of I think Kingston and Jamaica, there’s so many contradictions to Jamaica that I think, and I mean it leads to a lot of art. You know it’s perfect for artists or it’s a perfect place for inspiration, you know what I mean? The people, the people can be, we can, as Jamaicans we can be the most friendly set of people, but if we feel disrespected enough we kill you”.

04:36

Aerial. Kingston. Night.

Music

05:00

ERIC CAMPBELL: Those contradictions soon tested the message of peace.

05:04

Sanjay walking down street. Night. Into Dancehall party

Any night of the week Sanjay Ramanand can go to sound system parties blaring a different reggae rhythm. It’s called Dancehall. And it’s frenetic, aggressive and unashamedly sexual. 

05:08

Sanjay

SANJAY RAMANAND: “The culture of Dancehall has one of those things you kind of really have to experience. You know Dancehall culture’s very loud and it’s very whatever you are.

05:39

Dancehall performers

Music

05:46

SANJAY RAMANAND:  People are not afraid to being themselves as people and I mean expressing their truth whether it’s good, bad or ugly.

05:51

Sanjay

It’s vibrant, it’s loud, it’s in your face and it’s literal. If it’s a violent song being played you’ll see gunshots being like mimicked in the air. You know what I mean if it’s like, if it’s that type, a certain type of song you’ll see simulated sex going on. It’s art, you know most art is not necessarily good or bad, it’s just a reflection of people’s reality”. 

06:00

Sanjay at Dancehall gig

ERIC CAMPBELL: When it exploded onto the global music scene in the 1990s, part of it reflected one of the most confronting aspects of life here – a violent, even murderous homophobia. 

06:29

On screen song lyrics:
Boom, bye bye in a batty boy’s head. They tough young guys don’t accept fags, they have to die

SONG LYRICS: “Boom, bye bye in a batty boy’s head. They tough young guys don’t accept fags, they have to die”. 

06:43

Dancehall gig

ERIC CAMPBELL: Songs like “Boom Bye Bye” performed by the reggae star Buju Banton, openly called for gay men to be shot or incinerated.

06:50

On screen song lyrics:
Guy comes near me then his skin must peel, burn him up bad like an old tyre wheel. Gwaan buju banton yuh tough. It’s a boom, bye bye in a batty boy’s head. Rude boy, don’t promote no batty boy. They have to die

SONG LYRICS: “Guy comes near me then his skin must peel, burn him up bad like an old tyre wheel. Gwaan buju banton yuh tough. It’s a boom, bye bye in a batty boy’s head. Rude boy, don’t promote no batty boy. They have to die”. 

06:58

Lewis

DANE LEWIS: “In the late, mid to late ‘90s there really emerged this overtly aggressive lyric and particularly aimed at the LGBT community”.

07:13

Lewis and Campbell sit in garden at table

ERIC CAMPBELL: Dane Lewis heads Jamaica’s only LGBT rights group, JFLAG

07:27

JFLAG office/ ‘Batty Boy’ poster

which operates from an unmarked office in a suburb of Kingston. They helped organise an international boycott of what became known as ‘murder music’. 

07:33

Lewis. Super:
DANE LEWIS
Executive Director, JFLAG

DANE LEWIS: “A number of tunes just you know pretty violent and if you really reveal the kinds of ways in which they were sort of seeking out the LGBT community and speaking out against the LGBT community and that ignited a murder music campaign which we partnered with two other organisations and that sort of took on a life of its own”. 

07:43

Hate crime videos

ERIC CAMPBELL: A spate of gay hate crimes, including murder, increased the international attention. Images like these went viral and US and European promoters came under intense pressure to drop any artist promoting homophobic violence. 

08:08

Cooper

DR CAROLYN COOPER: “People couldn’t travel and they didn’t get, you know,  contracts because they were just, you know, banned because of the homosexual lobby that rightly said we don’t want murder music”.

08:26

Driving around Kingston

ERIC CAMPBELL: Gay rights aren’t much of a talking point in the working class of Kingston. Life is tough and fiercely competitive, with youth unemployment running as high as 30%. Homophobia still runs deep. You find that just by asking the question ‘Can men be with men?’

08:41

Vox pops at market

MAN #1 AT MARKET: “In the beginning, the Bible said you go to a man, you should be stoned. A woman and a man, you multiply, you know, I mean… we need kids. So, I mean…”

09:14

WOMAN AT MARKET: “Man to woman and woman to man. There’s no way you can get the enjoyment from a man, as what you can get from a woman. I don’t see that necessary, so I don’t have anything to say on that topic. It’s not right”.

09:26

MAN #2 AT MARKET: “Homosexuals in Jamaica? Nah! God no! Kinda hard to picture it. That shouldn’t be happening. That should be… a law that should be enforced not to be happening”.

09:39

Statues in Emancipation Park

ERIC CAMPBELL: Actually there is a law. Emancipation Park commemorates the end of slavery and Jamaica’s 1962 independence from Britain. But one group was never liberated. Jamaica kept the British prohibition on male to male relations. Today the crime of sodomy is still punishable by 10 years prison with hard labour. It means anyone attacked for being gay has to think twice about reporting it to police. 

09:53

Lewis

DANE LEWIS: “The law really hangs over our heads just as a big shadow. It’s as, one colleague framed it, it makes us all un-apprehended criminals.

10:26

Social class has a lot to do with how people navigate life generally, so imagine putting your LGBT status on top of that. Also certainly makes it more difficult about how you navigate certain spaces”. 

10:36

Shaquille

ERIC CAMPBELL: The hardest place of all is on society’s fringe. 

SHAQUILLE: “My name is Shaquille. I call myself Abby Abby. I’m 19 years old. I ended up on the street

10:53

because of my lifestyle, a person in my community tried to hurt me. Some came to rush me with guns and stuff, and threatened my life. I ran away, and then I ended up in the gully”. 

ERIC CAMPBELL: Shaquille is called a gully queen,

11:10

one of many driven from their homes when they declare their difference.

11:28

SHAQUILLE: “My family is really mad at me now. Yeah.

11:33

Batty man, faggot, fish, sodomite, and the list goes on. It’s terrible because the homeless gays in Jamaica don’t have nowhere to go. Jamaican people are so homophobic, and that won’t change. Once they know you’re a batty man, they do all manner of evil things”.

11:39

Street scenes

ERIC CAMPBELL: In 2006 Time magazine posed the question, ‘Is Jamaica the most homophobic place on Earth?’

12:04

Stephens

TANYA STEPHENS: “The people who spread homophobic messages don’t represent all of Jamaica. They don’t represent half of Jamaica. You know we’ve never been that bad”.

12:16

Music recording studio/Stephens recording

ERIC CAMPBELL: Dancehall and roots reggae artist, Tanya Stephens, was one of the first artists to challenge her own industry. Her single, ‘Do You Still Care?’, was a lone call for tolerance.

12:24

Stephens. Super:
TANYA STEPHENS
Reggae and Dancehall artist

TANYA STEPHENS: “The thing is doing ‘Do You Still Care?’ was just a reflection of where my mind was at, at the time, thinking I’d become a part of many conversations which led me to realise just how bad the problem could grow to be, and I felt like there needed to be different voices”.

12:38

On screen song lyrics:
Do you still care what your friends wanna think if they see you hanging out with a queer? Tell me why can’t you accept me as I am? Just the way I am

SONG LYRICS: “Do you still care what your friends wanna think if they see you hanging out with a queer? Tell me why can’t you accept me as I am? Just the way I am”.

ERIC CAMPBELL: But even she was caught up in the international boycott.

12:55

Stephens

TANYA STEPHENS: “I’ve had one show cancelled because another artist was on it and he wasn’t allowed to play and stuff like that. I’ve had to reshape the way I book. I’ve had to refuse shows with certain artists which it made me boycott fellow artists who some of them have some good messages too”.

13:17

DJ spinning records

ERIC CAMPBELL: The music industry is one of Jamaica’s biggest economic assets and it started playing a heavy price for the actions of a few. Market pressure eventually forced artists like Beenie Man to publicly apologise for offensive lyrics. 

13:38

Beenie Man apology

BEENIE MAN: “Let me make this clear and straight. I have nothing against no one, including gay and lesbian people. Do not fight against me for some song that I sing twenty years ago”.

13:59

Sanjay. Super:
SANJAY RAMANAND
Dancehall artist

SANJAY RAMANAND: “The same artists that used to go on stage and say those things are not saying them on stage anymore. I mean corporate companies are signing them to do shows and they have to sign contracts that say hey, we will not sing any homophobic lyrics. And I think artists are a little bit more open to that reality now, you know what I mean?”

14:10

Tanya Stephens in recording studio

ERIC CAMPBELL: Tanya Stephens believes musicians weren’t the real culprits. She blames Christians who taught them from childhood that gays were evil. 

14:29

TANYA STEPHENS: “The message coming from the church, for example, has actually empowered them, has taught them to think and speak like this and it’s unfair that dancehall suffered and reggae suffered and not the church because that’s where it started from”.

14:45

Cooper. Super:
DR CAROLYN COOPER
Author & cultural critic

DR CAROLYN COOPER: “The church has a big influence because all of these DJs went to Sunday school. So dancehall DJs feel that they’re doing something quite righteous when they chant down homosexuality”. 

14:58

Man walks with mobile religious boom box

Music

15:08

ERIC CAMPBELL: Jamaica boasts the world’s largest number of churches for its population.

15:33

Church

Almost every street corner has a place of worship.

15:38

Christian band plays in church

Music

15:44

Church service

ERIC CAMPBELL:  They can be a refuge from the problems of poverty and violence. Jamaica suffers the world’s sixth highest murder rate. But the fastest growing churches – evangelical and Pentecostalist – are a cold refuge for the LGBT community. 

16:02

[congregation sings]

16:30

Samuels

PASTOR RANDOLPH SAMUELS: “It is wrong to really… to say kill them because um… kill them as a human being as well, as a human being”.

16:49

Equator Faith Mission Church

ERIC CAMPBELL: Pastor Randolph Samuels runs the Equator Faith Mission Church in the centre of Kingston.

16:56

Samuels

PASTOR RANDOLPH SAMUELS: “We as a Christian we don’t hate but, you know, we are against the behaviour of being a homosexual. The act is wrong but the person can be, can take counsel and they can change their behaviours”.

17:04

Rastas sing

[singing/drums]

17:19

ERIC CAMPBELL: Jamaica has another big religion that people can turn to – Rastafari. Only one in ten Jamaicans follow it, but its influence is everywhere. Rastafarians believe black Africans are God’s true chosen people.

17:37

Rasta GVs

The dread-locked Rastas worship ganja as a scared herb and adhere to a strict alternative lifestyle.

18:05

Rasta drumming ceremony

The drumming of their ceremonies, called Nyabinghi, gave reggae its distinctive beat. 

18:19

Rasta priest

RASTA PRIEST: “Music for the Rastafarian is Nyabinghi, yes. This is the ancient order. The one-two”.

18:27

Rasta service

ERIC CAMPBELL: But they too believe it’s a sin for a man to lie with a man.

18:33

Rasta priest

RASTA PRIEST: “No sir, because the Bible in the beginning, the Bible placed Adam and Eve and if so was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. No man to man, no woman to woman. King and queen”. 

18:47

Etana in recording studio

[singing]

19:02

ERIC CAMPBELL: For some Jamaicans, music studios are just as sacred as any church. Here in Montego Bay a new track is being recorded with a powerful message.

19:16

SONG LYRICS: “Spread love, spread it all over the world, spread to every boy and every girl”.

ETANA: [Reggae artist] “My music is

19:28

Etana. Super:
ETANA
Reggae artist

real roots music, roots reggae. My music is world music… The core of the music is always reggae, always. That checka, check, check, check”. [laughs]

19:40

Etana in recording studio

SONG LYRICS: “And if you want to win, you’ve got to put up a fight. Cause only the strongest of the strong will survive. And only the fittest of the fit will stay alive”. 

20:04

ERIC CAMPBELL: Etana, known as ‘the strong one’, is one of Jamaica’s current success stories. She follows Rastafarian teachings except when it comes to judging people on their sexuality. 

20:32

Etana

ETANA: “Rastafari is love, togetherness, oneness, unity, unconditional love, fighting for the rights of the people, for the poor, the sick, the elderly, the needy. That’s what Rasta is about. Loving and caring and sharing. 

20:44

Etana in recording studio

[singing]

21:01

Etana

ETANA:  Everyone has a right to decide his own destiny. Bob Marley even put it in a song. Right? That’s a serious statement. It needs to be followed. All judgement needs to be left up to the most high.

21:16

Etana singing on beach

[singing]

21:31

ETANA:  I think that the younger generation now have decided okay I’m just going to be myself.

21:36

Etana

I have many gay friends and I know their personality. I’m not saying that it’s for everybody because everybody’s not as strong as they are, but they’re all right. They’re not, they’re not worried. I have confidence, I have faith and I know they’ll be all right”. 

21:46

Etana singing on beach

[singing]

22:04

Sanjay and others at Big Yard studio

ERIC CAMPBELL: Back in Kingston at Big Yard studio, a very different sound is going down.

22:37

Music

22:50

ERIC CAMPBELL: Artists like Sanjay and dancer  Shelly Belly are riding Dancehall’s second coming. 

SANJAY RAMANAND: “Dancing is extremely important

23:20

Sanjay

to the song because as you noticed the whole genre starts with dance. I mean the whole, the genre was named after a space where you could dance.

23:27

There’s a reflective side of it as well too, you know I mean there’s a very socially conscious side of it as well too, but you know I mean you can’t, dancehall, you can’t have dancehall without dancing”.

23:36

Aerial. Dancers on street/Dancers in studio

ERIC CAMPBELL: This time the boom is much bigger and like its reggae forebears, is influencing music around the globe.

23:47

Music

23:56

ERIC CAMPBELL:  The sounds and dance moves of Kingston streets are moving on from a controversial past. 

24:07

Music

24:14

Sanjay

SANJAY RAMANAND: “Society’s definitely changing here. There’s no question. I mean it has a lot to do with technology as well too. We’re exposed to things now. You can go on YouTube and you can see a gay person talking and you can even identify with some things that they’re saying.

24:21

Kingston. GVs people

You have more and more people being, feeling more comfortable and coming out and saying it and I think the more that happens, the more people who realise that hey they are normal. You know what I mean it’s just that we, we’re not there yet.

24:39

Sanjay

You know there’s still a lot of people that are afraid… you know I mean the ones that are coming out in Jamaica now are the ones that are just like, fuck you I’m gay”. 

24:50

Beach

Music

24:57

ERIC CAMPBELL: But for now few people in Dancehall will admit to being gay.

25:03

Cooper

DR CAROLYN COOPER: “Dancehall is such an organically powerful medium so it is just a matter of time before we start getting dancehall DJs who are gay, who are going to sing about freedom.

25:10

You feel oppressed as a black person you sing about it. You feel oppressed as a gay person then you have to sing about it and people are going to accept that your voice is legitimate. It’s authentically Jamaican”.

25:21

Bob Marley birthday celebrations in park

Music

25:35

ERIC CAMPBELL: A few days after Bob Marley’s birthday the celebrations are showing no sign of slowing down.

25:48

Prime Minister attends celebrations

Even the Prime Minister has come to pay his respects.

WOMAN: “There’s an Australian broadcaster here to see you”.

25:54

Campbell with Prime Minister. Super at 26:08:
ANDREW HOLNESS
Prime Minister, Jamaica

ERIC CAMPBELL: “Can I get your thoughts on today and the festival of Bob Marley and his significance for Jamaica?”

ANDREW HOLNESS: [Prime Minister, Jamaica] “You know Bob Marley is a national treasure for Jamaica but not just for Jamaica, for the world, the downtrodden all over the world to have used his poetry and his words to inspire change, and change for the better”.

26:03

Marley tee-shirts

ERIC CAMPBELL: “You still have the anti sodomy laws here, is there any prospect

26:22

Prime Minister Holness

of repealing them?”

ANDREW HOLNESS: “Well it’s a process. Like all countries, all democratic countries, that process is engaged and discussion is going on, the debate is going on. It is evolving and Jamaica will find its own level…”

ERIC CAMPBELL: “Do you personally support repealing the laws?”

ANDREW HOLNESS: “That’s great”.

WOMAN: “Thank you, all right. Thank you”. 

ERIC CAMPBELL: “Thank you very much”. 

26:25

Band performs. Super:
The Mission
Damian “Jr. Gong” and Stephen Marley

Music

26:53

Lewis

DANE LEWIS: “We’re optimistic. We know that change can happen. We’ve seen the shift over time, we know that it’s possible.

27:07

I think at the heart of Jamaican people is that one love. There is a respect for the individual. Our differences can be celebrated, but yes I mean who is going to make the change for future generations and it is

27:17

Children wearing Jamaica shirts and holding flags

the young people of today”.

TANYA STEPHENS: “I don’t think there will ever

27:31

Stephens

come a time when people don’t have to stand up for their rights everywhere in the world. Reggae has always been a force for social change and it continues to be. And it will always be, you know and no matter how much evolution it goes through, it remains the way we communicate with each other. It brings us together. This is what gels us because no matter how much the divide or how wide the divide – reggae brings us all together”.

27:36

Bands pay tribute to Marley

Music

28:01

Credits start over

Reporter - Eric Campbell

Producer - Matt Davis

Camera - Matt Davis

Editor - Matthew Walker

Song Credits -

Etana: Reggae – Queen – Spread Love – Strongest - Warrior love [Freemind Music LLC]

Tanya Stephens: Do You Still Care? [VP Records]

Sanjay w Shelly Belly: Belleh – Bully

Carey Akustiks: Yut Wid Di Dream

With special thanks to Tracey Ellison

Executive producer – Marianne Leitch

abc.net.au/foreign

© 2017

28:07

Out point after credits

28:34