Chant and Dub

Dubbing At The Edges Of Greatness

“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked…
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.” - From Kahlil Gibrain’s [i]The Prophet[/i][/b]


When I read these words on a blog-post from the Liberator Magazine, I was instantly reminded of the zeal and fiery energy that I exerted when I first became a Rasta-man.
There was absolutely nothing that could remove me from participating in the drumming and chanting, the meetings and the general irits (spirit) of the Nyahbinghi Order.
Although I always kept my objectivity, choosing to be of a more pragmatic instead of naively romantic mentality when it comes to all matters of scripture, history, organisation and other challenging stuff that went along with the lifestyle, I have to say that I have been disappointed, not just by others but also by myself
There are many reasons for this fact, but suffice to say that the grass is not always greener on the other side of religion, tradition or way of life.
There are always complications, compromises and conditions that cause one to step back and review the direction of ones life, to ask whether one is on the right path or simply travelling without moving.

The passage from the famous Kahlil Gibran is very good in explaining in very few words the way that I felt as a member of the Rastafarian movement.
There is always joy whenever I n I get together, yet that joy is underscored with a deep current of sadness as one who observes without prejudice realises that here is a group of men and women – young and old, who obviously have seen the light, yet are unable to exercise the fullest or even half their collective potential.
This to me is the reason why in my short trod within the movement there have been so many young women especially, who have come in and out of the Order.
The simplest reason is that they cannot find the proper spiritual discipline and even the activity that can transform them into the Divine Beings that they know they are.
While we gather for the ritual of the ancient Nyahbinghi drumming and chanting, the reasoning sessions which seems to yield no lasting or definitive results and for the joyous Dancehall or Dub sessions where we rejoice to the purifying sounds of Reggae, we all return to homes where there are the normal human challenges waiting for us.
Some of I n I have various psychological, health and deep seated spiritual problems which are sometimes visible yet no one in our joyous celebrations is able to rescue or help us overcome them and so we turn to the same system that we resent and know is inefficient.
Thus the joy of the lifestyle is stolen away by the inability to master ourselves or to protect our society and environment.

It is clear that the Rastafarian way is one of the solutions to most of Africa and the worlds problems, but the sorrowful state that it is presently in creates the impression that there is a lot of immaturity and lack of vision among I n I.
Even now, I write this after having resigned from being one of the scribes/secretaries of the local youth council; but I also have taken a step back from participating in the general lifestyle of the Rasta’s – I smoke less marijuana, I have shed my dreadlocks and I no longer refer to myself as a Rasta. I am now simply a man initiating his own divinity and praying for the resurrection of Godhood among mankind, this I see as achievable with both joy and pain.