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November 28, 1996

Editor's Note

About Muta Sey ...

Mutabaruka, formerly known as Allen Hope, was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1952. He studied electronics at Kingston Technical High School. A past student of Alma Hewan-Lowe, "I remember her. She was my favorite teacher. We use to a call her ... Mrs. Negligence, a dat she use to say to the class all the time." , stated Mutabaruka on the Clappers' susu site recently.

Muta, as he was called by the masses who love him in Jamaica, was raised a Roman Catholic. He dumped that and found RastafarI in his late teens. Currently he owns a holistic restaurant and book store, all in the same site, in Kingston and his place is highly recommended by "Clappers: $10 a Day Jamaican style", a mus' stop on the Clappers map.

Muta today lives in both the Parish of St. James and Kingston. He was published in Swing Magazine in the 1970's, and was wildly acclaimed at early poetry readings long before the great and legendary Oku Onuora, Michael Smith, and the world Famous L.K.J., (Linton Kwesi Johnson). LKJ, according to Lister "... he invented it, started it, and defined it as we all know it today. I was in my office when Chris (Blackwell) brought this project to me, an L.P. and a great act he just signed. He dumped it on me and said:

".... only understand this and could make it happen". The fact is that L.K.J. was already "phat" with the PUNKS in the U.K. scene and had all the props, but 0 in the U.S.A. I had no knowledge what to call this and how to market it. This was the most exciting thing I heard since Gill-Scott Heron and The Last Poets. So I called it what it sounded like to me, "DUB POETRY". I didn't know that I invented this new term, at least that's what people tell me. Anyhow, I had to run with this alone, so I did, the rest is HIStory that has never been told..."

- excerpted from a book on Lister Hewan-Lowe that is awaiting publication.