Mutabaruka – Photo Credit Mutabaruka.com
Mutabaruka was born in the year 1952 and brought up in Rae Town, Kingston in a family unit with his dad, mother and two sisters. When he was eight years of age, his father passed on. Mutabaruka went to the Kingston Specialized Secondary School, where he prepared in hardware for a long time, going ahead to work for the Jamaican Phone Organisation until he retired in 1971.
In the late 1960s, Mutabaruka developed an interest in the black awareness program. In school, Mutabaruka read numerous “dynamic books”, including Eldridge Knife’s Spirit on Ice and others that were then unlawful in Jamaica, for example, The Collection of memoirs of Malcolm X. Raised as a Roman Catholic, he started looking at and inundating himself in the Rastafarian development. He quit brushing his hair and began developing dreadlocks, and started eating fewer carbs, and even stopped wearing shoes as he turned into a Rastafarian. He embraced the name Mutabaruka, a term from the Rwandan dialect, Kinyarwanda, signifying “one who is dependable on being victorious”.
Mutabaruka born Allan Hope, left Kingston in 1971, migrating to the Potosi Hills, where he lived with his family in a house that he constructed himself. He was among the new flood of Jamaican artists that rose in the mid-1970s. In 1977 he started a band called truth, and they performed live. He became known globally after his performance at the Reggae Sunsplash in 1981, the first of a few exhibitions at the festival. In 1983 he released a song titled “check it”, the song was issued on Chicago blue mark croc records and further expanded his popularity. He curated 1983 gathering collection Word Sound ‘Ave Power, discharged by Pulse Records and in 1984 Shanachie Records introduced his collection The Secret Unfolds. He went ahead to record joint efforts with both Gregory Isaacs and Dennis Dark coloured, on “Hard Street to Travel” and “Awesome Lords of Africa” respectively. He kept on recording and perform, and in the mid-1990s started introducing a late-night syndicated program on radio station Irie FM called The Frontline, and rapidly ended up plainly one of Jamaica’s most looked for after and dubious radio personality
On 28 September 2010, he presented a tribute sonnet to pay tribute to Lucky Dube, whose music he said looked to “free the oppressed”. He talked at the first Jamaica poetry festival on 17 August 2011 out of appreciation for Marcus Garvey and Louise Bennett. On the last day of the Rastafari Thinks about Meeting, Mutabaruka was analysed as an icon by the teachers of the West Indies.
His upward proclamations on philosophy and the abusive parts played by religious organisations have created much controversy.
Despite the fact that he is a non-smoker, Mutabaraku has battled for the authorization of cannabis, particularly for restorative purposes.
In 2016, the legislature of Jamaica honoured Mutabaruka the order of Distinction, Commander Class (one of the most elevated refinements in the nation), in acknowledgement of his social commitments. Mutabaruka is also known in Jamaica as the craziest man on radio.
