KINGSTON, Jamaica – On February 3, 2015 Mutabaruka, Poet, Cultural Historian and Radio Host of IRIE FM was recognized with a Lifetime award from Kubba Pringle, Producer of Bob Marley Birthday Bash at MX3 Entertainment lawn. Mutabaruka had the audience spellbound and highly responsive to his famous poems known the world over.
In 2014 while on his First official visit to The Gambia for the Homecoming Festival, he was the Festival’s ‘Cultural Griot’. During a break from his appearances, while walking in the Serrakunda Marketplace, Denise Isis Miller and I witnessed people shouting “Dis Poem” and crowded around him to greet him at every stop. Mutabaruka is a national treasure loved at home and abroad.
On Tuesday night he was in great form; he recited some of the crowds’ favourites “De System”; in between sets, he would asked questions, such as, what is a vegetarian or vegan? “One who eats vegetables, right”? So tell me why some eat fish (Pescetarians), eat eggs (Lacto-ovo); and drink milk (Lacto vegetarians), etc. He said that when we depart from a vegetarian diet we cultivate a graveyard in our bodies. In a post session interview Mutabaruka said that this award mean a lot to him because it was awarded by one of his own peers.
