... it only took a few years in the
UK to give me a taste for malt vinegar, prawn flavored crisps and
real ale ... I got hooked on a certain once-great football team, which doesn't warrant a namecheck this season, developed a liking for articulate, matter-of-fact news reporting and prurient page three exhibitionism ...
... my movements exposed me to a cross-section of Brit-society and there was plenty time to observe my pre-cognitive ambivalence to class privilege and monarchic imperative ...
... at a certain point "God Save The Queen" became more about
Sex Pistols than the divine rights of centuries-old reigning houses ... but then again, there was always "Rule Britannia" with it's strident melody and the staccato refrain "
Britons never, never, never shall be slaves" to stir the heart of empire, conjure high-seas perfidy and re-inflate an entrenched colonial dynamic ...
... I'm sure
Prince Harry has to sing that line aloud from time to time, it's in his job description ... only
Jah knows what goes through
his mind when he does, but on this, his first official tour, for grandma's diamond jubilee, he's just as likely to
bus' a
Bob lyric ... "
ev'ryting gonna be alright" (No Woman, No Cry) ...
... the late
Lady Diana Spencer's "rebelution" (to co-opt the title of an excellent 2006
Tanya Stephens CD) shifted the throne so it now faces a bit more ... outward ... her legacy survives in her sons, not least in the younger who thankfully manifests his mother's spirited humanity ... it is this third-in-line heir who just might blend a bit of
Anansi into the bloodline
...
... the world will focus on the training track tete-a-tete with legend-in-the-making sprint king Usain Bolt ... snaps of these royals, bigging up brands Jamaica and Puma, flew around the world faster than a Jamaican 4x100 relay team ... his good-humored, bent-kneed, grease-hipped bruk wine didn't go un-noticed either ...
Jiggy Royal, howzat for a stage name? ...
... but wait, a whaddat pon 'im foot? ... da' crepe deh a di lick! ...
... the
Daily Telegraph called 'em blue suede shoes but Harry's
Russell & Bromley kicks will remind yard-savvy fashionistas of England's iconic
Clark's desert boots, a perennial fave of roots steppers and dapper dans in
Jamaica ... in-demand dancehall DJ
Popcaan can thank "
Clarks" for his big break, it surely slayed Sloane Square and may even be on Harry's
iPod ...
... Jamaica, with it's history of rebelliousness, is considering rebellion again lately with the concept of republic and severing of historic ties to the British Crown ... either this prince is au fait with generational signifiers that loosen the stiffness of that Anglo-Saxon upper-lip, or s'mady in Queen Majesty's employ is briefed on the power of cultural code ... yard colors an' a cris' track suit, a gun-mout' khaki, new Clark's and a likkle samfie stylee ...
... so yes, now there's the residual matter of that photo-op Bolt race, set up so the mischievous maybe-monarch could run away with the spoils and have memories to look back on while blazin' chalice in da Palace with Wills an' Kate ... well, that's a stretch, but my mind tells me there is redress in the offing this summer, repatriation of bragging rights, payback ... reparations of a sort ...
... "run for cover, run for cover, rebels takin' over" -The Wailers ...
JAMAICAN GLOSSARY
Anansi - a tricky, African derived, folkloric, spider character
"bruk wine" - (break out into) dance
"da' crepe deh a di lick!" - those (crepe soled) shoes are very cool!
"cris' " - crisp, sharp, brand new
"gun-mout' khaki" - straight legged khaki pants
"likkle" - little
a "samfie" man - a trickster
"s'mady" - somebody
