jamaican | Me, myself and khai

Brixton Splash and riots –p1

On Sunday we went to Brixton Splash. A music event with sound systems and stages, there was also lots of different arts and crafts stalls and workshops, with lots of Food and drink, juices, pop, red stripe beers, cakes, jerk chicken, patties fruits etc.

It was a fun day out and the early hours of the event was very family friendly. Like carnival the general feeling was that maybe children should be taken home in the early evening as it would start to become a more adult based event. Brixton splash celebrates the diverse culture and history of Brixton. And carries a heavy Jamaican presence and theme with the food and music.

The crowd was such an assorted mix of people many different creeds and colours, it was a lovely sight to behold everyone together dancing, eating and having fun. When it came to dancing khai had a great time he danced away to the reggae music blasting out through the crowds.

The whole event spanned Atlantic Road, Coldharbour Lane, Electric Avenue and the Windrush Square and Peace Gardens with almost every person weaving a Jamaican flag, blowing whistles and wearing garland around their necks with children holding balloons all in the beautiful colours of green, black or yellow the colours of the Jamaican flag.

All in all it was a lovely day, we decided to leave just after six pm because we wanted to get the kids home plus there was a whisper of violence on the horizon.

Brixton Splash and riots –p2

The next day Khai and I took bus to visit a relative and you can image my shock when we drove past Brixton and saw that traffic was being redirected and diverted with numerous police officers and police tape blocking the road which is when I started to hear the stories of the riot that took place the night before on the street I had walked with my son less then 24 hours before.

By five in the afternoon I start to get calls from friends telling me that the riot had now spread, Tottenham,Enfield, Peckham, Lewisham, Hackney, Deptford, Croydon, Clapham,Camden,Bristol, Liverpool, andBirmingham. And now I’m hearing on the news that they have started rioting inManchester.

Rastamouse is currently one of my son’s favourite TV programmes. I must admit I too love the little rodent and his two trusty sidekicks Scratchy and Zoomer; together they solve mysteries and crime. however my favourite character is President Wensley Dale who at the beginning of every programme can be heard summoning the titled character by shouting “Rastamouse, cum een, cum een” via radio, this always leads me to laughter, partly because it is reminiscent of Charlie calling to he’s angels.

Rastamouse was first a book and was written by Michael Souza and Genevieve Webster. It was released in 2005 even though Khai was not yet born I had seen and heard about the Rastamouse books and was delight in January when BBC’s Cbeebies produced and started broadcasting the new animation series.
My son loves loves loves this show and it brings me great joy to see his glee at witnessing the little mouse and friends talking away in Jamaican slang and accent.

So you can image my shock when I discovered all the controvesery surrounding the TV programme, calls of racism due to the use of Jamaican slang words such as “Wa gwan” which means what’s going on how are you, so not sure what is racist about that; from what I understand there just seems to be a handful of non Jamaican people who are a little afraid their child may go up to a black child at school and use a Jamaican slang term and this may some how be deemed as racist, I find this so odd because most of the children and teens mainly in England inner city’s these days have a very mashed up British accent of English, Jamaican and a few more.
Some claim alleged racist overtones considering the show to be a stereotype of Jamaican life, while others are even saying things like cheese is an allusion to cannabis, apparently there are strains of the drug/herb called “cheese” and “blue cheese”, despite actual cheese being seen in the series of course it couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that the characters are mice’s and mice love cheese, no that would be way to simple.

I mean while looking at websites and researching these claims I even managed to find this comment in regard to the Rastamouse debate “Everything has become WAY too PC these days, my friends little boy goes to a primary school where they have to sing Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep instead….” Helen Hughes Williams
And I thought that Mrs. Rix who was my nursery teacher was the only crazed person because when I was four we had to sing baa baa white sheep as well as baa baa black sheep.
But the good new is that a poll showed that over 60% of viewers considered the show to be a positive programme and so do I and Khai,

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