| Educating the masses ... King Drum Bagalaga continues the journey Antigua Sun
Saturday May 27 2006 Heanzlene Drew
Always having an avid interest in his African heritage when the rastafarian movement emerged and especially came to the shores of Antigua & Barbuda, it was no wonder that Bagalaga developed a keen desire to join the movement. Living in Fibrey, where he learned that the slave ships used to come in, and having a mother who would talk of Africa and all she had learned and with his Teacher Maynes, who always encouraged him to keep in touch with his African roots, Bagalaga kept after his dreams of becoming a Rasta. "I was small, I always say when I come big, I'm going to be a rasta,” Bagalaga said. “From I small, I study and research, I ask questions about rastas,” he added. Bagalaga was well aware that the path he had chosen would not be an easy one. For, in the early years of the rasta movement, it was no secret that being a rasta made you an outcast in society. “When I small, my mother tell me about a man who had some locks and he was sick and they cut his locks because when you go to the hospital they cut your locks, cause they think it nasty.” He recalled before he had even begun to grow his own locks, he used to see the same man, and fascinated by his locks, used to try to get a peek and what lay underneath the man’s hat, as in those days, most rastafarians used to keep their locks covered. “One time I was at St. John's Cricket area and we were playing football good. “And when him come everybody stop and start look stone. “I start to tell them ‘leave him, don't stone him’ but they still stone him.” Even though his peers were stoning the man, Bagalaga really wanted to get close to the man so he could see his locks. “I had to tell him I don't trouble elders, my mother always tell me that,” Bagalaga recalled telling the man. “I tell him to take off his hat, so I can see what under his hat. “But after he catch what I wanted he say ‘No, me carn tek off me hat, if me tek off me hat they go stone me more.’” According to Bagalaga, the man would have been stoned because of his locks, for in those days it was considered taboo to have locks. “In them time they say everybody must comb them head. “And V. C.Bird pass a law that say that everybody who go to hospital must trim them locks.” He remembered also a woman who also used to be persecuted by society because she had locks. “They used to trouble another woman too, she used have her head tie and she very humble. She have locks too so they used to stone her. “One day I was at St. John's Boy School and I look through the window and see she. “When teacher not looking I jump out the window and go and tell her good afternoon. “She said not to trouble her but I tell she I have manners and I want to see what under the headtie. “She used to look like an Ethiopian.” His schooling continued and Teacher Maynes continued to be a great influence on Bagalaga. “My teacher used to tell me Jamaica have their rasta and they smoke they weed and Emperor Selassie is their god.” As soon as he finished school, he began his journey in earnest to rastafarianism. “When I stop from school in 1966, I start to live the rasta life, start to grow my locks because I control myself now. “When I start to grow locks you had to hide hair,” he said. He met up with some other guys he went to school with and formed a black power group. “In 1967 I meet up with some brethren and by 1968 the black power start to rise up in the united snakes of murdica –I don’t say United States of America – I say united snakes of murdica. “Some of the guys came from Booby Alley Point, some from Puerto Rico. We gather ourselves in the North Street area. “But in my mind I was a rasta black power.” He said being a rasta is a very deep thing. “The rasta thing is a mind thing, you nourish it. “We start smoke our marijauna from 1966. “Bruce Goodwin come back from Jamaica, he went away to study doctor and he got interested in rasta and the rasta levity and he used to come over by Point and came back and taught us about the rasta. But although rastas were advancing somewhat, the struggle continued. “The people believed that rastas were going back. So we had to educate them.” But educating the masses did not come easily. “The government used to send police to raid us, lock us down, bring us down to station. “When the police hold a rasta with marijuana, they get a raise, a different bonus, so the lock us down whether we right or wrong,” Bagalaga said. “You know marijuana is our sacrament. In united snakes of murdica, they ban marijuana in 1938 and so they hold us here too.” The struggle was a difficult one. “Every day police and rastas get into something, the people in society didn’t like the natty dreads. “They shoot us, they take our own weapons, take cutlass and cut our locks.” Bagalaga admitted that he himself had his share of blows and he has his scars to show it. “Police bite me up and bu’st me under me eye. “Sometimes they come in your place,” he said. According to Bagalaga, 1974 was the first time the government started to listen to the rastafari. “Before, the government used to fight against us under the name of gang. “Say them no want none gang and no drum beating. But during those times I used to just meditate.” He took up the mantle to educate. “I used to go to the police station and let them know we are not gangs. I and I used to talk to them. They say they never know about no black power, but I would go to the station and let them know. “I’m not in no war, you know. I believe in miracles. I believe in God and I work with God and love him by praise. “I’m a Nazorite, so God always let me get away from them when they try to lock me down.” A staunch believer in his God and a firm believer in meditation, Bagalaga continues his journey and continues to educate the masses about the life of a rasta with God by his side. | 
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