Mutabaruka
 ”Mutabaruka (formerly Allan Hope) was born in Rae Town, Kingston (Jamaica) on 26th December, 1952. After primary education, he attended Kingston Technical High School, where he was a student for four years. He began to examine Rastafarianism and to find it more meaningful than either the Roman Catholicism of his upbringing or the political radicalism into which he had drifted. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, there was an upsurge of Black Awareness in Jamaica, in the wake of a similar phenomenon in the United States. Muta, then in his late teens, was drawn into that movement. Illicitly, in school he read many ‘progressive books’ including Eldrige Cleaver's ‘Soul on Ice’ and some that were then illegal in Jamaica, such as ‘The Autobiography of Malcom X’. Muta saw himself as a young revolutionary. Muta was the first well-publicized voice in the new wave of poets growing since the early 1970's. Early work by Muta regularly appeared in Swing (Magazine), a monthly that gave fullest coverage to the pop music scene. Introducing ‘Outcry’ (March, 1973), John A. L. Golding Jr. wrote: ‘In July 1971, Swing Magazine published for the first time a poem by Allan Mutabaruka...Our readers were ecstatic. Since then, and almost in consecutive issues, we have derived much pleasure in further publication of this brother's works... They tell a story common to most black people born in the ghetto... And when Muta writes, it's loud and clear.’ Though he is on intimate terms with reggae lyrics and he sometimes does angry poems, Muta resists the label of "dub poet" as much as "protest poet". Each, he feels, refers to only one aspect of his work.” For more info on Mutabaruka, visit www.mutabaruka.com.
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