House OF Reggae

Between 2006 and 2009, I was a member of the Pan African Youth Movement (@pan_movement), Gulu Chapter, where I took on several responsibilities from being a Mobilizer to Assistant Human Rights Coordinator. One of the moments that became a turning point for me was attending a Rastafari tradition held in honour of Lucky Dube, following his tragic shooting in 2007. We gathered at Golden Peace Hotel in Gulu, not only to mourn his passing but also to celebrate the music, consciousness and message he had left behind. We sang some of his songs, shared in the spirit of remembrance, and reflected on the deeper messages carried through reggae. That evening, Odong Romeo performed a reggae piece alongside his colleague Rax. Music was the language through which we expressed grief, solidarity, identity and a sense of African consciousness. In this photograph with me is Ras Jah-Kene, a close friend of one of my uncles. Ras Jah-Kene was a craftsman in the truest sense of the word. He could take a piece of wood and transform it into furniture or almost any other wooden creation. His hands understood wood in a way that only a true artisan’s can. Looking back at this photo, I realise that those years were shaping more than my activism. They were shaping how I understood Africa, identity, culture, resistance, creativity and consciousness.