Jamaku – Life’s defining journeys of Malachi Smith

The recent launching of Jamaku, the latest publication of acclaimed dub poet Malachi Smith, went far beyond what was leaping from the pages of the spellbinding stories being presented.

It marked the first time in the lecture series that a poet was at the podium sharing a defining life’s journey. It was reflective reel of what’s deeply rooted in his experiences in Jamaica, an eye opening experience in the US with the first poem read from his book, The Lynching Tree and the jolt, from journeying to Ghana, performing with the Jamaican Folk Revue and Tallawah Mento Band at the Pan African Historical Arts and Culture Festival.

It was noteworthy then, that though not featured in the publication, he began with the piece Homecoming – the first verse, setting the stage of his presentation:

I packed my suitcase with tears

to return home to you

Mama, I am now poorer;

It’s been four hundred years

since I was torn from your arms

and cast into hell,

into the belly of ships,

into cane fields,

into cotton plantations,

into biting cold and scorching sun,

into starless nights,

into the abyss of enslavement,

into a world without windows.

The audience was taken on tour of all that Smith has experienced – the thought provoking route of the poems presented from Jamaku – what he reconstructed from the Japanese literary art form haiku, a short form of poetry originally consisting of three phrases with longer poems over time being produced.

The launch, he said, surprised him ‘on many levels’ – the turnout and response from the community, how he felt ‘liberated,’ he chuckled, on removing his jacket once he started speaking, on being particularly stirred sharing stories about his ancestors that needed to be told – and about feeling empowered, as a vessel, to continue his journey, taking it to the next level. “That next level,” he said, “is to be publishing more books because I have a lot of work, and to keep motivating students with each Jamaica Poets Nomadic College and School Tour (of which he’s founder), with the eighth staging of the tour this year from November 1–15.”

Smith shared stories about his trip to Ghana and kept asking, about how our ancestors endured enslavement, the transatlantic passage, and their innate and uncanny resolve to survive. He spoke of his trip to Cape Coast where slaves were shipped from. “I never saw seas that were so still and at times yet so angry. I was afraid of it. I wouldn’t swim or even put my toes in it, but I would take pictures of it every morning. I was told that my fears and all that was tugging at me emotionally was the connection and engagement with the spirits of the women who had perished.” Tugging at him emotionally was also his visit to the Assin Manso Ancestral Slave River Site where the remains of Crystal, uncovered during archaeological work at the African Jamaican Slave Village at Seville, were returned to Ghana and reburied. Crystal was an enslaved woman who vowed to return to her homeland and would often not eat, rebelling to go back home.

The Lynching Tree, his first poem read from Jamaku, was about those who also perished – lynched from the Weeping Fig Tree (Ficus Benjamina) that’s now heritage site at the Davie Community Worship Centre in South Florida. Nothing is proverbially left hanging from the lines of the Lynching Tree:

Time tries to mask My

Story, fails as bark’s thick skin

Breaks where strange fruits hang

“The Lynching Tree speaks volumes of our journey from the motherland, West Africa in particular,” said Smith. “It cannot be obliterated from history or memory. The tree itself – the tree bark keeps growing and covering the rope but is still not able to cover the noose. Symbolically, it reflects the battle between forcers to whitewash our history and story.”

Other telling pieces that were presented from Jamaku were Daddy where are you, Arise, The dream, One day (about national hero Marcus Garvey), One way, Hope Gardens and Flat Bridge which addresses particular undercurrents:

Trod careful over

My under currents are deep

Secrets, charm, bones, history.

Jamaku is published by Independent Voyces and available on Amazon with photographs by Judith Faloon Reid. The launch was a part of Consul General Oliver Mair’s Distinguished Lecture series held at the Island Space Caribbean Museum in South Florida,