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The Ganzie tragedy
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Posted: 04/01/2007 - 05:18 PM
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Since crack cocaine and gangs entered the streets of Belize City almost two decades ago, young men on the Southside who had dropped out of the school system, have basically been going one of two ways – the gangsta way or the Rasta way.
 
The gangstas insisted on participating in the consumer economy they saw advertised on television every day and every night. Without the skills to make money in the business and economic mainstream, they turned to the number one cash product on the Southside – cocaine. Participation in the cocaine business meant violence and jail and sometimes death, but while a young man was kicking up dust and making money hand over fist, he had access to the finest ladies on the scene. The gangstas were living for today, and their religion was bling bling.
 
To a certain extent, the Rasta answer to the consumer economy was to drop out of it. So those young men who went Rastafarian in a serious way in Belize, did not buy fancy clothes, expensive jewelry or pretty automobiles.   They were extremely opposed to cocaine and gang violence.   The Rasta way was the way of black spirituality, but there were all kinds of Rastas – including fashion Rastas.
 
In 1996, the Rastas, who had more mature leaders amongst them than the young gangstas who were shooting each other and going to jail, tried to organize themselves, but their unity meetings at Liberty Hall lasted for only a month before the meetings collapsed, and the Rastas, supposedly members of the one religion, went their separate ways.
 
The Rastas have traditionally been involved with the use of ganja, as part of their religion, and so it followed that they became involved with the cultivation and marketing of marijuana. Belizean society has treated marijuana and cocaine as equally evil. Yes, both are illegal, but cocaine is a much more expensive product than weed. You make money at 25 times the rate dealing cocaine, as you make money selling weed. So cocaine is a much more dangerous product than weed.
 
About ten years ago, some of the older Rastas became linked with a Belizean cocaine dealer through his financing of sports. This cocaine dealer became a hero of many Rastas, and none of them ever had a critical word to say about how he made his money.
 
A few years ago, a younger, more pure form of Rasta emerged on the Southside. This was called “bobo dread” or “boboshanti”, and its regional guru was the Jamaican reggay artist known as Sizzla Colanji. In Belize, boboshanti does not present an organized shape, but on the streets the bobo dread are recognized by the head piece or turban they wear to cover their dreadlocks. They are very spiritual, very humble, but very militantly Rasta in the Biblical sense. The best known bobo dread on the Southside is Louie Ganzie, because he has been a superbly talented reggay artist for longer than anyone on the Southside. No one was more spiritual or more humble than Louie Ganzie.
 
 So the news on Wednesday morning this week that Louie Ganzie had gone berserk and stabbed his “empress” to death, is a terrible, terrible Southside tragedy. Keisha Sutherland was the mother of four children, two of whom belonged to Ganzie. We cannot remember any Southside gangsta committing an equivalent act of violence upon a lady. And Ganzie had attacked a previous mate in a similarly murderous rage some seven years ago. On that occasion Ganzie had been treated leniently (the sister did not press charges), because it was considered an aberration which would never happen again.
 
 Black people on the Southside live under more stress than anywhere else in the nation.   The Rastas appeared to be following a path which would reduce the stress, the stress which sparks rage and violence. Ganzie fell victim to that stress on Wednesday morning, and destroyed a mother of four. Ganzie’s terrible act does not mean that the Rasta way is an evil way, or that it is the wrong way. But on the Southside, Ganzie’s crazed outburst reminded us of just how much stress we operate under on a daily basis.
 
 There are Belizeans, including some black Belizeans, who blame Southside people for the stress on the Southside. They say that Southsiders should be more disciplined, less bling bling, more focused, and so on and so forth.
 
Then there are those, the well-financed those, who say that Jesus is the answer. Rastafarians and other black-conscious Belizeans reject the Jesus solution, the main reason being that when the Europeans came to Africa, they came in the name of Jesus.   So we want to know how the same Jesus in whose name we were enslaved, can be the person to liberate us from this daily oppression.
 
Sports and culture are viewed by some as frivolous exercises. But the enemies of Southside people do not view sports and culture as frivolous. That is why they secretly and systematically undermine our Belizean sports and culture on the Southside. Ganzie was a major talent. He should not have been so severely marginalized. Yes, he has a critical problem, but most of us believe that when the money ain’t right, the love business goes wrong. 
 
We are not making any excuses for Louie Ganzie. We are just using his tragedy to make a point. There is stress on the Southside – murderous stress. Ganzie’s tragedy is Keisha Sutherland’s tragedy and six different children’s tragedy. More stress for the Southside. Though the road is rocky, trod on. Trod on, my brethren and sistren.
 


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