Buchanan says Rasta identity still offensive in politics

More than 60 years after Sir Alexander Bustamante ordered police to "bring in all Rastas, dead or alive", several persons running for seats in Wednesday's general election sport the hairstyle.

However, one candidate believes that he stands out.

"I am the only one who is a Rastafarian. I'm not a 'renta dread like the others," said attorney-at-law Isat Buchanan, who is contesting the Portand Eastern seat. "Afro-identity and Rastafarian identity is offensive to people in politics. They use it as a buffer, but I am a superior candidate because I am an educated man."

In April 1963, in the Coral Gardens incident also known as "Bad Friday", scores of Rastafarians were arrested, beaten, and forcibly trimmed under Bustamante's directive. Historians regard the crackdown as one of the most violent state actions against the movement. While the Jamaican government issued a formal apology in 2017 and established a $10 million reparations trust fund, mistrust has never fully lifted.

"From Coral Gardens to today, the persecution of Rastas is not just history. It is a living experience," he told THE STAR.

"For me it represents being in spaces where they don't want you especially knowing when you have the legal competence to protect the rights of others who may not know."

The lawyer points to his own career as proof that Rastafarian identity in politics cannot be reduced to hairstyle.

"I am a lawyer who is the first Rastafarian to appear before the Privy Council advocate and win a case. At the end of it almost 52 nations in different languages congratulated me, and I did not get one from the leader of our country." He recalled that the Supreme Court ruled that a school did not infringe on the rights of a child who was denied access after being told to trim her hair. The Court of Appeal later overturned the ruling.

For Rastafarians, dreadlocks are rooted in biblical vows of separation and stand as a visible rejection of 'Babylon'. But over the decades, the hairstyle has also been popularised by reggae, tourism, and mainstream fashion. Buchanan insists his candidacy is about more than hairstyle.

"I will never preach party loyalty so as a Rastafari who is entering politics, I am entering politics because of the people, I am aware that my afro identity and my Rastafarian identity is offensive to people," he said.

"The reality of Jamaica is that it's a us against them and the Rasta falls on the us and the dem don't like us."