Bounty Killer’s promotion of violence at last month’s Ignition Concert was very much in line with his known record; he has had performances cancelled in other places because of it. Wildfire Promotions which brought him here told this newspaper last week that they had spoken to Bounty Killer on approximately four occasions concerning his plans for the show, and that they had been given positive assurances by the singer when they raised concerns about violent lyrics.
Clearly the artiste in question has a contempt for Guyana and Guyanese if firstly, he felt he could disregard prior understandings, and secondly he could go further and ignore his onstage manager, who issued cautions to him about his lyrics when his performance was under way.
It should be said that he was not the only one who behaved badly that Sunday morning. The local DJ who called out to the crowd for “bad men from Buxton and Agricola to represent as the Five Star General [Bounty Killer] is about to ignite the concert,” displayed nothing short of reckless irresponsibility. And he, at least, should have known better. As it was there were two bursts of gunfire at the show, the second of which the promoter said had been caused by the police to restore order in the crowd, and the first of which he apparently did not hear. Exactly who was responsible for that remains a matter for speculation.
Of course, the audience responded with enthusiasm to Bounty Killer’s homophobic and violent lyrics.
However, that is no recommendation. It is simply unthinkable in a democracy where the rule of law is supposed to hold sway to promote the killing of any group or to glorify guns, however well these views might play with a given crowd. Gays, like everyone else who resides in the Co-operative Republic, have an absolute right to live without fear of becoming the victims of violence. In addition, at a practical level, where so many were gunned down in cold blood at Lusignan and Bartica, the last thing we need is incitement to attack others, no matter who the target is. As for the veneration of a gun culture, that too will do nothing to enhance our collective security.
Now it may be that this is hard for someone like Bounty Killer to grasp – although one would have thought that being a Jamaican he would have had some inkling of the peculiarities of the Guyanese situation. His ignorance, however, is no excuse, more particularly since the matter of his lyrics, as mentioned earlier, had been raised with him before the show. As it was, he was guilty of ‘eye-pass,’ and he now finds himself banned from this country.
In a general sense one never feels comfortable when a government bans performers; the heavy hand of state censorship in artistic matters should be employed as little as possible. As with everything, however, there will be exceptions, and the question is whether this is one of those exceptions. On Monday Minister Rohee told the media that at a joint meeting with sponsors of shows and the inter-religious organization the need for artistes to avoid gun lyrics and appeals to violence, among other things, had been discussed. He was reported as going on to say, “Recent developments at one of these public shows have demonstrated that these commitments were under breach.”
Wildfire Promotions, of course, probably thought they were doing enough by eliciting verbal assurances from Bounty Killer on the matter of violence, but they should not have been so naïve. They should have sought legal advice about how they could best ensure that the strictures they were insisting on were observed. If there were no written contractual arrangements which could make that fairly certain, or if he refused to accede to such a contract, then the promoters should have declined to bring him down. Be that as it may, now that he has demonstrated bad faith and the promoters have demonstrated that their measures were ineffectual, there isn’t much room to do anything except move to ban him.
Having said, that, however, it should not be an indefinite ban. If there is evidence in due course that the content of his numbers has become less offensive, and if he is prepared to give a public undertaking about his lyrics should he be permitted to appear on stage here again, then the administration should rethink its position.
The government has also banned Mavado, and this case is more problematic. He is also known for the same kind of lyrics as Bounty Killer, although it must be acknowledged that he did hold a concert here last year, which as far as the public is aware was not associated with any problem. Unless the Minister of Home Affairs knows of something which happened on that occasion which hasn’t gone into the public domain, then one must assume that he extrapolated from the case of Bounty Killer, reinforced by the example of St Vincent and the Grenadines which banned the singer earlier this year.
Perhaps given Mavado’s ostensibly less incendiary record here last year, the authorities could have asked his agents and the singer for some kind of satisfactory public commitment about his proposed performance, and ban him only if they were not satisfied.
If they do not want government interfering in artistic matters, promoters have to be altogether more responsible when selecting artistes to perform here. Those like Bounty Killer, whose reputation is well known, should not be appearing in this country unless there are viable guarantees about the content of their lyrics.
