DUB-POETRY is a kind of poetry that emerged in Jamaica and England during the early 1970s, influenced by the rhythms of reggae music. The term was at first applied to the improvised ‘rapping’ of the Jamaican disc-jockeys known as ‘toasters’, who sang or recited their own words over the dub versions of reggae records but it has come to be adopted as a collective label for a tradition of popular poetry in the Jamaican , and black British vernacular or ‘Patwah’, inaugurated by Mutabaruka and Oku Onuora in Jamaica and by Linton Kwesi Johnson in England.

Dub poetry includes lyrics and narrative poems on various subjects including protest against racism. Recently, The Drum Arts Center in Birmingham hosted renowned dub-poets Yasus Afari, Maqapi Selassie and Kokumo. The dub-poetic night captioned ‘Nutn Fi Laaf Buot’ (Nothing To Laugh About) was dedicated to that struggle of discovering original African roots. Yasus Afari, one of Jamaica’s foremost edutainers (educating and entertaining) was on tour in the UK promoting his new book and CD, ‘Overstanding Rastafari’ and Revolution Chapter 1. Moqapi Selassie and Kokumo are the two UK’s leading Dub-poets.

Maqapi opened the show with some selected poems that authoritatively asked questions that have long yearned for answers. “Our original land is Africa, most of our poems are tools seeking to discover the actual or precise roots of our ancestors in Africa,” says Maqapi Selassie who’s been a dub-poet for over 20 years. “In most of my poems I try to make a call for my African brothers home and abroad to wake up and face the fact that we are the true source of originality. I have a poem I call ‘Confidence’. It’s very popular and the words in the lyrics express this fact.”

Kokumo, who got his African name from the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria, came on with his backing acoustic and drums, to declare his real self.

The poems ‘Declaration Of Self’ and ‘Blood Fi Oil’ featured in his album ‘Writings On The Wall’ sent the audience into deep thought on mother Africa and the problems that refuse to seize.

Yasus Afari, who led the show, unfolded the untold stories linking Africa and the Diaspora with a line-up of poems. The songwriter/dubpoet who’s written songs for the likes of Maxi Priest and the late Garnet Silk has toured Ethiopia and Ghana.