‘There’s no love anymore’

On the penultimate night of the 2024 staging of the Love and Harmony Cruise, crowd favourite Buju Banton not only delivered a usually stellar set but also called on his Caribbean brethren to consider the children.

Clad in all-white, with his locs flashing freely in the Caribbean Sea breeze, Banton slowed his energetic set to share his disappointment with the attitude of this young generation.

“We speak to a time where there’s no love anymore,” he began, his deep-set eyes piercing the crowd.

“Every man a bad man, the best way to solve every conflict is fi kill the person over conflict. There’s no resolution, there’s no talking it out, there’s no forgetting, there’s no forgiving. We have just become like stones and we were told that we would become like stones, our hearts become so hard that there’s no empathy.”

Moving across the stage, seemingly propelled by his own conviction he continued, “When you go and you look on your social media, every [expletive] you like it. And them feel like chu you like dem [expletive] dem feel dem empowered ‘oh me ago do it again, you nuh see how much likes me get’.”

Be more responsible

Settling, he shared with the audience some insight from his childhood.

“I grew up inah a time when, we never know who like we from who nuh like we. And we grow up we mother teach we doe follow people, zeen. And we see all who is the result of who follow people weh dem end up and we see all result of who claim seh dem like we, weh dem try do to people.”

Before launching into another bout of his musical masterpieces, he urged the Harmonizers to be more responsible.

“I a talk to not only my youth but your youth and all the youth dem. We want dem live, we want all of them fi live. But the only way we’re gonna live and survive is if the respective governments act more responsible and if the media houses act more responsible and if all the people in the police and security forces act more responsible.”

He went on, “Why should we join up our Caribbean region, one thing all the youth dem want from Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, is a opportunity. And because there is no opportunity and because there is so few they have been manipulated by those who have the opportunity in abundance to do [expletive]. Bob Marley did tell we, don’t curse the one who do the act, curse the one who set him up. Because a suh it a run now.”

Ending the sermon almost as quickly as it began, Banton returned to his performance, delivering hit after hit from his nearly four-decade-long career.

Banton was the final of the scheduled acts for this staging of the famous cruise.

shanel.lemmie@gleanerjm.com