Rastas Never Die: 39 years memory of Peter Tosh in Jamaica

Jamaicans on Wednesday rose in honour of the
legendary reggae star, Peter Tosh, as they
marked the 2nd annual ‘International Peter Tosh
Day’ in grand style. He was murdered in
1987
during a home invasion.
As a Grammy Award-winning reggae legend,
musician, and human-rights activist, Peter Tosh
exploded on to the world stage as an activist
and solo artiste with his 1976 release, Legalise
It.
He worked to promote the legalisation of
marijuana, equal rights, and to expand Jamaica’s
cultural and musical influence. His vicious wit
marked militant tunes like the anti-monarchist
Babylon Queendom; 400 Years’ take on
Jamaica’s racially ruptured history; Equal Rights;
and Legalize It (“and I will advertise it”), the
ganja lib anthem with which he announced
himself as a solo artist, post-Wailers, in 1976.
Tosh was no stranger to oppression in his
homeland and knew the fight for legalisation and
equal rights well. His music served as a catalyst
for a generation to fight for what they believed
in.
This year’s event featured photography by Lee
Jaffe, a New Yorker who had played harmonica
with The Wailers, the LP’s sleeve was pure
stoner’s porn – Tosh toking away amid a field of
towering marijuana plants that would have
topped even the singer’s lanky six-foot-plus
frame. With last year’s Peter Tosh Day falling
exactly five days after weed was decriminalised
in Jamaica, you can almost hear the cycles of
history whiz past – or more specifically, perhaps,
a unicycle of the sort the ever-dramatic Tosh
liked to ride in the streets, sporting his
trademark firemen’s shades and puffing at his
meerschaum pipe.