BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DID you know that in 1976 a ban in Dominica against the migration of Rastafarians to the island was lifted to accommodate Ellie Matt and the GI Brass International because of the late Ras Tamboura Kitwana?
Former band member Wingrove Hicks made the revelation during a recent interview with SKNVibes.
He shared also that Ras Tomboura Kitwana had a “very long struggle as a Rastafarian playing in a popular Caribbean band”.
It was after he became a member of that band.
“That is when he actually became a Rastaman and, at that time, Rastafarian was just about in its inaugural stage in St. Kitts. So it was not a ordinary or customary thing for Rastafarians to be playing in bands in St. Kitts. And so Tamboura had a heavy task. He was condemned. There were times when people wanted him out of the band.”
Hicks recalled the band’s first trip to Dominica.
“So he had a very long struggle as a Rastafarian playing in a popular Caribbean band. However, that did not deter Tamboura. I remember we went to Dominica to play, Ellie Matt and the GI Brass. In those days, at the time, there was a ban on Rastafarians. No Rastafarian could have entered the island of Dominica.
“So they had to actually lift the ban for Tamboura to perform in Dominica. At that time he had the popular song ‘Babylon a chase I but I’ll be a lion from the day I was born to now’. So you can imagine when that ban was lifted, specially for him, and we performed in Dominica.”
Hicks also talked about the impact that Ras Tamboura’s permission to perform had on the island.
“It brought out the whole Rastafarian public and they were so glad to see for a very long time no foreign Rastaman had entered that country. So that alone had set the stage for a massive performance not only for Rastafarians, but even persons who were sympathetic to the Rastafarian cause and the general public who came to see Ellie Matt and the GI Brass first appearance in Dominica.”
Ras Tamboura’s christened name was Fitzroy Christian. He was also known as Fitzroy Mathew to other people. Years later he changed his name to Chinelo Abasie Kitwana.
“You might wonder why all these names, but the former were his Christian name or christened name and the latter were adopted names. As most of you would know, Tamboura was a Rastaman…and I think it was in the mid 70s he had changed his name to Tamboura,” Hicks said.
Another former band member, Ian ‘Patches’ Liburd, recalled the change that Ras Tamboura took on during the period of his life when he became influenced by the Black Power and the Rastafarian Movements.
“We then saw a change in the man and saw a change in his name from Fitzroy Christian, aka Jerry Mopstick, to Tamboura Kitwana.
“I don’t believe that anyone loved Bob Marley more than Tamboura and the music of brother Bob and Peter Tosh. I have no doubt influenced him to pen his hit song ‘Babylon a Chase I’.”
