Julian Marley Weighs In On Controversial Dreadlocks Debate

Julian Marley is the latest musician to lambast the Supreme Court for what he considers as a disappointment to the nation and the Rastafarian community.

The controversial ruling of the Court held that the rights of a young girl were not encroached on when she was prohibited from attending school because of her dreadlocks.

The Supreme court handed down it’s ruling last Friday and subsequently disclosed its written judgment to the public, providing clarity for the technicalities of its ruling.

In the 2018 case, the child’s mother, Sherine Virgo was advised by members of the school administration that her then five-year-old daughter would need to cut her hair before she could attend the Kensington Primary School, as they believed it was unkempt and would be a source of a lice outbreak. The school stated that the wearing of dreadlocks was against its policy.

Julian Marley, son of the late cultural and reggae pioneer Bob Marley in an interview with the  Jamaica Star expressed his discomfort with the ruling, noting that Rastafarians and their practices have been pivotal to the advancement and development of Jamaica.

“I think it’s a very big disgrace to see that Jamaica could really make a decision like that and make the whole world hear. Locs is one of the most fundamental cultural traditions in Jamaica. We make the whole world know about Jamaica through locs and the Rasta culture, and to know that they are discriminating against a spiritual order is a very big disgrace. Laws need to be changed and they need to be changed quickly. We can’t still be following laws that were made in the 1930s. We are in 2020, people,” he said.

Questioning the progress of the country, he asserts that Jamaica has taken a huge step backward in its advancement as a small developing state.

“Are we going backwards or are we going forward? You selling out your people or what? Blackness is blackness and we have to accept all aspects of that. Our hair is our African heritage and you can’t beat that down and then say you embrace black people,” he questioned.

He further notes that in a modernized era, it is imperative that institutions reinforce robust mechanisms that will enable students to appreciate differences in cultures. 

“Why we don’t teach about the locs instead of trying to take out the locs out of schools? We need to teach this generation and the one coming up the whole history behind Rasta and the locs. We don’t know the full history of our own history so right now we need to educate ourselves and nurture who we are because if we don’t, nobody will,” he added.