Jamaica Comes to Glasgow Mela

Jamaica was represented for the first time at Glasgow MELA Festival with dub poet Yasus Afari and reggae singer Claudius England performing before an appreciative audience at the bandstand stage. Between them they brought powerful messages about care for the earth and unity. Both artists were sponsored by Flag Up Scotland Jamaica who also had a stall at the festival where posters about the special connections between Scotland and Jamaica could beviewed. 200 people also signed a petition urging the Scottish Government to grant Jamaica prioritystatus for trade and development. Claudius England tours Scotland After the MELA Festival, Claudius was able to stay in Scotland for a number of engagements in schools, prisons and churches. We are grateful to Claudius for doing a great job promoting Flag Up Scotland Jamaica wherever he went. On the Isle of Arran, he paid a visit to Brodick Castle where he viewed items from the famous Beckford collection funded by profits from slave worked sugar plantations in Jamaica. An article in The Arran Banner here records his reactions.  On the next day Claudius’s first school visit was at the island’s high school in Lamlash. Other schools Claudius visited included Antonine Primary School in Bonnybridge and Torpichen Primary school. Head teacher Lynne Vint from Antonine Primary School describes the impact of his visit: “There are not enough superlatives to describe the experience – the children loved Claudius. My staff had prepared in the run up to his visit and many pupils had favourite songs. Needless to say Claudius obliged with a request (Daddy) and they were elated. We had a tricky situation regarding a...

Flag Up Scotland Jamaica Receives £10k Big Lottery Fund Grant

We are pleased to announce that Flag Up Scotland Jamaica has been awarded a £10,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund to enable Jamaican artists to participate in the forthcoming Glasgow MELA multicultural festival at Kelvingrove Park on Sunday June 15th. It will also help to fund planning for a ScotJam event which will take place in August 2016. The Jamaican artists who will be coming are Yasus Afari and Claudius ‘Supa’ England. Yasus Afari is well known as a dub poet, reggae artist and ambassador for Rastafarianism. A fine example of his work is ‘My Mother who Fathered me’ For more information visit http://www.yasusafari.com Claudius England’s music is a fusion of reggae, dancehall and R&B with a hip hop flavour. His music can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/claudiusengland and also on his website http://claudiusengland.webs.com Yasus and Claudius will be available for other gigs and for schools workshops before and after the festival and if you would like to find out more please contact Graham Campbell – gcampbellconsulting@gmail.com or on 07855...