Reggae Roots Bialystok

To My Father I will honour you It was not an easy decision for my father after 70 years of living in many places around Poland and overseas, at the end of his life to move back to Podlasie, his birthplace. He settled in Bialystok, the biggest city in the region. The part of Poland that does not have very good reputation. Historically it has been called Poland B as opposed to more economically developed regions. It has been associated with angry far right, nationalistic, xenophobic, racist, antisemitic groups. The name of Bialy-stok, the capital of Podlasie can be translated into English as ‘white-slope’ which to some became synonymous with white power. At best the city was described “as searching for its identity” or as the place where popular disco polo originated, a uniquely Polish mix of folk and pop music. My father came from a relatively large family. Many of our relatives still live in the region. If it was not for one of my newly discovered brothers, I would not know that there is another side to Bialystok. For many year it has been an underground cultural hub with cool music, clubs, poetry, street art and the “one love” philosophy of reggae music and Rastafarian religion made famous by Bob Marley. In 2023 in Bialystok, reggae, the music of enslaved Africans, lives on. The slaves that were shipped like cattle to the Americas, including Canada, brought the rhythms, emotions and values of their homelands with them. For those who survived the journey their new lives in slavery on plantations far away from their homes were brutal and relentless. For what became hundreds of years of enslsavement music became the slaves'refuge and the instrument of their struggle. Many years later the same music would root Bialystok. A series of struggles for freedom and human rights punctuated the history of Poland. In 1989, a “Solidarność Anti-Apartheid” concert was held in the historic Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, just two months before an inspirational South African anti-apartheid fighter, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. In the spirit of internationalism reggae musicians from across the world were invited to play in this historic event. Many in attendance in the concert were inspired. Some of them were young inspiring reggae musicians themselves. Fast forward to now, the same musicians reactivated their group, the Rebels. The Rebels connect their reggae music to the realities of today; war, pandemic, technology, and hatred of “the other”. It participates in events such as Reggae Day, and the Ostróda Festival, etc. that draw crowds as reggae became one of the most popular music genres in Poland. Why does this black roots music speaks to Polish people? “They had not have a history of slavery but they understood what it was to suffer.” as one of the black musicians that played in Gdańsk said. My father was of generation that suffered the most in recent history but his spirit was of one love.

Grazynas’ Strike

Of all literary heroines Grazyna, the heroine of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz’s eponymous classic is, perhaps the greatest feminist. What a shame that her name is under attack in this “me too” moment of the women’s movement. In Mickiewicz’s epic Grazyna dons the armour of her husband Rymwyd and takes up arms against the invading Teutonic Knights in a battle certain to be lost, but after her death in battle she turns the tables on the enemy when the identity of the knight in armour is revealed to be a woman. A new generation of Polish women that honours the tradition of Grazyna is taking into their hands the reins of today’s movement. Now more than ever women everywhere are saying no to subjugation at the hands of their communities. Shame on men and women who demean the name of Poland’s bravest female.