Mark Lee

Southside Story Mark Lee

'Southside Story is a novel treatment of the Rastafari revolution in the 1970s as socialism and capitalism fought to capture the Jamaican and Caribbean electorate. Officially named Parade Gardens, Southside like many violence-wracked communities, was informally renamed by its residents for another global location that matched its violent character. A neighbouring community was dubbed Tel Aviv to match a similarly named political gang and the Middle Eastern city where many residents live in fear of terror. Southside continues to be a depressed area of Central Kingston. In January 1978, about 14 men from a gang said to be affiliated with the then opposition party, were taken through subterfuge--the promise of security jobs and guns--by intelligence operatives of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), to an army firing range. They were fired on by hidden JDF soldiers and five of them died on the spot. The others escaped through nearby bushes and the sea. Ten soldiers charged with the murder of the men were freed in court in 1982. Southside is the community in which Yvonne and Jerry, middle-class youth, are exiled when they embrace the Rastafari life through which they join the search for roots, identity and social justice while socialism, capitalism and other systems compete for their minds. The young couple must survive the political gang violence of the street, as well as family and social ostracism as they navigate their culture of liberation in rituals, celebrations and the reggae dance hall where the security forces are only a moment away to disrupt and obstruct. While polite society publicly frowns on the ceremonial ganja (marijuana) smoking of the brethren and sistren, it is the upper-class captains of industry and commerce who are at the helm of the illicit export trade. Such is the basis of this intrigue'