The way out - Producer hopes to help shape the future for the impoverished

Howard Campbell, Sunday Gleaner Writer

Even in peacetime, areas like Bowerbanks and Waterhouse have been unable to shake the stigma of violence that has scarred them for many years.

Music has provided a route out of poverty for many youths from these Kingston communities.

It is a time-honoured path Olu 'Father Lu' Codrington hopes to follow through his company, Dutty Lion Entertainment, which is based in Maryland, United States.

He has signed several entertainers from Bowerbanks and Waterhouse with the belief that they will get a break and help empower their hometowns.

"I remember the first time I came to Jamaica six years ago, some of my cousins were saying, 'Yo, Lu, you gotta get involved with the youths'," Codrington, 38, recalled.

"Ultimately, I want these guys to sign contracts with me that say X amount of money will go back to the garrisons."

While he has recorded songs by deejays like Shane-O and Mr Banging, one of Codrington's first social initiatives took place in Bowerbanks on March 19 with the all-day Owa Fest event.

It entailed netball and football matches between teams from Bowerbanks and Waterhouse in the day, and ended in the evening with a dance and live show. Proceeds from Owa Fest paid for the day's activities.

Codrington, whose father is Jamaican and mother African-American, bused Waterhouse residents to Bowerbanks throughout the day. It was the first time most of them were visiting the east Kingston community, located along Windward Road.

As noisy youngsters did the latest dance moves to music from a blaring sound system, the stocky Codrington, a plumber by profession, spoke of his involvement with Waterhouse and Bowerbanks.

"When you get people from one rough area together with people from another rough area, it's like half the problems are solved," he told The Sunday Gleaner.

"The older folks may have issues but as you can see the kids enjoy the same things ... sports, music."

Nicey Nicey and Remember The Days are the latest releases from Dutty Lion featuring Jamaican artistes. They were co-produced by Jay Branson, a Washington, DC, native with Trinidadian roots, and have a dancehall/hip-hop flavour Codrington hopes will appeal to both markets.

Decline in violence

Simeon Smith, a lifelong Bowerbanks resident, said there has been a considerable decline in violence in the area. But long-standing negatives like teen pregnancy and unemployment remain widespread.

A self-described jack of all- trades, Smith welcomed the Owa Fest show.

"It good yuh nuh, it help generate some income fi the people. Yuh can si a lotta dem come out an' sell, mek a money," he said.

Bowerbanks is located along a strip where some of Jamaica's music greats, including the Skatalites and Count Ossie of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari, once hung out.

It was a hotbed of political violence during the 1970s when gangs affiliated to the People's National Party and Jamaica Labour Party squared off.

Olu Codrington said his father, Gregory, grew up in the Constant Spring section of St Andrew but also has relatives in Waterhouse and Clarendon.

Codrington senior was a musician who played percussion in several reggae bands in Washington, DC, where he had immigrated in the early 1970s.

While he was into rap groups like Run DMC and jazz/soul singer Sade, Codrington said his father introduced him to reggae. He remembers the sounds of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, Black Uhuru and Gregory Isaacs playing in his Maryland home as a boy.

In 2005, Codrington made his first trip to Jamaica in search of his roots and said he was struck by the similarities between low-income projects in his home state and Kingston's impoverished communities.

"It's no different, all garrisons are the same, I see the violence and the drugs," he stated. "The thing about Jamaica, though, is that no matter how tough their circumstances, the people are happy."

Codrington plans to promote Owa Fest in Clarendon when he returns in August.