By Charminae George
A culturally-charged painting by Dr Clinton Hutton, an emeritus professor at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona campus, was presented to Attorney General Steadroy Benjamin on Friday.
Benjamin received the artwork on behalf of Prime Minister Gaston Browne in the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The painting, entitled ‘Redemption Song’, was one of five paintings the artist and professor donated to Antigua and Barbuda. Three more were given to UWI Five Islands and one to the Governor General.
Late reggae singer Bob Marley is one of the major focal points of Hutton’s artwork.
The face at the left of the painting represents the belief in a connection of the ancestors. Located at the top of the painting is the base of an inverted pyramid, which interlocks with another pyramid.
The inverted one represents ‘inside reach’, which is the idea of reaching within one’s self to express profound thoughts and aspirations, while the latter is a representation of the highest point Caribbean civilisation can achieve.
According to Hutton, he chose to gift ‘Redemption Song’ to the Prime Minister due to Browne’s positive action shown to the Rastafari community in Antigua, among other things.
“I was particularly impressed by his early views and activity around the Rastafari in Antigua. More broadly…his progressiveness as a Caribbean leader and then his activity around the issue of reparations,” Hutton explained, saying that he had followed Browne’s political journey over the years.
In recent years, the government has decriminalised cannabis, allowing members of the Rastafarian community to cultivate and use the plant for religious purposes. Browne also issued an official apology to Rastafarians in 2018 for the decades of oppression and discrimination they had experienced.
In his remarks, Benjamin spoke on the topic of ‘Caribbean civilisation’, alluding to the lecture Hutton would present that evening at the UWI Five Islands campus.
“We are one. We must learn who we are. We must identify our culture so we can develop our Caribbean-ness,” he said.
Dr Hutton is the Emeritus Professor of Caribbean Political Philosophy, Culture and Aesthetics at the University of the West Indies Mona campus in Jamaica. He credits his many years of extensive research to the cultural inclination of his country of birth, Jamaica.
His publications include ‘The Logic and Historical Significance of the Haitian Revolution and the Cosmological Roots of Haitian Freedom’, and ‘Leonard Percival Howell and the Genesis of Rastafari’.
