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HIT OR MISS?: Rastamouse

Rastamouse, wa’gwaan whole heap of hullabaloo
‘bout you and your cheese eating crew
Plenty mice come fi represent before you
Danger, Mickey and Jerry too
No-one said nuttin’ when dem was chasing thru town
Wa’gwaan Rasta, dat make us turn frown.

RASTAMOUSE IS back in the news.

The BBC has received 213 complaints about the children’s television programme, yet it has gained over 9000 Facebook fans – somewhat establishing it as cult animation for all ages.

Most of the complaints are about the use of Patois, (Caribbean dialect) and the language acquisition of young children. But relying on a TV show to aid your child’s development is fool hardy at best and negligent at worst.

As a family we discovered Rastamouse as books and enjoyed the rhyme and rhythm, storylines and illustrations. I feel it is much needed in a children’s literary world of politically correct multicultural content – BORING!

In my opinion, overtly ‘racist’ children’s books such as Little Black Sambo and Little Black Mingo are truly derogatory (I have taken copies out of circulation to serve as a reminder that we ought to control our creative production).

We love Rastamouse and his crime fighting buddies, Da Easy Crew! They are vibrant, innovative and bold. Rastamouse represents the best of our African Caribbean story.

It was in the early 1960s that the writer, Michael De Souza, arrived in London from Trinidad. He was eight. His early experiences of black culture in England were from his headmaster, who enjoyed telling the story of Epaminondas – a small black boy growing up on a plantation.

Is this how we want to be remembered? Is our enslavement our only legacy?

The popularity and simultaneous discomfort over Rastamouse comes down to black representation. Who are we? Who do we want to be? And crucially - what I think defines this debate - is who is judging us and by what standards?

Caribbean migration from the 1950s onwards led to a preoccupation with our status and our identification. Are we West Indian, British, Black British, Black, African Caribbean (with or without the hypen), or Afrakan?

Our status is continually being redefined and reworked. We have done so much work on our identity that our ‘blackness’ is fragmentary - some would argue we no longer have a black community! I for one believe we do. I have always been a part of it – it is called Diaspora.

If you wanted Barack Obama as President because he was black and you are also black – that is our community.

If you believe in justice and equality for black people – that is our community.

If you love black film, black art, ‘black music’ and feel proud of our people – that is our community!

These black creative expressions, movements and products (re)define who we are and as we do that, we redefine our stake in white society.

We should feel pride in our achievements - they have been hard won through generations. Let us not turn our backs on ourselves and look through the gaze of others and see ourselves as not good enough.

Ok, so back to the mouse issue.

There are those who might argue that mice are scurrying rodents, who signal a dirty environment and will argue that being twinned with a mouse is insulting and derogatory.

The ideology surrounding Jerry, Danger and Mickey - all animated mice - was that they were based upon the characteristics of Jews. Have the Jews been sidetracked by this long enough to stop making their own Hollywood blockbusters?

Rastamouse is our very own Blackbuster – let us not criticise our production because our gaze has been distorted and averted by others.

If media representation is really at the crux of the issue – make more films, write more books, create more programmes – stop putting the crabs back into the bucket!

Black people - first, second and now third generation migrants - have survived in a dirty environment of racism and discrimination, yet they have still managed to be creative. Let us celebrate that. Let us clean up our environment for our future generations and begin by looking at some concerns around representation through these statistics.

Now let us talk statistics. A staggering 44 percent of all children in care are black and mixed race.

One third of all young people who are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEETS) are care leavers.

Black students are three times more likely to be excluded from school.

The Criminal Justice System has been punitive in its treatment of black people, men in particular, since the criminalisation of Black people during the 1970s - almost two generations have been lost to prison. Currently, a total 15 percent of the entire prison population are black – seven times their share of the population. The strong link between care and prison, exclusions and prisons suggests social factors may be at work.

Given our current concerns over Rastamouse do these statistics suggest the inherent pathology of black people or that social factors continue to blight lives?

Rastamouse and our representation as black people is not the most important issue of the day. If we really want to create an environment for our children in which they can choose to be a lion not a mouse – let us tackle the real concerns that are robbing them of opportunity.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Voice Newspaper