Usain Bolt and the "Gully vs Gaza" Conflict

Triple Olympic and World Championship gold medalist Usain Bolt has rapidly risen to fame since his superb performance at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China in 2008. He has won the hearts of many worldwide, earned millions in endorsement deals, and on October 19, 2009 bestowed with the Jamaica’s fourth higher national honour, the Order of Jamaica. He is now the Honourable Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, CD.

The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Hon. Bruce Golding has had to defend his decision to give the 23 year old such an honour. He said that anyone who has brought such a sense of achievement to Jamaica twice deserves the award. He felt that the time is right to honour Bolt instead of waiting until he is older where it would be physically impossible for him to break any world record. The Prime Minister had also announced that Highway 2000 would be renamed after the 100m & 200m record holder. This is the same highway that Bolt had written off his 2009 BMW M3 car on April 29, 2009.

Usain is a big follower of Dancehall music and he is not shy to show his allegiance to Dancehall recording artist Vybz Kartel. Kartel is known for lyrics that glorify gun violence and songs that are loaded with sexually explicit lewdness such “Romping Shop”. The condemnation of “Romping Shop” followed an immediate ban by the Broadcasting Commission on “daggering” songs on radio and television in Jamaica. “Daggering” has been described as a "colloquial term or phrase used in dancehall culture as a reference to hard-core sex or what is popularly referred to as 'dry' sex, or the activities of persons engaged in the public simulation of various sexual acts and positions." One critic claimed that “Ramping Shop” will have 'devastating impact on the psyche of Jamaican children.’

Kartel is also famous for his ongoing lyrical feud with his one time friend, fellow Dancehall Artiste Mavado, also known for his murder music. The two has been trading gun-slinging songs at each other for years. And it seemed the war has intensified with the new phenomenon, the “Gully versus Gaza” conflict. Gully represents Cassava Piece, an impoverished community on a gully side in Kingston where Mavado grew up. While Gaza represents the Kartel’s community in Waterford, Portmore once known as Borderline. Since the homosexual connotation allied with the word “Borderline” brought on by the “Shebada” character, Kartel has chosen to rename the community Gaza, likening it to Gaza in the Palestine.

Ambassador Bolt, while being honoured by his sponsor, Digicel, at the Quad Night Club in New Kingston in September 2009, said over the microphone "No matter weh nobody seh, a Gaza mi seh. If you don't like that go jump inna di gully.”

Critics have come down hard on Bolt and the Prime Minister’s decision to accord him with the Order of Jamaica. Some felt that he is too young to get such an honour and it will only stifle him from being himself, the party-going, free willed person who loves to dance the “Gully Creep” and the “Nuh Behaviour” dances. Others felt he is too immature and that his management team needs to guide him in the right different.

It should be remembered that Bolt is human and he is going to have his preferences when it comes to music and artistes. However, he is much bigger than this Gully/Gaza twaddle that have seen people being violently beaten including the two Canadian tourists who got a severe thrashing on Manning’s Hill Road, Kingston.

Bolt has the right to choose between Kartel and Mavado but as an international icon and role model, he should keep his opinions to himself when it comes to this newly crazed turf war that have spread to as far as Montego Bay, Jamaica.