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The Peter Tosh Museum officially reopens to the public on

October 2oth, 2023

Hours of operation:

Monday to Friday: 9:30 am to 6:00 pm

Saturday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Sunday: closed

at Pulse Centre

38a Trafalgar Road, New Kingston, Jamaica.

Admission Prices:

US $20

Local Rates:

J $2,000

J $1,000 for children

$500 for students with ID in groups of 10 or more
For Tickets or more information please call:
876-960-0049
 
 
 

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

Date: Saturday – April 15, 2022
Time: High Noon (12pm) until 6pm
Location: Leimert Park – Peoples Street Plaza (Los Angeles, CA)
Event Features: Live Reggae Performances, DJs, Yard Food and more!
Free Admission – Limited Capacity

VENDOR INQUIRYSPONSORSHIP INQUIRY

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

International Peter Tosh Day 4/20

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

Speakers, including those from the cannabis and entertainment industries, religious institutions and law enforcement, discussed how racism fueled the war on drugs and how targeted criminalization is behind the criminal-justice system today.

Over Father’s Day weekend in 2013, Jawara McIntosh, son of reggae musician Peter Tosh and himself a father of four, was arrested for marijuana possession. After making bail later that year, he was given a plea deal of 20 years in prison, but finding it outlandish, proceeded through years of pretrial motions. Over time, he received more favorable offers. Then, despite his devout Rastafari religion, Jawara struck a plea deal in 2017 for a six-month sentence, lest he “be made an example of,” as his sister Niambe McIntosh tells the story.

Jawara lived in the Bergen County, New Jersey, jail for a month and a half in 2017 for the possession charge, his first, before a fellow inmate attacked him, causing him to suffer a traumatic brain injury. Today, he can’t talk or walk, and he needs 24-hour care.

After the attack, the family visited the intensive care unit. When they arrived, Jawara’s face was swollen, tubes were stuck down his throat. He wore, as dictated by the legal system, a brace on his neck and a handcuff on his ankle.

“It was devastating to see that here he is fighting for his life, but treated like an animal, with a handcuff on his ankle,” said Niambe McIntosh, executive director of the Peter Tosh Estate. “And when we asked the hospital about the handcuff and if we could remove this—that’s not helping his medical condition—they told us that the prison had hierarchy over the hospital. And we were also told that we were lucky that we could visit my brother.”

Jawara’s is one of the many stories shared during Marijuana Policy Project’s July 15 virtual live event “Reimagining Justice: Race, Cannabis & Policing,” streamed on Facebook and YouTube and using the hashtag #ReimaginingJustice. The speakers throughout the three-and-a-half-hour event spoke about how politicians made cannabis use illegal through racist motives and policies; how police use the plant as a weapon against Black and brown people; what a better image of justice can look like; and how to reverse harms.

Panel 1: Cannabis Criminalization and Oppressive Policing in Communities of Color

In the event’s first panel, moderated by journalist Roland Martin, The Equity Organization Founder and Executive Director Natalie Papillion spoke about the racism that fueled the criminalization of cannabis. After the early requirement of farmers in various colonies to grow hemp and the end of slavery, cannabis became popular with Black people in the U.S.’s South, including musicians and entertainers like Louis Armstrong.

Papillion noted how one of the foremost opponents of cannabis in the 1930s was Harry Anslinger, who had worked as a prohibition officer. She read his quote, “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men,” and another of his quotes about interracial sexual relations that were meant to upset the white majority.

Natalie Papillion

Soon afterward, the Justice Roundtable Executive Director Nkechi Taifa, spoke about the official “War on Drugs,” beginning in 1971. She shared how Richard Nixon’s domestic policy chief between late 1969 and early 1973, John Ehrlichman, admitted that the White House, despite conducting a militarized war in Vietnam, viewed Black people and “the antiwar left” as its two enemies.

Ehrlichman told Harper’s Magazine: “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Later, during Bill Clinton’s Administration, came the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Taifa said: “That crime bill in 1994 featured the largest expansion of the death penalty in modern times, the gutting of habeas corpus, the evisceration of the exclusionary rule, the cutting out of Pell educational grants, the trying of 13-year-olds as adults, the refusal to address the crack-powder [cocaine] disparity, and more and more money given to more and more states, to lock up more and more people, for longer periods of time.”

Martin and the panelists provided this history to outline how the system of uneven oppression of marijuana crimes and the plant’s stigmatization came into being. Much of what followed in the first panel and the others referenced back to it.

The “Cannabis Criminalization” panel also featured commentary from Neill Franklin, executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, who spent 34 years working with the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Department. In that time, he oversaw 17 separate drug task forces.

Out of the hundreds of thousands of arrests officers make every year for marijuana possession alone, Franklin pointed out that a disproportionate number of those arrests are of Black people. An American Civil Liberties Union analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigations statistics found that Black people are on average arrested 3.64 times more than white people in situations where the possession offense was the highest charge in a given police interaction.

“Meaningful police reform cannot happen as long as we have marijuana prohibition in this country,” Franklin said. “We have to end it from coast to coast. Most of the searches that we experience today in law enforcement are the result of marijuana. The street-corner searches that police are doing on our citizens, the car stops—it is because of the odor of marijuana that the police are walking up to people, stopping cars, smelling—or saying they smell—marijuana, and then conducting searches.”

No matter the basis for a traffic stop, the Stanford Open Policing Project has found that Black drivers are pulled over at higher rates than white people, as a percentage of an area’s population.

Franklin also noted that a process called civil forfeiture allows police to take “money from people on a daily basis all across this country, not arresting them, not charging them with crimes. The No. 1 tool for doing that … the odor of marijuana gets me into your pockets, it gets me into your cars, it gets me into your homes, to take whatever I think might be tied to the illicit drug trade—selling marijuana or anything else,” said the police veteran. “And I don’t have to explain myself for doing it because it’s a civil process.”

Rev. Jamal Bryant of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., spoke about his belief that people who have a history working in the illicit-cannabis market should be given a chance in the legal industry.

To exemplify this, Bryant, a Baltimore native, spoke of a gun buyback program he hosted four years ago when he was pastor of that city’s Empowerment Temple AME. When people showed up with military-grade weaponry, the police said they had to leave. A line of people with guns was wrapped around the church.

He and his team were about to close the event, then a black Suburban rolled up. When the trunk popped open, the pastor recalled, “there were guns everywhere.” He told him they didn’t have enough money for the weapons and would have to withdraw money from the bank.

“They said to me, ‘Pastor, we don’t need your $100. We want to know—can you get us a job?’” he said. “And I realized that the church had failed because we have really been putting a Band-Aid on an open-heart surgery issue.”

Panel 2: Weaponizing Cannabis to Justify Deadly Encounters and Victim-Blaming

The event’s second panel was moderated by David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. The speakers discussed how the police and broader justice system use cannabis use by victims to justify their killers’ actions, including in the case of police killings, through both legal steps and stigmatization.

“I want to lift up the name of Ashanti Posey, a 17-year-old, Black LGBTQ activist who was shot and killed in April of last year,” Johns said at the beginning of the panel. “And there was a Tennessee lawmaker who blocked what would have been a resolution to honor her life and her work because she was allegedly involved in a low-level marijuana sale prior to being murdered.”

Niambe McIntosh said she and her family’s experience in that hospital in 2017 included bullying by correctional officers. Most other victims in the ICU who are serving time, they were told, weren’t allowed family visits. She said she believes they were able to see Jawara because Peter Tosh was a celebrity.

However, that relative privilege stemmed from the artist’s musicianship and cannabis advocacy that was in part rooted in his oppression. “He really made a point to consume cannabis no matter where he was, onstage, [at] a concert, Germany, in the U.S., in Canada,” McIntosh said of her father, who was murdered in a home invasion in 1987. “And you would think that he was doing it with ease. But the reality is that he was constantly targeted by the police.”

Niambe McIntosh

The police once dragged Tosh out of his home, beating him and breaking his ribs for smoking cannabis, McIntosh said.

And some of the people who incarcerate people for cannabis use use it too, as Tosh sang in his anthem “Legalize It.” He sang, “Doctors smoke it / Nurses smoke it / Judges smoke it / Even lawyer[s], too.”

Another panelist, Jasmine Rand, civil rights activist and attorney to Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown’s families, said that in both these high-profile cases and others of hers, cannabis found in the victims’ bodies was brought up by participants in the criminal justice system as an allegedly relevant point. “That makes the assumption that within our society, you can still weaponize a person’s character simply for their use of cannabis, even when cannabis now is legal in many states and legal in many countries,” she said. These things are also widely reported in the media.

Given this sordid history, the logical step for the media and cannabis industry is to speak loudly about the weaponization of cannabis, especially in this political moment, said panelist Rev. Mark Thompson, host of the “Make it Plain” Podcast.

Related: America’s Reckoning with Racism is ‘More Than a Moment,’ Say Cannabis Industry Members

“We can’t divorce Black Lives Matter and the deaths of people at the hands of the police from the weaponization of cannabis, and then therefore can’t divorce it from legalization,” Thompson said. “So, like I just did right there, we can talk about three things in one sentence.”

Panel 3: Fireside Chat: Reimagining Justice

Steven Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, moderated the third session, featuring Ben Jealous, president and CEO of People for the American Way and who previously held those same titles for the NAACP, and Al Harrington, CEO of Viola Brands and former NBA player.

Black people are always upset about police brutality, Jealous said, but what sparked the recent massive uprisings in part are issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and recession—unemployment, joblessness, housing and healthcare. Also, knowing how easily communicable diseases can spread in prisons, criminal-justice reform needs to happen now. “The urgency for us to keep people out of jail needlessly has never been greater,” Jealous said.

Legalization will de-incentivize violent crime that occurs with gangs who operate in the black market, Jealous said. Despite medical cannabis legalization and relatively easy access in Maryland, where he lives (and where Bryant held his enormous gun buyback program), he said: “That trade has been used to fund sex trafficking and a whole bunch of other things that are far more horrible than cannabis consumption.”

In addition, he gave this perspective on rethinking justice.

“For me, reimagining justice means, at the end of the day, a much smaller criminal code and law enforcement that is there almost exclusively to deal with the most dangerous people in our society—because the flip side is the same communities that are terrorized by overaggressive policing, frankly, are also terrorized by some overaggressive, very violent people who seem to never quite get off of the street as fast as they should. And so, we need to, frankly, stop distracting police officers by making them be the social worker—well, then you can actually restrict them—and focus them on solving unsolved homicides, which are way too high in our communities.”

Harrington, for his part, knew the man whose murder by police has become a rallying cry behind America’s uprisings and pushes for massive societal change. George Floyd was very good friends with Stephen Jackson, another NBA player, who is in turn close with Harrington.

Al Harrington

“There were times when I would go to Houston and different things like that, he’d pick us up from the airport, anything we needed while we were in town—he would run and go and get it for us,” Harrington said. “He was an unbelievable human being, and he did not deserve to be executed like that in the middle of the day with all those people watching.”

After recounting his own negative experiences with police, Harrington said: “Over the last, I guess, 6 to 8 years, police officers have been killing Black people on camera. I don’t know how much more evidence you need than a camera showing you what happened. And they still go to work the next day and different things like that.”

While Jackson’s fight is largely in the space of police injustice, Harrington says he has used his position as a former professional athlete and successful cannabis entrepreneur to advocate for economic empowerment in Black communities. “We control $1.7 trillion of money that’s circulated throughout this country, and right now, when a Black dollar comes into the community, it’s gone within 6 hours,” he said.

On that same topic, Harrington said children, for instance, shouldn’t just be given gifts like shoes but need a foundation and a structure to be as powerful as other races.

Panel 4: Reversing Harm Through Legalization, Expungement, Release, Removing Collateral Consequences

The day’s final panel, also moderated by Hawkins, featured guests in the law enforcement, religious and entertainment/cannabis industry spaces: Rachael Rollins, district attorney of Suffolk County, Mass.; actor Seth Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, who run Houseplant, a cannabis brand that works with Canopy Growth; and Rev. Delman Coates, pastor of Mt. Ennon Baptist Church in Clinton, Md. (Houseplant sponsored the entire event, along with Pax.)

Rollins, the first woman to hold her position and the first Black woman to serve as a district attorney in Massachusetts, said that although cannabis is “legal” in a number of states, it’s still criminalized.

She shared that Colorado issues charges for operating under the influence when drivers have 5 nanograms per millileter of cannabis in their blood. (The Denver Post referenced a Johns Hopkins University study that stated four puffs of 1.75%-THC cannabis equates to 57 nanograms per millileter.) Other states, like Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, where medical cannabis is legal, have a zero-tolerance policy. Meanwhile, Rollins said, the U.S. legal limit for alcohol is a 0.8% blood alcohol content. (The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission estimates that limit, depending on sex and body weight, equates to between two to four drinks containing 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor.)

Although Black people make up about 25% of people in Boston, vehicle stops of Black drivers account for 70% of total stops in the city. “Are we that bad at driving or is there something else afoot?” Rollins asks.

“I’m using my limited resources to solve, for me, 1,367 unsolved homicides in Boston,” she said. “Are you kidding me? If I have to ask, ‘Do I go to this family and say, “We’re going to try to solve your loved one’s murder from 18 years ago,” as opposed to kicking a door down to arresting your nephew for some marijuana-related crime,’ of course I’m going with the homicide.”

Rogen acknowledged that he and Goldberg have relative privilege, with the former saying he hasn’t had any issues with his public cannabis use, but he has Black friends who have.

Seth Rogen

“I think one of the main things we’re doing is just trying to acknowledge reality and speak to that as much as we can, as people with loud voices, in that the war on drugs was racist, is racist, the only reason cannabis is illegal is for racist reasons and we have to acknowledge that and be aware of that,” he said.

Houseplant is working with National Expungement Week and Cage-Free Cannabis on expungement initiatives. Many people, Rogen said, often aren’t told they’re eligible for expungement.

“If your car has a problem, they call you and tell you, but if it turns out the thing that you have a criminal record for is no longer illegal/should have probably never been illegal in the first place, no one notifies you, which is just fundamentally wrong to us,” Rogen said.

Coates said Black faith leaders have historically opposed cannabis use and turned it into a moral issue, often not realizing how they have played into the narratives that Papillion talked about earlier in the day.

As Rogen said he has traveled the world and seen people enjoy and consume cannabis all over, Coates echoed a similar sentiment, saying “A lot of times, many people in our communities, including clergy, are doing these things in the privacy of their own homes, and so we just need to dispel these myths and really demythologize cannabis so that people don’t have to live in fear, so that people don’t have to have their lives ruined, and so that we can have a community of opportunity.”

A common thread throughout the event was how the cannabis industry profits while police continue to pull over people of color and throw them up against walls—as in a recent situation with Harrington, who was driving his Rolls Royce upon the stop in Beverly Hills. Per the event speakers, the drug laws that govern the U.S., rooted in the oppression and disenfranchisement of minority populations, continue to allow disproportionate arrests and incarceration, while people of can have their property and their families taken from them with impunity.

By: Patrick Williams

https://www.cannabisdispensarymag.com/article/reimagining-justice-cannabis-race-cannabis-policing-marijuana-policy-project-mpp/

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

Tosh Family with Jawara
Tosh Family with Jawara SHAUN CUNNINGHAM
 

“My brother still is confined to a bed, still unable to communicate, still cannot move with any intention, literally needs to be turned every two hours and every aspect of all of his needs have to be taken care of by somebody else,” shares Niambe McIntosh during a conversation about her brother Jawara and her family’s journey over the past couple years. 

Jawara McIntosh, Peter Tosh’s youngest son, followed his father’s footsteps not only in music, but also in Rastafarianism and cannabis advocacy. And these decisions have brought him both joy and grief.

A few years ago, Jawara was incarcerated for a cannabis-related charge. It was during his confinement at Bergen County Jail in New Jersey that the 39 year-old’s life would take a tragic turn. In February of 2017, Jawara was brutally attacked by inmate Kyrie Charon Baum, who caused severe brain injuries that have confined him to bed care ever since. 

Keep Moving Forward

More than two years have passed since the incident, and Jawara’s recovery has been slow but steady. His mother and his sister, Niambe, however, have been active.

Niambe Holding Order of Merit
Niambe Holding Order of Merit  PETER SIMON

“What I’ve been doing now is pretty much sharing his story, with the hope of being a voice for other families that have been affected by cannabis prohibition, as well as a voice on the platform for criminal justice reform”, Niambe stated.

Naturally, Niambe uses medicinal marijuana tinctures and vapes to treat Jawara, given the family’s close relationship to the herb. “Because I’m leaning more towards holistic care, a lot of things do come out of pocket,” she adds.

Interestingly, Jawara’s very limited mobility does not prevent him from smoking. “He hasn’t forgotten how to smoke…he’s not always super sharp with it, but by the fifth puff he’s got it down,” Niambe says. However, finding a supplier that can guarantee consistency in product delivery has been difficult, she explains.

A Long Love For Cannabis

As Rastafarians, both Peter Tosh and his son considered the cannabis plant to be sacred, consuming it and advocating for its spiritual and healing qualities. However, the Jamaican government has a lesser-known history of persecuting Rastafari communities, dating back to the pre-colonial 1930s. For Niambe, understanding history is crucial to changing the present.

“You know, Rastas were dragged by their locks through different communities and persecuted in that way”, she explains, “my father had been at home, minding his business with his friends, and had cops come to his house and drag him out and just beat him up, because of his strong stance and vocalization of sharing his beliefs on cannabis…and now it’s hitting another generation in my family.” 

She believes that Jawara’s original incarceration was largely due to racial profiling, an issue that has been consistently drawing attention to the public over the past decade. But Niambe is confident in the greater meaning of her brother’s tragic injury: “the reality is that I strongly believe he’s going to tell his own story. I do believe he’s going to be the one to have people understand what that journey is like, what persecution feels like, because he was attacked from the beginning as a black man with dreads.” 

Justice For Jawara

The family’s fight for justice, led them to the creation of the Justice for Jawarainitiative. Supported by the Peter Tosh Foundation, the initiative is ongoing. Nonetheless, they’ve already claimed one victory with the conviction of Jawara’s attacker to a 10-year jail sentence, Niambe says. Jawara received a conditional medical release and the civil lawsuit against the jail for failing to protect his human rights remains open. 

Niambe knows she needs to remain patient yet persistent: “It’s a system that’s very backwards, and state to state it’s very different…Some states that are very antiquated, have a jail economy. I remember Jawara telling me that he was incarcerated with a 17-year-old who couldn’t make $150 bail because he had a small amount of cannabis. And especially as an educator, I feel like these stories have to be continuously shared.”  

Jawara and his Mother
Jawara and his Mother  SHAUN CUNNINGHAM

Also very involved in Jawara’s care is his mother, Melody Cunningham. “Jawara’s mother has made a huge sacrifice for her son financially and emotionally during  this journey, which has been difficult for her,” a close friend of the family says.

In Niambe’s eyes, her mother is the reason she’s able to do what she does for Jawara. Melody spends countless hours daily on the phone with state health insurance officials, doctors, nurses, medical facilities, and suppliers to make sure that Jawara receives the care that he needs. Niambe couldn’t develop his holistic medical regimen and be an advocate for Justice for Jawara without her, the family assures.

Get SEEN

Moving the needle of social justice is crucial for the Tosh family, something Niambe wants to accelerate with the launch of their cannabis brand SEEN, under the PT Capital umbrella.

10% of all proceeds will go to the Peter Tosh Foundation, which supports Justice For Jawara as well as other initiatives fighting for adhesive social causes, she voices.

Justice For Jawara
Justice For Jawara  PETER SIMON

For the time being it remains unclear how long Jawara’s recovery will take, but his sister has faith in the power of the mind and holistic healing methods. And in the end, the journey this tragic episode has embarked their family on, has also brought along a positive note.

We’ve had to take the journey in a different way. There’s been so many people that empathized with our situation that this experience has also shown me the beauty of humanity”, Niambe concludes. 

To donate or to learn more please visit www.justiceforjawara.com

By: Javier Hasse Senior Contributor

https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2020/05/20/the-tosh-family/#41556a93579d

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

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Peter Tosh

On March 15, 2010, Dr Jimmy Cliff, OM, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. The then 61-year-old reggae superstar became only the second Jamaican performer and the third Jamaican to hold this enviable distinction. Bob Marley was previously inducted, and so, too, was music mogul Chris Blackwell.

As we get ready to celebrate International Marijuana Day 4/20/2020 this year, one question that music lovers of the late, great Peter Tosh are asking is whether the ‘Stepping Razor’ will get the call to be also inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

According to the Rock & Roll Hall’s own website, “Artistes become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. A nominating committee of 30 music experts decide on a ballot, and the inductees are chosen by a group of about 500 voters.” Tosh was born on October 19, 1944, and recorded his very first song in the early 1960s. He released his solo album, Legalise It, in 1976, and his Equal Rights album followed in 1977. In 1978, the Bush Doctor album on Rolling Stones Records was released, introducing Tosh to a larger audience. The album featured Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Mystic Man (1979) and Wanted Dread and Alive (1981) followed. A year after the release of Mama Africa (1983), Tosh went into self-imposed exile, seeking the spiritual advice of traditional medicine men in Africa to free him from recording agreements that distributed his records in South Africa. He was awarded a Grammy Award for Best Reggae Performance in 1987 for No Nuclear War, his last record.

Throughout his musical career, he championed the movement to legalise cannabis. “Legalise it and I will advertise it” Tosh sang in one of his popular songs. Last year, New York State Senator Kevin S. Parker issued a New York state proclamation for Tosh for the 2019 renewal of the national observance of 4/20.

MARIJUANA ADVOCATE

To pay homage to Tosh and his marijuana advocacy on 4/20/2020, Solja Life music executive Keton Cole will release a single titled Marijuana Obsession, featuring dancehall veteran Jigsy King and Sly Rankin. “As marijuana goes mainstream, some forget the work of Peter Tosh, Jamaica’s most famous advocate for the legalisation of marijuana. He was beaten, persecuted, and maligned for this beautiful plant. He not only spoke about its medicinal and recreational use but used his most influential platform music to passionately advocate for its legalisation in his song, Legalise it,” Cole said.

Other pro-ganja songs recorded by Tosh include Bush DoctorNah Go A Jail, and Buk-In-Hamm Palace. In the ’70s, veteran broadcaster Alan Magnus took a chance when he used Buckingham Palace as a music bed during the broadcast of The Queen’s message on radio. He was immediately suspended but was reinstated a week later when the station faced an uproar from listeners. A lot has changed since. Now, cannabis is legal for medical use in Canada, Australia, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Greece, the United Kingdom, and various states in the US. Also, possession of two ounces or less of cannabis in Jamaica is no longer an offence for which one can be arrested.

Musicologist Dr Dennis Howard gave some insight into the genius of Tosh at the 2018 Peter Tosh Symposium in Kingston. He said that the first music that influenced Peter Tosh was rock & roll. To make the point, he played Chuck Berry’s rock & roll hit Johnny B Good which, he said, inspired Tosh’s reggae version, Go Johnny Go. Former Minister of Finance Dr Omar Davies, speaking at the same symposium, said that Tosh was not just a musical genius, but said that he had a great sense of humour as well. He spoke of the time when Tosh and Grenadian revolutionary Maurice Bishop met at the airport in Grenada. Bishop welcomed Tosh, saying, “Greetings, comrade. Welcome to Grenada.” Tosh responded, saying, “I don’t come red (comrade). I man come black.”

One area in which Tosh has not got enough local recognition, Davies reasoned, was his fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The lyrics of his 1977 track, Apartheid, chronicle the atrocities of the system. Davies said that Peter Tosh’s album Equal Rights was one of the best albums ever recorded. “Not reggae album, but finest album ever done,” Davies opined. “What is particularly special for me is for a pop artiste to risk taking on apartheid, which was then, at least implicitly, supported by all the major Western economies. South Africa was in the bosom of the US and the UK. For you to hope to sell an album dedicated to the fight against apartheid in that same market shows Peter’s conviction and the extent he would not compromise in that fight,” he noted.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20200419/remembering-peter-tosh-4202020-could-he-someday-be-inducted-rock-roll

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

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Peter Tosh

Pure Oasis Director of operations Mike Whittaker, Pure Oasis co-owner Kobie Evans, Cannabis Control Commission Commissioner Shaleen Title, first customer Niambe McIntosh and Pure Oasis co-owner Kevin Hart.

Making the first purchase of marijuana at Pure Oasis, Boston’s first recreational dispensary and the state’s first equity business, was about more than just buying weed for Niambe McIntosh.

McIntosh grew up just a few blocks from the dispensary, which opened at 11 a.m. on Blue Hill Avenue in the Grove Hall part of Dorchester. Her father, Peter Tosh, was a legendary Jamaican reggae musician and activist who was killed in 1987. Her brother, Jawara McIntosh, a musician and cannabis activist, was attacked in 2017 while incarcerated in New Jersey for cannabis possession.

Seeing a marijuana dispensary owned by black men open up in a neighborhood that deeply felt the effects of the war on drugs feels like a move toward justice, McIntosh said.

“My family, in particular, I look at my father who was a global activist for cannabis legalization and a Rastafarian and then, my brother Jawara, who is now suffering from a traumatic brain injury after being arrested for cannabis charges but then attacked by another inmate while incarcerated, so as a nonviolent offender, he’s faced the ultimate consequences of what cannabis prohibition really does to families,” she said. “He’s unable to walk, talk, he’s bedbound. So having this be like blocks from the life that we grew up in and seeing the harms, it really feels victorious.”

That put extra meaning behind McIntosh’s purchase, which included a smokeless Moroccan ashtray, some Sativa flower, and a tincture for her brother, who can only take fluids through a G-tube.

“Sharing this legacy with Pure Oasis, growing up only blocks from here is such an honor and I’m glad we’re able to push the needle toward justice, make sure equity is at the forefront and really I’m honored to just be a part of it,” she said. “This really just begins to move the needle. It won’t change the past but we can slowly make steps to really help the community.”

McIntosh was an educator with the Boston Public Schools for 10 years and said that experience provided her a smooth transition into carrying on her father’s mission. McIntosh is the head of the Peter Tosh Estate and Brand. The Peter Tosh Foundation works to continue Tosh’s fight to legalize cannabis.

“He educated people through music and sang about equal rights and justice. It’s something that as his youngest child, I get to learn so much about him in a different way and have a closer connection with him than I did when he was alive because he passed when I was really young,” she said.

Now that Massachusetts has legal marijuana and finally has an economic empowerment business up and running, McIntosh said it’s important people support the dispensary.

“I think it’s really important that people understand the core values of Pure Oasis and put their money where their core values lie,” she said. “We have a lot of places that we can choose now to spend money and buy cannabis but I think that it’s really, really important that we put our money where our mouth is.”

Pure Oasis has hired about 34 people, including many from the Grove Hall area. Some employees have criminal backgrounds. One of the business’ missions is giving back and giving people a second chance, all while supporting the community, said co-owner Kobie Evans.

“We set out on this journey a long time ago to show people who look like us that if you work hard and you persevere then success is soon to come,” co-owner Kevin Hart said.

In recent months, the state Cannabis Control Commission has received complaints that it has taken far too long for equity applicants to get a license, as they face roadblocks obtaining funding, host community agreements and making their way through the licensing process.

Evans has said obtaining a host community agreement with the city of Boston was the toughest part of the process for Pure Oasis.

“It’s really exciting to see the concept of economic empowerment come to life,” Commissioner Shaleen Title of the CCC said minutes after the first sale. “Pure Oasis has set a wonderful precedent here. I think we’ll see many more of these stores that are hiring people from the community, that are giving back to the community, and that are fulfilling the vision that Massachusetts voters had.”

Title noted that the entire marijuana rollout has been slow across Massachusetts as the industry was built from scratch.

“Fulfilling the vision of equity is particularly difficult because no other state has done it and it takes a lot of collaboration at different levels,” she said. “What we can do now is look at what has worked here and particularly I encourage businesses and local officials that want to contribute to this goal to contact the commission and make use of the tools and resources that we have available.”

By Melissa Hanson | mhanson@masslive.com

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.masslive.com/marijuana/2020/03/push-the-needle-toward-justice-for-niambe-mcintosh-first-purchase-at-pure-oasis-is-embedded-in-cannabis-activism-family-history.html%3foutputType=amp

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

PETER TOSH…a di same bucky massa business

As we have just about closed celebrating Reggae Month a special tribute is made to Peter Tosh for his enduring campaign, nationally and internationally, for the legalisation of ganja and his effort against the miseducation of the black youth. His life oscillated between Schopenhauer’s will and representation and Nietzsche’s life of tragic existence.

His ‘will’ — the inner-self — and its representation in music illustrates his spiritual embrace and philosophical orientation. He endured the sorrow of suffering during the 1960s, the horror of near-death police brutality in the 1970s, and the tragedy of a brutal and violent killing in the 1980s. He brought joy to many for his militant political strides and spiritual themes. His music connects our lives with our history and contemporary society. It is informed by a new morality and radical politics that were also some of the characteristics of the political leadership and environment during the 1970s. He was a gifted thinker, artist, performer and musician. It is important that we honour him, who is not popular with status quo.

Tosh’s music is a powerful instrument of education. I recall a student from the eastern Caribbean in New York informed me that he learned about apartheid and the anti-apartheid struggles from Tosh’s music. Other people have had deeper radical encounters with Rastafari from Tosh. He used the stage to spread the good news about the ‘new’ king and messiah in a similar manner to Leonard P Howell and his street meetings in St Thomas during the 1930s.

As an artiste, Tosh captured the essence of Rastafari and asserted it in his music. His song You can’t blame the youth is a deep reflection of themes from Howell’s mission during the 1930s in St Thomas — issues concerning the miseducation of the black youth, and also the false doctrine advanced by the Christian church about ignoring gold, silver, and wealth, but embrace the idea of dying and going to heaven for milk and honey.

Like Howell, Tosh’s was anti-imperialist and anti-Western civilisation. The “stepping razor” may have contemplated these questions: What is justice is it? And whose rationality is it? He spoke about the justice in a tone suggesting his rejection of the colonial laws. At the 1978 Peace Concert he spoke about laws in the Jamaican society that were created by the elites to keep the underprivileged in a state of ignorance and extreme poverty. Tosh asserted his school of critical legal thinking and argued that the laws are associated with oppressive injustice set as policy objectives by the colonial elite.

At the 1978 Peace Concert, Tosh gave the history on imperialism in Jamaican and its dangers to the progressive developments in Jamaica during the 1970s. He spoke about this colonial “shitstem” set up by the colonial elite; “a di same bucky massa business” characterised by “black inferiority and white superiority, ruling this country for a long time”.

The following songs illustrate his apprehension of his spiritual ideas and its representation in the form of music: I Am That Am, Rastafari Is, Let Jah be praised, and Jah is My Light and Salvation. There is a high level of intellectual quality and artistic ability in Tosh’s music. He told the crowd that he was qualified to speak because he had been humiliated and received a near-death brutal police attack for ganja. Some of his songs creatively advance his thinking on justice and ganja are: Legalize It, Bush doctor, Nah Go a Jail Fi Ganja, Bush Doctor and Buckingham Palace.

The artist, musician, and performer possessed “enlightened eyes”, his radical politics was informed by race and a new concept of morality and justice. The planter/colonial Jamaican society was informed by race (white supremacy), and that the assertion of race awareness (black consciousness) was an important milestone in black liberation involving the debriefing process from slavery.

His anti-imperialist themes appear in his music from as early as Pound Get a Blow to The Day the Dollar Die, Babylon your Queen-dom is Falling, and No Nuclear War. His radical political themes appear in songs such as 400 Years, Get Up Stand Up, Equal Rights and Justice, Only the Poor Man Feel It, and Down Presser Man. The idea of equal rights and justice secretes through the lines and spaces of his music.

He was also critical of some members of the Rastafari movement in other interviews. He once said that there are many imposters in the movement, and that they read the Bible 24/7, “but they are agents of Lucifer”, who “mek I and I look like criminals in the eyes of men”. He reminded the Rastafari movement of the founding principles of self-reliance and industry in Pick Myself Up. In another song he sings a similar message, “Black people, arise, (because) we have been sitting in the dirt for too long; and it seems like we do not know when we are right or wrong.” This is indeed a well-needed lesson for blacks in general and members of the Rastafarian movement in particular.

Pan-African activist

Peter Tosh was a long-standing activist for African liberation. There is evidence of his participation in a Kingston demonstration against the Ian Smith’s white racist minority Government and unilateral declaration of Independence in Rhodesia during the 1960s. Tosh and two others were arrested for the mounting of a roadblock on Spanish Town Road. The dominant political leadership in Jamaica during that time led a forceful struggle in support of the liberation in southern Africa. This was the background against which Tosh used his stage and music to launch his anti-apartheid campaigns.

In a speech at the same peace concert at the National Stadium Tosh declared that 1978 is the year celebrating the anti-apartheid struggles. He refreshed his solidarity to these struggles. He called on black people to be conscious of themselves and become knowledgeable of the laws that govern them. He asserted his apprehension of themes of African unity and anti-apartheid struggles in songs such as African, Apartheid, and Recruiting Soldiers for Jah Army. His music played an important cultural role among the guerillas fighting in Zimbabwe during the 1970s.

As an observer to the transitional election (very early 1980s) in Zimbabwe, this writer was invited to a victory party organised by members of the Zimbabwe National African Union (ZANU) and witnessed guerillas dancing their traditional dances to Peter Tosh’s Equal Rights and Justice album. It was explained that their endurance in the “bush fighting” was buoyed by this kind of music. Someone from St Vincent went to South Africa in 1992 as an observer in the transition to the black majority Government, he told this writer that he observed members of the African National Congress army singing and dancing to Tosh’s Recruiting Soldiers for Jah Army. The capturing of the essence of the African liberation struggles and its assertion in the music caught the imagination of the liberation fighters in those areas where his music made significant contribution to the struggles.

Tosh made the right kind of music, that which was then and still is today a powerful instrument of education and resistance.

Louis E A Moyston, PhD, is a university lecturer. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or thearchives01@yahoo.com.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/the-agenda/peter-tosh-the-man-the-time-and-the-music_158361?profile=1096

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

Richie Spice

On the occasion of Peter Tosh’s diamond birthday celebration, broadcaster and music historian Mutabaruka made the observation that although the members of the Wailers – Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley – went their separate ways, “we memba the Wailers as one of them trinity deh dat become singular”. Muta was given the honour of creating the pre-showtime mood as family, fans and friends joined in the celebration at the Pulse Centre on Trafalgar Road. Wearing his selector cape, Muta easily segued from Tosh’s catalogue to recorded interviews which brought Tosh to life.

It was a night on which musical tributes were paid specifically to the revered Bush Doctor and unapologetic ganja advocate, Peter Tosh, but it was inescapable that the Wailers trio would also get their shine. And the spotlight was both musical and personal.

Andrew, son of Peter, whose performance was so nice that he had to appear thrice, dug deep into his father’s catalogue and reproduced as only the chip that doesn’t fall far from the block can. But, as great as that was, that singular Wailer moment came when the son of Bob, Ky-Mani, joined on stage the son of Peter, who also happens to be the nephew of Bunny Wailer, and together they performed a classic from the Wailers’ 1973 album Burnin’, significantly the last album recorded by the original Wailers line-up.

WAILERS REBIRTH

Purposefully, they had chosen Get Up Stand Up, and the equal rights anthem reverberated in the venue, as swirls of ganja smoke danced to the beat. “This is a Wailers rebirth,” the sons of the deceased reggae icons stated, and Marley sibling, Cedella, who was backstage vibing with her son, Skip, and a number of other family members and friends, spoke for the entire crowd when she told The Gleaner, “I’m loving every minute of it.” Cedella was one of this year’s recipients of the Peter Tosh Award.

For Ky-Mani, it was “absolutely amazing”. In a quick interview with The Gleaner, he pointed out that this wasn’t the first time he and Andrew were performing together, as they had shared many stages over the years, even touring together in South America. He noted however, that, “This is a special vibe because of the shared legacy,” he said. “To be able to share the stage with Andrew is always a beautiful moment.”

Making their contribution to the tribute concert in a huge way were a mix of veteran and newly established acts. Exuding a distinct Peter Tosh aura, reggae singer Samory-I made an impression with songs such as Jah Is In ControlAfrican Daughter and Rasta A Nuh Gangsta. He paused to pay tribute to Tosh, noting that the reggae singer has been his inspiration. The “shubba shubba” singer, Warrior King, who is not seen much on the local stage these days, gave an energetic performance, which the audience loved. Warrior King promised that in 2020, his fans in Jamaica will be seeing more of him.

Declaring that “me, Peter, Bob and Bunny go a long way back”, veteran reggae singer, Ken Boothe, showed exactly why he was chosen for this line-up. His classics Train Is ComingFreedom Street and Journey were on point. The man from August Town, Duane Stephenson, gave fans selections from his own catalogue, after which he chose his favourite Peter Tosh song, Glass House, to thrill fans.

Prior to Richie Spice’s performance, acclaimed tour manager, Copeland Forbes, briefly claimed the stage, welcoming “the royal family of reggae, the Marleys, and inviting Peter Tosh’s family on stage to introduce them to the audience. Richie Spice took fans down memory lane with his hits Earth A Run RedGrooving My Girl and Ghetto Girl. He was called on for an encore.

Andrew Tosh took the stage for a third time and paid tribute to his father with AfricanWalk and Don’t Look Back (with Charmaine Limonius), Johnny B GoodeRastafari Is and Dem Want I.

Bushman, whose performance was highly anticipated, was a no-show.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20191024/diamond-celebration-peter-tosh

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

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Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh’s youngest son, Jawara McIntosh, being cared by the son’s mother, Melody Cunningham (in photo).

The family of international reggae icon, Peter Tosh, has filed a lawsuit against Bergen County jail in Hackensack, New Jersey, for failing to protect and uphold the human rights and the dignity of Peter’s youngest son, Jawara McIntosh.

Jawara, 39, a singer who is known professionally as Tosh 1, was mercilessly beaten on February 21, 2017 at the Bergen County jail by another inmate while serving his sentence for cannabis-related charges.

In an unexpected turn of events, McIntosh, a devout Rastafarian and cannabis activist, was attacked by inmate Kyrie Charon Baum. McIntosh sustained traumatic brain injuries and has been confined to a bed since the attack. The once energetic and vibrant singer and stage performer can no longer perform simple tasks. The father of four, who like his dad, was an activist for the legalisation of cannabis, is virtually incapacitated after more than two years and two months since the attack.

Despite the fact that the perpetrator was convicted for his heinous crime, the McIntosh family is still shattered by the absence of Jawara from their daily family life and from routine family activities.

“Fighting for ‘justice for Jawara’ has not been a swift nor easy journey, but we won the first battle when the man that beat him into a coma was convicted,” Jawara’s mother, Melody Cunningham, told a news gathering. “Now, we will continue to fight on his behalf and hold the system accountable for failing to protect his fundamental human rights,” she added.

Jawara has since been transferred from New Jersey to Boston, MA, where he is currently in the care of his mother and sister, Niambe McIntosh. In addition to the lawsuit, the family is using Jawara’s story to advocate for the legalisation of cannabis on the federal level, and, accordingly, have supported New Jersey Senator Corey Booker’s legislative push to pass the Marijuana Justice Act. 

“Our family will continue to be a voice for Jawara, and for all of those who are unjustly incarcerated and are being treated with inhumanity,” Niambe McIntosh, who is also an administrator of the Peter Tosh estate, declared. Last Saturday, at the National Cannabis Festival in Washington, DC, Niambe used the 4/20 opportunity to spread the awareness about her brother’s plight. She feels strongly that non-violent cannabis offenders have no place behind bars with violent felons.

Attorney Jasmine Rand, who brings considerable civil rights experience to the case, stated that, “Our government had a duty to protect Jawara McIntosh, and failed miserably. As a nation, we need to address the disparity in our legal system that continues to criminalise possession of cannabis in some states while it has been legalised in many others, and these legal disparities continue to lead to egregious injustice.”

Several months prior to Jawara’s assault, he recorded a remake of his father’s classic smash single ‘Downpressor Man’. The promotional single was serviced to radio last week as one of the efforts of the Tosh family to celebrate 4/20 this year, by honouring both father and son.

https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/tosh-family-sues-over-mauling-peters-son-jail-ganja-charge

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

Peter Tosh

New York State Senator Kevin Parker on Thursday issued a New York State proclamation for Jamaica reggae icon, Peter Tosh for this year’s renewal of the national observance of 4/20. Tosh has been lauded over the years for his relentless fight for the decriminalisation of marijuana and for his sterling and steadfast efforts towards the global promotion of reggae music, as well as his quest for equal rights and justice.

Tosh died in 1987, and the proclamation was received on his behalf by Brian Latture, executive manager of the Peter Tosh Estate, at the senator’s Tilden Avenue office in Brooklyn, New York. A cadre of state officials, as well as a media contingent, came out to witness the presentation.

The proclamation reads in part: “It is the privilege of this legislative body to honour Peter Tosh for his exemplary service and humanitarianism upon the illustrious occasion of the 4/20 Peter Tosh celebration.”

The proclamation continues, “Peter Tosh’s example, as both an artiste and an activist, continues to inspire creators and idealists around the world. He was, and is, a true leader whose music and message inspire people on every continent throughout the world.”

The proclamation came just ahead of the 4/20 celebrations for 2019, a national observance of respect for the wide variety and multiple uses of cannabis, including recreational, sacramental and medicinal.

As part of the Tosh activities today, his youngest daughter, Niambe McIntosh, head of the Peter Tosh Estate and board chairperson for the Peter Tosh Foundation, will be attending the National Cannabis Festival at the RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. Additionally, a new take on a Peter Tosh classic, Downpressor Man by Tosh 1, featuring vocals by Peter Tosh, has already been serviced to radio as a promotional single. A number of regional stations, including Irie Jam Radio 93.5 FM in New York, will be playing portions of Peter Tosh’s extensive catalogue.

And in Vancouver, Canada, close to 100,000 fans are expected to show up for a free concert at Sunset Beach headlined by Cypress Hill, where Peter Tosh’s cannabis anthem, Legalize It, will be sung at exactly 4:20 pm, around the time when the event will attract its peak audience.

diademata@aol.com

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/entertainment/20190420/new-york-proclaims-420-peter-tosh-day

The Movement

Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrsl....
Comin’ in hot this #ToshTuesday with this righteous portrait of the Steppin’ Razor by @abrslr 🔥
Be sure to tag @PeterTosh on your artwork for a chance to be featured.
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter T....
Blessed Earthstrong to Akayda Tosh, granddaughter of Peter Tosh and prized member of the Peter Tosh Foundation.
@kay__tosh is dedicated to carrying out the legacy of her grandfather by fighting for c ...
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Which Tosh tee are you rocking?
Find all of them at the Peter Tosh storefront, link in bio 🙌🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
Who else is spinin’ “I Am That I Am” on this #ToshTuesday ? @carlosfunksp on Tik Tok is 👏🏿
"Inspiration is always there, seen? It’s not where you are, it’s who you are to get the inspiration. ‘Cuz when the mind is pure, inspiration will come anywhere” -Peter Tosh
Photos courtesy of Getty I ...
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Bless up @princeericnichols 🙌🏿
Powerful portrait of The Prophet for today’s #ToshTuesday
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
Step up your hat game at the Peter Tosh Official Store, link in bio 🙌🏿
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy t....
On this International Women’s Day, let us honor two of the women carrying on Tosh’s legacy through the Peter Tosh Foundation, @ms__tosh and @kay_tosh . Through the work of Niambe and Akayda, Tosh’s co ...
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥
Never underestimate the Steppin’ Razor🔥

Load More

Peter Tosh

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