Rastas urge Jamaica to reclaim its wealth

Rastafarians may be thousands of miles away, but they are keeping a close eye on developments in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Priest Norman Lamont of the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress Church of Salvation is calling on Jamaicans to pay attention to Africa's growing revolutionary movement led by Captain Ibrahim Traore.

"This is not just a Burkina Faso thing. Ibrahim Traore is speaking for Africa in general and Africans all over the globe, home and abroad, so we see it important that we show our solidarity with what is going on," Lamont said.

He had just finished chanting and reasoning with fellow Rastafarians after a morning rally in Emancipation Park and getting ready to drop off petition letters to the United States Embassy in Jamaica.

Last month, Burkina Faso's military government said it foiled a "major plot" to overthrow Traore. The army alleged that the plotters were based in neighbouring Ivory Coast.

Seen as a symbol of anti-imperialism, Traore has expressed his government's plans to assert greater control over the nation's natural resources. However, he has faced strong criticisms. General Michael Langley, head of the US military in Africa, accused Traore during a US Senate committee hearing of using Burkina Faso's gold reserves to benefit the military junta.

In Jamaica, Lamont said the young Burkinabe leader who has defied Western powers and reclaimed his country's gold for national use embodies a spirit that Jamaican leaders must emulate if the country is serious about becoming a republic.

"We have to talk about national control of our reserve. We talk about resource nationality. We want to be in control of the resources that we have," Lamont declared.

"Jamaica needs to take a page from Burkina Faso and begin to make it an important thing to own what is ours, to own whatever mineral, land, to own anything of value that we have."

"I hope that someday Jamaica will build a refinery for its bauxite, like Burkina Faso has built a refinery for its gold so that we can make it valuable to our people. Because right now, bauxite, gypsum, all these things are being shipped away and then we have to buy back the products from these materials at high cost."