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Reggae Legend Burning Spear Gets His COVID Vaccine

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Burning-Spear
Burning Spear

Unlike his musical compatriot Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, who has not only dismissed any notion of taking the COVID-19 vaccine, but questioned the ‘uprightness’ of Rastas who are accepting inoculation, Reggae Legend Burning Spear has reportedly taken his two shots in New York.

A captioned photo of the Slavery Days artist being injected with his second dose by a military medic, wearing a mask bearing the Jamaican national colors, was posted by New York City-based radio disc jockey and independent Reggae promoter Amy Wachtel, also known as the Night Nurse, on her Twitter page yesterday.

“Mr. Winston Rodney, aka Burning Spear, receives his second dose of the #CovidVaccine today. People, are you ready? @burningmusic #vaccinated #VaccinteNY $BurningSpear #ChantDownBabylon,” the publicist, who has been promoting and writing about Reggae music since the early 1980s wrote.

burning-jabBurning Spear’s decision is in glaring contrast to that of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry who announced in late February, that he would not take the COVID-19 vaccine and will have no choice but to stop doing live shows, if the taking the jab becomes mandatory for international travel.

scratch
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry

The 85-year-old had said that his UK tour was being rescheduled for the third time and that while he was looking forward to performing and seeing his fans once again, he was hoping that he would be able to travel at least for this year without the “shot passport” as “once that gets required for traveling I will sadly have to say goodbye to live-shows”.

Perry had also questioned the integrity of people purporting to be Rastafarians who have been encouraging others to get vaccinated and wear masks, which in his eyes are part of the “Babylonian system”.

“But there is something I’m wondering about: isn’t Rasta supposed to stand for freedom, against slavery and against Babylon system?   How comes that some of them calling themselves Rasta are promoting exactly that system by telling people to maskup and get the shot, while we should know what that means?” Perry had noted.

Similar sentiments have been echoed by Rastafarian artists including Buju Banton, Spragga Benz, Tony Rebel, Queen Ifrica, Chronixx, and Kabaka Pyramid as well as Sizzla who has labeled the vaccine “The Babylon Curse”.

Over the last week, Sizzla has been demanding that all Jamaicans, including the Governor-General, Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and all other politicians, refuse to take the vaccine as it was designed with bad intentions.

“Stop scare us with this coronavirus and dis vaccine ting; it ain’t go work.   And mi a meck sure mi a warn yuh, mi nuh wan si nobaddy in di Jamaica Parliament taking no coronavirus vaccine, no one in di military nor di constabulary force; no doctor, no nurse..,” Sizzla had said.

Burning Spear, 76, began recording in 1969 penning songs about Marcus Garvey, the repatriation, and the oppression of the black race. He took his name from a military award given by Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of an independent Kenya.

Burning Spear, who is a six-time Grammy nominee, has released more than twenty albums throughout his music career, copping the Grammy Award twice for Best Reggae Album for his 2000 release Calling Rastafari and again in 2009 for Jah Is Real.

He was also bestowed with the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican Government in 2007 for his contribution to the music industry and retired from touring in June 2016.