Dr. Clinton Hutton

On Tuesday, October 16, at the Undercroft of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona campus, Peter Tosh's work will once again be at the centre of an academic symposium. Beginning at 6:00 p.m., it will focus on reggae since Tosh

Dr. Clinton Hutton of the UWI said, "The Peter Tosh Symposium is going to focus on the 20th anniversary of his death. We are going to take the opportunity to look back at the 20 years to assess how we as a nation have looked at the work and life of one our best finds. We are also looking specifically at the treatment of Tosh by the academia and the music community."

Tosh's former manager Herbie Miller will do a major presentation entitled 'Archiving Peter Tosh', which Hutton says will be the basis for the blueprint of the establishment of a museum for Tosh.

continuation of a process

It is the continuation of a process of analysing Tosh, as Hutton points out "we have had symposia, we have had concerts, we have had Dr. Omar Davies in the Bob Marley lecture. Davies' presentation was probably the first major lecture on the life and work of Tosh".

In addition, a book on Peter Tosh is in the works, with the hope that it will come out before his 64th birthday next year. Hutton said it would be a collection of views on Tosh by different persons, among them Omar Davies, Dr. Michael Witter, Professor Barry Chevannes, Copeland Forbes and Herbie Miller.

Hutton said, "let us not forget that Peter Tosh almost single-handedly, with almost missionary zeal, carried out his struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa." And Miller reminded that Tosh was arrested for protesting against the Rhodesian regime outside the British High Commission.

And the 20-year symposium will not only be a matter of looking back, as Hutton said they would also be "analysing and looking where we go from here, to allow the life and work of Peer Tosh to have more currency in the lives of the people. We can't talk about development without talking about our own people".

- M. C.