Let My People Stink

(EXTRA CREEM, at great expense of time and health, has rpanaged to get into the Rasta barrio in Birmingham and mix with the inhabitants to file this photo essay on the real hard-core . Rastafarians. Few people know that the original Rastas did not come from . Jamaica, or even Ethiopia, but a twomile area north of Detroit bounded by Woodward Ave., Maple Road and Brown Street in Birmingham. Our photographer and editor mixed with the Rastas, won their confidence, and reported upon their strange and often exotically appealing behavior, in an effort to understand just another of Detroit's unique ethnic communities — their problems, their ideals...Read it and enjoy, enjoy.—Ed.)

Extra: Why do you live in Birmingham? Mungo: Lots of rich people. We're rich too, but we like to pretend that we're poor, so we come here to live instead of going down to live in Jamaica. We go down to Jamaica, take our American Express cards, smoke a lot of ganja, hang out with the local black people. No black people in Birmingham, that's one of the advantages of being a Rasta in Birmingham. We grow our hair out in long dreadlocks; they don't laugh at us here the way they do in Jamaica. Also lots of boutiques where you can buy clothes and stuff. Keep up, you know? That's tough in Jamaica.

E: What's the difference between a Jamaican Rasta and a Birmingham Rasta?

M: Money, Complete difference. In Jamaica they're a bunch of poor dumb bastards. In Birmingham they got lots money, got Midtown Cafes where my daddy got a charge account; got stores with charge accounts, got charge accounts everywhere. Cars, gas stations.

E: Do you believe that you're going back to Ethiopia?

M: No, we believe that Ethiopia is coming to us. We're going to have the Birmingham Police Department out there with 38 machine guns in the middle of the Hun ter/Wood ward intersection, ready for the Ethiopians, dare they encroach. Because they don't understand that the real Rastafarian heartland is in Birmingham. Ethiopia was just something that was cooked up by some dumb Jamaicans. . See, the trouble with those Jamaicans is that they've never been through Oakland Community College; they don't understand the facts of Rastafarai truth. I do, having been there, and -having spent many nights at a Rasta center known as 13 and Woodward Cunningham's Drugstore parking lot. And the Midtown Cafe. I go Midtown Cafe, sit under tree, wait for girl from Hair Media come by. They get tired of hairdressers after awhile—they look for man, Rastaman with dreadlocks.

E: What do you want out of life?

M: More wo-mans. More wo-mans and more publicity.

E: Do you have sex a lot?

M: Do I have sex? Rastas don't believe in ownership, we believe that the world is all completely up for grabs. For instance, I grab a lot of titties when I walking down the street, I say 'Hello,

I Rastaman, RastafaraiyahJahjambalayarastafarai'...makes it real easy, you don't have to go to Coral Gables or nothin'.

E: So, in other words, you have a lot of girlfriends/wives?

M: Girlfriends? Wives? These words have no meaning to me. There is man. There is wo-man. There is cold. There is universe. There is world. Earth, sun, sky...all that bullshit...No, no, no...no girlfriends, no wives, no nothing. Just sex.

E: Do Rastafarians believe in life after death?

M: What is death? 1

E: No more ganja.

M: That is bad.

E: Is it very difficult to get ganja in Birmingham?

M: No, very easy, very easy. Just DialA-Rasta. Not top many people know about this service, but because I want to spread the word.. .there is a number; you get the number...Marilyn Turner has it.

E: Do you ever drink alcohol?

M: Of course. All Rastas drink alcohol. It aids the process. We believe all the faithful will come back to the distillery. We're going to have a migration of Rastas' from Jamaica, Ethiopia, the Arab lands...from all over, to the Stroh's Brewery. Some time next year. We haven't got the logistics straight yet. Some things have to be ironed out.

E: Were you brought up as a Rasta?

M: Yes, brought up as Rasta. But not here. Brought up in Keeakuck, Iowa. Not many Rastas there. Prejudice, persecution...that's when we came to Birmingham, a liberal city.

E: Do you have any complaints with Birmingham?

M: Yes, not enough boutiques. Also, not enough free clothes in boutiques. Some clothes girls give me free, other boutiques they won't give me free clothes. Say it costs too much. This is, how you say?—bogue. We have to stop the interview now, Mary Hartman's on.