Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
MORTIMO ST. GEORGE Planno, a prominent figure in the Rastafarian movement, has died. He was 76 years old.
Planno, one of the founding members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jamaica, died Sunday at the University Hospital of the West Indies.
One of Mr. Planno's doctors, who requested anonymity, said that he had multiple medical complications but the ultimate cause of death was respiratory failure. He said Mr. Planno suffered from hypothyroidism.
The doctor said Mr. Planno had fallen ill several times, but this time around they could not save him.
"It is not the first time we have salvaged him but this time around we couldn't pull him through," the doctor said.
Mr. Planno will be remembered by many for the role he played during the visit of Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie I, to Jamaica in 1966.
He was reportedly summoned by Selassie to ascend the steps of his aircraft shortly after the Emperor's arrival at the Palisadoes Airport.
Mr. Planno is survived by four children and a younger brother.
Father Haile Malekote, head priest and administrator of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Jamaica, was unaware that Mr. Planno had passed when The Gleaner contacted him yesterday.
"I understand he was ill and was under treatment at the University Hospital," he said.
RECURRENT ILLNESS
Jalani Niaah, coordinator of the Rastafari Studies minor and archive in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona, told The Gleaner that Mr. Planno had been in and out of the hospital after a heart attack in 2001. He added that Mr. Planno's right leg was amputated last July.
Brother Kumi, as Mr. Planno was affectionately called, was born in September 1929 in Cuba. In the early 1930s, he came to Jamaica with his parents and three older siblings.
Mr. Planno grew up in west Kingston and came to national prominence in the early 1950s through his involvement with the Rastafari movement. He was a founding member of the Rastafari Movement Association.
