Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

By the time Saturday's official presentation of Errol McDonald's debut novel, Legitimate Resistance, got under way, chairman of the event, Bindley Sangster, was able to say "Good afternoon and welcome to this morning's launch ... ."

There were chuckles from those gathered on the lawn of 4 Acadia Drive, St. Andrew, and more when Sangster described the LMH publication as an "rc book."

Raw, rebellious

The 'r' covered raw, rebellious, "it resonates", "it is repugnant in some ways ... it is risqué and will certainly rattle a few," while the 'c' included calculating, controversial, caustic, a cliffhanger, "I am not sure it is cerebral", credible and cynical.

He would later say that Legitimate Resistance is the literary counterpart and complement to Shower Posse.

Editor Amina Blackwood-Meeks added another 'c', saying that McDonald "had the courage to confront us in all our magnificence, in our contradictions, the parts of us we pretend do not exist and do not want people to see."

And when McDonald, member of reggae band Chakula and former manager of Third World who now lives in Tanzania, spoke he put in another 'r'. "I know I ruffle a lot of feathers. I have revealed a lot of Jamaica that a lot of people don't get to see and vision," he said. And he related it to history, saying, "When you check the history of our people, it is a raw history. Is an open wound and a sore."

There was laughter during a live telephone link with Tanzania, someone relaying messages from his five children, one saying, "Grandma says it have in too much bad word," and another saying, "Congrats Dad, yu bus!", another sending "Ratings for the 300 pages Daddy." And the six year-old said, "Now I know what a launch is. You have to show the boss your book and see if it can go in the store. I just got my first tooth out and you just got your first book out."

And a poem from his wife said in part "today the world gets a glimpse of your mountain inside ..."

Critique

With musician Ibo Cooper giving a synopsis of 'E. Mac's' journey through music and corporate life, University of the West Indies' Michael Witter gave his opinion of the book, in which McDonald weaves a story of romance and antisocial behaviour that we may see as criminal or, as the author puts it, legitimate resistance, leading ultimately to the transformation of the society in which we live. Witter identified a "couple missing pieces," including the international context in which we live and the sudden appearance of Rastafari in the last chapter "in a way we are not sure how they came in."

McDonald addressed that sudden appearance saying, "True, the first part of the book is so much violence and bloodshed, Rasta keep outta dat."

And in a message from publisher Mike Henry, read by his wife Dawn, he said that Legitimate Resistance has been submitted for the Commonwealth Book Prize.