Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

The cover of the book, 'Coping With Babylon'. contributed

Oliver Hill straddled literature and film on Tuesday night as he presented a book and a documentary film to the public at the PCJ Auditorium, New Kingston.

The book is an in-depth exploration of the country in the Moon Handbooks series, entitled Moon Handbooks Jamaica, which offers "the firsthand experience and unique experience of author Oliver Hill", while the film is Coping With Babylon: The Proper Rastology.

The documentary on the Rastafarian movement features Freddie McGreggor, Mutabaruka, Half Pint, Luciano and Barry Chevannes and promises that "Rastafarians address their history and reveal a worldview as interpreted by some of the most prominent figures from the diverse theological followers of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I".

The double launch was an informal gathering before the documentary was screened, Hill taking questions before Coping With Babylon was shown. He said that in 2005 he was working with a financial publication in New York when a friend sent him an advertisement for a writer. Hill wrote a book proposal and that was the beginning of a process of nine months of research, which included traveling around the island, and another nine months of writing and editing.

On the website www.moon.com Moon Handbooks Jamaica is slated for a November 2007 release.

Hill said that among his favourite places, in his trek around the island, were Belmont and Whitehouse in Westmoreland, adding, "I love Portland."

"I think every bit of Jamaica has charm," Hill said.

Hill told The Gleaner that he started with the capital.

"I wanted to start with Kingston because it is often overlooked and it is the most exciting part of Jamaica," he said.

From there he went to the east and went around the island. Moon Handbooks Jamaica is organised in sections on Kingston and the Blue Mountains, Port Antonio and the East Coast, Ocho Rios and the Central North Coast, Negril and the West and The South Coast and Central Mountains.

Labour of love

"I guess it was a labour of love," he said. And it is ongoing labour, as the book will be updated every three years.

Coping With Babylon was a project Hill started three years ago as a student in a graduate journalism programme. "The idea is that we look at different prominent voices in the Rastafarian community and explore how they approach this matter of resistance to something they don't believe in," Hill said.