US music group boycotts Sri Lanka event

[TamilNet, Thursday, 14 June 2012, 10:52 GMT]
Big Mountain, a US-based reggae music group with origins from San Diego, declined an invitation from Sri Lanka to participate in a reggae festival to be held in Colombo. The band, which was named Big Mountain, in protest to colonization by Europe, said in a statement that they "feel that to play a concert of this type, at this moment in time, would help to gloss over or legitimate conditions of systemic violence that have transpired in that region and towards indigenous populations in particular."

Full text of the official statement released by the Band follows:

OFFICIAL STATEMENT BY BIG MOUNTAIN
BOYCOTT OF SRI LANKA

The name of our band, Big Mountain, derives from a struggle that pitted two Native American communities against one another in a struggle over a sacred piece of land. That struggle was being manipulated by a large and powerful mining corporation in search of profit and at the expense of all native peoples of the region. Troubled by that manipulation and inspired by the struggles of our own Native American ancestors to resist the oppression of European colonizers and wealthy corporations, we recorded a song of the same name and that contained the chorus of “on top of Big Mountain, there is no room for Babylon.” By that, we meant that there is another way, a de-colonial ethic, a way to live that is not entangled within the perpetual war, violence, exploitation, and environmental degradation that was introduced in the western hemisphere by European colonizers.

We were recently invited to perform songs like Big Mountain at a reggae festival in Sri Lanka. We were encouraged by this invitation as it provided yet another opportunity for us to share our de-colonial message with our brothers and sisters in humanity. We are declining this invitation, however, due to our concern with the violence that has transpired there as of late and that has been described as part of Sri Lanka’s “civil war.” Whilst we would be honored to help convey a message of peace and reconciliation, we also feel that to play a concert of this type, at this moment in time, would help to gloss over or legitimate conditions of systemic violence that have transpired in that region and towards indigenous populations in particular.

According to Wikipedia, Big Mountain was an American reggae/pop band, most famous for their cover version of Peter Frampton's "Baby, I Love Your Way," which became a Top 10 hit single in the U.S. in early 1994 reaching number 6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, number-one on Mainstream Top 40, and number 2 in the UK shortly afterwards.

The original line-up including Joaquin McWhinney "Quino," vocals, Jerome Cruz, guitar, Gregory Blakney, drums, Lance Rhodes, drums, Manfred Reinke, keyboards, and Lynn Copeland, bass guitar.

External Links:

BM:		Boycott of Sri Lanka
Wiki:		Big Mountain