MUTABARUKA was born Allan Hope in Rae Town, Kingston, Jamaica on December 26, 1952. Internationally acclaimed poet, reggae performer, radio host, actor, social critic and Rastafarian spokesman, he is Jamaica's voice of the people. His work focuses on themes of social justice, human rights and black liberation. In the 1970s he began publishing his highly controversial poems, and since the early 1980s he has performed his work all over the world. He has released several outstanding albums of dub poetry, a marriage of reggae rhythms and the spoken word. This book contains a reprint of his first major collection of poems of the 1970s, "Mutabaruka: the First Poems," and a new anthology of his best work written between 1980 and 2002, "Mutabaruka: the Next Poems."