ABSTRACT
The 1972 election was a major landmark in Jamaica's short history. The People's National Party, under the leadership of Michael Manley, was swept into power after a long and colorful campaign. In January 1968, a young radical academic, Walter Rodney, was appointed lecturer of history at the Mona, Kingston, campus of the University of the West Indies. Rodney was a Guyanese graduate of the university who had received his doctorate in England and had taught African history in Tanzania. Immediately after the Rodney affair, an organization was formed that called itself Abeng, after the cowhorn bugle used for communication among the Maroon warriors during their wars against the British in the eighteenth century. In 1968, rock-steady music gave way to a new rhythm, a synthesis of rock steady and ska called "reggae". Police harassment of Rastas continued through this period, with increasing publicity if not frequency, and with relative impunity.
