King Alpha's Song in a Strange Land

"When Jackie Mittoo and Leroy Sibbles migrated from Jamaica to Toronto in the early 1970s, the musicians brought reggae with them, sparking the flames of one of Canada's most vibrant music scenes. In King Alpha's song in a strange land, professional reggae musician and scholar Jason Wilson draws on interviews and personal experience to tell the story of how the organic, transnational nature of reggae brought black and white youth together, opening up a cultural dialogue between Jamaican migrants and Canadians along the city's ethnic frontlines. For Jamaicans, reggae gave them an advantage in the acculturation process by bringing them into contact with like-minded white Torontonians. For music-loving non-Jamaicans, reggae offered an entry point into a people and a culture that would have remained closed to them otherwise. When the two came together, they set the stage for bands such as Messenjah and the Sattalites to become household names for a brief but important time. By looking at Canada's golden age of reggae from the perspective of both Jamaican migrants and white Torontonians, Wilson reveals the power of music to break through the bonds of race and ease the hardships associated with transnational migration."--