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Ras Mortimo St George Planno, an influential Rastafarian icon, has joined the ancestors at the age of 76. He died on March 5 at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Jamaica.

He was a founding member of the Rastafari Movement Association, which held the Ethiopian World Federation Charter 37, and was the driving force behind the first Universal Groundation (Assemble) of Rastafari in Back-O-Wall (now Tivoli Gardens) in 1958.

Mortimo Planno was born in Cuba on 6 September 1929. His mother May Parks and father Miguel Planno, a Cuban tobacconist, took him to Jamaica when he was three years old. He was one of the foundation members of the Kingston Rastafari encampment on the "Dungle". His devoted studies of all matters concerning the faith combined with his brilliant intellect, established Bro. Planno or Bro. Cummie, as he was affectionately called, as one of the most distinguished elders of the movement.

After the construction of the Government Houses, he became a tenant at Fifth Street in Trench Town. He was consulted on all matters of serious importance to the community in which he lives and the situation remains the same until this day.

Planno was the type of person anyone would listen to, he was a community elder who anyone would respect for what he stood for in the Rastafarian faith. He was respected in the sense of communicating with people and been able to tell what was going on in Africa and the rest of the world.

He was great reader, psychologist, he wrote a lot of texts, journals, songs and poetry. He wrote plays and was a great performer himself. He was also an Artist or a "thoughtist" as he would prefer to call it. He wrote a lot as he received a lot of correspondence from all over the world daily.

Bro. Planno grew up in the ghetto a what the system would describe as a "Bad boy", not in the sense of doing wrong, but in such communities one had to be tough to survive.

He was an executive member of the Ethiopian World Federation Inc. Local 37 at Salt Lane on the "Dungle". The Rastafari Movement experienced harsh persecution from the System in the early days, and because of this Mortimo along with other brethren from other "Houses" approached the University College of the West Indies (as it was then known) with the intention of getting them to carry out a survey of the Rastafari Movement in order to establish a better relationship with the Government and people of Jamaica.

The report was done in 1959 after Professor Arthur Lewis then the Chancellor of the U.W.I. sent a delegation amongst the brethren to find out what the Rastafari brethren wanted. The report was a success and gave birth to the 1961 Fact Finding Mission of which a ten man delegation was sent to Africa.
Planno and the delegation visited Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ethiopia and other African countries. He went back to Africa in 1972 and 1979. He went to Canada in 1973, 1975 and early 1980. He went twice to London.

In 1966 when His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I visited Jamaica Ras Mortimo Planno was honoured to be paged by H.I.M at the Airport on the plane steps to ask the large crowd surrounding the steps to give way so that H.I.M can disembark, which of coursee was a difficult task. Planno however did it with ease after shaking hands with H.I.M.

When Planno visited Ethiopia he was told by the Emperor Haile Selassie I that the brethren should organize and centralize the Movement. Planno shook hands with H.I.M on April 21, 1961 and again on April 21, 1966 five years to the date, this shows some significance.

Mortimo was instrumental along with Danny Simms and Skill Cole in the early success story of Bob Marley and the Wailers. He also wrote quite a few songs for them such as "This train", "Payaka", "Changes are" and "Haile Selassie is the Chapel".

He had an open door policy to be accessible to anyone who seriously wants to make a committment to Rastafari, and because of this his economics suffered.

He was well known for his letters to the press and his famous autobiographical text "The Earth's Most Strangest Man:The Rastafarian".

He toured Africa on three separate occasions representing the Rastafari Movement, visiting a total of 15 countries. He has also been invited to give lecture/tours in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

(Source: Rastafari Centralization Organization Magazine No 1, 1998, Jamaica, and current news reports)


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BACK TO ETHIOPIA [/align]

[align=center]Ras Mortimo Planno in a letter to the Daily Gleaner, 3 January 1962:[/align]

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The Editor, Sir - Permit me space in your valuable newspaper to state this my opinion of Jamaica´s majors problem at her independence.

Dear readers, bear in mind that the rights of human beings must be respected. We are all subjects to British Rule of Law as colonial peoples. What will be our laws at independence? Presumably British.

What provisions will be made within the New constitution for the desire of those who alienate themselves from the Jamaica way of life? I am thinking principally of those whose desire is to be repatriated to Ethiopia. One of the countries of Africa that already granted lands for the sole purpose of resettling people from theWestern world. I as one who is claiming by originality (Ethiopian) would like the world to know that our rights must be respected. Because I am of the opinion that respect for man´s right is the greatest ashievement of peaceful solution to problems which has a temperature of 100 degrees.

Major problem - will the Government tell us what are the plans for the Rastafarians who are Ethiopians? Independence means nothing to people who calim a different nationality to the country in which he or she resides. Will Jamaica´s Government study the articles of rights which must not suppressed by statutory laws.

Article is of the Declaration of Human Rights Charter wishes the world to know that we who are Ethiopians have the right to change, - claim, or declare our originality to the world if we so desire. And the desire of every black man today should be claiming his nationality through originality.

SELASSIE IS THE CHAPEL

Selassie is the chapel
Haile Selassie is the chapel
Power of the Trinity (Trinity, Trinity is He)
Build your mind on this direction
Serve the living God and live ( Living God, Living and live)
Take your troubles to Selassie
He is the only King of Kings (King of Kings, King of Kings is He)
Conquering lion of Judah
Triumphantly we all must sing (All must sing, all must sing)
I search and I search this book of life
in the Revelation look what I find
Haile Selassie is the chapel
And the world should know (All should know, all should know)
That man is the angel
And our God, the King of Kings.

Mortimo Planno 1968, recorded by Bob Marley


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[align=center]Ras Mortimo St George Planno, African cultural & spiritual leader, campaigner, activist and writer,
Born 6 September 1929;
Joined the ancestors 5 March 2006
May He Rest in Peace[/align]

R.I.P Ras Mortimo Planno, we have lost another great man but he gets to meet his maker knowing he lived a clean and spiritual life, plus R.N.Marley has his mentor back with him

Respect

Ras

How did I miss this!?



R.I.P. Ras Mortimo St George Planno

He had an open door policy to be accessible to anyone who seriously wants to make a committment to Rastafari, and because of this his economics suffered.

Very telling. But he made his mark still based on a decision we all make everyday it seems.

Thanks.

must admit 1st time i hearing of him but

his life sounds really interesting

thanks mgl

r.i.p. ras planno