Mortimo St George Planno, (6 September 1929 – 5 March 2006[1]) was a JamaicanRastafari elder, drummer and a follower of theback-to-Africa movement founded in the 1910s byMarcus Garvey. He is best known as the Rastateacher and friend ofBob Marley, and as the man who commanded the respect of a chaotic crowd during the arrival of EmperorHaile Selassie onhis visit to Jamaica in 1966. He is referred to by other Rastas as a teacher and a leader within the context of the faith, given his life's work.
He was born inCuba, the youngest of four children. His mother wasJamaican and she took the family back to Jamaica when Planno was still a young boy in the early 1930s. His father was Cuban and his given name was Mortimo, not Mortimer.
He became a prominent Rastafari teacher inKingston, Jamaica in the 1950s and helped found the Rastafari Movement Association as well as the Local Charter 37 of theEthiopian World Federation. He also instigated the first "Universal Grounation of the Rastafari", a drumming and chanting ceremony held in the slum of Back-O-Wall in March 1958.
After repeated harassment by the authorities and ostracism by the Christian public, Planno and his colleagues approached the University College of the West Indies to request an official study of the Rastafari movement, in an effort to establish a better relationship with the wider Jamaican society. The in-depth study led to Planno and two other prominent Rastas' being sent on a "fact-finding mission" toGhana,Nigeria,Sierra Leone and other African countries in 1961. During the trip, Planno metHaile Selassie in person inEthiopia.
The Jamaican government had decided to send a delegation of both officials and Rastafari leaders toAddis Ababa to meet Emperor Haile Selassie. Planno, Douglas Aiken Mack, and Fillmore Alvaranga were the three in the Rasta delegation. TheirMinority Report of the mission differs in several significant aspects from that of the non-Rastafarian delegates,[2] e.g.:
The full story of the 1961 Jamaican delegation in Ethiopia is told in Dr. Giulia Bonacci's bookExodus, Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia (University of the West Indies Press, 2015).
On 21 April 1966, the Ethiopian Emperor, His Imperial MajestyHaile Selassie I, seen as the Messiah by Rastafarians, landed at Kingston airport for an official visit. Thousands of Rastas smokedganja in theirchalice pipes and surrounded the airplane in adoration after surging past the barriers. Emperor Selassie remained onboard his plane for nearly an hour; some accounts state that the Emperor was struck with fear, while others say he was hiding his tears. It was Mortimo Planno who went up the gangplank and urgedSelassie to appear before the ecstatic Rastafarian crowd. Photographs of the Emperor and Planno going down the gangplank appeared in the local press, securing the Rastafarian leader a lasting legendary status.Bob Marley was off the island that day, but fellowWailers band membersPeter Tosh,Bunny Wailer,Rita Marley andConstantine "Vision" Walker were there and actually saw Haile Selassie driving to the city standing on his car.
Bob Marley and other members of the group already knew Planno quite well. The Rastafarian elder lived in the same neighborhood as the vocal group on 35 Fifth Street in West Kingston's Trench Town ghetto, where he kept alibrary of books onBlack Power and Ethiopian history. Planno grew closer to the Wailers throughout 1965. Upon his return from Delaware in late 1966, Marley began an association with him that would last for a couple of years, eventually leading Planno to becoming Marley's manager and producer for a few months. On 8 June 1968, Bob Marley recorded his first openly Rastafarian song,"Selassie is the Chapel", backed by Rastafariannyabinghi ritual drum ensembleRas Michael and the Sons of Negus, withRita Marley andPeter Tosh on harmony vocals. "Selassie is the Chapel" had lyrics adapted by Planno fromSonny Til andthe Orioles' 1953 #1 R&B hit song "Crying in the Chapel", which was written by country music singer Artie Glenn (his sonDarrell had recorded the original version in 1953) and was also a hit song forElvis Presley in 1968. The melody was based on the original song, but the nyabinghi arrangement was somewhat different. The recording session at JBC Studio was financed by Planno. He also recorded a Rasta prayer himself, using someAmharic words as well as quoting the Bible. He was also backed byRas Michael's group, and this recording was issued on the B-side of this rare record as "A LittlePrayer". These two rare, vintage tracks were briefly reissued in 2003 by reggae historianBruno Blum on theBob Marley four-CD setRebel (JAD Records).
Planno was later involved in theOne Love Peace Concert, an event headlined by Marley in 1978.
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