Home work: 29th Sept, 2010.

Biography of Roger Mais
Roger Mais was born on 11 August 1905 in Kingston, Jamaica, into a respectable middle-class family. Mais was educated at Calabash High School and first employed and first employed in the Civil Service and moved from job to juob in a variety of fields. He later became a journalist, novelist, poet and playwright. At the time he began writing, he learned about the black underclass with the kind of creative attention that made it possible to report back accurately in his novels. It also involved him in the kind of political commitment and cultural reorientation that caused him to change sides during the workers' antihardship and anticolonial uprisings of 1938, when, in the middle of his going to enlist as an antiriot special constable, he joined the freedom fighters instead. By 1951, Mais had won ten first prizes in West Indian literary competitions. His integral role in the development of political and cultural nationalism is evidenced in his being awarded the high honor of the order of Jamaica in 1978. He died of cancer at the age of forty-nine.


What critics say about the book 'Brother Man'
One critic, Edward Brathwaite states in his introduction that Brother Man is Roger Mais's best novel because it reflects all of the author's varied talents. Here, good and evil in the Jamaican slums are brought to life. The book details the origins of the Rastafarian cult and the hero's Christ-like walk against a chorus of ordinary people.
Rastafarianism
Rastafarians believe the Messiah is Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia. As emperor, Selassie was actually called "Ras Tafari." One of the outgrowths of Rastafarianism is its heavy influence in Raggae music, which was made popular and gained worldwide recognition through the late Bob Marley. Early Rastafarians considered Selassie the living God. Some Rastafarians see Rasta more as a way of life than a religion.The Rastafarian lifestyle usually includes ritual use of marijuana, avoidance of alcohol, the wearing of one's hair in dreadlocks, and vegetarianism.
In society today, Rastafarians are seen as both positive and negative for a number of reasons. Some people portray Rastas as negative or "bad" because of the way in which they act or present themselves, their use of marijuana, and their poor lifestyle choices, there are also still many racists who refuse to provide them with jobs because of their religion. They can also be seen as positive because they are determined and stand up for what they believe in, they also have very healthy eating habits.