Brother Man
 First edition | |
| Author | Roger Mais |
|---|---|
| Country | Jamaica |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape |
Publication date | 1954 |
| Media type | Print (Paperback) |
| Pages | 191 pp |
Brother Man (1954) is a novel by Roger Mais, about a Messianic folk Rastafarian healer, 'Bra' Man' (in dialect) John Power. The plot follows the superstructure of Christ's story, with other characters resembling Mary Magdelene etc. The book is significant as it is the first serious representation of the Rastafari movement in literature, and Roger Mais foresaw the defining power of the Rasta movement to Jamaican society 20 years before the era of Bob Marley and Reggae mainstream.[1]
It is also significant as an exploration of life in the Jamaican Ghetto, and how the people relate to their leaders, making them deities and throwing them away when they fail to entertain them. The novel is written in prose with a layout that is seemingly cinematic and episodic, little is done to describe the environment beyond the claustrophobic ghetto of ' The Lane' in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica.[2]