GOVERNMENT OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
Office of the Prime Minister
TRIBUTE
TO
KING OSAGyefo
Prime Minister Gaston Browne M.P.
12 December 2025
King George V Grounds
Jah Rastafari, Selassi I.
I GREET YOU IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HIGH!
- I have known Osagyefo as a youth. We lived on the same Street in Grays Farm, known to all as Parliament Street.
I and I was socialized as a Rastafari Youth. It was the Rastafari love and care from the late King Franki and Ras Lumba — who operated an Ital Shop on lower Bishopgate Street — that provided I and I, as an impoverished youth, with a little scatta, sauce and a piece of dread bread, to provide sustenance, when my mentally ill, single-parent mother could no longer provide for her children.
EXPOSITION
2. I acknowledge King Osagyefo as a Rasta King with whom I worked, alongside the late Andrew Moody Stuart, Selah and others, in order to facilitate the decriminalization of Cannabis and the establishment of Grow Antigua.
My Government did succeed in allowing 15 grams of the substance for personal use to be lawful, and for growing four trees on one’s real property to be lawful also. Our government waived the licensing fees and empowered the Rastafari movement with 25 percent shares in Grow Antigua; it is a form of reparatory justice in acknowledgement of the atrocities, the castigating, and the victimization of Rastafari.
- This reparatory justice continued with the gifting of the first Niabingi Rastafari School at Creek Side by our government. Government also leased them land and provided this community with equipment, including an excavator to assist with land preparation for growing food crops, and for pond maintenance to store water in order to facilitate their crop production.
- I and I also owe a debt of gratitude to Rastafari for saving I and I from death. At age 9, Ras Kenya, Osagyefo’s brother-in-law, saved the I from death by electrocution. My friend cut a live electric wire that had entrapped me and was biting through my flesh. He risked his own life by chopping a live wire that could have done him harm. Once again, I give thanks to Ras Kenya and the Most High.
- This life-saving moment has inspired me to become your Prime Minister, with a commitment to elevate Rastafari and to serve all the people of Antigua and Barbuda.
Though seemingly bald, the I was embraced as a member of the Rastafari Community by the Rastafari. It was King Osagyefo who asked that the appellation “Gassy Dread” become I and I new name, a symbol of my unapologetic embrace of Rastafari. I and I, as a multi-ghettoist and fellow revolutionist, will continue to fight for justice, peace, love and unity. Gassy Dread is for real! Seen! - The crowning moment for King Osagyefo was when, as Prime Minister, I issued a formal apology to the Rastafarian nation all across Antigua and Barbuda for the acts of discrimination and violence committed against this population by the State.
King Osagyefo was very happy when I nominated the late King Franki Tafari to address the OAS, to represent the interests and to promote the values of Rastafari.
It was a few weeks ago that we learned that he had fallen in St Lucia. He was airlifted to the Sir Lester Bird/Mt St John Medical Center. Everyone prayed for his recovery. Sadly, the King succumbed to his illness. Long live the King! - I and I had the pleasure to visit him at the Sir Lester Bird Medical/Mount St. John Center where I shared with him several Gassy Dread’s songs. He was especially pleased with Reparations and even more so with Soldier On.
I and I was astonished that despite the grim diagnosis of his mortality, the King remained in good spirits. Evidently, his mind was conditioned to meet his Maker. - King Osagyefo was my dear friend and Comrade. He was one of my most ardent supporters, who was not afraid to oppose me. This was seen with his vigorous opposition to the vaccine mandate during Covid-19. At the end of the day, he always spoke in the superlative about his good friend and Comrade – Gassy Dread.
Let me take this opportunity, once again, to extend my sincerest condolences to his bereaved family and the Rastafari community on the passing of the King. Just as I said to him before his passing, I say to the family – Soldier on. May the memories bring comfort and assuage the pain you feel at this time. May his soul rest in peace and rise in heaven. Jah Rastafari!
P.M. Gaston Browne
Gassy Dread.
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