“Daddy raised me so out of the norm,” she confesses, as
we discuss her early days raised in the thick of Nyabinghi
Rastafari. Reminiscing about her free-spirited upbringing
with her father - the late Dr. Ikeal Tafari - she admits to
being released in but never confined to the Rastafari way
of life.
“Up through the night beating drums and chanting
psalms on the side of the fire. Living in Mount Carmel, the
Binghi camp and carrying water from the spring. Making
coconut oil, all things natural.” There is a brightening in
her face when she talks about this part of her childhood.
Things natural are the core ingredients of her life’s work.
Physically, natural living puts demands on the body and
drives discipline into the heart. Then there are things like
self-revelation and identity.
“For me, my art deals with Afro-Caribbean heritage,
natural beauty, woman as goddess, woman as the mother,
the maternal. Natural environmental connection to the
earth, that’s one of the main things.” Whenever Nakazzi
talks art, a warrior always seems to arrive.
“I also deal with issues of race, gender equality, and
vulnerability, the body. These are themes that I am
constantly working through because it’s sort of a process;
where through your art you heal yourself. You strip away
layers and examine what’s underneath.” To its credit art
has always been Nakazzi salvation. It’s the thing that