When Buju Banton pranced off Columbiahalle's stage and bade goodbye to the 480 fans who turned up at the Berlin club just past midnight Sunday, it was a watermark occasion signalling a new beginning.

The artiste, who last Friday kicked off a gruelling 42-city tour in Caen, France, ended a long hiatus from the Berlin party scene with a clinical performance. Twenty years after Germans began breaking down the Berlin Wall, Buju has finally been able to smash his own roadblocks.

Buju Banton has fought for years to escape the shadow that has haunted him since his controversial hit Boom Bye Bye in the early 1990s. Shows in Berlin have over the last few years been scrapped, largely due to mounting pressure from gay-rights activists and security concerns. Word of the deejay's appearance at Columbia reportedly galvanised a homosexual support group to plan protests Sunday afternoon, but that agitation fizzled. Scores of police personnel swarmed the precincts of the club as a preventative measure and to collar any potential confrontation.

No inflammatory comments

While the deejay steered clear of inflammatory comments, he delivered a subtle broadside to campaigners who had set up hurdles to shows in the German capital.

"They tried to keep me away from you, but we are united; we've got some catching up to do," he told the audience as he introduced songs from his album, Rasta Got Soul. Hits such as Not An Easy Road, which he performed Sunday, have become a metaphor of the Jamaican artiste's struggle to gain redemption after what some stakeholders call a smear campaign to destroy his career.

The seasoned entertainer dished out a diverse mix from his repertoire, juggling newer opuses with others from the past, balancing 'girls' tunes and 'conscious' hits. When he pressed the gas with Driver A, the song registered 8.0 on the Richter scale on the Berlin dance floor.

Ashraf Hassan, the Sudanese impresario who lassoed 'the Gargamel' for Sunday's event, was anxious about the turnout, which he believed might have been affected by past fumbles and stumbles. The final numbers ended up 120 short of breaking even.

Hassan said dancehall exponents were not allowed to promote discrimination against any group - including gays - as Berlin, still smarting from its role in African colonialism and World War II Nazi terror, transitions its international image.

Buju's management had to signature an agreement not to cross the line during the concert, The Gleaner has learnt.

Deejay Delly Ranx, who spoke to The Gleaner on the headache-hit Rastafarian's behalf after the show, was evasive when asked about the past problems in Berlin, a clear sign that Buju's management team is determined to turn the spotlight on performances, not side-show intrigue. He said Buju was focused on completing a successful tour, which ends late July. He is scheduled to perform next in Denmark today.

'Never'

Colin Smith, Buju's tour manager, was more declarative about the prospects of sex minorities ratcheting up pressure and putting a spoke in the wheel of their two-month programme. "Never has, never will!" he told The Gleaner hours before the Columbia gig.

Berlin has long been considered accommodative of gays, a reality emphasised by the candour of the city's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, about his own same-sex status and commitment to stamp out any whiff of discrimination. Indeed, in Berlin there is even a Schwules Museum, detailing the history of the gay movement in Germany.