ENTITY · PERSON (ARTIST, SELECTOR, PRODUCER…)

Anita Mahfood

Well supported

Anita Mahfood, known professionally as Marguerita, was a Jamaican rhumba dancer of Lebanese-Jamaican descent, schooled at Alpha Academy, who became Kingston's leading exotic dancer of the late 1950s. In 1959 she insisted that Count Ossie's Rastafarian drummers back her show at the Ward Theatre over promoter Vere Johns's objections, giving Count Ossie's ensemble its first performance before a mainstream audience and helping legitimise Rastafarian music in Jamaican popular entertainment. She died in 1965.

No photograph yet — add one you hold the rights toOpenly licensed or your own work. We publish the credit and the licence beside it.

At a glance

Type: Person (artist, selector, producer…) →
Era: Ska and independence-era culture →
Confidence: Well supported
Sources: Jamaica Gleaner; skabook.com (Heather Augustyn); Wikipedia.

Share a memoryWrite it, say it, or send a photo.Correct this recordA date, a name, a spelling we got wrong.Add a source leadA flyer, tape, article or photograph.

Connections

Media & sources

Articles & sources

Open source ↗

Margarita, Rastafari drumming and performance

WEB · rights discovery only · press source

Jamaica Gleaner arts/leisure feature on Anita Mahfood ('Margarita').

Source link ↗

In stories

Story · Well supportedWomen behind the boards and the business

Producers, executives and one dancer whose stand-off with a promoter opened a stage to Rastafarian drumming -- the women who ran the business side of Jamaican music.