‘IN THE ABUNDANCE OF WATER, THE FOOL IS THIRSTY’: BOB MARLEY AND THE PAN-AFRICAN DREAM

Overview of the Minority Group of Parliament Stance on Government Diplomatic Gesturee to Jamaica

Once again, minority groups within Ghana's legislative arm of government are engaging in a campaign of gaslighting. Their mission is clear, and it is just to let the people’s true government, through the able Foreign Affairs Ministry and led by Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, doubt the diplomatic gesture President John Dramani Mahama and the people of Ghana extended towards Jamaica in this critical moment; they badly need us. The people of Jamaica were recently struck by Hurricane Melissa on October 28, 2025, as a Category 5 storm. This has caused widespread devastation in Jamaica, leading to a disaster declaration and significant recovery efforts following the storm's impact.

It is certainly mind-boggling that, rather than congratulating the president on the back, the minority chose to go on such perilous and cheap popularity tangents in the hope of swiftly becoming relevant to the public gallery. What a farce! When will the minority group be able to persuasively say that they are inconsequential to how the NDC government conducts this country? Have they forgotten what they did to this same country for eight years, under no other person than a tyrant who ordered leaders to stand up for him at palaces and public occasions he attended or visited?

History serves as a crucial reference, illustrating that Jamaica played an essential and deeply entrenched role in the struggles and advocacy for the emancipation of Black and African individuals from the injustices perpetrated by Western powers and Europeans, with notable exceptions such as the Russians and a select few others. The Rastafari movement, originating in Jamaica, employed the compelling medium of reggae music as a means to confront its challenges directly, with numerous individuals sacrificing their lives in this pursuit. Let me refresh the memories of the miniscule minority of one person who fought valiantly and paid the price with his life. I don't want to hear them use the term due process because they have no idea what it means in government.

My First Epistles of Jamaica and Bob Marley to the Minority Group in Parliament.

One would recall the celebration of one of the most renowned among the Rastafari brethren and if you have forgotten or new to the discourse on Rastafari—by reading this—it is the music icon and Reggae legend Robert Nesta Marley, popularly known as Bob Marley. “Third World hero, icon, international superstar, king of reggae, protest singer, representative of the oppressed, the pride of Jamaica, a troubadour in difficult times, legend.” These are the cocktail of words Martijn Huisman chooses to introduce his readers to who Bob Marley is, in the preface of his book, Babylon by Bus: Bob Marley and the Wailers in the Netherlands.

Bob Marley was born in Nine Mile, St. Ann Parish—which is the same birthplace of the Honourable Marcus Garvey (Barrett, 1997) and Winston Rodney (Burning Spear)—on 6^th February 1945 to a white father, Capt. Norval Sinclair Marley, and an African mother, Cedella Booker. In Bob Marley: A Biography by David V. Moskowitz, he indicates that the exact time of Marley’s birth was 2:30 pm.

Born in the rural and low-class community of Nine Miles, Marley grew to become a thorn in the flesh of the white oppressors, thereby challenging the status quo: the subjugation of Africans all over the world. His sojourns across the globe, from his homeland Jamaica, Europe, Central America, Africa to faraway Japan, brought renown to Bob Marley and the whole island of Jamaica. Robert Nesta ‘Kwabena’ Marley, African philosophy and Agenda 2063. Let me add from the onset that, those closest to me, I believe, are [most] aware of how I prefer to call “The King of Reggae;” Kwabena Marley. I do so because it offers me a truer sense and appreciation of Marley’s African identity and his appeal to African philosophy; it is also to appease my Afrocentric spirit.

For clarity sake—taking into consideration my non-Ghanaian brothers and sisters who are reading this—Kwabena refers to a male Ghanaian born on a Tuesday per the Akan custom; this goes to say that Bob Marley was born on Tuesday. This essay positions the life and work of [Kwabena] Marley within the purview of African philosophy (pan-Africanism) through a study of his personality, lyrics (message) and awareness of his African roots.

Also, I situate Marley’s works, which many perceive as prophecies, in a contemporary context of the 21st-century African struggle and the discourse of Agenda 2063, which is a blueprint for the holistic adoption of pan-Africanism for the transformation of Africa. Mooted in 2013, Agenda 2063 encompasses the social, cultural, political and economic issues of Africa, and makes a long-term projection of the state of Africa by the said year having adequately addressed the pitfalls within the aforementioned spheres of African life, through pan-Africanism.

Even though Bob Marley was not a literate—in terms of formal education—one would concede that he exhibited a splendid cognizance of issues—politics, religion, social injustice, cultural alienation—militating against the progress of Blacks. He embarked on what can rightly be referred to as “a pedagogy of the oppressed” in that, he enlightened African people of the need to redeem themselves and reclaim their identity, which suffered grisly as a result of centuries-long domination through slavery and colonialism.

In an amusing twist to the claim that Bob Marley received no formal education, Prof. Horace Campbell, in Rasta and Resistance, is of the view that it was with the Rastafari movement that Marley had his formal education. In 1978, introducing his interview with Bob Marley on NBC News in New York—while Marley was in exile after there had been an assassination attempt on his life—Bruce Morrow said “Bob Marley’s music concerns itself with political tension, social injustice and black roots… most Jamaican musicians are Rastafarians; it’s a sect that believes Jamaican culture should reflect its African heritage.”

It is in light of this that I perceive of Bob Marley as an African philosopher; thus to say he sourced his philosophy (thinking) from his deep-rooted connection with the African blood which coursed through his veins (the reason why Kwabena Marley appeals more to me than his ‘Christian’ name, Robert).

TO BE CONYINUED…