My Second Epistle of Jamaica and Bob Marley to the Minority Group in Parliament.
Thankfully, a number of evidences sustain my description of Bob Marley. Prof. Horace Campbell clears it up by suggesting that “Marley identified with Africa and broke the long tradition of mixed-race persons who denied their African heritage.” According to G. Tubei, “Bob Marley loved Jamaica but he was in transit and Africa was the destination. He not only loved the continent symbolically but also in a real sense.”
Speaking to The Guardian, Rita Marley, Bob’s widow and member of The Wailers’ backing vocalists I-Threes, stated that “Bob’s whole life is about Africa, it is not about Jamaica;” “How can you give up a continent for an island?”, she asked. Again, as to why I find a convergence between Marley’s words and the aspirations stipulated in the Agenda 2063 framework, the words of Bob Marley have lived on for over 46 years (since the release of Catch a Fire album) and if anyone ever questioned me about the likelihood of extinction of his name and messages, my response would be: I see no light at the end of the tunnel.
According to the African Union Commission (AUC): The aspirations [of Agenda 2063] reflect the desire of Africans for prosperity and well-being, for unity and integration, for a continent of free citizens and expanded horizons, with freedom from conflict and improved human security. They also project an Africa of strong identity, culture and values, as well as a strong and influential partner on the global stage making an equal contribution to human progress and welfare – in short, a different and better Africa (AUC, 2014:10).
Interestingly, I chanced upon a comment under a video of Bob Marley’s performance at the Oakland Auditorium in 1979 on YouTube, which immediately gave credence to my thoughts expressed in this article. Rick Fountain, Jr. wrote that “5000 years from now Bob will still be with us!!!!!” Marley sang about the struggles of African people while signifying the need for Pan-African unity on the African continent to launch an onslaught on Western oppression and exploitation. Insofar as the African dream of a free, united and strong Africa is attained, the words of Marley continue to be relevant to the fight for the total liberation of the continent. I mean, what striking difference is there to be seen between the songs (chants) of Bob Marley and the rantings of Ghana’s first Prime Minister and President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah? Possibly, it is the reverse of the similarities between these astute individuals of the 20th century.
Furthermore, in Redemption Song, Bob Marley begins with the poignant narration of how his ancestors were forcefully shipped from Africa in slave ships to foreign lands: “Old pirates, yes, they rob I. Sold I to the merchant ships Minutes after they took I (sic) from the bottomless pit.” This song was on Bob Marley’s last album Uprising released in 1980. Nevertheless, he acknowledges that despite the transgression and ordeal suffered, we forward in this generation, triumphantly. Though not exclusively his own words, Marley goes on to admonish blacks (Africans) that: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.” This was a clarion call to blacks by Marcus Garvey who maintained that while others may liberate our bodies, none but ourselves can free our minds (Garvey, 1925).
Garvey’s central ideas, which led to the formation of the U.N.I.A were race first, economic empowerment through self-reliance, Black Nationalism, the centrality of Africa and the liberation of Blacks from mental slavery. With Bob Marley’s call on Africans to “emancipate ourselves from mental slavery,” Campbell believes that it is a passionate advice for “intellectuals and the activists to make a break with the epistemologies that justify and cover up oppression.”
Looking at the 21st century now, with neo-colonialism still blossoming on the African continent, the emancipation project has been left unattended to by Africans (notably the leaders on the continent); by “emancipation” Bob Marley seems, in this time, to mean the renewal of and disentangling our minds from Eurocentric standpoints and to embrace Afrocentric perspectives, which will nurture our awareness and appreciation of the African reality. The resurgence of the African personality, as trumpeted by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, will ensure that Africa receives a facelift in international affairs or its relationship with the rest of the world (globalization).
According to Molefi Kete Asante, “Afro-centricity is an intellectual paradigm that privileges the centricity of Africans within the context of their own historical experiences.” It seeks to challenge Euro-centric viewpoints and its domination on African people as a result of the slave trade and colonialism. Euro-centrism presents a racist, divisive, ahistorical, and dysfunctional view of world history. While we free our minds, “none but ourselves” reminds us of the daunting task which behoves on Africans to ensure the total redemption of the continent. It is only when this is achieved that we can finally lend our voices to Bob Marley in joining the masses who will be singing the freedom songs with him in 2063 when he calls out “Won’t you help to sing these songs of freedom?”
Additionally, Bob Marley talks about what Worth (1995) has pointed out as a commonality between all Rastas—the rejection of Babylon—in Babylon System (1979). The teachings of Rastafari call for a total abhorrence of Babylon, a place Rastafarians perceive as the abode of oppressors. Babylon, for Rastas, denotes Western society. This is seen in Hagerman’s (2012:384) insistence that “Babylon is the root of oppression.”
The Rastas’ belief that Babylon’s mission is to put God’s [Jah] creation asunder fuels their determination to reject the dealings of Babylon, as seen in the opening verse of Babylon System: We refuse to be What you wanted us to be, We are what we are. That’s the way it’s going to be if you don’t know Rastas are convinced beyond measure that Babylon is the progress that was made possible by the oppression of Africans (Worth, 1995). Reference can be made to Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, in which he averred that the underdevelopment of Africa is as a result of calculated schemes of domination and impoverishment of African peoples.
This suppression of Africa has operated on cultural, political, economic and social levels of African life. Certainly, Africa has not lived up to her full potential as a continent endowed with vast natural and mineral resources; but it is important now more than ever, as we advance in the 21st century, to turn around the fortunes of the continent of Africa. It is expected of Africa to look within herself for solutions to her problems as well as strive to break free of the snares of these nations and their multinational corporations that continuously fleece Africa; this is captured appropriately in Marley’s words “Babylon system is a vampire sucking the blood of the sufferahs (sufferers).”
In another song Chant down Babylon, Bob Marley charged fellow Rastafarians [Africans] to
“Come we go burn down Babylon.” Just as Marley rightly sings: Yes, we’ve been trodding on the winepress much too long Rebel, rebel! To ‘Rebel’ against neo-colonialism (Babylon system), Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in his book, Africa Must Unite (1963), and Bob Marley in his 1979 classic, Africa Unite on the Survival album, are conscious of the legitimacy of the purpose for which the unification of Africans, both home and abroad, is a must. Perhaps, this fine line between [Kwabena] Marley and Kwame Nkrumah evidences the fact that both individuals were hugely influenced by the Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey
TO BE CONYINUED…
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