“We refuse to be
what you want from us
We are:
That’s what happens.”
– Bob Marley, babylon system
I was lucky enough to know Bob Marley socially. When a natural disaster occurs, I believe Marley will be on the front lines supporting the victims and providing supplies. If given the opportunity, he would have been the first to come forward and equip Jamaica with the necessary equipment to protect Jamaica in case our sovereignty was threatened.
In Marley's day, armed insurrection against the state was never a serious option, even though misguided political opponents killed and maimed each other with guns and other weapons. The last major conflict was Paul Bogle's Morant Bay Rebellion in 1865. The 1938 workers' uprising was notable for the bravery of Jamaican farmers against a strong capitalist system that sought to maintain American-style sharecropping. While Ronald Henry's failed revolution of 1960 has faded into history, the Tivoli Gardens Rebellion of 2010 was the latest attempted invasion of the nation.
Marley was a natural leader who led the Wailers. When it came time for them to go their separate ways, Marley ran the most successful music organization of all reggae artists, and as it turned out, nothing would replace his Tuff Gong business. There was nothing else. Groups like the Wailers and individuals like Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Marley were not valued by Jamaica's elites and their elected representatives. The country's class and racial attitudes prevented the elite from recognizing the artistic, sociological, cultural, and historical significance of the movement that Marley led.
However, Reggae and Rasta have become so internationally renowned that many in our nation's elite have no choice but to accept the music and Rastafari as Jamaica's major cultural export and one of its greatest economic assets. is running out of options. As former Prime Minister Bruce Golding reminded the audience at a King's House ceremony on January 24, 2008, kicking off the first Reggae Month in February:・While we were rejecting reggae as music, we were also rejecting reggae as rude boy music while we were exporting it overseas, where the power of reggae changed.'' World culture. ” In the same speech, the Prime Minister said: “No one has captured, explored and expanded the possibilities of music like Bob Marley. There is no country in the world where Bob Marley is not known or recognized. Bob Marley is Jamaican music. . He personifies, [and] He represents Jamaican music. ”
next big thing
To the middle and upper classes, Marley and his compatriots are little more than small, “obligatory” Rastas who stir up society with boring back-from-Africa mumbo jumbo and Black Power nonsense, who have no place in a land of “one of many.” There wasn't. Of course, as soon as the metropolitan prophets of Great Britain and America hinted that the Wailers were the next big thing in popular music, our country's “polite” naysayers began to think of the group as their beloved Tom Jones and the Beatles. They crossed the line to celebrate it as Jamaica's unique answer to. In fact, at a party I attended in 2008, I heard a group of retired gentlemen, including politicians, judges, businessmen, and soldiers, dismiss the idea of Marley as a national hero as nonsense. . I joined the group and listened to their reasons based on Marley's lifestyle, religion, and “being in music for the money.” Really? They asked the question, “What did he do for Jamaica?” Let's pause for a moment and consider that even at the stage when Marley's accomplishments were being quantified and internationally recognized (2010), these attitudes were still being expressed in Jamaica.
Additionally, while not a prerequisite to embracing roots culture, the vast majority of us who give standing ovations at the National Dance Theater Company's performances of Kumina, Pocomania, and Revivals are the same as the all-Black-specific performances choreographed by the deceased. Please consider further whether it is a religious ceremony. Rex Nettleford, an intellectual guru and cultural expressionist, stopped at roadside revival meetings, visited Kumina gardens, and built a revival tabernacle in order to accept and embrace the idiomatic cultural expressions that represent the majority. I jumped Poco in , and I jumped Nyabinghi in Grounation .
Part of the answer was given to the party when the major told the following anecdote. “As a young conservative army officer, I thought Bob Marley was a ganja-smoking dreadlocked Rastafarian. Then I started thinking about Uruguay, a right-wing dictatorship where everyone is censored. A colleague took me to a nightclub, and when Marley came on, I realized from the crowd's reaction to his music that I couldn't censor Marley, and I couldn't help but scream. “This is ours.''
Now, the same proletariat that first recognized Marley's talent (like its predecessors who supported the efforts of past heroes) still demands that he be named a national hero. And the same old naysayers at the top are taking up arms against this. Their most important point is that “Bob smoked ganja and fathered children with multiple women,” which hinders his status as a national hero.
This hypocrisy is even more alarming as consumers and collectors are being asked to purchase commemorative Bank of Jamaica coins featuring Marley's likeness for $100 each. “The Queen (and Didn't the Queen of Jamaica knight Mick Jagger?” And what about the Rolling Stones? She must have praised them based on their creative achievements rather than their morality. And isn't that the norm in Jamaica when it comes to many children? We cannot morally judge whether that is right or not. ”
Harvey Miller is a sociomusicologist specializing in the sociocultural history of plantation life and the black diaspora.
This article was first published Review: Literature and Art of the Americas (Volume 43, Issue 2, 2010).Essay updated following the success of the biopic Bob Marley: One Love, according to the results of a poll conducted in January 2024 by Don Anderson's Market Research Services Limited (MRSL). The results show that Jamaicans want Bob Marley to be Jamaica's next national hero, with “44 percent of respondents giving him their approval.” [Radio Jamaica News. Friday, January 5, 2024].
Both updates underscore Bob Marley's importance and influence as a musician whose creativity resonates beyond entertainment. Marley's story is a powerful indicator of Jamaican potential. If a governing system were to seriously value arts and culture, a discipline that seems natural to Jamaicans, Marley could be a “cornerstone” in establishing such a system, and such The system makes use of all kinds of symbols and signifiers, and the role of the national hero in promoting the upliftment of society.