Africa

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REGGAE SINGS OF AFRICA
published: Sunday | July 23, 2006
Jamaica Gleaner

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

"We are the descendants of a suffering people; we are the descendants of a people determined to suffer no longer. If Europe is for the Europeans, then Africa shall be for the Black people of the world. We say it, we mean it ..."

­ Marcus Garvey

AFRICA IS the mother of countless nations, whose children are spread across the globe. Reggae music has long had a history of social consciousness that evokes the sentiments of African-minded men, such as, Marcus Garvey. Jamaican performers, such as, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Sugar Minott, Buju Banton, Garnet Silk, and many more, have propagated the image of Africa in a variety of ways through their music.

Rastafarian philosopher, Mutabaruka says, "Most themes in reggae music is based around Africa, especially in the '70s. Men, such as, Peter Tosh and Mighty Diamonds had songs centred around Africa. I don't know any artiste in the '70s who didn't address tenets of the Rastafari philosophy of Africa as a homeland. Who wasn't affected by the apartheid?"

ANCESTRAL CONNECTION

Jamaicans were affected owing to our ancestral connection with the motherland. According to Kwaku Asante-Darko, lecturer at the National University of Lesotho on www.arts.uwa.edu.au/motsplurials/mp/600ked.html, "On the pan-Africanist dimension of reggae music and its specific intellectual and emotional appeal are largely explicable in the light of the African origins of its Jamaican pioneers".

"Their historical experiences and social struggles are reflected in the works of several of their musicians, who see their musical profession partly as the acceptance of a challenge to fulfil a duty, which Bob Marley describes as 'we free our people with music'."

Some performers showed concern for Africa, such as, Bob Marley in Zimbabwe, while others anticipated going to Africa as Dennis Brown did when he sang "Africa we want to go" in Africa. Reggae stars such as Sugar Minott, Bunny Wailer, and Bob Marley, sing of a pan-African return to the fatherland in their songs, River Jordan, Fig Tree and Zion Train, respectively

THE IDEAL

In Till I'm Laid to Rest by Buju Banton, Africa is presented as the ideal, as he chants, "Ethiopia awaits all prince and princess". For others, Africa is mother, as Peter Tosh postulates in Mama Africa with "Long time me no see you Mama/They took me away from you Mama /Long before I was born." When several reggae musicians, including Jimmy Cliff, toured Africa in the late 1970s, the African liberation wars were in full gear, or had already ended in countries like Guinea Bissau, Angola, Mozambique, Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Songs, such as, War and Apartheid by Marley and Tosh, respectively, are examples of reggae music that lauded the liberation effort in Africa.

Yet, Africa is also seen as home, expressed by Garnet Silk in the '90s with Hello Mama Africa, when he sings, "Say Mama Africa a yours and mine/Own a continent no island never deh pon mi mind/This was well-orchestrated plan from long time/Soon I shall be home and everything will be fine.

Others in the 70s were as affected by the apartheid movement as those directly involvement. Aparatheid and its end evoked a number of songs such as Mutabaruka's Mandela Beware.

"My 'free up the land' poem and my song Mandela Beware expressed how we felt about what was taking place in South Africa. Mandela must beware and see the warning of the lack of militancy that characterised the time after he was released from prison. Because of the apartheid time in the 70s, music came out of the black movement, Jamaican people were searching for identity. A lot of songs were conceived out of that, even my earlier poems were from that time," Mutabaruka said.

"A number of songs were concerned with going to Africa, repatriation, which is the Rastafarian theme," he said.

THEME OF REPATRIATION

Asante-Darko writes: "Bob Marley's song Exodus presents the theme of repatriation in a particularly captivating manner. This is seen mainly by his specific reference to Africa as the 'Fatherland' of the Black man. He equally emphasises the need to leave 'Babylon', the place of captivity where Black people face segregation rather than integration. Reggae music, like jazz and blues, is a bridge of sound that ensures safe passage across the many bodies of water that dis/connect African peoples dispersed across the globe."

This message of connecting the races and going across the waters back to Africa was expressed before Bob Marley's time. Mutabaruka concurs that "even before the 70's Alton Ellis had a song Going Back to Africa, singing "I'm gonna get there". The sentiment of the early ska, the titles of the instrumental mention Africa. That was before Rasta become so popular. Rastafari didn't have churches or any outlet to further our propaganda, so the music became the outlet. A lot of people in the world listen to it. Music is a weapon of intention for the Rastafari movement and it was well used".

Reggae music conveyed a social consciousness that moved persons of all races and creeds, bringing together the Diaspora. Mutabaruka relates that "Winnie Mandela herself told me of how the Rasta man and reggae music helped to strengthen them. Reggae music helped them so much in their time of struggle. Even in Zimbabwe, soldiers expressed that when they were in the jungle the music was their only whim of hope, that half-way across the world there were people that cared about them. Reggae music is one of the most unifying instruments, more than even politicians. Reggae music is why Jamaica is recognised as a cultural mecca".

GOOD ORATORY

And Asante-Darko agrees that "reggae artists reveals striking qualities of good oratory. One equally witnesses the deployment of both classical, traditional and innovative rhetorical skills to the cause of the political independence, economic advancement and the restoration of the racial pride of Black peoples the world over. Such artistic representation of the Negro's experience unites the darker people of Africa to those of America and to all everywhere in whom burns the unfulfilled wish for freedom, equality and dignity".

These expressions that freedom and equality could be achieved through Africa were first advocated by Marcus Garvey and musicians used their music as a means propagating the cause that Africa was for black people. "The African sentiment was related to the legacy of Marcus Garvey," Mutabaruka said.

Asante-Darko examines the issue, stating "in Jamaica reggae begun as a reaction to British colonial rule. Its inclination towards the pan-Africanist perspective of the Jamaican nationalist and pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey is its marked feature. The theme of Africa's past suffering and promising future is closely linked to the 'Back to Africa' advocacy. Marcus Garvey, for his part, saw the solution to this problem (of the discrimination due to a colour line) as the return of Africans to the continent from which they originated. The advocacy of a literal return to Africa came to be championed in reggae music. The songs Exodus, Marcus Garvey and Black Starliner Must Come by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear and Culture respectively are indications of this. They all speak of the need to fulfil the aspirations of all peoples of African descent by moving (metaphorically or literally) to Africa, which is to all intents and purposes the bona fide possession of the Black man".

SLANGS AND SAYINGS

The presence of Africa in reggae music helped to spawn many slangs and sayings that are still used today. They are sayings that evoke the Caribbean people's need for freedom from sufferation and discrimination, as well as evoke the intellectual foundation of Rasta. Asante-Darko explains that "phrases and expressions such as 'a Blackman Redemption', 'black man time again', 'Black Star Liner', ' 'fight for our right', 'the Babylon system is a vampire', or 'Jah will mow down the concrete jungle', 'Downpressor man', 'them belly full but we hungry', 'burning and looting', 'Brothers have to fight against apartheid' are expressions intended to attract and hold the social, political and economic attention of a pan-African audience".

Kwasku Asante-Darko concludes that "the pan-Africanist dimensions of reggae music may be summed up by indicating that whatever its mood - the recriminatory anger of Peter Tosh, the mystical outburst of Culture and Burning Spear, the encomium of ancestral and pre-colonial figures of Alpha Blondy and the hopeful lamentation of Lucky Dube - one notices a common factor of commitment to the African cause. These songs took the struggle of African revivalism from the arena of political discourse to the masses of people. In this sense reggae music can be said to be a significant instrument in the pan-Africanist concern".

Whatever the cause, whatever the means, Africa has been an undeniable part of reggae music. In turn reggae music has beyond doubt influenced the world. But is the theme of Africa still alive today? There is wealth of conscious music present today, but not as large and influential as its predecessors. However Mutabaruka claims that Africa and Rasta still live on. "Through Sizzla, Capleton, I-Wayne Rasta is still alive and so is the theme of Africa. The theme is still Africa and Rasta," Mutabaruka said.