Would Marley Sing for Us Today?

Financial Gazette (Harare)

19 April 2007
Posted to the web 20 April 2007

By Jah Gidi
Harare

I WAS 13 years old when we crossed from Waterfalls to Rufaro Stadium that Friday night, back in April of 1980.

I fell in love with reggae that night. There he was, Bob Marley, in the flesh, and here I was, watching him from the eastern stand of Rufaro, then a mere mound of dirt.

I was too young to have realised at the time that only a day earlier, the new establishment had shown us what it was really all about.

They had sought to have Bob play exclusively to themselves and to their selected invited foreign dignitaries -- including Prince Charles. This caused a riot, and teargas was used on the crowds.

We later learnt that Marley demanded another show, for the people. How we danced into the night. We were young, but we knew we were celebrating something really special. And when Marley sang the opening lines of Zimbabwe, we were ecstatic.

Zimbabwe had been released on Marley's 1979 album, Survival, and had already premiered at the Amandla Festival (contrary to what I heard an SFM radio DJ -- Terrence Mapurisana I believe -- tell his audience this past Sunday, that the song was composed at a local's house. Marley only rehearsed there). Zimbabwe later became something of an unofficial anthem. It was also the only song from the Survival album that Marley regularly performed on his final tour, Uprising.

There are events in every man's life that shape his view of the world forever. For me, it was that breezy April night with Marley. I was to grow up on reggae -- I've been to 56 Hope Road and the Sumfest six times.

That night, Marley made me believe in Africa's future. But now, 27 years on, I am a 40 year-old Zimbabwean pharmacist who at some point had to flip burgers to get by, driven to America -- great Babylon herself -- not by the actions of colonialists, but by the economic mismanagement of my fellow black man. Home for a break, I am saddened by the number of young, black, professionals seeking escape from their homeland.

I wonder whether Marley was, in his own prophetic way, warning us that night.

Soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionaries;

And I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.

What Marley's performance at Independence did was to demonstrate the African Diaspora's unflinching support for our struggle. Today, much of that same Diaspora is ashamed. Over the past decade, I have lived in the Caribbean and in the US. And I have often found myself cornered, by black people, asked to explain the actions of a black government against fellow black people.

The disappointment among black people everywhere is plain to see. Damien Marley, Bob's youngest child, has recorded a song critical of President Mugabe.

Wrote one newspaper of Damien's song, Road to Zion: "The irony of his father singing about liberating Zimbabwe at independence and subsequent events is not lost to many."

The black consciousness movement everywhere feels betrayed.

In Kingston a few years ago, I came across an article in which the Jamaican Observer writes: "...In Mr Mugabe's hands the land issue is chimera. President Mugabe has found a theme that he can milk linguistically for the perpetuation of his own power. He, in the process, declared a willingness to trample the rights of his people..."

Another Jamaican journalist - and this one gutted me -- wrote that the government has done more harm to the advancement of black people than George W Bush. "Mr Mugabe does more. He marches on his people's future and on our own dreams as black people. He diminishes Zimbabwe as well as those who also felt that the struggle was also theirs. He weakens the Diaspora."

I can't help but wonder whether Marley, were he still here, would accept another invitation to Rufaro.

Perhaps, just as Marley's protest songs had inspired those brave liberation fighters in the bush back in the 1970s, his words now might just inspire a new generation to stand up and, once again, demand our dignity as black people back. So I end with some lyrics to Marley's Zimbabwe.

Every man got a right to decide his own destiny,

And in this judgment there is no partiality

So arm in arms, with arms, we'll fight this little struggle,

'Cause that's the only way we can overcome our little trouble

No more internal power struggle;

We come together to overcome the little trouble

Soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionary,

'Cause I don't want my people to be contrary

To divide and rule could only tear us apart;

In every man chest there beats a heart

So soon we'll find out who is the real revolutionaries;

And I don't want my people to be tricked by mercenaries.