Jamaican
music from its earliest recognizable forms such as ska and rock steady has drawn
many of its themes from the language and imagery of the King James Bible. The
creative interplay between song lyrics and the Old Testament, as evidenced by
the ska inspired “Six and Seven Books of Moses” by Toots and the Maytals and the
dancehall flavored “Til Shiloh” by Buju Banton, was amplified by the rise of
Rastafarianism in Jamaica.
One
of the implications of this nexus between Rastafarianism and the work of
songwriters such as Burning Spear, Bob Andy and Bob Marley was their insistence
in giving voice to the plight of the dispossessed by using the prophetic
discourse of the Bible. As the critic Kwame Dawes points out, “Rastafarian
ideology provided a clear and appealing cosmolology for the reggae artist with
highly metaphorical, frequently poetic discourse which fed easily into a working
class discourse that was already rich in proverbial and Biblical resonance”
(100). Another implication was that songwriters such as Dennis Brown and Bunny
Wailer, who based their lyrics on the King James Bible and the beliefs of
Rastafarianism, envisioned their home in Africa. Rastafarians, whose theology is
derived in part from the King James Bible, accepted the pattern of paradise,
exile (wilderness) and return, a dominant pattern in the Judaeo-Christian
tradition, (Pearson 73) and the work of many reggae songwriters allude to this
pattern that forms the basis of their work. This importance of this pattern
gains added poignancy when we examine Jamaican music (Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae)
because the archetypal pattern of loss, exile and return is colored by a history
of slavery, colonialism and economic privation. Whether the theme of the
paradise, exile and return is interpreted literally or metaphorically, the idea
remains one of the major motifs in the development of the reggae lyric.
Africa:
The Lost Paradise
Africa
and the loss of the fatherland have always been central subjects of Jamaican
music. One of the earliest examples is found in the lyrics of a song every
Jamaican knows by heart, “Satta Massagana” by The Abyssinians. “Satta massagana
ahamlack ulaghiize” is Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia) and means
“Give thanks and praise to God continually” (Reggae Lyric Archive). Even
a cursory review of the lyrics reveals the songwriter’s indebtedness to the King
James Bible and the influence of Rastafarianism.
There
is a land far, far away
Where
there’s no night, there’s only day
Look
into the book of life and you will see
That
there’s a land far, far away
That
there’s a land far, far away.
The
King of Kings and the Lord of Lords
Sits
upon his throne and He rules us all
Look
into the book of life and you will see
That
He rules us all
That
He rules us all.
Satta
Massagana ahamlack, ulaghize
Satta
Massagana ahamlack, ulaghize ulaghize. (Satta Amassagana)
Rastafarians
believe in the divinity of Haile Selassie I, “The King of Kings and Lord of
Lords,” who was a direct descendant of King David through the union of King
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. (Owens 18). On his coronation in 1930, the chief
or Ras of his people, Tafari Mekonnen took the title as the “King of
Ethiopia, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Conquering Lion of the tribe of
Judah” (Owens 18). The connection between this event and the fact that as late
as 1999, The Guinness World Book stated that Jamaica held the record for
the most churches per square mile1
becomes clear when we realize that Jamaicans and Caribbean people
in general, are people of the Book. The Old Testament model of paradise lost,
exile and return is a part of our cultural tradition.
Rastafarians
have translated the pattern to mean: if Africa is the birthplace of humankind,
then Africa is paradise, an idea that the group Steel Pulse assert in “Not King
James Version”:
Cause
out of Africa
Came
the Garden of Eden
Hidden
from me I was never told
Ancient
prophets black and bold
Like
Daniel, King David and Abraham
Israel
were all black men. (Smash Hits)
It
follows then that all the covenants made with these patriarchs, Noah, Abraham,
and Jacob (Israel) must apply to their descendants-people of African descent. It
must also follow that the first Israelites (descendants of Abraham) must have
been black. If Africa is the true homeland for all black people, then Black
people must return to Africa. The eventual repatriation to Africa fits the
pattern as Dennis Brown states in “Africa”:
Africa
we want to go
Our
fore parents were born Ethiopians
It’s
the land of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah
The
root of David (Greatest Hits).
Another
songwriter who identified easily with the Old Testament paradigm was Desmond
Dekker, who during the Sixties wrote the song, “The Israelites,” which made it
to the Top Ten in Israel because of the mistaken belief on the part of the
Israelis that the song was about them. This identification with the Old
Testament pattern has led many to conclude that our present dislocation and
exile is nothing new--it’s happened before and it will happen again.
Or
as Bob Marley declares in “Redemption Song”: “Some say it’s just a part of it/
we’ve got to fulfill the Book” (Songs of Freedom 4:18). The current loss
and brain-drain that began with the slave trade, then with the loss of whole
generations to Panama to build the canal; to England to become part of the
skilled and unskilled labor force during the Fifties; the exodus of Jamaicans to
New York, Canada and Miami during the Seventies; and the current migration of
Jamaican teachers to New York is all seen as part of a larger pattern that was
captured by The Melodians in “By the Rivers of Babylon” (Story of Jamaican
Music 2:9)
Exile
in Babylon
“By
the Rivers of Babylon” (another song that made it to the Top Ten in Israel) is a
reworking of Psalm 137.
By
the rivers of Babylon
Where
we sat down
And
there we wept
When
we remembered Zion
But
the wicked carried us away in captivity
Required
from us a song
How
can we sing King Alpha’s song
In
a strange land? (Story of Jamaican Music 3:8)
The
Melodians, using the language of the King James Bible, transformed the
experience of the Jewish
exiles in Babylon into a statement about the Jamaican condition during the
Seventies. Rastafarians separated by geography and history from the man who was
prophesied by Marcus Garvey in one of his speeches: “Look to Africa for your
king!” sought an explanation for their dilemma and found it in the Books of
Jeremiah, Lamentations and the Psalms (Owens 18). When Selassie ascended the
throne in 1930, Marcus Garvey was thus seen as a prophet, a Moses returned and
became a revered figure in Rastafarian theology. And the reason should be
obvious. Garvey in his many speeches and proposals was the first Black leader to
outline a plan for Black self-improvement, liberation based on repatriation to
Africa. In other words, he outlined a coherent philosophy that on the one hand,
had a foundation of raising self-esteem within the Black community and a
practical means of achieving that goal. Garvey’s vision of a unified Black
nation and an African homeland was woven into the texture of the reggae lyric.
Garvey was thus elevated to the status of a cultural hero and prophet by
songwriters such as Culture in “The Two Sevens Clash”:
My
good old prophet Marcus Garvey prophesize and say:
‘St.
Jago de la Vega and Kingston is gonna meet’
And
I can see with mine own eyes
It’s
only a housing scheme that divide (Story of Jamaican Music 3:10)
The
loss of Paradise, according to Rasta logic occurred because Jamaicans, and
African in the New World2,
were guilty of a sin of omission--that is, they failed to recognize Selassie as
earth’s rightful ruler and they sold Marcus Garvey into the hands of Babylon.
Jamaicans had transgressed against the King of Creation and therefore broken the
covenant of having no other gods before JAH and had distorted the true history
of Black people. Steel Pulse in “Not King James Version” explains further the
loss of this homeland: In Esau’s chapter of history
So
little mention of you and me
We
rulers of kingdoms and dynasties
Explored
this Earth for centuries
Phoenicians,
Egyptians, and the Moors
Built
civilization, that’s for sure
Creators
of the alphabet
While
the West illiterate (Smash Hits) Jamaicans and all Black people, as the
true Israelites, by forsaking the King of Kings and the Lords of Lords, were
paying the price for their broken covenant with the King of Creation, so they
would now suffer humiliation and exile in modern Babylon, which Rastafarians
interpret as our Western capitalistic system of exploitation that puts profits
above principles. Marley uses the image of a vampire to show the debilitating
effects of living in “Babylon System”: “Me say the Babylon system is a
vampire/Sucking the blood of the sufferers” (Songs of Freedom 4:8).
There
is no reformation of Babylon and to describe the coming destruction of Babylon,
Rastas draw heavily on the apocalyptic language of the books of Daniel and
Revelation because “the time of tribulation” is a precursor to the final battle
of good over evil (Armageddon) that results in the return to Paradise. Songs
such as “Armageddon Time” and “Joggin” by Freddie McGregor welcome the coming
conflagration for it means deliverance from Babylon. The only way to escape the
coming wrath of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is to escape from the
clutches of Babylon. Yet only a remnant of Black people will survive as Bob Andy
reminds us in a lyric reminiscent of the Jewish Passover: “If the sign is on
your door, /then you will be saved for
sure”
(Fire Burning).
Return
to Zion
The
music is therefore charged with an urgency to flee Babylon and to repatriate to
Africa. Steel Pulse in “Rally Round the Flag,” state this necessity:
They
took us away captivity
Required
from us a song
Right
now man say repatriate
I
and I patience have now long time gone
Father’s
mothers sons daughters every one
Four
hundred million strong
Ethiopia
stretch forth her hand
Closer
to God we Africans (Smash Hits)
The
movement out of Babylon can be physical –-many Rastafarians have relocated to Ethiopia3
and other parts of Africa or it may be metaphysical--one remains in
Babylon physically, but mentally and spiritually, one remains uninfluenced by
Babylonian dress or culture. Babylon’s system must be resisted and the idea of
marronage or resistance that has had a long history in the Caribbean and
especially in Jamaica (Black 60) has been assimilated into the Rastafarian
religion. Bob Marley in “Soul Rebel” proclaims; “I’m a rebel/ Soul Rebel/ I’m a
capturer/ Soul Adventurer” (Songs of Freedom 1:19). According to the
myth, we are in the resistance or exile stage of our history as a race and at
this stage in the journey only a few, a remnant will make it to Mount Zion or
Africa. This is why Rastafarians wear dreadlocks--a complete repudiation of
Babylon’s system and ways of dress and heeding the Biblical commandment found in
Leviticus 21:3; “They shall not make baldness upon their heads neither shall they shave the corner off of their
beards” (qtd. in Owens 38).
Rastafarians
refuse to be slaves to Babylon --a system that makes us feel as Cornel West
defined “Black” in America: “Unsafe, unprotected, subject to random acts of
violence and hated” (In-Depth). Rastafarians seek escape from Babylon
physically and/or mentally, or as Bob Marley relates in “Duppy Conqueror”: “I’ve
got to reach Mount Zion, the highest region” (Songs of Freedom 1:23).
4
In order to describe the spiritual journey out of Babylon,
Rastafarian songwriters use the image of the train as the metaphorical vehicle
of transport (no doubt a borrowing from the North American Negro
Spirituals5
and R&B tradition with its echoes Harriet Tubman’s Underground
Railroad) and it is an important motif in the music. Whether it’s for romantic
or economic reasons, the train is featured prominently in songs such a “Stop
That Train” by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, which extends the reason for
repatriation in a message of social conscience which is another major element in
the reggae lyric:
Some
goin' east, and-a some goin' west,
Some
stand aside to try their best.
Some
livin' big, but the most is livin' small,
They
just can’t even find no food at all.
I
mean they’re starving (Catch a Fire)
The
social concern of reggae has always been a cornerstone of Marley’s lyrics and
his influence on Jamaican music, especially with regard to the theme Diaspora
cannot be understated. Whether it’s penning with Jimmy Cliff “Many Rivers to
Cross” or writing “Exodus” --the most direct example of incorporation of the
myth of Exodus into the Jamaican experience-Marley personalized the plight of
his community, and made his audience aware of the larger implications of his
personal and, by extension, our collective history.
Marley realized that there
were added dimensions to everyday activities and transformed the most mundane
acts into acts of spiritual inquiry. For example in “Running Away,” Marley who
had spent some years in self-imposed exile in England, used his predicament to
questions his motives for leaving Jamaica; “You must have done something that
you don’t know nobody to know about/ you must have done something wrong/ Why you
can’t find where you belong” (Songs of Freedom 3:13).)
The self
questioning within the call and response framework of the Black church and
African worship was one of the methods that Marley used to convey the idea that
his suffering and exile (and by extension our history and exile) was not in
vain-that there was a larger, nobler pattern to suffering as he asserts in
Jammin': “We’re the living sacrifice” (Songs of Freedom 3:8). In other
words, the journey is not futile as Marley declares in “Redemption Song”: “So
won’t you help to sing, another song of freedom, cause all I ever had,
redemption songs” (Songs of Freedom 4:18). In this song, Marley recounts
his personal and our collective history in metaphorical terms and paints a
picture of fulfillment and pleads with us to join in the vision atonement or
at-one-ment.
This
was the essence of Marley’s greatness. He understood intuitively the archetypal
pattern of loss, exile and return and more than any other songwriter of his
generation and made a conscious effort at working these themes, especially the
theme of freedom, into his songs. The quest to reach Mount Zion and the
admonitions to leave Babylon stem from the most basic of human desires: freedom.
And Marley, if he was nothing else, was a champion of individual freedom and
this is another reason why his music resonates with so many people around the
world and especially his poor and dispossessed brethren.
Marley,
at some point, realized that his life was emblematic of a larger structure in
the life of Black people surviving in a system that would demean and destroy
their lives and he wanted to free them from the system. It is no wonder then
that so many of his songs have titles such as, “Lively up Yourself” and “Get Up,
Stand Up.” Marley wanted to educate Black people for them to know their past and
used the now famous Marcus Garvey quote, “Rise, you mighty people,” in the song
“Wake up and Live!” He wanted to awaken black people out of their “sleep and
slumber,” and in the process made Jamaicans and many people around the world
aware of their spiritual condition (Survival).
For
example in “Exodus” he asks: “Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?”
And then pleads, “Send us another brother Moses, gonna cross the Red Sea.”
(Songs of Freedom 3:10). Even if one does not accept Marley’s” view of
divinity residing in the personage of Haile Selassie, one can share in the
vision of compassion of “Exodus” to break “oppression, rule equality, wipe away
transgressions, set the captives free” (Songs of Freedom 3:10). This is
the vision of Isaiah and the theme of all world religions. But true peace can
only be realized through compassion for all human beings and a demand for equal
rights and justice. Until equal rights and justice are achieved for all people,
inequality and injustice will be obstacles for Black people and in turn
present obstacles for the entire human race to achieve the ascent to Mount Zion.
Yet the struggle for freedom is not limited to one race as Peter Tosh reminds us
in “Equal Rights”: “Palestinians are struggling for equal rights and justice”
(The Best of Peter Tosh). As long inequality and injustice exist, the
former slaves who still carry the world’s burdens will continue to be scattered.
The solution then lies in our philosophies of racism and exploitation or as
Marley explains in “War”: “Until the philosophy that holds one race superior and
another inferior…until the color of a man’s skin is nor more significant than
the color of his eyes… me say war” (Songs of Freedom 3:5). Marley is not
content with only a few, remnant, achieving the return to Mount Zion. As he says
in “So Jah Seh”: “Not one of my seed shall sit on the sidewalk and beg your
bread” (Natty Dread).
When
the “basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all” then the Diaspora can be
reversed or as Bob wails in “I Know”: “Bring my children from the ends of the
earth” (Uprising). This is what the Diaspora means for many
Jamaicans songwriters. They see the current scattering and suffering as part of
a larger plan and must take place before repatriation will occur. It is a
testing in the wilderness of exile. To quote another Marley song “Natural
Mystic”: “Many more will have to suffer, any more will have to die/Don’t ask me
why” (Songs of Freedom 3:11).
These songs whether on LPs, tapes, or CDs
provide a narrative for us to understand our experiences-for that ultimately is
what these songs provide--meaning to our lives. And in a country like
Jamaica with its rich oral histories that have been the major means of
transmission of a sense of the past, the songwriters have become the unofficial
historians of the island and have shaped the social conscience of entire
generations. It is a method of inscribing and transforming the consciousness of
the world that will ultimately lead to the healing that Marley sang about in his
anthem of universal brotherhood, “One Love”: “One love. One heart, let get
together and feel all right” (Songs of Freedom 1:5)
For
my own part sometimes I believe the songs sometimes deceive us into a willing
complacency--waiting to enter that far off promised land or as Philip Larkin,
the British poet, declared in the poem “Next, Please”:
Always
too eager for the future, we
Pick
up bad habits of expectancy.
Something
is always approaching: every day
Till
then we say.
(52)
Marcus
Garvey’s “prophecies” about famed ships coming to take Black people back to Africa,
as FredLocks declares in “Seven Miles of Black Star Liners” never came to pass.
Seven
miles of Black Star Liners coming in the harbor
I
can see them coming
I
can see I-drens running.
I
can hear the Elders saying, “These are the days for which we’ve been praying.”
Seven
miles of Black Star Liners coming in the harbor
It’s
repatriation,
A
Black liberation.
Yes,
the time has come:
Black
Man, we’re going home! (Black Star Liner)
Selassie’s
death in 1975 provoked a serious crisis of faith for many Rastafarians. As Dawes
points out, the event became for Rastafarians: “a spiritual mystery that can
only be open to metaphysical interpretation” (125).
The
pattern of loss, exile and return is a powerful one and is deeply embedded in
the human psyche. Its manifestation is not limited to the Bible, and its
equivalent can be seen in any mythology that celebrates an ascent to the
symbolic “world mountain” (Campbell 23). In the case of the reggae, the pattern
is enveloped in a danceable beat, and it carries an enormous an emotional
appeal. Many of us who were weaned on the reggae, despite our cynicism still
hope that one day as Marley sings in “Rastaman Chant”: “One bright morning when
my work is over, I’ll fly away home” (Songs of Freedom 2:13”).
Notes.
The
wilderness is a key image in the Judaeo Christian tradition. "Salvation
traditionally comes from the wilderness. Moses, Elijah, and David all had to
flee to the wilderness (Exodus 2:15; I Sam 23:14; I Kings 19:3-4). The
wilderness is both a route to the Promised Land and a place of exile for those
who are at odds with God. It is a place where people sin and it is a place where
we repent to restore our right relationship with God once again. (Jones)
2
Edna Manley, wife of Jamaican Prime Minister Norman Washington Manley
(1959-19620 and mother of Prime Minister Michael Norman Manley (1972-80 &
1989-92) was a part of a group of influential artists and poets—a sort of
Bloomsbury—that began in the Forties and whose influence on the intellectual
life of Jamaica extended into the mid-nineties.1
For more information see http://www.bartleby.com/>.
2
See
http://www.everytingjamaican.com/channels/theisland/culture.asp
3
Peter
Tosh in “African” asserts: As long as you are a black man, you’re an African”
(Best of Peter Tosh)
4
The
Black Star Line founded by Marcus Garvey was intended to facilitate repatriation
of Black people to Africa. Although the idea had some currency in North America
for a brief period, the idea never really took root as strongly as it did in
Jamaica where it remains one of the main tenets of Rastafarianism. See
http://search.biography.com.
5
Marley
seemed to have been ambivalent about a literal interpretation of the myth. In
some interviews he advocated a physical return to Ethiopia (Goldman 41), yet in
“Redemption Song,” he urged his audience to “Emancipate yourself from mental
slavery/ none but ourselves can free our minds” (Songs of Freedom 4:18).
6
Many
Negro Spirituals also contain the pattern of covenant/exile/ return, and had a
literal interpretation. As The Negro Spiritual Workshop states, “The Negro
spirituals “The Gospel Train” and “Swing low, sweet chariot” directly refer to
the Underground Railroad, an informal organization who helped many slaves to
flee”
Works
Cited
Abyssinians.
Satta Massagana. CD. Heartbeat, 1993.
Andy,
Bob. Fire Burning. CD. Trojan, 1995.
Black,
Clinton V. The History of Jamaica. Essex: Longman Caribbean, 1983.
Brown,
Dennis. Greatest Hits. CD. PPI, 1994.
Campbell,
Joseph. The Mythic Image. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1974.
Dawes,
Kwame. Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius. London: Sanctuary,
2002.
------. . Natural Mysticism: Towards a New
Reggae Aesthetic in Caribbean Writing. Leeds: Peepal Tree, 1999.
Folkes
Brothers, et al. The Story of Jamaican Music. CD. 4 discs. Island,
1993.
Fred
Locks. Black Star Liner. CD. VPD, 1995.
Goldman,
Vivien. “Uptown Ghetto Living; Bob Marley in His Own Backyard.” Reggae Rasta,
Revolution: Jamaican Music from Ska to Dub. Ed. Chris Potash. New York:
Simon,
1997. Jones, Annette. “Re: Wilderness.” E-mail to the author. 19 Nov. 2003.
Larkin,
Philip. Collected Poems. Ed. Anthony Thwaite. New York, Farrar, 1993.
Marley,
Bob. Songs of Freedom. CD. 4 discs. Island, 1999.
------.
Confrontation. Island, 1983.
------. Uprising. Island, 1980
------.
Survival. Island, 1979
------.
Natty Dread. CD. Island, 1974.
-----. Catch a Fire. CD. Island, 1971.
Owens,
Joseph. Dread: The Rastafarians of Jamaica. London: Heinemann, 1976.
Pearson
Carol S. Awakening the Heroes Within: Twelve Archetypes to Help us Find
Ourselves and Transform our World. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991.
Selah.
20 Jan. 2002. Reggae Lyrics Archive. 27 Jan. 2002.
<http://hjem.get2net.dk/sbn/reggae.htm.>.
Spiritual
Workshops. Negrospirutual.com.14 February 2002.
<http://www.negrospirituals.com/song.htm.
Steel
Pulse. Smash Hits. CD. Elektra, 1993.
Tosh,
Peter. The Best of Peter Tosh. CD. Sony, 1999.
West,
Cornel. Interview. In-Depth. C-Span. Washington. 8 Jan. 2002.
Miami Dade College
Miami Book Fair International
Miami
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