“Rebel Music”: Bob Marley's Rhythms of Resistance
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DOSSIER “Rebel Music”: Bob Marley’s Rhythms of Resistance “Rebel Music”: los ritmos de resistencia de Bob Marley Carolyn Cooper1 Recibido el 18 de agosto de 2015 Aprobado el 25 de septiembre de 2015 ABSTRACT RESUMEN “Rebel Music”, from the 1974 Natty Dread album, is “Rebel Music”, del álbum de 1974 Natty Dread, es un a classic articulation of Marley’s liberatory politics. clásico de la articulación política liberadora de Marley. Though the album credits state that the song was Aunque los créditos del álbum afirman que la canción written by Aston Barrett and Hugh Peart, the vision fue escrita por Aston Barrett y Hugh Peart, la visión is unquestionably Marley’s. “Rebel Music” both road- es, sin duda, de Marley. En “Rebel Music” los toques block and curfew become symbols of a larger system de queda y las restricciones de movilidad se convierten of brutality with its roots in plantation slavery. en símbolos de un sistema más amplio de brutalidad con sus raíces en la esclavitud en las plantaciones. Key words: Bob Marley, Rebel Music, Resistance, rasta woman Palabras claves: Bob Marley, Rebel Music, Resisten- cia, mujer rasta 1 Profesora de la Facultad de Estudios Lingüísticos de la University of the West Indies (UWI) at Mona, Kingston, Jamaica. Cooper ha tomado un papel de liderazgo en la formación y maduración de la disciplina Estudios Culturales a través del Departamento de Estudios Reggae que inició hace más de una década. Ella ha proporcionado el liderazgo de esta empresa innovadora por más de una década. REVISTA Cuadernos del Caribe ISSN: 1794-7065 | ISSN-e: 2390-0555 | No. 20 julio - diciembre 2015 | pág. 33-36 San Andrés Isla, Colombia Carolyn Cooper Reggae music is a potent medium through which We refuse to be the political consciousness of the Jamaican people What you wanted us to be. has long been expressed. Iconic Bob Marley, We are what we are the global face of Jamaica, is one of the finest That’s the way it’s going to be. political poets the Caribbean has produced. In You can’t educate I his song “One Drop”, from the 1979 Survival For no equal opportunity album, Marley vividly defines reggae music as a Talking about my freedom “drumbeat . playing a rhythm/resisting against People freedom and liberty. the system.” Yeah! Hardcore reggae music is, indeed, an instrument We’ve been trodding on the winepress of political insurrection. Its central ideological pre- Much too long occupation is radical social change. Bob Marley’s Rebel, rebel. rebellious songs are a compelling affirmation of resistance against the systematic dehumanization Rebellion is the inevitable response to the le- of oppressed peoples across the globe. gacies of enslavement and colonialism. Indeed, “Rebel Music”, from the 1974 Natty Dread Marley underscores the role of the school system album, is a classic articulation of Marley’s libera- and institutional religion in prolonging the su- tory politics. Though the album credits state that ffering of the masses of the Jamaican people. He the song was written by Aston Barrett and Hugh uses the metaphor of the vampire to signify the Peart, the vision is unquestionably Marley’s. In parasitical political system that robs the people the opening verse of the song, he asks two pro- of their life force: found questions: Babylon system is the vampire Why can’t we roam this open country? Sucking the children day by day. Oh why can’t we be what we wanna be? Babylon system is the vampire Sucking the blood of the sufferers. Then he makes a stark declaration: “We want Building church and university to be free”. The quest for freedom is a recurring Deceiving the people continually. theme in Marley’s body of work. Me say them graduating But there are obstacles to freedom. In “Rebel Thieves and murderers, Music”, Marley chants: “Three o’clock roadblock, Look out now curfew”. The early-morning roadblock and cur- Sucking the blood of the sufferers. few are decidedly literal. In the 1970s, Jamaican Tell the children the truth. society was in a state of political upheaval. Po- licing the movement of the citizenry was a stra- Similarly, in “Crazy Baldhead,” from the 1976 tegy designed to exert control over a dissenting Rastaman Vibration album, the theme of revolu- populace. But in “Rebel Music” both roadblock tion resounds. Again, the social institutions of and curfew become symbols of a larger system Babylon are seen as dysfunctional – the educa- of brutality with its roots in plantation slavery. tional, religious and penal systems. “Brain-wash In Rastafari iconography, the metaphor of bi- education” must be rejected and the con-man/ blical Babylon is deployed to denote the system crazy baldhead sent running out of town: of institutionalised oppression. So in “Babylon System,” from the 1979 Survival album, Marley Build your penitentiary denounces the victimisation of the downtrodden We build your schools and asserts the human right to rebel: Brain-wash education to make us the fools. 34 Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Sede Caribe | San Andrés Isla, Colombia | “Rebel Music”: Bob Marley’s Rhythms of Resistance Hateraged you reward for our love From the bottomless pit Telling us of your God above. But my hand was made strong We gonna chase those crazy By the hand of the Almighty Chase those crazy bunkheads We forward in this generation Chase those crazy baldheads Triumphantly. Out of town. Won’t you help to song? Here comes the con-man These songs of freedom? Coming with his con-plan Cause all I ever have We won’t take no bribe Redemption songs. We got to stay alive. Bob Marley appears to be contrasting songs Bob Marley insists that the truth must be told. of freedom with redemption songs. A popular Colonialist distortions of history must be revised, hymnal, Redemption Songs, was first published in particularly for the benefit of the children whose London in 1929 or thereabouts. It has become self-concept will be compromised by false narra- part of the religious culture of Jamaica, regularly tives of the past. Marley’s assertion, “We want incorporated in the rituals of communal mour- to be free”, is a fundamental challenge to racist ning such as wakes. The title page describes the ideologies that imprison African people in roles book in this way: “A choice collection of 1000 of perpetual servitude. The motif of internalized hymns and choruses for evangelistic meetings, liberation,” we are what we are,” is elaborated in solo, singers, choirs and the home”. Redemption Marley’s lyrical “Redemption Song,” from the 1980 Songs seems to have come to Jamaica with evan- Uprising album. gelicals from the U.S. Erna Brodber2, historical The opening lines of the song telescope time, sociologist and novelist, argues that Marley is ac- compressing a whole history of exploitation and tually rejecting “redemption songs”. They are suffering into “minutes”. Marley’s choice of the part of the Euro-American religious legacy. And word ‘pirates’, confirms the fact that many reve- that’s all Bob Marley and so many Africans in the red heroes of the British Empire were nothing Diaspora were once forced to have. but common criminals. Sir John Hawkins and But there’s another meaning of redemption Sir Francis Drake, for example, were key factors that we must also take into account. Redemption in the slave trade, earning great wealth from the is the act of buying oneself out of enslavement. business of human torture. The religious and commercial meanings of “re- But Marley also reminds us that Africans were demption” converge in Marley’s song. Redemp- implicated in the mercenary enterprise of trans- tion songs are also songs of freedom. There is Atlantic slavery. The ambiguous placement of that neutral “they” inextricably links both the robbers 2 Erna Brodber was born in Woodside, Saint Mary Parish, and sellers. There is no real difference between the Jamaica. She gained a B.A. from the University College of the West Indies, followed by an M.Sc and Ph.D. She ‘they’ who rob and the ‘they’ who sell. subsequently worked as a civil servant, teacher, sociology If there were no buyers there would be no se- lecturer, and at the Institute for Social and Economic llers. But the instinct to exploit seems to be our Research in Mona, Jamaica. She is the author of four novels: Jane and Louisa Will Soon Come Home (1980), Myal (1988), common inhumanity: Louisiana (1994) and The Rainmaker’s Mistake (2007). She won the Caribbean and Canadian regional Commonwealth Old pirates, yes Writers’ Prize in 1989 for Myal. In 1999 she received the They rob I Jamaican Musgrave Gold Award for Literature and Orature. Brodber currently works as a freelance writer, researcher and Sold I to the merchant ships lecturer in Jamaica. She is currently Writer in Residence at Minutes after they took I the University of the West Indies. REVISTA Cuadernos del Caribe ISSN: 1794-7065 (Impreso) ISSN: 2390-0555 (En línea) | No. 20 julio - diciembre 2015 | 35 Carolyn Cooper divine grace – the hand of the Almighty. But can free the mind.” (Garvey, 1938). This meta- there is also the practical justice of freeing one’s phorical representation of the liberation process self from both physical and mental slavery. as freedom from ideological shackles is an artful, Marley’s “Redemption Song” is both a rejection street-wise restatement of a familiar academic of evangelical Christian orthodoxy and an affir- concept: the cultural politics of decolonization. mation of a new redemptive vision. Transposed by Bob Marley into the moving “Re- Liberation becomes much more than the demption Song”, Garvey’s injunction is amplified freeing from physical chains, for true freedom by the resounding reggae beat.