peop e estai::Hls a.,... llliT1tlt. rvurn«y•-:-, -�� - By Isaac Fergusson who worked to explode the myth of a whitt with his God in a black$00ieW', wuthe fu'Btperson a r � te1f� t��raet was e man �d. not. place:- H§,)lllitl il.i�ple who Jive w the untiYo �t1:iiiliie J:r.e itnpoaters. .T-o w are not overshadow or Marley and all orthodox Rastas, blacks iO"' a supeiT,tar: He N separate himself from the dozen or so the true Hebrews. to themselves as ·I and I,' Rastamen milling about his Essex House Rasul$ refer uproarious, un­ speaking' always 111 the plural because they suite. His laughter was National Library of Jamaica lives inside them. To pretentious, and free. He blended so believe tlwt God presence they change s.nugly with his peers that I could never express this divine the title of Stdassie I of have picked him out had his face not deco­ the numeral in it like the per­ rated record jackets, T -shirts, and posters Ethiopia and pronounce Rastas adhere to a everywhere. A year after his death his sonal pronoun. Most w<.•rds still sustain and warn and fulfi�l. strict vegetarian diet. sect, called l had read about the millions of records In the strictest Rastafari take an oath pledging Marley sold worldwide and that he was a Niyabingi, Rastas white oppressors." Yet multi�illionaire. Still, I found it hard to "death to black and "Violence," reconcile the slightly built, denim-clad they refuse to carry weapons: left to Jah. God man with the explosive entertainer who Bongo-U explains, "is destroy." Niyabing1 danced across the stages of huge arenas or alone has the right to saying that God made penetrated me with his stare from the Rastas cite Genesis, got up, and the Elarth with words-" Let there be light, National Library of Jamaica cover of Rolling Stone. Marley light." They be­ politely took leave of the jolly group. He Jah said, and there wa'l Jah 's children are led me to the bedroom. Lying casually lieve thftt when all to black and across the bed he carefully thumbed united in one cry-·'death will surely through a Bible Tonight he will talk with white oppressors"-destruction . belie\.e in me about Rastafari; tomorrow he will go up come to the exploiters. "Rastas of the ele­ to.. Harlem's ,t\PQllQ T:heater and. mind pow�r and in the power and thlm­ more history, mor?1egehd . ,n:l.ents�- lightning, earthquake, Marley recorded his first song, "Judge der," Bongo-U says. Marley and Not," in 1961; he was 16·y:ears old then. A From the Book of Numbers never to helter-skelter music industry was just de­ other Rastas took the command of he vow of veloping in Kingston where the unemploy­ cut their hair: "All the days L no razor come ment rate was 35 per cent and Marley his separation there shall holy, and shall scuffed out a living as a welder. "Me. grow upon his head, he shall be his head grow." stubborn, you know," he recalled when we let the locks of the hair of which talked. "Me grow without mother and This is the oath of the Nazar'itcs , ..,JUn,·- father. Me no have no parent fe have no big Jesus took. According to bihlicaJ others starve. influence pon me. Me jul:!t grow in a de tion, Rastas cannot eat while . aml t:hc:tto with de youth. Stubborn, no obey They live communally, sharing goud� no uoe; but we had qualities and we were "' services among their comnn1nity. guvd ro one another " In 1964 Marley, � In the mid-'61Js when tlu:n· w;1;, '' " p,,rer T0.5h. and Bwm\' Wailer formed the prt:cedtnU:d rt...e in g&.nl{ w&.rh;rl· aii'J · ,r, ,._ , · r;.. m r h..Coo£"nn:.ng i /t.•' \ � . ;::.,:- \ .:iil Fr�• r.t � l.tnt ,,,b�A:fll:'• ;r, •1·<; ;�·,.,.� Y.a /·''•'· '"'· ::.lTU\'l' lu �!!1'· c:; wn- �l..: <?�: mr.llli.ng:i=..J I t.f>f;.- �I1U: £J11d pr,ltt•' •<JI• ••n./1· ·,..,t,,J-1, ffi �.?-.W. t�I :c�·.: _r: I do i£ �;.1�� -·�.){� j thk �ta.< 'H��: 'l,i/Vf:lf.ff•':.;,' '•f'J•:I';') •II• Tee-:-� t.5 .(k)tiuag 1 E--�<e: do that ?;Oes all>a}' I CJtftW.JYt: &galf)}l.� H.�w l.hfhf;, Jf. •r·• !iflrl V' Jl ; !:.e- �nJ.. W'hh.U''<'� l GO p105pe� I 1 ruu!.ef.l tr,;:rr, aTid bum�<d &·,·al!:..'<' I and I IJ,) �-vmprum&Se I and I ,. their homes. wor�att.aLI! wvulvt:d th�: �nes,'' The LLu.;i,·. !'::::;or.:>dem cf tiAigil Marley 1 �ct. lliu viciiJU&ly L · �.��:. � � ��.d ��t��.� i����f�.�,:.� . I .. .... � ..... - ' - :::!00';1 1.he v.rc!·!d d!2�-overf'O Th�I r.;.... ariey .�J ·������e uas no ordinary singer whose words o,yere Rastas had settled "' n•akesllJit Llu-auu­ designed to be hummed for moments and board shacks. At dav:n heavily urrnt!d po· forgotten; here wa" a messenger whose lyr­ lice ringed the settlement with bulldozers warn­ ics call attentipn to our'CJ<mditio�. to trnl• wll.{le the. occupants slept. Without reasons for suffering. The music bri'ngs ing they leveled the' settlement, injuring lightness to the feet and makes them and arre.sting scores of Rill)La men, women, and childr�n". failed to destroy dance, but the beat is a marching drum, a This attack call to struggle: "Get up, stand up,i'Stand -the Rastafari .movement; instead it was up for your rights,/Get up, stand up,/Don't (scattered throughout Kir.gston and the give up the fight." rest of the island and soon began to chal- Marley came to be widely respected as 1lenge the norms, beliefs, and habi:.n d a songwriter with a reach that was broad Jamaicans throughout the islao L and deep. Eric Clapton had a big hit with Once entrenched ali over King:;tc--n, the Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff," Johnny Rastafari, who had a history of self-re­ Nash scored with Marley's "Stir It Up" liance based on fishing, farming:, and hand­ and "Guava Jelly." In 1972 Marley and the icrafts, now inspired the youths to seek Wailers signed with Island Records, a alternative employment outside the small London-based company headed by musicians became Rastas, and reggae, the uncommon rituals. The rituals and even "shitstem!" Their call to "come out of . Chris Blackwell, a white Jamaican. dominant music of Jamaica, became the the beliefs vary from one Rasta group to Babylon" spurred an explosion of creative Marley, who wrote his songs and arranged main vehicle of expression for the another. Bongo-U, a college-trained phar­ art an·d today Rasta painters and wood­ his music, made 10 albums with Island. Rastafari movement. Its radical ideas were macologist and now a Rasta medicine man carvers are transforming Kingston into a They all went gold; 500,000 copies sold carried by radio ipto every home and soon in Montego Bay, says: "You will never showplace of talent that generates con­ within the first year in England, Europe Rastafari permeated the society. Reggae know the Rastaman through books. You siderable tourist business for Jamaica. But and Car.ada. Two albums, Rastaman Vi­ singers like Marley became more than can tell the Rastaman through deeds, but. the most important product of the Rasta brotiuns and Uprising, made gold in the mere entertainers, they became "revolu­ to know the Rastaman you must live the artistic renaissance is reggae music. Nu­ merous drumming brotherhoods de­ U.S. His only comment when asked' about tionary workers" and representatives of experience-it's the only way." Some his success was, "The man who does his Kingston's poor: "Them belly full but we Rastas are devoutly religious and of ex­ veloped in the Kingston ghettos as un­ work well, he shall be rewarded." hungry/A hungry mob is an angry mob/A emplary moral character; others are employed youths and former rude boys During the late '60s the Wailers became rain a fall but the dirt it tough/ A pot & cook thieves and criminals. Some Rnstas are turned to music as a profHssion and the first popular Jamaican group to make but the food no 'nough " Sung with sim­ hardworking and industrious; others be­ creative outlet. Rastafari philosophies and Rasta drum­ plicity and the clarity of Marley's skeletal iieve employment means surrender to Until 1966 Marley's music consisted ming the main thrusts of their music. In­ voice, these ideas were easily understood "Babylon." The only two beliefs all Rastas mostly of glorifications of the rude buy spired by the back-to-Africa beliefs of and quickly absorbed by "even the most hold in common are: Haile Selassie is God; desperado life style. He had had hits wilh Hustafari, Marley took a deep interest in illiterate among the poor. Through music, repatriation to Africa is the only true ''Rude Boy," "Rule Them Rudy," "I'm the Africa and the slave trade and wrote some Marley and other Rast.a musicians at­ salvation for black people. Toughest," and the rude boy anthem of the most devastating statements of tacked Jamaica's skinocratic system that "Rasta is the most dominant, most im­ "Steppin' Razor." But Marley came under black rage ever recorded. His songs were placed whites at the top, mul�ttos in the portant thing_in my life," Marley once told the influence of Mortiruo Planno, a high designed both to tell history and to instill middle, and blacks nowhere.