OPEN LETTER/ Come to the dialogue and listen to me speak, otherwise I will cut off your scholarships, you will rot in prison. Please!

 Kliko këtu për të tjera
Voxpress:

Why is Bob Marley an icon of human rights?

2024-02-17 09:42:21Lifestyle SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Why is Bob Marley an icon of human rights?

Bob Marley became famous in the world of Reggae music with the melody and the messages he gave, messages that are still more relevant today than ever. The biographical film "One Love", which is expected to be shown in cinemas, is dedicated to him.

When Bob Marley appeared in June 1980 to sing on the stage of the Sports Hall in Cologne, he, the musician from Jamaica, already had visible signs of the disease. But his brilliance won over the 8,000 spectators in the audience, especially when he sang the song "The Song of Redemption". All alone, in the luminous cone of a light projector, surrounded by clouds of smoke created by hundreds of hashish cigarettes, passing through the audience from hand to hand.

A year later Marley died, on May 11, 1981, of cancer. He was 36 years old. But his political and spiritual messages are still alive today and will continue to live on in his songs.

Bob Marley released Reggae music and its messages around the world, so convincingly that UNESCO has included this type of music in the world's spiritual heritage, and Reggae is played all over the world today. The biopic "One Love" will raise another monument to Bob Marley.

Rastafari, a new religion

At the age of 22, Bob Marley discovered the Rastafari religion. This religion was created about 100 years ago. The moment of creation marks the day Haile Selassie I was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia, November 2, 1930. A few years earlier, Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey had prophesied the coronation in Africa of a powerful black king who would bring liberation from handcuffs for all colored people.

Selassie's original name was Ras Tafari Makkonen. "Ras" means "Count" in the native language, the language spoken in Ethiopia. Believers of the Rastafari religion see in him the resurrection of Christ and treat him as if he were the living God on Earth. Many parts of the belief in the Rastafari religion they refer to the Bible, especially the Old Testament.

Believers of the Rastafari religion believe in the spiritual return to Africa, the promised land, Ethiopia. Black Jamaicans are descendants of slaves who were forcibly brought from Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean.

Believers of the Rastafari religion want to achieve a cultural change with the help of faith, to change the culture created by the enslavement of their ancestors. To create a life as natural and close to nature as possible, with the principles of love and peace, justice, unity and justice, and the fight against Babylon, a synonym for the "western world", which has brought so many disasters to the African people. Babylon it is also synonymous with Jamaica, the country where their ancestors were brought as slaves.

Skin color irrelevant

Believers of the Rastafari religion are against any form of political, cultural and religious subjugation of man. Thus the Rastafari religion is a worldwide movement with followers of people of different skin colors. Today their number is estimated to be 700 thousand to one million worldwide.

By wearing dreadlocks, some believers of the Rastafari religion want to deliberately distance themselves from the upper class of society. The historical roots of curly hair trace back to the Mau Mau freedom fighters who fought in Kenya against colonial Britain. Believers of the Rastafari religion identify with them. The smoking of marijuana that is often mentioned in connection with them serves more to expand consciousness than to disturb the mind and is not necessarily part of the Rastafari religion.

Bob Marley made Reggae popular all over the world

Bob Marley, who is considered to be the first world star to come from a developing country, also made Reggae music, the music of Rastafari believers, known to the whole world. This music was born in the 1960s in Jamaica, at a time when social unrest and gangsters made the country's streets unsafe.

DJs, who made music on the street with their tape recorders (mobile discotheques), developed this type of sound by taking influence from well-known music genres such as Mento, Ska, Soul and Jazz. Bob Marley was an important participant in these developments.

The laid-back yet driving rhythm is best suited for spreading positive messages of peace and love. Bob Marley's lyrics use a lot of religious rhetoric, yet they are down-to-earth and talk about the problems of a discriminated minority, about ghettos, slavery and injustice. The Rastafari faith accompanies Marley's songs as a common denominator.

Bob Marley songs

"Get Up Stand Up" was created after Bob Marley went to Haiti, where he was apparently shocked by the poverty that reigned there under the Duvalier dictatorship (1957-1986). The lyrics call on people to fight for their rights and not give up. The song encourages people to trust their own judgment. "Get Up, Stand Up" is seen as the unofficial anthem of Amnesty International.

The song "Exodus" deals with the return to Africa of the Rastafari faith. The text says: "Are you satisfied with the life you lead? We know where we are going, we know where we come from, we are fleeing from Babylon, we are going to the land of our fathers. In this exile the people of Yahu (God) are on the move ).

In the song "Zimbabwe" Bob Marley urges Africans to liberate Zimbabwe, which, being a British colony, is named Rhodesia. At Zimbabwe's independence celebrations, Marley performed this song in real time. It became the country's unofficial national anthem.

Often misunderstood: No Woman, No Cry

"No woman, no screams", one would first remember that this title says. But Bob Marley wanted to say something else, something comforting, because in the language of the residents of Trenchtown "No Woman, No Cry" means: "No woman, do not cry!"

Trenchtown is the ghetto neighborhood of the Jamaican capital, Kingston, the neighborhood where Bob Marley himself grew up. The song reflects life there, characterized by poverty and strong family gangs that help each other. The song was composed when Marley was sitting in the yard and listening to how a woman in the neighborhood was crying.

Marley's Legacy: The Payback Song

The song "Redemption Song", the song of redemption, is the mark that Marley left behind. There are many recordings of it, but in fact he wanted to have only one version of it, with pure voice and guitar, leaving aside the other instruments, in order to increase the intensity of the song.

In this song, Marley quotes Rasta prophet Marcus Garvey, who said in a 1937 radio address: "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, nobody can free your mind but you."

The slavery of the ancestors must disappear from people's heads, only when one has a free spirit is one truly free. These thoughts, and knowing that he would soon die, inspired Bob Marley to compose the "Redemption Song". A song with which he still gives hope to many people in the world.


Në përputhje me standarded JTI

Video

SHIKO KANALIN NE YOUTUBE
×