Bob Marley’s Zimbabwe
On April 18, 1980, Jamaican musical maestro Bob Marley joined millions of Zimbabweans to celebrate a hard-won independence from oppression. ‘
‘So arm in arms, with arms, we’ll fight this little struggle’
As part of his tribute he performed the song “Zimbabwe” live in Harare, the capital city. April 18 marked the day on which Zimbabwe’s incumbent leader Robert Mugabe was sworn in as the first prime minister of a people that took over a hundred years to reclaim their freedom from British colonial rule.
Twenty-eight years later Marley’s words in “Zimbabwe” ring with an amazingly prophetic tone. More than anything they speak to his inspired genius and to his ability to understand humanity.
But greater still, they speak to the struggle of how to build a nation (from the ashes of oppression) in which every human being must be granted a right to decide their own destiny.
“Bob’s story is that of an archetype, which is why it continues to have such a powerful and ever-growing resonance: it embodies political repression, metaphysical and artistic insights, gangland warfare and various periods of mystical wilderness,” states the official Marley Web site.
‘When there’s a call for consciousness about an issue, people often call on Bob Marley.” - Time Magazine
I couldn’t have put it better.
It was the ability of Marley’s music to tear into the fabric of the sociopolitical establishment of his time that won him so many fans.
With his words Bob Marley was able to open up new human awakenings and, fused into rhythmic yet soothing Jamaican reggae melody, the power of his words went on to inspire millions of people around the world.
The fact that Bob Marley penned a song for Zimbabwe can only mean that he had a special regard for the country in his heart.
By the power of his words, he managed to capture the dream of the people of Zimbabwe and project it onto the world map.
More amazingly his words are so true to the reality in Zimbabwe today. As a Zimbabwean it’s both nostalgic and frightening for me to listen to the words of Marley’s “Zimbabwe.”
Every man got to decide his own destiny
And in this judgement there is no partiality
So arm in arm with arms we’ll fight this little struggle ‘
‘Cause that’s the only way we can over come our little trouble
Brother you’re right.
You’re right.
You’re so right.
You’re right
We go fight (We go fight)
We’ll have to fight (We go fight)
We’re gonna fight (We go fight)
Fight for your rights
Natty dread it in a Zimbabwe
Set it up in Zimbabwe
Mash it up in a Zimbabwe
Africans a liberate Zimbabwe …
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
On the one hand Bob Marley’s song arouses the joyous reminisces of a newly independent Zimbabwe with a promise of a future of hope, development, democracy and opportunity. On the other hand it mirrors the disintegration of the state of Zimbabwe today.
For me it’s indeed like a surreal paradox. Marley’s song in the current Zimbabwe is no longer a song of liberation but a call to a united front that can confront the dark powers of black-on-black oppression camouflaged in pan-African ideology.
More than just a gifted songwriter and musician, Marley was indeed an inspirational prophet who wanted truth to be told and injustices to stop.
Ironically Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe has ushered a dispensation that is akin to a silent genocide against his own people. Marley must be cringing wherever he is living now with the gods of music.
Presently Zimbabwe has come down to devouring its own people because of the selfishness and greed of its political leaders.
The political leaders care little about the people that they claim to represent. Poverty and suffering have become the order of the day in that beloved nation. All because of the beliefs held by its political leaders.
The belief that we must revenge the evils of the colonial past has killed the country of Zimbabwe. Belief shows itself in action and, if its root is coated with evil, shows itself with an ugly face.
Revenge, oppression and hatred are the currencies turning the wheels in the ramshackle state of Zimbabwe. And as a result many people in the country are dying, like donkeys drinking water at a poisoned well.
Marley asked in one his songs: What happens to a man that kills to save his own belief? That very question is what Zimbabwe’s political leaders need to ask themselves today. The political leaders’ divide-and-rule tactics against the population have made Zimbabwe a laughingstock around the world.
The nation itself is like a house cracking at its foundation. Not many in Zimbabwe today have a right to choose their own destiny. Partiality and cronyism is what the politicians practice. Increasingly it is becoming apparent that ordinary people need to join “arm in arms” to fight for freedom; otherwise, there will be no guarantee of a future of promise.
Only a united Zimbabwe can fight the trouble the nation is facing. But the truth is that the country today lacks true revolutionaries: people who are willing to give up their lives for the cause of freedom, but who will not kill innocent beings for the cause of freedom.
True revolutionaries who dare to dissent at the risk of having their voices cut off. Mugabe’s government has become like a mercenary against the people. But in every Zimbabwean’s heart, the quest of freedom beats constantly.
It’s probably the only right thing about the country today. If the people of Zimbabwe can believe more in the sound of that heartbeat, Marley’s song will reverberate again like a joyful sound.
Freedom must free not just the freedom seeker but those around him. Real revolutionaries, in Marley’s words, are people who do not tolerate any form of injustice or oppression. That message rings true throughout his music, touching the hearts of many freedom fighters around the world.
And in Zimbabwe, Marley’s words could never sound better as a call to progressive action.
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Yes, in every Zimbabwean’s heart the question of freedom is loud and resounding in it’s omnipresence. Freedom when? Freedom how? Freedom at any cost. Freedom NOW.
Virtugirl Africas last blog post..Change Will Come One Person at a Time
That question begs an answer: What does happen to a man that kills to save his own belief?
That’s true about real revolutionaries. However, in Joesph Conrad’s book “Nostromo”, he talks about how a revolutionary party ends up sharing the spoils of the revolution among themselves, forgetting the people they fought for. His point is that this is the fate of many revolutions…
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The late Birhane Selassie Robert Nesta Marley, OM, would have spoken out about what is happening in Zimbabwe and risked being labelled a “puppet of the West”. His son, Damian Marley, has alluded to the situation in Zimbabwe in more than one song.
In sharp contrast, Luciano was prepared to betray Zimbabwe for a measly US$10000. This lover of filthy lucre masquerading as a Rastafarian was even prepared to lie that the British Government denied most of his band transit visas when the real reason he did not bring a full complement is that his host could not afford it. (If he was so much pro-Zimbabwe why didn’t he pay their airfare himself, which is what Bob Marley did when he came to celebrate Zimbabwe’s Independence.)
Most people with voices, mostly intellectuals, public figures, business people in Zimbabwe will benefit more if the current troubles perpetuate, from gains from the speculative ZSE, forex dealings, ngoda, burning of money(whatever it means) etc whilst the voiceless struggle quietly. The voiceless its time you realise that those with a voice who are making more money from this mess will never fight for you, you have to fight your own battle.
I remember reading in an unofficial Bob Marley biography that he actually penned the song “Zimbabwe” some time 1978 after Edgar “Twoboy” Tekere had requested for help raise funds for the revolution and revolutionary party (back then the professed stance and reality were not as far apart as they are today). This makes the power and prophecy of this song even more poignant.
Back in 1978 it sadenned Marley that he could not play this special song for the people he had written it for , and so when 1980 came, he didn’t think twice about Bridging the Middle Passage and playing for a people who had fought off years of oppression (redemption was dear to Nesta as it is to many conscious brethren)- For him footing the bill for his entourage was beside the point- setting foot in another African country- he had played in Ethiopia once, where the gate- takings were pilfred and the people Bob so loved had been shortchanged because none of the money raised went into development as he had been told it would do- was an honour in itself…
And honour was something close to his heart, honour and serving the people- remember how he went to perform after he had been almost assassinated and held the hands of one of the men who had most likely sanctioned the attempted hit as he symbolically united bitter political rivals…?
Now we realise that the true revolutionaries are probably the ones who died in mysterious car accidents, as a result of parcel bombs, et al, and that the mercenaries tricked us and they are in control…the dire warning contained in those poignant lyrics has become prophecy….
I agree with Masimba, that any artist who comes to play at a concert as part of “perception management” foolery and accepts hefty US$ payment from a country that is failing to feed its own, rebuild roads, provide safe and clean water -, etc, is a charlatan…
Why do people hod Marley in such high regard? The mind boggles. He was a deeply flawed man who smoked weed and had a kid with every skirt he set his eyes on. As blacks we need better role models. He was a decent musician though but does not deserve to be on a pedestal
@Rukh- you will notice that it is not those “flaws” that we are talking about- although there are some who would take you up on your somewhat contemptuous dismissive, judgmental slur of his use of ganja as herbal sacrament as a flaw- but the sheer brilliance, vision and lyrical beauty of his music that was able to transform him in his lifetime into a Superstar and a Legend after his death: the Pan Africanism, consciousness, message of universal love- it is these things that people hold in high regard.
He was not infallible but despite his human frailties he left us a transcendal legacy embodied in his art.
IThere a baby and bathwater complex here, and the wise among us are always careful not throw away both…
T
Honestly what was so new about Marley’s message of pan-Africanism/ black pride so many others have enunciated it: Garvey, Booker T, MLK, X, Nkrumah, Senghor, Lumumba etc. The only reason why most people like this guy is because of his rebel ‘bad-boy’ image. He got away with a lifestyle that most people never would simply because he was some kind of ’star’. He smoked ganja and got away with it; was promiscuity and also got away with it. Lets call a spade a spade….the man has too many flaws to be taken seriously. Here’s a question rmupfudza if your son said he wanted to be like Marley would you be happy (encourage him)or sad(discourage him)? Marley is just an overglorified musician.
The Psalms are no less poignant and inspirational because David had Uriah Heep done in and he took his wife. Nor are the Proverbs, because good old Solomon had a roving eye. The stories of Hamlet, Julius Caesar, McBeth, et al, were not new when Shakespeare took them and reworked them with his genius to create something everlasting.
“I believe that much of what is written has been written before; much of what is said before has been said before. What each generation gets is a re- appearance of information in a style and context that speaks to their needs and wants, that speaks to their particular void…” Maddhubuti.
Above everything else I would like my son to have an open mind, where he learns to seprate the chaff from the grain, accentuate the good without being bogged down by the bad, to seek out the positive without being trapped in the quagmire of the negative; to embrace the beauty of ideas without being imprisoned by frailties that have haunted individuals who have given rise to them…
Rukh, I decided to ignore it first, seeing as it was directed at someone else, but I have to ask about this statement:
“Here’s a question rmupfudza if your son said he wanted to be like Marley would you be happy (encourage him)or sad(discourage him)? .”
Am I to deduce from it that you harbour ill-feelings towards not only the reggae legend, but all Rastafarians? Am I to add bigotry to misogyny on your list of, um, flaws?
@rmupfudza, Let me pose for you a question. The Nazi’s did a lot of useful medical and scientific research in the concentration camps, but they used human beings as their guinea pigs. So using your David, Psalms analogy are you saying that we can without qualms or reservations help ourselves to the knowledge the Nazi’s ‘harvested’ without any regards to the means that brought it about? The messenger and the message are one.
@Masimba, your deduction is flawed. I harbour no ill-feelings towards Marley. I simply don’t exalt him as some people do. I also did not mention anything about Rastafarians so I don’t know why you have brought that up. I simply said Marley as an individual is highly flawed and that point is derived from his behaviour as a person period. Bigotry, misogyny? Hmmm my friend you have an active imagination I didn’t go there and I’m not going there.
And another thing gentleman; is the choice of photo for this article not proof of the point I’m driving home?
Now that the Nazis have come into the equation- a far cry from the analogy of the writers of Psalms and the Proverbs great works of art, insight, philosophy and wisdom, who had deep human flaws including womanising like Marley- I think we are now in danger of going nowhere fast.
However, if you read my last comment acrefully you will see that I have already answered you in the last paragraph which does not call for discarding of qualms in the face of anything reprehensible…
And the question of semantics masking content or denoting a meaning that might be construed might be at the heart of our perception. So I will pose questions to you: when you initially wondered why many people held Bob Marley in high esteem, did you mean:
a) Bob Marley’s musical and philosophical canon should be disregarded because Bob smoked weed and had many children out of wedlock?
b) disregard, and treat with contempt, the religion he practised in which the smoking of weed is not an amoral act and which has fought for years the criminalisation of cannabis and thus respond to the picture using sanctamonious values and a worldview and conclude” this man was a bad influence and has left no legacy of value”?
c)assume that those who appreciate the artistic and philosphical genius of Marley are therefore also “exalting” promiscuity and all the negatives you associate with him?
I remember readeing a book called “The War at the End of the World” by Mario Vargas Llosa and found simply divine and inspirational with its talk of the underdo fighting for freedom, revolution with an almost Christlike fervour- and then discovered Llosa was conservative politically with a strong aversion to Native Americans…but he is still a bloody brilliant writer in whose case most of the time the message is so diffrent from the messenger.
If the man was such a brilliant thinker why did the brilliant thinking fail to model the man? Some of these man made philosophies are meaningless mambo-jumbo purely because they find no practical value and that’s were I’d categorise Marley’s.
Mr Rukh, my deduction arises from your use of language that I have heard as a young man who made the bold move to convert to the Rastafari Faith. Now that you have stated that you do not harbour any ill-feelings, I have to accept your word.
I am not Bob Marley’s lawyer, I think it is the Almighty who will judge him. But I have been told by people close to him that he had problems with Rita.
To understand the big deal about Bob Marley, you’d have to know a bit of Jamaica’s cultural history. Every country, I suppose goes through that identity problem. For example, there was a time when you’d be mad to play John Chibadura etc at a party in the suburbs. Then the likes of Macheso came on the scene, and soon every one in Borrowdale was doing the Borrowdale. This is what Bob Marley did, his songs struck a chord not only with Rastafarians, but nationalists of very political persuasion, with commentators, with feminists, activists- some of them standing for views that Bob himself would have never supported, like gay rights.
To compare Bob Marley with the Nazis, come on man.
@Masimba, point taken Marley made some important contributions. I just fear that sometimes in our effusiveness we tend to deify some of these mortals.
Marley made some contributions, but sometimes as a Rastafarian I find that he can be part of the problems I have in asserting my identity in a nation where I am in the minority. People expect me to act like Bob Marley in every respect, down to the Jamaican accent. I can’t really blame them, because he was the first Rastafarian to become famous but he most certainly wasn’t the first Rastafarian. But I do feel that reggae musicians are not the best examples of Rastafarian living. I suppose the same can be said of gospel musicians who sing of Christian teachings they seem to have problems living up to.
The point you make about deifying mortals, I wonder if you’ve seen the movie Amadeus? It is told through a German courtier, who prays to God and asks him to send him a genius. This was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Alas, Mozart was a rebel, given to vulgar speech, living in sin with a woman etc. In the end, that courtier lost his faith in God- he could not understand how God could send such a disagreeable person, who made such beautiful music.
I think what fans of musicians do is deify the music and not the artist, because if they faced the real musician, they would be terribly disappointed.