The Jamaica Observer’s Entertainment Desk continues with the 37th of its biweekly feature looking at seminal moments that have helped shape Jamaica over the past 60 years.
Fools saying in their heart
Rasta, your God is dead
But I and I know Jah Jah
Dreaded it shall be dreaded and dread
— From Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Jah Live
Bob Marley wrote the defiant Jah Live days after reports that Haile Selassie I had been executed in Ethiopia in August 1975. The Emperor of that country from 1930 to 1974, he was considered titular head of the Rastafarian movement.
Countless reggae songs have been written about Selassie who visited Jamaica in late April 1966. His influence on the music and Rastafari is significant.
Singer Fred Locks was 16 years old at the time of Selassie’s visit. He saw his motorcade as it drove by the Harbour View roundabout in St Andrew from what was then the Palisadoes Airport.
He says Selassie — whose ‘Earth Strong’ is celebrated today — is not given his due globally.
“Dem talk about other black leaders but none of dem are as decorated as His Majesty. Him have speeches about di importance of education an’ about religion, which ones can learn about,” said Fred Locks.
The Rastafarian movement had its genesis in the early 1930s, not long after Selassie’s coronation. They followed his heroic feats against Italian Fascist Benito Mussolini’s army that decade and his subsequent exile in Bath, England.
In 1960, Rastafarian leaders in Jamaica approached The University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturers M G Smith, Roy Augier, and Rex Nettleford to conduct a study on their movement. One year later, three Rastafarians — Mortimo Planno, Douglas Mack, and Philmore Alvaranga — were part of a Government-sanctioned team that went on a fact-finding tour of Africa.
A technical mission, again funded by the Government, also visited the continent that year.
Selassie’s message was projected in songs throughout the 1970s and 1980s by Marley, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Burning Spear, and Culture. The same happened with a new generation of roots acts, like Garnet Silk and Capleton during the 1990s.
However, his presence is lacking in contemporary reggae. This does not surprise Sangie Davis, an elder of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
“Di youths dem find out now seh when dem talk about His Majesty an’ dem carry dem songs deh to big companies, big companies not taking it up…Di whole music scene change. Most songs not dealing with any culture right now, is just seeing if dem [musicians] can make a lot of money. So di music change from lyrics to beat — a beat a run di place right now, “ he told the Jamaica Observer in 2020.
