the analysis. However, if there is any unjust of this present study, the writer would open to any criticism that will encourage further study of Bob Marleys and The
Black Brothers works.
2. Review of Jamaica and Papua Socio Political History
Review of relevant literature on the social and political contexts in which Bob Marley and The Black Brotherss music emerged is necessary to understand
the condition which illuminate message in songs of Bob Marley and the Black Brothers. Following is the depiction of socio-political climate in Jamaica and
Papua in arround 1960s to 1980s. This ill-fated hegemonic and repressive condition somehow affects the method Bob Marley and The Black Brothers used
in their critique.
2.1. The Jamaican Socio-Political History
Jamaican history is painted with an explicit panorama of resistance, revolts, insurrections, up-risings, and riots starting from the early days of slavery.
10
Jamaica had contact with the European when Christopher Colombus first landed on the Discovery Bay on May, 4th 1494. He brutally killed the indigenous people
on the island, Taino, who resited to claim the invented land for Spain. Within approximately twenty five years, almost the entire Taino population several
hundred thousands vanished due to combination of forced labor, under-nourishment, and disease.
11
Lack of available laborers the Spanish then began to import African slaves by relatively limited numbers to work on
10
Wright, Colin. Badiou in Jamaica, The Politics of Conflict. Australia: Colin Wright and re.press, 2013, p. 227.
11
Ibid, p. 228.
plantation to crop bananas, tobacco, cocoa, and sugar. Spanish ruled over the land for three hundred years before English forced them to flee on May 1655. Jamaica
was officially handed over to England under a treaty in Madrid, Spain in 1670. As the Spanish fled to the mainland of America and Cuba, the abandoned slaves
escaped to form jungle based escapees who later named the Maroons from Spanish for runaway, cimaroon. The Maroons play a significant role in Jamaica
future struggles against slavery. There were several revolts took place: in 1760 a rebellion led by Tacky, an adherent of Mayal, a religious system that specialized
in encountering the hex of evil people, resulting in the killings of many whites and destruction of plantation.
12
In 1832, Sam Sharpe, a deacon in Native Baptist church, also led a rebellion but ended in defeat. One of the well known was
Morant Bay rebellion which piloted by Paul Bogle, a Baptist deacon. Triggered by poverty, injustice, and lack of public confidence in the central authority, he led a
protest march to Morant Bay courthouse on October 11th, 1865. The long march turned to be a violent confrontation which cause nearly five hundred people were
killed. He was captured and hanged a few days later. However, his effort brought a change in official attitude toward the people. Another significant social movement
was United Negro Improvement Association UNIA led by Marcus Mosiah Garvey. He sought the unification of all Blacks and spoke out against economic
exploitation and cultural denigration. He was also the man behind the socio-religious movement, Rastafarianism which emerged in 1930’s. In 1927 he
prophesied that a King will be crowned in Africa to redeem all Blacks. This prophecy was not taken lightly by his followers that they claimed it to be real as in
12
Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley, Lyrical Genius, p. 25.
1930 Prince Ras Tafari was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ever since, in Jamaica many began to consult their Bibles in search of
scriptures which mentioned about this event. They discovered many passages offered in support of Garvey’s prophecy. Among others are Revelation 5:2-5, in
which a descendant of David is described as able to loose the seven seals; Ezekiel 37:22-25, in which a descendant of David is prophesied to be ruler of the world;
Isiah 43:1-15, 65:9, in which descendant of Jacob is prophesied to be the ruler of the world Nicholas, 1979 in Worth.
13
Using these passages they started to preach that Selassie was the living God, he was actually the Messiah returned.
Apart from this spiritual awaits of a redeemer that came true, at last the day of redemption arrived that on August 6, 1962 Jamaica got its political independence
from British colonial rule. However this was just a new beginning, the journey to a full freedom still far from what being expected.
It was just like “jumping out the frying pan into the fire,” after the end of the white colonial power, Jamaica faces a new problem. The history of Jamaica
modern politics was largely insinuated by the story of the two warring parties, Jamaican Labor Party JLP and People National Party PNP. The rivalry started
at the early formation of the parties by their founders Alexander Bustamante JLP and Norman Washington Manley PNP. Violence became institutionalized in
modern Jamaican politics. Political process was destabilized by corrosive influence of partisan politics, whereby party loyalists dependent on political
patronage were encouraged by the parties to defend local constituencies and participate in political conflicts.
14
These conflicts kept on its trail until 1960’s
13
Worth, D.S. Rastaman Vibration: The Rhetoric of Bob Marley, p. 15.
14
Williams, Kareen Felicia. The Evolution of Political Violence in Jamaica 1940-1980, a dissertation,
under Edward Seaga JLP and Michael Manley PNP. Jamaica society was divided into two poles which involved in war of party loyal supporters. Inner-city
neighborhoods were divided into certain sections according to political allegiance.
15
Political parties and their leaders mobilized grassroots supporters through ideology, demagoguery, inter-party conflicts, political patronage, and
utilized the rhetoric of political campaign speeches to incite acts of aggression in an effort to defeat their rivals.
16
The times leading to each election were so terrifying. Acts of violence directed at innocent people, such as shooting and arson, created fear and panic.
17
The number of violence kept on increasing in each election 1972, 1976, and reached its peak in 1980. The total number of murders reported in 1980 was
889.538, a number which attributed primarily to politically motivated violence due to constituencies where the murders occurred and the people who were killed.
On December 3, 1976 Bob Marley, his wife, Rita, manager Don Taylor were gunned in Bob Marley’s house at 56 Hope Road. Luckily they were all survived.
The attack was a few days before Bob Marley about to perform on Smile Jamaica concert to ease the political tension before the election. There could be
some reasons behind the shooting, but one of them was because of the resentment by the JLP of Bob Marley’s close relation to Michael Manley from PNP .
18
Despite this devastating political race between politicians to take charge in bringing the people to a brighter future, Jamaican governments both JLP and PNP
Columbia University, 2011, p. 3. Web. April 1
st
, 2014. http:academiccommons.columbia.edu...Williams_columbia_0054D_10107.pdf.
15
Leslie, Glaister. Confronting the Don: The Political Economy of Gang Violence in Jamaica. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, 2010, p. 12.
16
Williams, K.F. The Evolution of Political Violence in Jamaica 1940-1980, p. 8.
17
Ibid, p. 264.
18
Moskowitz, David. The Words and Music of Bob Marley, p. 73.
failed to reform the economy. This was mainly due to the lack of necessary manufactories and infrastructure for agriculture to develop local industry.
19
This problem led to the country’s dependency on foreign capital and loans from IMF
and World Bank. Although IMF loans did generate short-term economic growth but its long term effects was so devastating. Higher cost of living expense, and
firing thousands of civil servants increased unemployment. Jamaica was once again implicitly colonized through the mechanism of debt. “Jamaica’s colonial
past has become an IMF structural present.”
20
As what Bob Marley sings No chains around my feet but Im not free I know Im bound here in captivity, he is telling the people that a new form of
enslavement has entrapped new free Jamaica. Social and political phenomenon has degraded peoples humanity. This is what Bob Marley was struggling for, and
that he wants the people to know as he sings emancipate yourself from mental slavery cause none but ourselves can free our mind so wont you help me to sing
another song of freedom.
2.2. The Papuan Socio-political History
