Metaphoric Depiction of Prison in Bob Marleys and The Black Brothers Songs

4.1.4. Metaphoric Depiction of Prison in Bob Marleys and The Black Brothers Songs

Bob Marley speaks of prison in a contemporary usage which emphasize more on the mental captivity through hegemonic ideology than a mere physical one. This metaphoric prison can be seen in songs like Concrete Jungle, and Redemption Song. No chains around my feet but Im not freeI know Im bounded in captivity Concrete Jungle Emancipate yourselves from mental slaveryNone but ourselves can free our minds Redemption Song The lyrics in these songs are thick with metaphor and personification. They are deeply poetic. The metaphoric expressions are based on communal sense which is culturally bound and relied heavily on social knowledge. In Concrete Jungle Bob Marley employs nature image of jungle to a physical place called the ghetto. 45 This concrete jungle of Trench Town in Jamaica is a physical place that entrapped the Blacks who have been stolen from Africa, as Bob Marley would sing it in Natty Dread, Natty is twenty thousand miles away from home. Trench Town has been a place of hard living, poverty, illiteracy, and oppression. All of these things entrap the people. Bob Marley uses language of slavery when he sings No chains around my feet but Im not free. The actual physical slavery has been discarded over a century before, yet there seems to be a larger enslavement. No chains but no freedom; no slavery but no happiness. The reflection of Trench Town makes Bob Marley considers the source of captivity is poverty, illiteracy, and economic juggernaut of working to exploit the poor. The 45 Dawes, Kwame. Bob Marley Lyrical Genius, p. 47. lament of the ghetto is not a physical chain anymore. In “Redemption Song” Bob Marley shows that there is a shift from physical imprisonment imposed by other to mental imprisonment imposed by our own selves. Although physical slavery has been abolished in Jamaica, the people are still limited due to the internalization and structuralized of a colonized and enslaved mentality of inferiority. Although Papua has never been undergone physical enslavement like Jamaica, but it seems quite likely that its people are mentally enslaved just like what Bob Marley depicts in Redemption Song. The long term negative stereotype and stigmatization has penetrated the peoples mentality to feel inferior among their fellow Indonesian brothers and sisters. Therefore despite there is no specific song of The Black Brothers addressing the issue, their existence in Popular music scene in Indonesia was an effort to encounter this inferior mentality. Standing on the behalf of Papuans, The Black Brothers want to show that they are also forward in this generation. And that they also can boast a triumphant victory on whatever they posses. The specific song which talks about triumphant victory is Persipura, the local football team of Jayapura which is well known in Indonesia. “Persipura” is not just a song about winning a game over an opponent in the field, but more than that it contains spirit of triumphant not only as a sport team but also as a human being in daily life. For most Papuans, sport culture seems to be one of the ways besides music and dance culture to deal with the hardship of their life. In Papua almost every aspects of life has been suppressed by political prejudice where almost every activities are put under suspicion of possible threat of nation integrity. Any social and cultural activities to voice their concern toward injustice and to show their existence are strictly controlled by the government. Therefore when the Black Brothers sing of Persipura, they want to show to their fellow brothers and sisters in the country the very existence of Papuan. They want to fight the mental inferiority of their respective people and to show that they are also forward among other Indonesians. The figurative “mutiara hitam” black pearl signifies a prescious posessions. Furthermore, the word “black” signifies their proud of being black instead of negative stigmatisation which attach to it by most people. Based on this point of view, the writer assumes the song “Persipura” has a similar sense and purpose like Marley’s “Redemption Song” to free people’s mental and thinking captivity to not feel inferior but instead must live high and feel triumphant. Persipura is the answer to Bob Marleys calling to help him singing another song of freedom in Redemption Song. Persipura is the redemption song that helps the people to emancipate themselves from mental slavery of feeling inferior. This is to show that they are also forward among their fellow Indonesians. Here The Black Brothers sing Orang tlah tau, semuapun taudi lapangan hijau kini tlah muncul di ufuk timurmutiara hitam...bermain gemilang menerjang lawan dan selalu gemilang People know, everyone knowsin the fieldnow come from the east the black pearl...playing wonderfully attacking the opponentand always win. In conclusion both Bob Marley and The Black Brothers song lyrics are rich with metaphoric expression of suffering. The metaphoric expression tend to cover all the four level of the process: contextual, communal, archetypal, and private. However it would seem that the dominant ones lie on the level of contextual and communal. They characterize the specific and typical life of the people in Jamaica and Indonesia, specifically Papua. Bob Marley presents depictions of suffering explicitly with greater frequency than The Black Brothers. It can be seen that not all types of suffering are discussed by The Black Brothers implicitly except for the issue of poverty. This is due to the socio-political condition. However, wittily The Black Brothers covers their intended message through metaphorical expression by not straightforwardly discussing those issues racism, violence and prison. Accordingly, Bob Marley is very specific and detail in describing the everyday hardships and realities poetically through rich metaphorical expression. This is to sooth the pain as to give pleasure by employing images and parables. In most of his songs about suffering Bob Marley tends to diagnose the condition first by identifying the problems, and then offer problems resolution and call for action. While The Black Brothers only use this pattern in some of their songs about social criticism. However, their call for action again is implied through a form of arising peoples self worth and pride. Bob Marley and The Black Brothers have one thing in common in that they both connect the marginalized status of their social groups to race and cry about the consequences of being poor and black in a country where reality is defined and justified by the dominant race and hegemonic power. Thus, they explicitly and implicitly discuss about suffering, how hunger is the manifestation of poverty, and how violence, racism, and prison are the consequences of their marginalized status.

4.2. The Second Element of Hidden Transcript: Anonymity