The Rastaman’s Concepts Of Equality And Freedom As Reflected In Bob Marley’s Selected Songs
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1.Background of the Study
Song is soul expression through the art of music. As an expression of soul, a song has
a specific meaning in the lyric intended by the author and it is influenced by author's
feeling.An author can write whatever he feels in a form of lyric. Songsare also common
things in people daily life, becausesongs can entertain the people. It is whyeasy for us to hear
it everywhere. But sometimes, song is also used in spiritual ceremony or as an identity for
something.For example, we can find some traditional culture such Bataknese, the tribe uses
song in the death ritual, or such Christians sings religious song for praying, and also every
country or state has special song such national anthem as the identity of nation.
In a song, we can find lyrics which arebeautiful and meaningful and makes its
listeners more interestedto hear. Through a song, a message in the lyric can be more attractive
to be accepted by its listeners. So, the song can be used as a medium to convey a message of
the author, neither for themselves nor for others.
Today, songis not only anentertainment or an element of ritualceremony among the
people. Song canbe impacts variously on its listeners.More than soul expression, song can be
used as medium to criticize, to protest, to persuade, or even to warn people. In the 20th
century, many great musiciansare famous with their phenomenal songwhich many tells about
criticism or protest. For example, we know some musicians such as Bob Dylan from USA,
IwanFalsfrom Indonesia, and Bob Marley from Jamaica famous with theirs critical and
protest songs which motivates and inspires the people all over the world. Especially for Bob
Marley, he is a great musician and also an icon for freedom and liberation.
Bob Marley, or Robert Nesta Marley, was born on February 6, 1945 in Nine Mile,
Jamaica and died on May 11, 1981 in Miami, USA. He is a singer, songwriter and
guitarist and his music focuses on reggae. His skill is proved by many awards that have been
achieved, one of which was awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on February,
2001. Dodson (2003:67) states, “Blacks people have the high intuition of art, they create the
songs and they always dancing with traditional music instruments”. In fact, he has been
named by The Hollywood Walk of Fameas the star in the music history.
Marley spent his earliest years in the village of Nine Mile in St. Ann Parish, Jamaica.
His father’s name is Norval Sinclair Marley and his mother’s name is Cedella Booker. His
father wasEuropean-Jamaican and his mother was African-Jamaican. Marley left Nine Mile
with his mother when he was 12 years and moved to Trench Town, Kingston.
In Trench Town, hefound himself in a vocal group with Bunny Wailer, Peter
Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite. Marley and the others didn't play any
instruments at that time, and were more interested being a vocal harmony group. In 1963,
they formed The Wailing Wailers and their friend Cherry Smithjoined in the band.By 1966,
Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the trio of Bob Marley, Bunny
Wailer, and Peter Tosh. The band's name changed several times before they finally settled on
The Wailers
In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence
in Wilmington, Delaware, USA forshort time, during he worked as a DuPont lab assistant
and at a Chrysler plant.Though raised as a Catholic, Marley became interested in Rastafari
beliefs in the 1960s, when stay away from his mother's influence. After return to Jamaica
from USA, Marley formally converted to Rastafari and began to grow dreadlocks. Marley
was a member for some years of the Rastafari movement and became an ardent proponent of
Rastafari.
Rastafari is an African-centric religion which was developed in 1930s in Jamaica.
Rastafari developed among poor and oppressed Jamaicans. The follower of this religion is
called Rasta or Rastaman. The Rastaman believes that Haile Selassie I is God. Haile Selassie
I was born in 1892 and died in 1975. He was an emperor of Ethiopia since 1930 until 1974.
The name Rastafari is taken from Ras Tafaria, Ras means the title and Tafaria is the first
name of Haile Selassie I before his coronation. In Amharic, Ras, literally means head, it is an
Ethiopian title equivalent to prince or chief, while the personal given name Tafari or Teferi
means one who is respected or feared.
As a religion, Rastafari has a basic belief or rules of life. Some of Rastafari’s way of
life encompasses the spiritual use of cannabis and reject to degenerate society of materialism,
sensual pleasures, and oppression. Afrocentrism or Pan Africa is another central facet of
Rastafari. They taught that Africa, particularly Ethiopia, is where Zion shall be created. As
such, the Rastafari orients itself around Africans culture. The Rastafari holds that evil society
dominated and has committed such acts of aggression against Blacks people. Baskara (2008:
35) says, “Rastafari adalah ‘agama’ yang bersinggungan dengan eksistensi kaum kulit hitam,
masa lampau Afrika, juga kebebasan”. (Rastafari is ‘religion’ related to Blacks’s existence,
the past time of Africa, also freedom). From the statement above, it is clear that the Rastafari
has close relationship with the stories about the freedom.
World history was recorded that human being had horrible experience when racial
issues and colonialism occurred on the world. Of course, the racism and colonialism are not
suitable to human rights and equality. According to the history, these systems cannot be
separated from the history of slavery.In fact, the slavery system is an ancient labor system
known by humanity. This can be proved by few points of slavery in the Code of Hammurabi
which was made around 1760 BC. It says to be determined death for anyone who helped
slaves to escape or who protect fugitives. The slavery was known in almost every ancient
civilization, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire,
and the Hebrew Kingdoms.
According to the fact above, the slavery was not only done to Blacks or Africans
descent, but also to other races including Americans native, and Asians. Ancheta (1998: 4)
states,
“The civil unrest in Los Angles in 1992 is just one example of the
intricacy of contemporary racial dynamics, shedding light on a host of
race-based and class-based conflicts, as well as an array of racial and
ethnic groups – Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos – who were both victims
and victimizers”.
The major European languages, including English, use variations of the word ‘slave’,
in references to Slavic laborers of Byzantium. In America, according to Aztec writings, as
many as 84,000 people were sacrificed at a temple inauguration in 1487. Also in ancient
Maya society, warfare is important because raids on surrounding areas provide the victims
required for human sacrifice, as well as slaves for the construction of temples. In Asia,
slavery has existed all throughout Asia. Slavery in China also existed since ancient times.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the Chinese arrested Koreans civilians from
Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla to be sold as slaves. The descriptions above prove that the
system of slavery occurs almost universal in human civilization.
The slavery system has broad impacts on human mindset about equality and justice.
The system covers all aspects of life throughout prosperity, education, and religion. This
condition is exacerbated by the advent of the colonial system which many established by
European nations in some continent such as Asia and Africa. Moreover, the slavery and
colonialism are not only provides social injustice but also physical and psychological
violence to the people. Campbell (1987:19) says, “In addition to physical violence, slave field
is also faced with all forms of inhumanity and disgrace that destroys his spirit”.
Over the times, resistance and rebellion against the slavery and colonialism was
formed. In the early 20thcentury, many movement organizations were arise and expressed the
rejection and judgment to any kind of slavery and colonialism system on the world. The
struggles are not only done by diplomacy, but also through various acts such as
demonstrations, labor strikes, or evenby literature. At the century, the issue of racism was
still very clearly felt by someraces, one of them is Negroid, or other word the Blacks people.
In their land, many Europeans establish the system of colonization in some state such as
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Congo, South Africa, etc. The era of slave trade caused the Blacks
people were sold and sent to foreign. Besides, the Blacks people also livein discrimination
and segregation in other continent such as Europe and America.The Blacks peopleare one of
the races having a long story of struggle for freedom and liberty.
All explanations and descriptionsabove arebecame the background of the study of this
thesis entitled “TheRastaman’s concept of Equality and Freedom asreflected in Bob Marley’s
Selected Songs”. This thesis takes some selected song of Bob Marley to be analyzed. The
song has lyrics deals the Rastaman’s concept of equality and freedom.
A song has some major elements to support the idea or the theme that will be
conveyed by the singer, they are lyricsand melodies. In some cases, a song sung by someone
has lyric which is adopted from poetry. It shows that there are similarities between song and
poetry. This can be proved from the structure and characteristic of both. Song has lyrics and
poetry has stanzas and both rely on effective use of descriptive imagery.
“…Both poetry and song are literary poems that deal with emotion of a
particular individual, regarding a particular situation. Furthermore, poetry
verses and lines of song often follow a rhyming scheme, giving a sense of
melody to the verses, even when the lines are merely recited. There are a
number of different lyrics used in songs that derived from poetry. Take for
instance, The Star Spangled Banner, which is the National Anthem of the
United States. The lyrics of the song were actually derived from the poem
of the same title”. (http://www.differencebetwen.net/poetry vs song/ Accessed on March 5, 2015)
The statement above explains thatsong lyric is similar with poetry, because they have
the same characteristics. Poetry derives etymologically from the Greek word ‘poiein’ which
means a making, forming, creating, or constructing. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings. Ubercombie (2009:6) in Understanding Poetryby Martha Pardede states,
“Poetry is the expression of imaginative experience, valid simply as such and significant as
such communicable given by language which employs every available and appropriate
device”.
1.2.Problems of the Study
Some data prove that Rastafari firstly developed and followed by a few people in
Jamaica.In fact, Jamaica is a country in the Caribbean Island former British colony. Jamaica
has a long history of slavery, because it is an island for slaves from Africa in past time.
Horrible experiences and social situation at that time would have effects for Jamaicans, and
Rastafari is a belief which arose due to the current situation.
Bob Marley is known as a Rastaman and as a legend of reggae music from Jamaica.
His songs can inspire many people all over the world. The lyrics in his songs bravely protests
and criticizes injustice and oppression system such colonization and slavery against the
people at that time. Campbell (1987:5) states, “Instead of becoming pawns in the political
game they used the medium of the Rasta song – Reggae – to mobilize the people”. And as a
Rastaman, he inserts a lot of elements of the Rastafari belief to demand freedom and human
rights equality in the song lyric.
Based on the background of study, I formulate some problems as follow:
1. How is the Rastaman’s concept of equality asreflected in Bob Marley’sselected
songs?
2. How is the Rastaman’s concept of freedom as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected
songs?
1.3.Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem of study, I expect to achieve objectives as follow:
1. To find the Rastaman’s concept of equality as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected
songs.
2. To find the Rastaman’s concept of freedom as reflected in Bob Marley’sselected
songs.
1.4.Scope of the Study
In analyzing these songs, this thesis needs a scope of the study in order to avoid an
excessive analysis. To make clear limitation or scope of the study, I focused my thesis only
on analyzing the selected songs of Bob Marley deals with the concept of Rastaman about
equality and freedom.
There are six songs selected to be analyzed, namely:War, Zimbabwe, So Much Things
to Say, Africa Unite, Exodus and Redemption Song. These selected songs are expected to
provide explanations and information related tothe objectives of the study.
1.5.Significances of the Study
Jabrohim (2008:5) states, “An analysis is done due to certain significance it has”.
Based on the statement above, it is clear that an analysis is made to give significances not
only for the writer but also the reader. This thesis is expected to give the significance as
follow:
1. To be one of the references for the students who are interested to this study.
2. To identify the relationship between Rastaman and the story of Blacks people’s
struggle as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected songs.
3. To identify the belief idea of Rastafari as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected
songs.
4. To describe the Rastaman’s concepts of equality and freedom as reflected in Bob
Marley’s selected songs.
INTRODUCTION
1.1.Background of the Study
Song is soul expression through the art of music. As an expression of soul, a song has
a specific meaning in the lyric intended by the author and it is influenced by author's
feeling.An author can write whatever he feels in a form of lyric. Songsare also common
things in people daily life, becausesongs can entertain the people. It is whyeasy for us to hear
it everywhere. But sometimes, song is also used in spiritual ceremony or as an identity for
something.For example, we can find some traditional culture such Bataknese, the tribe uses
song in the death ritual, or such Christians sings religious song for praying, and also every
country or state has special song such national anthem as the identity of nation.
In a song, we can find lyrics which arebeautiful and meaningful and makes its
listeners more interestedto hear. Through a song, a message in the lyric can be more attractive
to be accepted by its listeners. So, the song can be used as a medium to convey a message of
the author, neither for themselves nor for others.
Today, songis not only anentertainment or an element of ritualceremony among the
people. Song canbe impacts variously on its listeners.More than soul expression, song can be
used as medium to criticize, to protest, to persuade, or even to warn people. In the 20th
century, many great musiciansare famous with their phenomenal songwhich many tells about
criticism or protest. For example, we know some musicians such as Bob Dylan from USA,
IwanFalsfrom Indonesia, and Bob Marley from Jamaica famous with theirs critical and
protest songs which motivates and inspires the people all over the world. Especially for Bob
Marley, he is a great musician and also an icon for freedom and liberation.
Bob Marley, or Robert Nesta Marley, was born on February 6, 1945 in Nine Mile,
Jamaica and died on May 11, 1981 in Miami, USA. He is a singer, songwriter and
guitarist and his music focuses on reggae. His skill is proved by many awards that have been
achieved, one of which was awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award on February,
2001. Dodson (2003:67) states, “Blacks people have the high intuition of art, they create the
songs and they always dancing with traditional music instruments”. In fact, he has been
named by The Hollywood Walk of Fameas the star in the music history.
Marley spent his earliest years in the village of Nine Mile in St. Ann Parish, Jamaica.
His father’s name is Norval Sinclair Marley and his mother’s name is Cedella Booker. His
father wasEuropean-Jamaican and his mother was African-Jamaican. Marley left Nine Mile
with his mother when he was 12 years and moved to Trench Town, Kingston.
In Trench Town, hefound himself in a vocal group with Bunny Wailer, Peter
Tosh, Beverley Kelso and Junior Braithwaite. Marley and the others didn't play any
instruments at that time, and were more interested being a vocal harmony group. In 1963,
they formed The Wailing Wailers and their friend Cherry Smithjoined in the band.By 1966,
Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the trio of Bob Marley, Bunny
Wailer, and Peter Tosh. The band's name changed several times before they finally settled on
The Wailers
In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence
in Wilmington, Delaware, USA forshort time, during he worked as a DuPont lab assistant
and at a Chrysler plant.Though raised as a Catholic, Marley became interested in Rastafari
beliefs in the 1960s, when stay away from his mother's influence. After return to Jamaica
from USA, Marley formally converted to Rastafari and began to grow dreadlocks. Marley
was a member for some years of the Rastafari movement and became an ardent proponent of
Rastafari.
Rastafari is an African-centric religion which was developed in 1930s in Jamaica.
Rastafari developed among poor and oppressed Jamaicans. The follower of this religion is
called Rasta or Rastaman. The Rastaman believes that Haile Selassie I is God. Haile Selassie
I was born in 1892 and died in 1975. He was an emperor of Ethiopia since 1930 until 1974.
The name Rastafari is taken from Ras Tafaria, Ras means the title and Tafaria is the first
name of Haile Selassie I before his coronation. In Amharic, Ras, literally means head, it is an
Ethiopian title equivalent to prince or chief, while the personal given name Tafari or Teferi
means one who is respected or feared.
As a religion, Rastafari has a basic belief or rules of life. Some of Rastafari’s way of
life encompasses the spiritual use of cannabis and reject to degenerate society of materialism,
sensual pleasures, and oppression. Afrocentrism or Pan Africa is another central facet of
Rastafari. They taught that Africa, particularly Ethiopia, is where Zion shall be created. As
such, the Rastafari orients itself around Africans culture. The Rastafari holds that evil society
dominated and has committed such acts of aggression against Blacks people. Baskara (2008:
35) says, “Rastafari adalah ‘agama’ yang bersinggungan dengan eksistensi kaum kulit hitam,
masa lampau Afrika, juga kebebasan”. (Rastafari is ‘religion’ related to Blacks’s existence,
the past time of Africa, also freedom). From the statement above, it is clear that the Rastafari
has close relationship with the stories about the freedom.
World history was recorded that human being had horrible experience when racial
issues and colonialism occurred on the world. Of course, the racism and colonialism are not
suitable to human rights and equality. According to the history, these systems cannot be
separated from the history of slavery.In fact, the slavery system is an ancient labor system
known by humanity. This can be proved by few points of slavery in the Code of Hammurabi
which was made around 1760 BC. It says to be determined death for anyone who helped
slaves to escape or who protect fugitives. The slavery was known in almost every ancient
civilization, including Ancient Egypt, Ancient China, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire,
and the Hebrew Kingdoms.
According to the fact above, the slavery was not only done to Blacks or Africans
descent, but also to other races including Americans native, and Asians. Ancheta (1998: 4)
states,
“The civil unrest in Los Angles in 1992 is just one example of the
intricacy of contemporary racial dynamics, shedding light on a host of
race-based and class-based conflicts, as well as an array of racial and
ethnic groups – Blacks, Whites, Asians, Latinos – who were both victims
and victimizers”.
The major European languages, including English, use variations of the word ‘slave’,
in references to Slavic laborers of Byzantium. In America, according to Aztec writings, as
many as 84,000 people were sacrificed at a temple inauguration in 1487. Also in ancient
Maya society, warfare is important because raids on surrounding areas provide the victims
required for human sacrifice, as well as slaves for the construction of temples. In Asia,
slavery has existed all throughout Asia. Slavery in China also existed since ancient times.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), the Chinese arrested Koreans civilians from
Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla to be sold as slaves. The descriptions above prove that the
system of slavery occurs almost universal in human civilization.
The slavery system has broad impacts on human mindset about equality and justice.
The system covers all aspects of life throughout prosperity, education, and religion. This
condition is exacerbated by the advent of the colonial system which many established by
European nations in some continent such as Asia and Africa. Moreover, the slavery and
colonialism are not only provides social injustice but also physical and psychological
violence to the people. Campbell (1987:19) says, “In addition to physical violence, slave field
is also faced with all forms of inhumanity and disgrace that destroys his spirit”.
Over the times, resistance and rebellion against the slavery and colonialism was
formed. In the early 20thcentury, many movement organizations were arise and expressed the
rejection and judgment to any kind of slavery and colonialism system on the world. The
struggles are not only done by diplomacy, but also through various acts such as
demonstrations, labor strikes, or evenby literature. At the century, the issue of racism was
still very clearly felt by someraces, one of them is Negroid, or other word the Blacks people.
In their land, many Europeans establish the system of colonization in some state such as
Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Congo, South Africa, etc. The era of slave trade caused the Blacks
people were sold and sent to foreign. Besides, the Blacks people also livein discrimination
and segregation in other continent such as Europe and America.The Blacks peopleare one of
the races having a long story of struggle for freedom and liberty.
All explanations and descriptionsabove arebecame the background of the study of this
thesis entitled “TheRastaman’s concept of Equality and Freedom asreflected in Bob Marley’s
Selected Songs”. This thesis takes some selected song of Bob Marley to be analyzed. The
song has lyrics deals the Rastaman’s concept of equality and freedom.
A song has some major elements to support the idea or the theme that will be
conveyed by the singer, they are lyricsand melodies. In some cases, a song sung by someone
has lyric which is adopted from poetry. It shows that there are similarities between song and
poetry. This can be proved from the structure and characteristic of both. Song has lyrics and
poetry has stanzas and both rely on effective use of descriptive imagery.
“…Both poetry and song are literary poems that deal with emotion of a
particular individual, regarding a particular situation. Furthermore, poetry
verses and lines of song often follow a rhyming scheme, giving a sense of
melody to the verses, even when the lines are merely recited. There are a
number of different lyrics used in songs that derived from poetry. Take for
instance, The Star Spangled Banner, which is the National Anthem of the
United States. The lyrics of the song were actually derived from the poem
of the same title”. (http://www.differencebetwen.net/poetry vs song/ Accessed on March 5, 2015)
The statement above explains thatsong lyric is similar with poetry, because they have
the same characteristics. Poetry derives etymologically from the Greek word ‘poiein’ which
means a making, forming, creating, or constructing. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings. Ubercombie (2009:6) in Understanding Poetryby Martha Pardede states,
“Poetry is the expression of imaginative experience, valid simply as such and significant as
such communicable given by language which employs every available and appropriate
device”.
1.2.Problems of the Study
Some data prove that Rastafari firstly developed and followed by a few people in
Jamaica.In fact, Jamaica is a country in the Caribbean Island former British colony. Jamaica
has a long history of slavery, because it is an island for slaves from Africa in past time.
Horrible experiences and social situation at that time would have effects for Jamaicans, and
Rastafari is a belief which arose due to the current situation.
Bob Marley is known as a Rastaman and as a legend of reggae music from Jamaica.
His songs can inspire many people all over the world. The lyrics in his songs bravely protests
and criticizes injustice and oppression system such colonization and slavery against the
people at that time. Campbell (1987:5) states, “Instead of becoming pawns in the political
game they used the medium of the Rasta song – Reggae – to mobilize the people”. And as a
Rastaman, he inserts a lot of elements of the Rastafari belief to demand freedom and human
rights equality in the song lyric.
Based on the background of study, I formulate some problems as follow:
1. How is the Rastaman’s concept of equality asreflected in Bob Marley’sselected
songs?
2. How is the Rastaman’s concept of freedom as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected
songs?
1.3.Objectives of the Study
Based on the problem of study, I expect to achieve objectives as follow:
1. To find the Rastaman’s concept of equality as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected
songs.
2. To find the Rastaman’s concept of freedom as reflected in Bob Marley’sselected
songs.
1.4.Scope of the Study
In analyzing these songs, this thesis needs a scope of the study in order to avoid an
excessive analysis. To make clear limitation or scope of the study, I focused my thesis only
on analyzing the selected songs of Bob Marley deals with the concept of Rastaman about
equality and freedom.
There are six songs selected to be analyzed, namely:War, Zimbabwe, So Much Things
to Say, Africa Unite, Exodus and Redemption Song. These selected songs are expected to
provide explanations and information related tothe objectives of the study.
1.5.Significances of the Study
Jabrohim (2008:5) states, “An analysis is done due to certain significance it has”.
Based on the statement above, it is clear that an analysis is made to give significances not
only for the writer but also the reader. This thesis is expected to give the significance as
follow:
1. To be one of the references for the students who are interested to this study.
2. To identify the relationship between Rastaman and the story of Blacks people’s
struggle as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected songs.
3. To identify the belief idea of Rastafari as reflected in Bob Marley’s selected
songs.
4. To describe the Rastaman’s concepts of equality and freedom as reflected in Bob
Marley’s selected songs.