“Won’t You Help Me Sing, Another Song of Freedom”: Reggae Music and African Liberation Struggles on Robben Island

Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi

Research Specialist

Africa Institute of South Africa

RASTAFARI: Roots & Ideology

Barry Chevannes and Horace Campbell, Rastafari: Roots and Ideology, (1994); and “Rastafari as Pan Africanism in the Caribbean and Africa,” respectively, to trace the cultural roots of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica

RASTA & RESISTANCE: From Marcus Garvey to Walter Rodney

In this book (1997), Horace Campbell narrates the role of the Rastafari in the Caribbean Revolution, in the struggle against oppression in the Caribbean, and how this movement had impact on the African liberation struggles.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

Chevannes argues that the worldview of the

Jamaican peasantry, the direct descendants of “those who came” after Columbus, the Africans forced into slavery, resonates in the Rastafari.

Horace Campbell - “Rastafari as Pan Africanism in the Caribbean and Africa” - writes that ‘the Rastafari movement in the Caribbean emerged as a popular mass movement, responding to the need for a mass based organization among the people, free from state control.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

Reggae as a form of communication emerged

specifically to meet the needs of a section of society searching for self expression and self organization. ...

Rastafari was a reference point to maintain some form of self worth in a world where the images of Africa were linked to inferiority.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

Rastafari celebrates African culture and is itself part of a continuous tradition of Africans in the Diaspora striving to reconnect with Africa in meaningful ways, including repatriation.

Rastafari culture in all its manifestations has been popularised by the musical form of reggae throughout the world in the past-present-and-future. The Rastafari movement evolved in the conditions of the Caribbean, specifically in Jamaica in the context of the resistance to colonialism.

His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

The elevation of an African monarch, Haile Selassie, was the response to the dominance of the British crown in the culture of Jamaica,

His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

In a society where religion settled all social questions, the identification with the Ethiopian monarch could be further justified on Biblical grounds: “Princes come out of Egypt, Ethiopia stretches forth her hands unto God”—that Ethiopia was an early reference point for Africans in the West.

“Meeting the Emperor himself, would be like shaking hands with history” Mandela

Rolihlahla Nelson Mandela His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

Jean Comaroff (Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People, 1985) paid tribute to Monica Wilson for teaching Comaroff “that the anthropology of southern Africa was about the ‘Reaction to Conquest.’” A similar claim could be made for Caribbean anthropology, as there is now widespread recognition that the

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE culture of the peoples of the region has been influenced by resistance to slavery and plantation society. This recognition marks an important departure from

the acculturation approach by shifting emphasis from the dominance of colonial power and control to the resilience of the character of the subject peoples, in this case the African.

Barry Chevannes , 1994, Rastafari: Roots and Ideology, p.17.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

I would like to start this discussion on the Role of Reggae Music in the African Liberation Struggle in the Caribbean, and in Jamaica to be exact, where this music originates or where it is mostly associated with the islands and region.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

At the singing of “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika” in the assembly hall of the University of West Indies, Mona, on the historic visit of Rolihlahla Nelson and Nomzamo Winnie Mandela to Jamaica in 1991.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

Many academics, white and black, not to mention other staff and students of the university and other visitors, their fists clenched above their heads, sang this anthem as a sign of their identification with the struggles of the people whose hopes the song—and liberation anthem, Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika, represent

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

Thus, the Mandela’s Jamaican visit had to happen, amongst other Diasporan visits, to thank and acknowledge the people of Jamaica, and in particular, their culture of resistance, including the Rastafari and the islands’ special genre of music, reggae, for playing such a decisive role in African liberation struggles, including of South Africa.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

This connections of struggle, freedom and liberation between Jamaica and South Africa are identifiable in the study by Carole Yawney, “Exodus: Rastafari, Repatriation, and the African Renaissance” (2001).

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

“in an alleyway in central Kingston, Jamaica, at the juncture of two roads, is a mural painted on a brick wall. A large map of Jamaica is connected by a bridge to a large map of Africa. It is entitled Bridge the Gap o Africa ... Nelson and Winnie Mandela. Her attention to this mural was drawn by Barry Chevannes, who lived at the time near this mural.

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

ROBBEN ISLAND: CULTURE AND RESISTANCE

In the African liberation struggles in Southern Africa, Robben Island Maximum Security Prison, off the coast of Cape Town, was perhaps one of the most brutal sites of our struggle.

PhD Dissertation “Robben Island: Role of Songs in the African Liberation Struggle in South Africa”

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of

Freedom’:

ROBBEN ISLAND: CULTURE AND RESISTANCE Rationale “A Great deal has been written about the heroic struggles on Robben Island. Little, though, has been said about the cultural struggles and achievements of the Robben Islanders. The inhuman conditions of imprisonment on Robben Island failed to destroy the will of artists who wanted to voice their achievements and failures, hopes and frustrations, and the inevitability of their release and ultimate liberation through music.” Mayibuye, journal of the African National Congress (ANC), September

1991,

Interviewing Ntate James Mange

James Mange

James Mange: A Cultural Defiance

Dreadlocks, Reggae Music & Rastafari: “The Message of Resistance”

CONSTITUTION OF REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA ON CULTURE

Dreadlocks represent the journey

that we have been on.

At best towards African

Consciousness...

“School dreadlocks ban is tested in court,” (Mail & Guardian May 28-June 3, 2010),

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of Freedom’:

‘Wont You Help Me Sing, Songs of Freedom’:

Dreadlocks represent the journey that we have been on. At best towards african consciousness, but well enough and often just a living record of where we have been. our struggle. some wear their locks on the inside. some wear their locks on the outside. but if the truth of the 'dread' in the dread locks is the dread of african liberation, Pan Africanism, and african nationalism, then I say it should stay.

“GET UP, STAND UP, FOR YOUR RIGHTS”

HOW DO WE CONTINUE TO

DEFEND OUR HUMAN RIGHTS

IN THE POST –APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA?