ON March 20, 2005, one of the famous publications in the US, “Rolling Stone” carried a feature on the ways Bob Marley changed the world: “The Life and Times of Bob Marley: How he changed the world” by Mikal Gilmore.

For me this is the most profound analysis of the genius of Bob Marley and a good argument as to why he is in the pantheon of freedom fighters since time immemorial.
Bob Marley was a composer and singer of popular music. So why should he be in the sacred mausoleum of people like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mother Theresa and so many others in their class that are long gone?

I think the Gilmore article is an impeccable analysis as to why Marley is in that category. Gilmore argued that Marley used songs to achieve what other freedom fighters sought to do on the street.

Gilmore went on to opine that Marley was effective as any of them. I quote the part of Gilmore’s article that I believe contain the philosophical difference between Marley and every other artiste from the Western world: “Marley risked his life to say the things he believed, and as a result both his art and his example managed to uplift or embolden others — particularly members of the African diaspora — in cultures and conditions that no other Western pop star has entered with such authenticity.”

The Gilmore article is simply brilliant and no profound scholarship in Black American society or CARICOM academia or Third World intellectual forums will match it easily. The one area I disagree with Gilmore is when he likened the conscious- raising stir in humans about their role to end oppression in Marley’s advocacy with American hip hop’s anti-establishment rage.

Gilmore may have fallen victim to an American-centric outlook. I honestly think to liken Marley’s enticing literary insurgency with the intentions of hip-hop is misleading and lacks context
Hip-hop’s anger is like Marley’s anger. But the similarity begins and ends there. While hip-hop raged against poverty, racism and police brutality, it lacked the compassion and empathy that Marley begs us to inculcate.

Original hip-hop was infused with so many advocacy of violence that such violent thoughts were misdirected to Black Americans themselves and to women. Tupac Shakur admitted to gang-raping a Black fan and was jailed.

One should not compare the political message in Marley’s reggae with hip hop’s emotions. Three points stand out graphically and when you grasp the essential differences, then you know you are threading on serious insult to a Caribbean genius when you make the comparison between Marley’s reggae and hip-hop’s message

The first is Marley’s deterministic motives derived from Rastafari culture. Rastafari is about ethereal liberation from worldly materialism. It shuns the world of greed, human ordinariness and ostentatiousness. Two scenes in the biopic depict this. First was the cover of what is now one of the world’s most treasured albums- Exodus.

The original art work had Marley’s image on the cover to which Marley had it removed because for him it was vain. The second scene was when Marley had a fight with his business manager because the planned tour to Africa was to be free for fans but the manager took an advance payment.

The second difference is again derived from Rastafari culture in which there is the appeal for oneness among the human race. The BBC described Marley’s big hit, “One Love” as the song of the 20th century. And Time magazine analysed the album, “Exodus” as the best of the 20th century. No hip hop song since the birth of the genre contains anything close to the message in Marley’s repertoire.

The third difference between Marley’s philosophy and hip hop was that hip hop made no appeal to the world as Marley did. Hip hop was confined to addressing the wrongs of American society and when it became popular, it sought extravagant luxury for its singers. Marley had no time for the billions that laid in wait for him. As I write, I find it totally unacceptable to even attempt a hip hop comparison with Marley’s liberation appeal

On this day, when Guyana threw off the yoke of colonial symbolism and became a republic, the life and times of Bob Marley resonate throughout the entire CARICOM terrain. He has to be turning in his grave to see how mentally unprogressive the Caribbean has become.

When you think of Cheddi Jagan, Forbes Burnham, Franz Fanon, Walter Rodney, Maurice Bishop, then Caribbean’s silence on the tragedy of Gaza, then maybe you need to reflect on the words below, taken from Marley’s most philosophically inspiring song:

“Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom
‘Cause all I ever had, redemption songs
All I ever had, redemption songs
These songs of freedom”