adminFOR Bob Marley, Africa was home.
On his visits to the continent, he also felt very much at home.
In 1980, when he visited Zimbabwe for the Independence concert, he first took a 143-km trip to Mutoko to have a taste of the marijuana there, and hang out with the local farmers.
The legend’s public persona was heavily informed by his relationship with Africa, both symbolically and in a real sense.
Bob Marley, like many other Rastas, shared a desire to visit the African continent or, if possible, to live there.
He was a pan-Africanist.
His Rastafarian faith influenced a belief in the unity of African people across the globe—a perspective that’s prominent in all of his music.
Throughout his years, the reggae legend wrote numerous songs against European imperialism and spoke out in support of the movement for Zimbabwean independence and against South African apartheid.
Marley first travelled to Africa in 1978, when he visited both Ethiopia and Kenya. Later, and more famously, he went to Gabon and performed at Zimbabwe’s Independence Day celebration in 1980.
During his 1979 trip to Ethiopia, Marley stayed in Shashamane, “a communal settlement situated on 500-acres of land donated by Emperor Haile Selassie to Rastafarians “that choose to repatriate to Ethiopia.”
Vanity Fair actually visited Shashamane, calling it “Ethiopia’s Rastafarian Utopia.”
Marley was baptised into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church shortly before his death and his funeral used both Ethiopian Orthodox elements and Rastafari tradition.
“Bob’s whole life is about Africa, it is not about Jamaica,” the singer’s widow, Rita Marley tolf The Guardian back in 2005. “Ethiopia is his spiritual resting place.” Bob’s music and message is culturally, spiritually and socially focused, and remains an inspiration to many.
Here’s a selection of Tuff Gong’s most powerful and inspirational songs loved across Africa.
1: Africa Unite
2. Zimbabwe
From the album Survival, released in 1979. It was performed at the first Zimbabwean Independence Day concert in April, 1980.
3. Get Up, Stand Up
The song is about taking action to fight oppression. Bob Marley wrote it together with Peter Tosh. It originally appeared on The Wailers’ 1973 album Burnin’.
4. One Drop
A 1979 Bob Marley song from the album Survival (1979). The song uses Marley’s most militantly Rastafarian lyrics.
5. Ride Natty Ride
6. Top Rankin
The song was written by Bob Marley. Off the album Survival, the eleventh studio album by Bob Marley & The Wailers released in 1979.
7. One Love/People Get Ready. — www.okayaafrica.com/ <http://www.okayaafrica.com/> The Guardian.
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