International Journal of Political Science and Development

Vol. 9(4), pp. 150-174, June, 2021. 

DOI: 10.14662/IJPSD2021.025

ISSN: 2360-784X

 

Full Length Research

 

Roots Rock Reggae and the Socio-Political Liberations of Societies: Posthumous Tributes to Three Legends: Robert Nesta (Bob) Marley, Peter Mackintosh and Bunny Wailer

 

Acheoah Ofeh Augustine

 

Political Economist, International Relations’ Analyst, Strategic Thinker, Full Fellow, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA)

 

E-mail: Acheoahaugustine6@Gmail.Com

 

Accepted 14 June 2021

ABSTRACT

 

The roles of Roots Reggae sub-genre and the three legends: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailers in the emergence of Roots Rock Reggae’s emergence is central to appreciating how this emancipatory genre of music had helped change the socio-political and economic trajectories of societies with their strong appeal against oppression, corruption, slavery, colonialism, racism to mention few societal ills as core lyrical themes. Forty years have just passed since Robert Nesta Marley (Bob Marley) died tragically but heroically (May 11 1981), 34 Years since Peter Tosh (11 September 1987) was tragically murdered and three months since the eventual passage of Burney Wailer (2 March 2021) marks ‘the golden transition of three legends’ to eternal glory. Indisputably, the most controversial genre in contemporary world that is rooted liberation themes: War, slavery, political oppression and liberation all originates from Jamaica with Rastafarianism and the Holy Bible as sources philosophical inspiration. The Reggae band: ‘Bob Marley and the Wailers’ was founded in 1963 made success until 1974 career ego crept in and got them tri-polarized. Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh abandoned the band to pursue solo careers. It took the induction of the ‘I-Threes’ to keep the band afloat when Marley’s wife Rita Anderson, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffith became the supportive stage artists throughout until his death in May 1981. The relevance of Roots Rock Reggae in the socio-political, economic and cultural liberation of societies had been timeless, a testament to the evergreen legendaries’ impacts of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailers is the decision of UNESCO to preserve reggae as one of the UNESCO’s ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage List’. At the crest of the Wailers musical revolution was that: ‘they were mindless of the power that be’, and were never sacred of any crown’ authority or civilization, not even Atomic Energy’ so long as they sustain oppressive structure against the ordinary people. They spoke consistently, irrevocably and truth to power until their deaths: “No bullet can stop us now, we neither beg nor we will bow, neither can be bought nor sold’. While Reggae had made cultural inroads into Asia, Africa, America, Europe and elsewhere, the Jamaican reggae artists have the biggest tasks to ensure its preservation, side by side with the Jamaican Ministry of Culture and multilateral partners such as UNESCO.  

 

Key Words: Roots Rock Reggae, Colonialism, Racism, Corruption, Slavery, tri-polarized, I-Threes, Cultural liberation, Rastafarianism, golden transition

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Cite this article as: Acheoah, O. A (2021). Roots Rock Reggae and the Socio-Political Liberations of Societies: Posthumous Tributes to Three Legends: Bob Marley, Peter Mackintosh and Bunny Wailer. Int. J. Polit. Sci. Develop. 9(4) 150-174