Bob Marley is quoted as
saying "I'll never be a politician or even think political."
However, he has also been described as a powerful symbol of human
rights, and a fighter for social equality and justice through his
music. Are the two perspectives necessarily contradictory?
Has Bob Marley simply become a
phenomenon of "commercialization?"
We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind --Marcus Garvey
Won't you help to sing These songs of freedom? -'Cause all I ever have: Redemption songs
How long shall they kill our prophets, While we stand aside and look?
I carried Bob Marley’s Redemption Song to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister, or president. It was for me a prophetic utterance or as Bob would say ‘the small ax that could fell the big tree’. The song reminded me that freedom always comes with a cost, but for those who would prepare to pay it, maybe ‘emancipation from mental slavery’ would be our reward--Bono of U2