Reagge and rastafarism

  By way of introduction , I would like you to look at the picture above. I’m sure you have already seen these dreadlocks and this smile at least once in your life. As it’s written on the picture , this man is Bob Marley. He was a famous jamaïcan singer on the sixties and the seventies. He is considered by all musicians as the reggae’s inventor. He sang "No woman no cry", "I shot the sheriff" ,and "Get up stand up". His music touched thousands of people all around the globe.

     In his songs he denounced slavery, colonialism, and European economical oppression on Africa. He always claimed his pride of coming from Africa… With a such message he naturally became a symbol like Che Guevara , Malcolm X or Nelson Mandela.
Unfortunately, we more remember his face and his melodies than his message. After his death, his style became a fashion (dreadlocks , clothes in red yellow and green, smoking weed...). People who have this style are known to listen to reggae music.



But is there something cultural behind reggae music? We mean, is reggae music a testimony of a particular history of reggae men?
In this article wetry to show you that reggae music is a window on Jamaican’s culture, history, and religion .


In deed we can not talk about reggae without mentioning Jamaïca and rastafarism:
Jamaïca is an island , next to Cuba and the West Indies. It has been a british colony for 200 years. Because of slavery native Jamaïcans all died then Britons captured black people in Africa.
 Rastafarism is a specific version of christianity which insists on the role of black people in the Bible.

The objective of this article is to make you understand that Jamaïcans thanks to reggae music and rastafarism have a special relationship with Africa , if we compare to afro-americans’ relationship with Africa…

Jesse Kinvi

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[Jacqueline Bozon-Patard]

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