The Ethno-Nationalism of Bob Marley?
Bob Marley's promotion of racial equality fits neatly into contemporary liberal multiculturalist ideology, yet how does this square with his Rastafarianism and Pan-Africanist beliefs?
On first impressions, this seems like a crazy topic to write about. How could I associate the liberal hero Bob Marley, the singer of the equalitarian hymn War, with ethno-nationalism? That’s the exact opposite of what he preached was it not? Are you mad?
Given this may seem odd, I should outline a few things before I begin.
This piece is not intended to be a takedown of Bob Marley—I’m a big fan of his music and believe him to be alongside Bob Dylan as the greatest songwriter of the 20th century. He is an artist who—despite his sexual transgressions—I hold in very high esteem.
Ditto, this isn’t an expose of alleged ‘racism’ with Rastafarianism. I have much respect for the insights and teachings of Rastafarianism, as well as an admiration for the collective voice of Rastas and their unique community. Frankly, I don’t care if some are black nationalists. And oddly enough, many social and spiritual views they express align with my European traditionalist and (mystical) Christian beliefs.
Yes, I’m aware Bob Marley was mixed-race. Yet it’s clear he identified with his African heritage.
I am interested in the ‘Oneness’ of all human beings (and things) in a spiritual context, yet believe there are varied and unique expressions in differing peoples, ethnicities and nations in physical form. This is an unusual take, as the ‘leftist’ view assumes equality on a physical plane, and the ‘right’ tends to acknowledge differences, yet cringes at talk of ‘universal Oneness’ and ‘love’. It would be fair to say I’m using Marley and his Rastafarianism as a vector to explore whether or not I’m on to something.
Was Marley a Liberal Hero?
To understand Marley and the worldview he embraced, it’s necessary to challenge some commonly held assumptions about the man.
In the modern West, the assumption is that anyone who speaks about ‘One Love’ must automatically adhere to liberal ideology—remember the ‘Progressive Moral Theology’ I discuss on the YouTube Channel? An underlying tenet of this is that ‘love’ equals tolerance, inclusion, and ‘social justice’ ideology.
While Marley scores highly in that regard given his focus on the oppression and emancipation of African peoples, the Guardianistas bopping along to Legend at their summer barbecues with a tin of Estrella in one hand and a spliff in the other tend to ignore some of Marley’s other sentiments. Being a Rastafarian, a religion described by the Encyclopedia Brittanica as a blend of ‘Protestant Christianity, mysticism, and a pan-African political consciousness’, unsurprisingly, Marley held to ‘traditional’ views concerning gender roles and homosexuality. This side of Marley is oft-ignored, one assumes because it doesn’t sit well within the liberal cultural consciousness of the age.
The same is true of sentiments Marley espoused on spiritual universalism and his disdain for ‘colour prejudice’. These fit neatly into the liberal conception of Marley, yet how can these be reconciled with core tenets of Rastafarian belief? Rastafarianism is heavily rooted in the black experience, so much so that black identity is an indelible element of the religion. This is so much the case that prominent Rastafarians have been known to express ideas of black racial supremacy along with the prophecised return of black people to ‘Zion’ (modern-day Ethiopia) as part of their unique covenant with God, which is tantamount to the claims of the Jews as the ‘chosen people’ in God’s eyes.
We can find references to these beliefs in Marley’s music in songs such as Iron, Lion, Zion and Africa Unite.
Are Leftists Really Against Ethnonationalism?
To get to the bottom of this, in this piece, I’ll explore the roots of Rastafarianism along with its logical application today. Yet, before I begin, I’ll deal with the elephant in the room.
While exploring topics of this kind, a common criticism is that Rastafarians, like Palestinians, Moari, or Indians (et al), only have such ‘biologically essentialist’ identities as they’ve been historically oppressed. Thereby, we should celebrate, promote and ‘include’ such identities in the name of ‘equality’.
This sounds logical enough in principle, yet what it means in practice is that ethnic identity is seen as a moral good in the liberal cultural consciousness so long as that identity can be categorised as historically downtrodden. This presents a problem, as when you attempt to solidify the validity of one oppressed group, you deny a ‘dominant’ group that same privilege, thereby becoming what you’re supposedly against. This was articulated in this viral tweet from a South African leftist recently:
While some have questioned how ‘white’ this commenter is, it exhibits a clear bias on the left. ‘Blood and soil’ is legitimate if you’re an oppressed minority, but if you’re a European, that would be ‘fascist’. This is important as it exposes the leftist belief that ethnonationalism is not a problem in and of itself, but only when it’s read through a lens of power.
The logical conclusion of this is that, for the leftist, ethnonationalism is morally neutral. It only takes on ethical energy when it’s expressed by an oppressed group, such as Africans or Palestinians (which is seen as a good cause), or a dominant group, such as Europeans (when it’s seen as a bad cause because… Hitler, or something).
As you can see, this undermines left-liberal equalitarianism. For true equality, either everyone has a homeland or nobody does. If one group is allowed one and the other is not, that is not equality, but vengeance masquerading as equality. We should bear this in mind throughout the rest of our exploration into Rastafarianism and Bob Marley.
Rastafarianism
In researching this piece, I came across an interesting paper entitled Bob Marley, Pan-Africanism and Black Civilization by a Nigerian academic called Ikenna Onwuegbuna1. The summary of the paper reads as follows:
Onwuegbuna argues that Marley's work contributed to the global dissemination of Pan-Africanist ideas and helped to create a sense of shared identity among people of African descent.
The summary continues to outline those who share this identity as:
‘Black liberation movements such as the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Black Power Movement, and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.’
It’s clear then that at the heart of Marley’s oeuvre is a call for a unified identity of African-origin peoples in their shared struggle for liberation. But who are the Africans according to the Rastafari?
There’s an interesting insight from the BBC that must’ve been produced prior to the dark days of Woke that outlines Rastafarian beliefs around race quite succinctly (I’m surprised they haven’t taken it down!) It states:
The Black person is the reincarnation of ancient Israel [God’s chosen people], who at the hand of the White person has been in exile in Jamaica… Rastafarians regard themselves as the genuine Israelites.
They believe they have been persecuted by white people and the form of this punishment is their subordinate position as the slaves of whites. This persecution resulted in their expulsion from 'Ethiopia' to Jamaica, but they believe they will eventually be returned to 'Ethiopia'…
The White person is inferior to the Black person… This notion emerged largely from Marcus Garvey's theories and ideas in the early development of Rastafari. For some Rastafarians it remains a strongly held belief, whereas others do not take it literally…
Many Rastafarians believe that following their repatriation to Africa black people will become rulers of the world, resulting in the suppression of whites. Early Rastafarians may even have claimed that whites would eventually be destroyed… Modern developments mean that many Rastafarians now dispute this belief and promote the multi-racial appeal of Rastafari.2
Racist Rastas?
The foundations of Rastafarianism then are unequivocally black nationalist, having their roots in the infamous radical and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. Garvey also inspired radical black nationalist groups such as the Nation of Islam. It was Garvey who ‘…gave Rastafarians the stimulation to create their movement and identify with their race’, according to a piece published by the University of Vermont, with Leonard P. Howell, a Garveyite, starting the first Rasta movement.
We can see the differentials between races as expressed in the Rastafari tradition in the work of Peter B. Clarke3:
[The White man] has become almost totally dependent for his pleasure and comfort on 'artificial' techniques and gadgets which not only enslave him, both mentally and physically, but also cut him off from all real contact with nature. This, it is pointed out, was the downfall of the African who instead of 'doing for himself' once used slaves, as Western man now uses machines, to perform all his 'natural', normal, everyday tasks. This led to sloth, decadence, the inability to function naturally and normally, and so debilitated did the African become by cutting himself off from the earth that the European had no difficulty in enslaving him.
Here we have a running theme throughout Rastafarian belief; the European has gotten lost in materialist modernity—a view I’d sympathise with—a geographical region and inner state termed ‘Babylon’ (the West), with Zion (Ethiopia) representing the promised land for liberated Africans from the corrosive impacts of Babylon.
As a side note, it’s worth adding here that many Rasta believe Ethiopian King Hallie Selassie to have been the second coming of Jesus Christ, a claim Selassie himself was eager to denounce. However, this does play into a Rastafarian notion of Africans as a divine race.
Clarke continues:
Like the Jews, Rastas see themselves as a 'covenant people, a people who have entered into an agreement with God which binds both parties… There is no doubt, however, that this concept of choice or election has caused problems and embarrassment, leading to charges of superiotity, exclusivism, and racism.4
So how, in an age of egalitarianism, does Rastafarianism handle this charge? Clarke again:
Colour in itself is not the main issue as far as many Rastafarians are concerned. As one Rasta expressed it, 'blackness is not about skin colour but about how one feels'. And in the words of another, 'I and I [the Oneness of Jah (God) and every human]; we don't check for the skin anymore; we check for the spirit.’ If you experience 'black', approach life in the 'black' way, and are 'spiritually' African, then you are Rasta, and this is what 'serious' Rastas are concerned about.
This will no doubt put a grin on your average Guardianista’s face, yet it does seem full of contradictions. Firstly, it sounds oddly like the claim we have in modern Britain that those who share ‘British values’ are somehow rendered British. Secondly, what is a ‘black’ attitude to life? What is a ‘black’ spirit? How can a white man attain such a thing? By being against oppression? By smoking ganja?
The logical conclusion of the above is that if present-day Rastas all became Buddhists overnight and Rastafarianism became a religion composed of white middle-class teenagers from the Malvern Hills, it would be the same religion and the adherents just as black because they ‘spiritually’ identify as being so. Does this make sense?
Ditto, when Marley celebrated the formation of Zimbabwe, signalling his hope for one united African nation, did he mean this new African nation could be stocked with ‘spiritually black’ people, even if they were all white kids from Gloucestershire? If this were the case, why would Onwuegbuna write the below about African pop artists blending reggae style and themes in their music?
The positive response of African pop music consumers to the early Afro-reggae experiments was due to the consumers' ability to interpret and accept the socio-cultural issues inherent in the new tunes [and]…a subconscious endorsement of the call for Pan-Africanism and mental assertion of the superiority of the black race, for which reggae music had become a conduit.5
Conclusion
As stated earlier, the aim of this isn’t to ‘expose’ Rastafarianism as ‘racist’, I don’t care whether they’re black nationalists or not, the point is to explore how ethnic identity and pan-nationalism is allowed, even celebrated, for certain groups and denied to others.
Second, I don’t doubt that Marley and many Rastafarians are completely sincere in their statements of ‘One Love’, it seems, however, that when you dig a bit deeper, Rastafarianism has the same challenge all faiths, cultures and peoples do in modernity. How can you claim universal equality while the foundations of your movement are steeped in the opposite? Further, if Rastafarianism, and other movements, have no roots in ethnicity, they eventually become completely nebulous and die.
The reality seems obvious to me: The liberal ideal of allowing identity for some but not others (due to historic power imbalances) is flawed and will create inevitable problems. It will then claim these problems are caused by the very ‘racism’ liberalism itself creates by enforcing multiculturalism and cultural relativism. Second, multiculturalism will always be flawed because one must disown the foundations of one’s culture (God believes and commands x) to bow to the universality of the liberal system itself (God’s demands come second to the universalist demands of modernity).
The solution seems clear, while One Love can be sung in the true spirit of shared Oneness in God, there is no contradiction in noting that differing groups have different experiences, mentalities and ethnicities that make them unique. This needn’t be a cause for conflict, but instead a recognition of reality. Ironically, a celebration of the actual diversity of life. After all, would Rastafarianism be the same without African-origin people? Would Europe still be Europe without any Europeans?
References
Onwuegbuna, Ikenna., Bob Marley, Pan-Africanism and Black Civilization. 2024. University of Nigeria. Link.
Religions, Rastafari., Beliefs about race: The Rastafarian teachings about race and the superiority of black people. BBC. Link
Clarke, Peter., Black Paradise: The Rastafarian Movement. 1994. Borgo Press.
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