tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/rastafarian-29898/articlesRastafarian – The Conversation2023-07-19T12:25:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2093632023-07-19T12:25:10Z2023-07-19T12:25:10ZRastafarians gathering for the 131st birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie are still grappling with his reported death in 1975<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537834/original/file-20230717-245914-6k5hle.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=67%2C14%2C4910%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rastafarians drum and sing during a special prayer and worship meeting at Menengai forest in Kenya.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/adherents-of-the-rastafari-sect-play-a-drum-and-sing-during-news-photo/1246795428?adppopup=true">James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The week of July 23, 2023, thousands of Rastafarians, known for their dreadlocks and for treating cannabis as a sacrament, will gather in Jamaica to <a href="https://www.reonline.org.uk/festival_event/birthday-of-haile-selassie-i/">celebrate the birth of Haile Selassie I, emperor of Ethiopia</a>. </p>
<p>Estimated to number between <a href="https://www.worlddata.info/religions/rastafari.php">700,000 and 1,000,000 globally</a>, Rastafarian communities are <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/595">located on almost every continent</a> today. Their beliefs are spread through migration, reggae music, as well as print, visual and digital media.</p>
<p>The first Rastafarian communities emerged sometime around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. The first two generations of Rastafarians were <a href="https://nyupress.org/9780814767474/becoming-rasta/">predominantly from African-descended people</a> who belonged to working-class communities. </p>
<p>Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ was both human and divine, and will return to the Earth to reign over a righteous kingdom of his chosen people. Similarly, Rastafarians are of the view that Emperor Selassie is God, or Jah, who manifested in human form, and that they are God’s chosen people. They borrow generously from the King James Bible, <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766404093/let-us-start-with-africa/">braiding their theology</a> around Black and African identity and culture.</p>
<p>Since the mid-1970s, however, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Rastafari-Movement-A-North-American-and-Caribbean-Perspective/Barnett/p/book/9781138682153">Rastafarian views on the emperor’s divinity have varied</a>, in part because Emperor Selassie had died but also because of an influx of new adherents of varied class, racial and national backgrounds. </p>
<p>Being a Rastafarian, and having <a href="https://education.temple.edu/about/faculty-staff/charles-a-price-tum91324">researched and studied the faith community</a>, I’ve seen how growing diversity among them has also brought varied views on the former emperor’s divinity.</p>
<h2>God as monarch</h2>
<p>The Rastafari believe that the prophecy of the New Testament of the Bible was fulfilled when the Ethiopian nobleman King Ras Tafari Makonnen, born in the Ethiopian province of Harar in 1892, <a href="https://www.cdamm.org/articles/rastafari">was crowned the 225th emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930</a>.</p>
<p>Rastafarians believe that the king <a href="https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Emperor+Haile+Selassie">traces his lineage</a> to the Old Testament’s King David of the Tribe of Judah, and to David’s son, King Solomon. The “<a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/kn000-1.htm">Kebra Negast</a>,” a 14th-century Ethiopian literary epic, tells the story of how the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, and together they had a son, Menelik I, during ancient times. Menelik I was Ethiopia’s first emperor. </p>
<p>King Ras Tafari assumed the name Emperor Haile Selassie I, or Might of the Holy Trinity, along with commanding titles such as the King of Kings and the Conquering Lion of Judah. </p>
<p>Rastafarians view the king’s coronation in 1930, his titles and his lineage as fulfilling a prophecy in the Book of Revelation. According to Chapter 5, a book of “seven seals” reveals events of the apocalypse many Christians believe will begin once Christ returns – but only the “Root of David,” the “Conquering Lion,” can open it, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265740442_The_Cultural_Production_of_a_Black_Messiah_Ethiopianism_and_the_Rastafari">each revealing events between Christ’s crucifixion and return</a>. </p>
<p>The Rastafari, named for their god – King Ras Tafari – grew from a tiny community to number in the tens of thousands in Jamaica by the 1990s, as I explain in my 2022 book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">Rastafari: The Evolution of a People and Their Identity</a>.”</p>
<h2>The travails of worshiping a Black god</h2>
<p>Many Jamaicans, especially the elites, ridiculed the Rastafari for anointing an African monarch as a deity. They sought at every turn <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">to prove the Rastafari ludicrous</a>. From the 1930s into the 1970s the Rastafari were scorned by their fellow Jamaicans, subjected to discrimination and violence. Many Rastafari were <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">imprisoned, beaten</a>, and many <a href="https://www.uwipress.com/9789766404093/let-us-start-with-africa/">men forcibly shaven for their beliefs</a>.</p>
<p>Things started to change in 1966 when Emperor Selassie visited Jamaica and <a href="https://www.life.com/people/haile-selassie-in-jamaica-photos-from-a-rastafari-milestone/">hundreds of Rastafari swarmed the Norman Manley Airport in Kingston</a> to greet the emperor. He caused a greater stir by inviting the Rastafari to join him during official state ceremonies. </p>
<p>The emperor’s visit conferred respect on the Rastafari, attracting new converts, such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/style/1982/10/24/rita-marley-heir-to-the-reggae-kingdom/c6a105a5-f67f-4c70-8a4d-8db0d42e5285/">Rita Marley</a>, reggae music singer and wife of reggae superstar Bob Marley. The Rastafari became paragons of Black identity, culture and history. </p>
<p>In 1975, press announcements that Emperor Selassie was dead sparked an existential crisis for the Rastafari. In a coup led by the Ethiopian politician and soldier Mengistu Haile Mariam, the emperor was <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/K/bo22344459.html">imprisoned and allegedly murdered</a>. </p>
<p>Some critics asserted that the Rastafari finally <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">had been proved foolish</a> and that their God was dead. Bob Marley rebuffed the critics in his acclaimed song, “Jah Live” (meaning God lives).</p>
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<h2>What happens if God dies?</h2>
<p>The Rastafari responded to the announcement in several ways. Some <a href="https://streaming-eu.mpg.de/de/institute/eth/mediathek/video/haile_selassie/HaileSelassieFilmProject_Part_II_.mp4">denied Emperor Selassie was dead</a>, insisting that God cannot die, and no body was found to confirm the death. Years later, bones said to be those of Emperor Selassie were recovered from a pit beneath Menelik Palace in Ethiopia, but never confirmed <a href="https://streaming-eu.mpg.de/de/institute/eth/mediathek/video/haile_selassie/HaileSelassieFilmProject_Part_I_.mp4">to be the emperor’s</a>. </p>
<p>Others said <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479888122/rastafari/">only time would reveal the meaning</a> of the emperor’s disappearance, since God’s ways are beyond the ken of mortals.</p>
<p>Another view was that the emperor’s disappearance signaled the beginning of a new era on Earth, much like Christ rising from death. In the new dispensation, these followers believed, the Rastafari must act as the emperor’s anointed and must continue the traditions, knowledge and communities they have birthed. </p>
<p>Some others believed that the emperor was worthy of veneration but not as God. This had a lot to do with the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307810153_The_many_faces_of_Rasta_Doctrinal_Diversity_within_the_Rastafari_Movement">increasing diversity of the Rastafarians in Jamaica</a> and internationally. </p>
<p>In Jamaica, middle-class Rastafarians known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel are more likely to subscribe to this view, as are <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/81909e63b12a42187d8c9d31459150f8/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1636335">many Africans who identify as Rastafarians</a>. However, the doctrine of the Emperor as God remains predominant.</p>
<p>There are also those who continue to wonder why so many Rastafari reject the idea that the emperor is dead. As I argue in my book, claiming that the emperor still lives, without conclusive evidence, requires faith – just as it does for Christians – who believe that Jesus Christ is immortal.</p>
<p><em>This article has been updated to correct the date of Haile Selassie’s reported death.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209363/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles A. Price received funding from National Science Foundation, Ford Foundation, W.K.Kellogg Foundation, National Community Development Institute, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.
He is affiliated with Highlander Research & Education Center.
</span></em></p>The first Rastafarian communities emerged around 1931 in eastern Jamaica. Today, there are over 700,000 Rastafarian communities located on almost every continent.Charles A. Price, Associate Professor of Education and Human Development, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1116792019-02-18T14:24:07Z2019-02-18T14:24:07ZEmperor Haile Selassie statue joins list of Africa’s troubled memorials<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259488/original/file-20190218-56226-1dritqe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A statue of Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile Selassie, at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hailu Wudineh Tsegaye / Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://borkena.com/2019/02/11/emperor-haileselassie-i-statue-unveiled-at-african-union-headquarter/">unveiling</a> of a statue to the Emperor Haile Selassie outside the African Union has stirred up a storm among Ethiopians and Eritreans. Some, including the Rastafarian community who still worship the Emperor as a god, were <a href="http://www.africanews.com/2019/02/12/haile-selassie-i-ethiopian-emperor-celebrated-by-au-worshipped-by-rastafaris//">delighted</a>. Others were furious, recalling his role in the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1984/11/18/politics-and-bureaucracy-let-this-famine-happen/837e58c6-4b21-4aa8-b6f6-e4d0b2d4448b/?utm_term=.60a1f485875d">1973-74 famine</a> or his suppression of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-eritrea-politics-timeline/ethiopian-and-eritrean-relations-idUSKBN1K406Z">Eritrean freedom</a>.</p>
<p>Haile Selassie ruled Ethiopia for more than four decades, between 1930 and 1974. In 1935 his country was invaded by Italy and he sought refuge in Britain. He became a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Haile-Selassie-I">symbol of resistance to fascism in Africa</a>, returning to the country in 1941.</p>
<p>An austere, aloof figure, he was finally overthrown by a group of left wing military officers in 1974, furious at the lethargy with which he had dealt with famine and the stagnation of the country. But years of war and instability since his murder and burial under a toilet in his palace, have led to a reassessment of his role and he is now seen in a more favourable light. In 2000 he was <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/eish/emperor-selassie-moved-from-toilet-to-tomb-49514">re-buried</a> in Addis Ababa’s cathedral.</p>
<p>Emperor Haile Selassie is an example of how leaders have gone in and out of fashion. The movements they lead wax and wane – and with them go the reputations of those who led them. His statue, now unveiled at the African Union, is recognition of his role as a champion of African freedom against colonial intervention. </p>
<h2>Fallen idols</h2>
<p>In South Africa the statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes was <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/rhodes-statue-removed-uct">removed</a> from the University of Cape Town after students objected to his role as an imperialist. Nor did the protests end there. A whole range of works of art was removed or destroyed. This led to accusations of <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2019-01-11-art-at-uct-why-claims-of-censorship-may-be-anti-intellectual/">censorship</a>, as the university authorities gave in to pressure from those who felt that the art demeaned the subjects they portrayed.</p>
<p>Cecil Rhodes was once venerated for his generosity: he donated all the land on which the University of Cape Town stands, as well as his own home, which is still the residence of the President of South Africa when he is in Cape Town. </p>
<p>Another fallen image includes Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, whose statue was <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-muammar-gaddafis-bab-al-aziziya-compound-photos">destroyed</a> even before the Libyan dictator had been captured and killed.</p>
<p>Other targets of student anger have included <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/06/ghana-academics-petition-removal-mahatma-gandhi-statue-african-heroes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">Mahatma Gandhi</a>. His newly erected statue was removed at the University of Ghana in Accra. The objectors argued that he had held racist views of Africans during his time in South Africa. What they <a href="https://martinplaut.wordpress.com/2018/12/14/gandhi-the-removal-of-his-statue-in-ghana-show-a-poor-grasp-of-history/">failed to understand</a> was that his position had changed and that by the time he left the country in 1914 he was no longer the racist he had once been.</p>
<p>Another statue removed in South Africa was one to King Shaka Zulu at the airport in Durban that bears his name. The Zulu royal family <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/airport-statue-mystery-12948601">objected</a> to the way in which he was portrayed. Seven years later there is still no clarity on when it will be replaced. The decision to commemorate Shaka kaSenzangakhona, who ruled the Zulu people (1787 – 1828) is controversial in itself. The military campaign he led (the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Mfecane">Mfecane</a> – or “crushing”) killed and displaced a vast number of people, who were driven as far as Zambia and Malawi to escape in troops.</p>
<p>Some former African leaders still have statues they commissioned standing, but in the forlorn setting of their home villages, now largely abandoned and forgotten. For example, the statue of emperor <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-26065811">Jean-Bedel Bokassa</a> of Central African Republic still stands some 80km from the capital, Bangui.</p>
<p>A similar fate has been suffered by Mobutu Sese Seko, the Congolese ruler of the state he then called Zaire. His palace once described as the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/congo-africa-versailles-palace-mobutu-sese-seko-estate-20-years-death-drc-democratic-republic-a8097951.html">“Versailles of Africa”</a> is derelict, inhabited by his former troops. A statue depicting his first wife, Marie-Antoinette Mobutu, stands forgotten in the palace garden. </p>
<p>But there is one African president whose image is still revered by almost everybody: <a href="http://www.johannesburg-direct.com/activity/visit-the-statue-at-nelson-mandela-square">Nelson Mandela</a>. Statues to South Africa’s first truly democratically elected leader can be found across the country, but it’s the one at Sandton in Johannesburg that <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g312586-d2310414-i197408014-Nelson_Mandela_Square-Sandton_Greater_Johannesburg_Gauteng.html">draws the crowds</a>. Six meters high, it towers over those who come to see it. </p>
<h2>Way forward</h2>
<p>What to do about the symbols of bygone regimes is always going to be a contested terrain. Few countries have got this right. </p>
<p>One way forward is suggested by the approach taken by the former Soviet republic of Georgia. They have no reason to worship Stalin. He was Georgian by birth but as leader of the Soviet Union he <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/04/sebastian-hopp-red-nostalgia/">butchered 200,000 of his countrymen and women</a>. Yet in Gori, Stalin’s birthplace, they not only preserve the hovel in which he was born, but also the vast museum built to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/georgias-struggle-with-the-stalin-myth/a-16992871">glorify his achievement</a>.</p>
<p>Visiting the museum a few years ago, I asked our young guide why every exhibit is retained intact, when his bloody legacy is so well known. “Ah,” she replied. “We must preserve the past as it was, so we can learn from it. But wait until the final room.” </p>
<p>Our guide was right. There - in the last room - Stalin’s crimes against the Georgians were laid out for all to see. The painful truth to put the hagiography of the rest of the museum in perspective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111679/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Plaut is affiliated with the Institute for Commonwealth Studies, University of London </span></em></p>Leaders go in and out of fashion, making statues built in their memory a tricky issue.Martin Plaut, Senior Research Fellow, Horn of Africa and Southern Africa, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1036072018-09-20T14:38:02Z2018-09-20T14:38:02ZMarijuana use in South Africa: what next after landmark court ruling?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237291/original/file-20180920-129859-1c1wgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Rastafarians celebrate after the South African Constitutional Court ruled that the personal use of marijuana is now legal.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EFE-EPA/Kim Ludbrook</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa’s Constitutional Court has delivered a unanimous <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2018/30.html">judgment</a> that certain parts of the country’s drug laws are inconsistent with the right to privacy. Adults are now allowed to use, possess or cultivate cannabis in private for their own personal consumption.</p>
<p>The court gave some <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-top-court-legalises-the-private-use-of-marijuana-why-its-a-good-thing-103537">broad guidelines</a> about what this would mean in practice. But it has left the details to Parliament. </p>
<p>This is an important <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-south-african-state-needs-to-lose-its-fight-against-marijuana-policy-reform-81491">victory</a> for human rights and common sense. It also matters to the almost 300 000 people who are <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/about/stratframework/annual_report/2016_2017/part_b2.pdf#page=36">arrested for</a> drug-related crimes each year, mostly for <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-south-african-state-needs-to-lose-its-fight-against-marijuana-policy-reform-81491">possession</a> of small amounts of cannabis.</p>
<p>But there is much more work to be done to design a humane and rational system to regulate cannabis. Some of the key issues that will need to be addressed include how far privacy extends, exactly what products should be regulated, how non-users will be protected, and what to do about the existing criminal market. </p>
<h2>The measure of privacy</h2>
<p>Significantly, this change came after a legal challenge in support of the right to privacy. It did not result from a popular vote or from a shift in government policy, based on public health principles. This means the new regulatory system will need to look quite different to two of the existing models in the world.</p>
<p>The first is the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewdepietro/2018/05/04/how-much-money-states-make-cannabis-sales/#5c3a58b0f181">commercialised</a> system developing in parts of the US, where businesses sell cannabis in much the same way as alcohol. The other is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/19/uruguay-marijuana-sale-pharmacies">medicalised</a> model of Uruguay, where cannabis can be bought without prescription at pharmacies. </p>
<p>Other countries can offer more appropriate comparisons. Jamaica has set its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/25/jamaica-decriminalises-marijuana">limits</a> at possession of 2oz (56.6g) and the cultivation of up to five plants on any premises. Colombia’s <a href="https://colombiareports.com/colombia-decriminalizes-marijuana-cultivation-up-to-20-plants/">limits</a> are 20g or up to 20 plants. Spain’s limits are rather <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/002204260403400308">less clear</a>, and must take into account the circumstances of the case, but plants should not be visible from the street. </p>
<p>An important question is whether South Africa will allow <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395917300014">cannabis social clubs</a> – structures for the non-profit production and distribution of cannabis among a closed group of adults. This is the “Spanish model”, which is currently in a <a href="https://merryjane.com/culture/spains-cannabis-social-clubs-feature-june-2018">precarious</a> legal position at home but enjoys significant expert <a href="https://www.tdpf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Cannabook%202nd%20Ed%20Digital.pdf">support</a>, either as a permanent position or as a transitional model while more formally regulated production systems are developed. Such clubs should enjoy the same protection on the basis of privacy, although their regulation introduces additional <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/04/catalonia-holland-of-south-tightens-rules-barcelona-cannabis-clubs">complications</a>. </p>
<p>Parliamentarians will also have to decide on what substances will be included in the law. Will it extend to hashish (a concentrated resin made from cannabis), cannabis oils, or synthetic cannabinoids? And should the court’s reasoning not be extended to other <a href="https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1531313/magic-mushrooms-legal-challenge/">substances</a> that have been judged by experts to present <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8094759/alcohol-marijuana">less harm</a> than alcohol?</p>
<h2>Preventing harm to others</h2>
<p>The prevention of impaired driving is a reasonable <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-09-18-dagga-ruling-raises-questions-around-driving-stoned-in-sa/">concern</a>. Given the <a href="https://vancouversun.com/opinion/opinion-zero-tolerance-for-cannabis-and-driving-makes-zero-sense">difficulty</a> in physiologically measuring cannabis intoxication, there will be a need to formalise rules on field sobriety testing. Parliament will have to keep abreast of emerging evidence. Clear public messaging should be developed to communicate that cannabis-impaired driving is illegal and risky.</p>
<p>Another concern is the protection of minors. Regular cannabis use does seem to pose <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163725814002095">risks</a> for adolescent brain development, so it is important that the country works out how best to discourage its consumption among or near children. </p>
<h2>Commercialisation question</h2>
<p>One criticism of the private cultivation and use model – such as the one in <a href="https://www.tdpf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Spain_0.pdf">Spain</a> – is that it forgoes the possible benefits of a more open regulated and commercialised system. This includes prospects for purity and potency controls, economic and employment growth, and tax revenues that can be earmarked for programmes to help mitigate cannabis-related risks and harms. </p>
<p>The approach envisioned by the South African Constitutional Court also has the disadvantage that it leaves intact the criminal market that supplies those who don’t meet its restrictions. Not every prospective cannabis user will be willing or reasonably able to grow their own plants or to join a cannabis club. So, there will still be a role for organised criminal groups to reap profits. </p>
<p>And there will still be a need for police enforcement. But it will involve even greater scope for discretion and possible corruption. The country will need to guard against a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25959525">“net-widening”</a> effect, where policy liberalisation ends up drawing even more people into conflict with the criminal justice system. South Africa will also need to interrogate whether it is still justifiable for people to be jailed for supplying a product that consumers have a right to possess.</p>
<p>Finally, there is the question of the many people who have been criminalised for an activity that is now considered an expression of a basic constitutional right. The court was clear that its judgment was not to be applied retrospectively. However, other jurisdictions – as in the US – have already begun offering pardons <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/us/vermont-marijuana-pardons.html">on request</a> or discussing whether pardons should happen <a href="https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/3kjwz8/canada-is-facing-mounting-pressure-to-grant-mass-pardons-for-weed-possession">en masse</a>. </p>
<h2>Not a free-for-all, but an excellent start</h2>
<p>Those cannabis campaigners and aficionados who were hoping for a Colorado-style boom in consumer options would have been disappointed. On balance, however, this may be a good thing, at least in the interim. Many policy reform experts warn of the dangers of over-commercialisation. </p>
<p>Putting the supply of a risky product in the hands of profit-maximising private interests with little interest in public health is not a recipe for success. In this, the history of alcohol and tobacco control provide a useful lesson.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anine Kriegler receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the David and Elaine Potter Foundation. She is also a member of the South African Drug Policy Initiative.</span></em></p>The legalisation of the private use of cannabis in South Africa is a victory for human rights. But, much more work needs to be done to make it practical.Anine Kriegler, Researcher and Doctoral Candidate in Criminology, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/814912017-07-27T14:40:35Z2017-07-27T14:40:35ZWhy the South African state needs to lose its fight against marijuana policy reform<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179611/original/file-20170725-28293-1defi3y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of South Africans are calling for the legalisation of marijuana. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South Africa is among many countries facing challenges to their drug control policies, particularly around marijuana, known locally as dagga. The <a href="http://www.sanctr.gov.za/YourRights/TheMedicinesControlCouncil/tabid/176/Default.aspx">Medicines Control Council</a> is developing <a href="http://www.mccza.com/documents/5933cac110.14_Media_Release_Cannabis_Nov16_v1.pdf">guidelines</a> for production for medicinal use and the country’s highest <a href="http://www.cda.gov.za/">drug policy guardian</a> has <a href="http://www.samj.org.za/index.php/samj/article/view/10863%3C/u">recommended</a> broader decriminalisation. </p>
<p>The key battle ground, however, is in the courts. </p>
<p>A new trial the state is likely to expend considerable energy trying to prove that marijuana use is seriously harmful. If this is indeed the substance of its argument, it should lose. The point isn’t whether marijuana causes harm, but whether criminal prohibition is the best way to address those harms.</p>
<p>South African Police Service statistics suggest that most anti-drug activity is against those in possession of small quantities. These are people who are unlikely to play any strategic role in drug supply, and whose deterrence or removal from the market has little prospect of having any impact overall.</p>
<h2>The legal wrangle to date</h2>
<p>The first recent knock to prohibition came in 2016 with a ruling by the Constitutional Court. The court <a href="http://www.saflii.org.za/za/cases/ZACC/2016/21.html">held</a> that the constitutional right to privacy was unjustly violated by parts of the country’s <a href="http://www.gov.za/sites/www.gov.za/files/a140_1992.pdf">drugs and drug trafficking act</a> that allowed a law enforcement officer to stop and search any person, property or vehicle on the grounds of “reasonable suspicion” of violation of the Act. The ruling <a href="http://www.groundup.org.za/article/when-can-police-search-your-home/">meant</a> that police would no longer be able to enter and search private properties without a warrant. </p>
<p>A bigger challenge came from the Western Cape High Court. This case was brought <em>inter alia</em> by <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/rastafarian-lawyer-in-the-dock-over-dagga-1315010">Gareth Prince</a>. Prince lost a <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2002/1.html">case</a> in the Constitutional Court in 2002 that sought exemption from the laws on the basis of his Rastafari religion. </p>
<p>Prince’s more recent case sought not just an exemption based on religious freedom, but to challenge marijuana prohibition overall on various grounds – including that it was based on an irrational distinction from alcohol. Ras Prince brought the case with Jeremy Acton, leader of the <a href="https://www.daggaparty.org.za/index-2.html">Dagga Party</a>.</p>
<p>Judge Dennis Davis, for a full bench, <a href="http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAWCHC/2017/30.html">found</a> that the criminalisation of marijuana within the home unjustifiably limited the right to privacy. He concluded that the state had failed to show that criminal prohibition was the least restrictive way to deal with the problems caused by marijuana. The order was suspended for 24 months to allow parliament to amend the relevant laws.</p>
<p>The state quickly indicated its intention to appeal and to continue enforcement without any change. But it seems that several people charged with marijuana crimes have received stays of prosecution pending the outcome of the legal process.</p>
<p>A separate case is about to kick off in Pretoria. Myrtle Clarke and Julian Stobbs, known as the <a href="http://citizen.co.za/news/1581689/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-dagga-couple/">“The Dagga Couple”</a>, have turned their arrest for possession into a decriminalisation crusade. Their team has raised funds for local and international <a href="https://fieldsofgreenforall.org.za/expert-witnesses/">expert witnesses</a> to help them make their <a href="https://www.fieldsofgreenforall.org.za/images/legal/DC_LEGAL_SUMMARY.pdf">argument</a> that the criminal prohibition of marijuana is irrational, wasteful, and unjustifiably infringes numerous constitutional rights. </p>
<p>This is the first time that the issues will have the chance to be properly aired in court. </p>
<p>It’s long overdue.</p>
<h2>Pattern of arrests</h2>
<p>According to the South African Police Service’s annual <a href="https://www.saps.gov.za/about/stratframework/annual_report/2015_2016/saps_annual_report_2015_2016.pdf">report</a>, there were 259,165 recorded counts of illegal drug possession or dealing in 2015/16. These charges resulted in 253,735 arrests, accounting for almost a sixth of all arrests. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179610/original/file-20170725-31338-1xvauvr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Rastafarian lights up during a march for the legalisation of marijuana in South Africa.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Nic Bothma</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most drug arrests are made through stop-and-search or roadblock operations. National figures aren’t available but those from two of the nine provinces suggest that a vanishingly small proportion of drug charges (2%-4%) are for dealing as opposed to possession of drugs. Very few drug arrests are made at ports of entry, through special operations, or through the Serious Organised Crime Investigation Units. </p>
<p>Between 65% and 70% of drug charges are for possession of marijuana. The presumption is that possession of over 115 grams (about 4 ounces) constitutes dealing. This means that every year police seek out and charge about one in every 300 people for possession of an amount of marijuana that weighs no more than an apple. </p>
<h2>Criminal prohibition</h2>
<p>It isn’t clear whether criminal prohibition is an effective way to dissuade or help drug users. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26515984">Evidence</a> from other countries suggests that, generally, the greater the perception of risk, the lower the prevalence of use. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179614/original/file-20170725-12396-1ibb8l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the strength of this effect is <a href="http://cssdp.org/uploads/2016/09/State_of_the_Evidence_Cannabis_Use_and_Regulation_Sept_7.pdf">debatable</a> to say the least, and it remains far from clear whether a liberalisation in marijuana policy results in a significant increase in its use or in associated harms. The effects of the recent wave of marijuana policy changes in various US states, for example, are still being closely <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/10/13/heres-how-legal-pot-changed-colorado-and-washington/?utm_term=.a17c9d60429f">observed</a> and debated. </p>
<p>For people who have highly problematic drug use patterns, there is even <a href="http://beckleyfoundation.org/resource/briefing-paper-incarceration-of-drug-offenders-costs-and-impacts">less</a> consensus that the threat or reality of imprisonment is an appropriate or effective tool for either dissuading or helping them. Other approaches may well do significantly <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Caitlin_Hughes/publication/249284847_What_Can_We_Learn_From_The_Portuguese_Decriminalization_of_Illicit_Drugs/links/54d406e90cf24647580553bb.pdf">better</a>.</p>
<h2>Decriminalisation</h2>
<p>There are many <a href="http://decrim.idpc.net/">models</a> of decriminalisation. Policies that work in the Netherlands or Colorado might not work in a developing country like South Africa given differences in drug use, drug market and price structures, regulatory capacity and political climates.</p>
<p>The goal must be to find a broadly acceptable balance of a complex range of harms, benefits, and rights in the context of limited resources. </p>
<p>For example, South Africa needs to consider what impact decriminalisation would have on small-scale, informal farmers who <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0376835032000149252">depend</a> on the crop for their livelihood. Legalising marijuana could mean that they are forced out of the market by large agribusinesses, or falling prices. </p>
<p>On the other hand, prohibition arguably does more to harm the current producers and distributors than consumers. </p>
<p>The right balance won’t be found if marijuana is simply cast as a devastating alien threat to the nation’s children and communities. Instead it needs to be understood as a socially and economically ingrained pastime for which there is clearly considerable popular demand.</p>
<h2>Harm is not enough</h2>
<p>Justifying the criminal prohibition of marijuana is not a matter of proving that it causes harm. Evidence of major harm has not been enough to lead to the criminal prohibition of, for example, alcohol, nicotine, sugar, firearms and unprotected sex. </p>
<p>The case that needs to be made is whether criminal prohibition is effective, proportionate, and the minimally invasive way to address those harms. The state will struggle to prove this. An <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ann-fordham/drug-policy_b_9819900.html">increasing</a> number of countries have concluded that it is not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81491/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anine Kriegler receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the David and Elaine Potter Foundation. She contributed as amicus curiae to the Western Cape High Court case mentioned in the article.</span></em></p>If South Africa’s argument in court is that marijuana causes harm, it deserves to lose. The real question it should ask is whether criminal prohibition is the effective way forward.Anine Kriegler, Researcher and Doctoral Candidate in Criminology, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/812192017-07-25T15:14:57Z2017-07-25T15:14:57ZListen with ears and hearts wide open: lessons from Rastafarian multilingualism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179609/original/file-20170725-6656-b30t79.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Language and herbs travel thanks to the Rastafarian community around Cape Town.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Harrison/Mail & Guardian</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The marketplace of Bellville in Cape Town is an unlikely place to find an example of everyday multilingual diversity applied in an ethical way. But you have to keep your ears peeled as you pass from stall to stall, move through the bus and taxi terminus, and then through the train station area. Otherwise you may miss the calls of this <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10350330.2017.1334383">Rastafarian multilingualism</a>.</p>
<p>Listen carefully:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Fresh Herbs! Fresh Herbs! Zonke Amayeza (All the herbs)!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is Jeremy (not his real name), a Rastafarian pointing to a passerby as he is calling out the names of his herbal products in three distinct languages, English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, in the subway tunnel.</p>
<p>In my <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/journal/10520/EJC-5a5012523">research</a> I’ve found that Jeremy is not an isolated example – Rastafarian multilingualism is widespread across Cape Town. Rastafarians come from diverse cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds and are therefore more open to multilingualism. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kykie, Tjommie (look here, buddy)! Higher Grade? Hierso (right here)! Zuka gaba (Herbs for vomiting)! High blood pressure!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ethical multilingualism is about the mutual respect and about the acknowledgement of linguistic difference. More importantly, it’s about shaping a shared multilingual future through face-to-face communication.</p>
<p>In many respects, Rastafarian multilingualism is about achieving common ground in multilingual interactions, but shot through with the ethical principles of Rastafarianism. In communication with their customers and others, Rastafarians approach interaction with respect. They see their interlocutors as fully human rather than as socially flawed categories. They draw on the <a href="http://www.faith-theology.com/2009/12/reggae-as-ethics-rastafari-theology.html">theology of Rastafarianism</a> to demonstrate that they too are human. </p>
<p>They draw on the morals and virtues taught in the Rastafarian Bible, called the Holy Piby, that is transmitted through oral literacy, as well as draw on the belief system preached by Haile Selassie (the messiah of the Rasta).</p>
<h2>Travelling herbs</h2>
<p>On a daily basis, you’ll find Jeremy, seated on the floor beside a mat with an array of herbs. They’re for the stomach, hair, skin or recreation. He’s broadcasting information about the herbs: How much they cost, their purpose and where they come from.</p>
<p>Jeremy’s herbs have travelled far – from the coastal area of Knysna about 500 km away, or the mountains of Cape Town and surrounding farms. And much like the mobility of his herbal products Jeremy’s multilingualism is defined by learning the sounds, words and sentences of other languages to call out and sell his products. </p>
<p>His type of multilingualism is defined by his mobility. He moves around a lot and meets people from all walks of life and races. And he has honed his multilingualism to deal with multilingual diversity in everyday interactions.</p>
<p>Historically, the Rastafarian community in South Africa has been at the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-14-the-rise-and-of-rastafari">forefront</a> of engaging multilingual diversity in an ethical way. Rastafarian culture and religion is rooted in the principles and beliefs of the last Ethiopian Emperor, <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/haile-selassie-i">Haile Selassie</a> and the pan-Africanist <a href="http://marcusgarvey.com/?p=225">philosophy of Marcus Garvey</a>. It is a belief system often viewed as religious as well as political, <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-margins-reggae-in-south-africa-continues-to-struggle-for-human-dignity-80419">contributing</a>, for example, to South Africa’s liberation movements and the fight against apartheid. And all the principles and beliefs are found in the lyrics, rhythms and poetry of <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-margins-reggae-in-south-africa-continues-to-struggle-for-human-dignity-80419">reggae music</a>.</p>
<h2>Linguistically interesting</h2>
<p>Take this encounter: Jeremy is attempting to explain the meaning and purpose of a herb with an isiXhosa name to a black female customer. She clearly speaks isiXhosa and English and asks for a particular herb. Jeremy picks up a herb and draws a circle movement around his face. He explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yes, that one is good for the face: Nonqwe (an indigenous herb). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And then it gets interesting, linguistically.</p>
<p>He tells the customer that actually a different herb, pointing to it, is better for her. He picks up the herb, calls it by its isiXhosa name, “Xamangvela”. The confused look on the customer’s face lets him know he just mispronounced the lateral click, “x”, as his tongue gets stuck on the left side of his mouth. </p>
<p>He panics phonetically, and tries again. This time he pronounces the herb employing the dental click, “c”, saying “Camangvela”. But it sounds a bit too English and his tongue gets stuck onto his palate. His face says it all and the reply by the customer, “Sorry?”, as though he offended her linguistically, begins to injure the politeness of the interaction.</p>
<p>He tries again for the last time but spectacularly mispronounces the name of the herb in <a href="http://capeafrikaans.blogspot.co.za/p/what-is-kaaps.html">“Kaaps”</a> (Cape Afrikaans): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kamangvel.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There is a slight pause and the customer decides to buy the Nonqwe. </p>
<p>This multilingualism is not a display of struggling to pronounce a particular word correctly. Rather it’s how to sustain multilingual interaction in a space filled with multilingual sounds and based on mutual linguistic respect. And of course, it’s based on the successful sale of a herb. For Jeremy, and others like him, those factors underline this definition of Rastafarian multilingualism.</p>
<p>Depending on the topic of conversation, Rastafarians will also add a localised version of Jamaican creole. They use words such as “Ihi yahnh Ihi” or “Ini” (meaning I and I, we, or you and I), “Jah” (God), “Iya” (my brother) and so on. And they will mix that creole with Kaaps, English, <a href="http://thenumbersgang.weebly.com/the-sabela.html">Sabela</a> (prison gang language), <a href="http://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/743">Tsotsi taal</a> (a mix of Afrikaans, English and other indigenous languages), isiZulu, and as Jeremy has shown, isiXhosa. </p>
<p>Jeremy’s multilingual practice is an example of this inclusive multilingual diversity where language and speech styles are shared. And, the multilingual calls of the Rastafarians come with an extra helping of ethics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81219/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Williams does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ethical engagement in multilingual communication is about mutual respect. More importantly, it’s about shaping a shared future through face-to-face communication.Quentin Williams, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, University of the Western CapeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/804192017-07-04T14:42:20Z2017-07-04T14:42:20ZFrom the margins, reggae in South Africa continues to struggle for human dignity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176593/original/file-20170703-7743-13e9e81.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Cape Town reggae artist, Teba Shumba.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tuomas Järvenpää</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anthropologist <a href="http://yfile-archive.news.yorku.ca/2005/11/02/carole-yawney-rastafari-scholar-and-social-activist/">Carole Yawney</a> has documented how on the eve of South Africa’s <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-african-general-elections-1994">first democratic elections</a> in 1994 the African National Congress (ANC) distributed an electoral leaflet in townships with the following <a href="http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/CA/00/40/02/06/00001/PDF.pdf">message</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Greetings I'n'I! … The ANC recognises that Rastas are part and parcel of the oppressed masses. We all know of the important role the international Rasta movement has played in the liberation struggle in bringing to the attention of the world the message of our struggle through music.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The ANC was trying to acknowledge and capitalise on the role reggae music and the Rastafarian movement played in the struggle against the apartheid regime. Jamaican reggae was essential in bringing international attention to the South African political struggle.</p>
<p>Jamaican artists addressed their lyrical messages directly to the liberation movements of southern Africa. Some of the most notable examples include <a href="https://genius.com/Peter-tosh-apartheid-lyrics">“Fight Apartheid”</a> (1977) by Peter Tosh, <a href="http://www.songplaces.com/Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe/">“Zimbabwe”</a>(1979) by Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer’s <a href="https://genius.com/Bunny-wailer-botha-the-mosquito-lyrics">“Botha the Mosquito”</a> (1986).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uOFy6-oeaBI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bunny Wailer with his song ‘Botha the Mosquito’, from the album ‘Liberation’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As early as the 1970s young people in South Africa’s townships had adopted Rasta beliefs and reggae music as a part of their anti-establishment counterculture. The first wave of <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/reggae-south-africa">homegrown reggae</a> followed quickly. Artists such <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/carlos-djedje-pioneer-african-reggae">Carlos Djedje</a>, <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/colbert-mukwevho">Colbert Mukwevho</a> and <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/magazine/legends-sa-music-lucky-dube">Lucky Dube</a> managed to defy the state censorship. They launched the genre as one of the most popular music styles in the country in the 1980s and early 1990s.</p>
<p>During the second part of the nineties in democratic South Africa, reggae lost much of its former visibility and commercial potential. This was partly because it was so deeply and specifically connected to the struggle years and the protest against apartheid. </p>
<p>Yet, the Rastafarian counterculture continued to hold relevance in marginalised urban settings. Those are the areas where it had initially been rooted back in the 1970s. In this new post-apartheid era, the protest spirit of reggae turned to voice concerns over the socioeconomic inequalities that continued to escalate throughout the 1990s and 2000s.</p>
<p>Reggae and Rastafari are currently <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2011-10-14-the-rise-and-of-rastafari">flourishing</a> especially in the Western Cape province and its capital, Cape Town. </p>
<h2>Township reggae circuit</h2>
<p>I first started doing anthropological <a href="http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_isbn_978-952-61-2424-7/index_en.html">research</a> on Capetonian reggae in 2013. I assumed somewhat naively that the township reggae circuit of the city would be relatively closed from outsiders, especially from white foreigners like me. But it soon became apparent that I was actually travelling along a well beaten path during my field research. </p>
<p>Reggae musicians held wide social connections to foreign artists, producers and managers across the city as well as across the world. Many were using online platforms to collaborate with individuals, some of whom they had never met.</p>
<p>This shouldn’t have come as a surprise. After all, I’d embarked on the research partly because of the international circulation of South African reggae music. Four years earlier I had become fascinated by Capetonian reggae music in Finland, my home country. There a Finnish reggae band, Suhinators, had released <a href="https://www.discogs.com/Suhinators-Suhinators/release/1764267">an album</a> featuring two Capetonian vocalists, <a href="https://teba.bandcamp.com/">Teba Shumba</a> and <a href="http://www.crosbybolani.com/">Crosby Bolani</a>. </p>
<p>I remember being captivated by their music, particularly their militant lyrical style that seemed exotic and out of the ordinary to me. In Finland reggae music isn’t politicised in similar fashion.</p>
<p>In Cape Town, I learned that this collaboration between Capetonian and Finnish reggae artists wasn’t an isolated case. Teba Shumba also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XgZYFpEm7U">works</a> with a Brazilian music producer, for example. Crosby Bolani further collaborates with hip-hop legend <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dj-krush-mn0000949143">DJ Krush</a>. <a href="https://soundcloud.com/daddy-spencer-1">Daddy Spencer</a> voices <a href="http://segnaledigitale.org/dev/en/albums/digi-signa-013/">tracks</a> with the Italian production team <a href="http://segnaledigitale.org/dev/en/">Segnale Digitale</a>. <a href="https://www.musicinafrica.net/directory/black-dillinger">Black Dillinger</a> tours European music festivals. These are just a few of the recent intercontinental ventures of Capetonian reggae musicians.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Crosby Bolani collaborating with DJ Krush.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In addition, well-established Capetonian singers <a href="http://gugszoro.weebly.com/">Zoro</a> and <a href="http://vido-reggae.de/">Vido Jelashe</a> emigrated to Europe some years ago, but they still draw from township reality in their lyrical storytelling. </p>
<h2>Street cred via the ghetto</h2>
<p>In fact the lyrical and visual depictions of Cape Town’s ghetto conditions are central in rendering the artists with street credibility in all of these collaborations. In this sense, Capetonian reggae music is a part of a broader musical trend, where the metaphor of the ghetto has become central in the formation of transnational musical connections.</p>
<p>Cultural anthropologist Prof <a href="http://www.uva.nl/profiel/j/a/r.k.jaffe/r.k.jaffe.html">Rivke Jaffe</a> <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2012.01121.x/abstract">states</a> that,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>ghetto-based identifications allow the mobilisation of a broader, transnational belonging against the injustice of this immobility, helping to undermine the stigma of poverty and social marginality. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Identification with Rastafarian reggae music and its visual and lyrical narratives has indeed offered South African musicians inclusion in a global story of exclusion and injustice.</p>
<p>Rivke continues:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Ironically, it is the collective frame of immobility… which connects ghetto dwellers worldwide. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This rings true for the Cape Town reggae scene. It’s practically invisible and inaudible in the main music venues of the city where the township audiences are not seen as a lucrative target group. Instead this township scene has formed a vibrant existence in YouTube music videos and in foreign music festivals. </p>
<p>Based on my experience as a researcher it seems that the main political significance of reggae music in general does not lie in its explicitly political lyrics. Instead it’s in the grassroots cultural connection that it has enabled. </p>
<p>Yet the question remains whether these international cultural connections are able to sustain solidarity between marginalised groups of people. Or is South African reggae music, for example, consumed abroad in ways which enforce stereotypes about the “notorious hoods” of the African cities among middle-class white audiences? </p>
<p>In addition, the financial rewards from these collaborations and tours are often very modest or non-existent for South African reggae musicians. </p>
<p>The musicians are very aware of the risk of financial or symbolic exploitation in the international circulation of their music. But what they find worthwhile are the symbolic rewards, such as the possibility to share a festival stage with Jamaican artists. Experiences like these are powerful because they once again grant outside recognition for the struggle for human dignity in South African cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80419/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Authors' fieldwork in Cape Town was realized as a part of the research project “Youth Music and the Construction of Social
Subjectivities and Communities in Post-apartheid South Africa” led by Tuulikki Pietilä and based at
the University of Helsinki in the discipline of social and cultural anthropology and funded by the Academy of Finland (grant number 265976).</span></em></p>Reggae in South Africa has lost its visibility and prominence inside the country after apartheid. But local artists have built up extensive international links.Tuomas Järvenpää, Teacher in media culture and communication studies, University of Eastern FinlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646762016-08-31T14:55:02Z2016-08-31T14:55:02ZFrom slavery to colonialism and school rules: a history of myths about black hair<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136125/original/image-20160831-30801-5on66k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the first dilemmas that black people face is whether to let strangers touch their hair -- and under what circumstances.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Mukoya/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Your hair feels like pubic hair.” That was one of the first insults that someone hurled at my hair. She was a junior at my school. She would touch my hair and repeat this sentence to all present. I had to threaten her with violence to get her to stop touching my hair and comparing it to her pubes.</p>
<p>This is one of the first dilemmas that black people face: do I let people touch my hair and under what circumstances? The question, “can I touch it?” becomes one of the most awkward social moments and can break relationships before they even start. </p>
<p>This fascination with the texture of black hair (please don’t call it “ethnic”), is not new. In slave societies, white women would often <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=Q-DsCwAAQBAJ&pg=PP39&lpg=PP39&dq=white+women+cut+off+black+slave+women%27s+hair&source=bl&ots=FB_O8BE7Nv&sig=fERX3HeZuyZXIKGvvaKc5pP0yaw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwvfuRievOAhVJGsAKHaWWB0wQ6AEIMDAE#v=onepage&q=white%20women%20cut%20off%20black%20slave%20women's%20hair&f=false">hack off</a> the hair of their enslaved female servants because it supposedly <a href="http://blackgirllonghair.com/2014/07/shocking-history-why-women-of-color-in-the-1800s-were-banned-from-wearing-their-hair-in-public/">“confused white men”</a> .</p>
<p>Today, black women with nappy hair – that is, natural and chemical-free – are desirable despite the popular discourse to the contrary. Think for example of how <a href="http://www.vogue.com/13336021/lupita-nyongo-october-2015-cover/">Lupita Nyong’o</a> has become a household name even though she is nappy and has dark skin. </p>
<p>It’s not just fashion or trends: throughout history, black women’s hair has fascinated artists and photographers and has been closely linked to radical political movements such as the <a href="http://allblackmedia.com/what-happened-to-the-natural-hair-movement-of-the-60s-and-70s/">Black Panthers</a> and South Africa’s own <a href="http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/defining-black-consciousness">Black Consciousness Movement</a>. It then seems like a paradox for the young women at South Africa’s Pretoria Girls High School to be told that they should “discipline” their hair by <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2016/08/29/Pretoria-High-School-for-Girls-faces-fury-after-black-pupils-told-to-%E2%80%98straighten-hair%E2%80%99">relaxing it</a>. </p>
<h2>Desire and fear</h2>
<p>But it’s actually not a contradiction, since desire and fear often feed on each other. In the <a href="http://www.mtv.com/news/1623473/chris-rocks-daughter-inspired-new-documentary-good-hair/">documentary</a> produced and narrated by Chris Rock called “Good Hair”, the comedian Paul Mooney states it plainly: “If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed. If your hair is nappy, they are not happy.” </p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A trailer for comedian Chris Rock’s documentary “Good Hair”</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is not just clever rhyming. Mooney is pointing to the fact that nappy hair is inevitably associated with something that is out of reach for “white people” – happiness. When you sport your natural hair, you are free; your hair is wild; you have a new “hairstyle” everyday; you are radiant; you are regal. These are out of reach for most people and it makes them unhappy. </p>
<p>It is also about conformity. By choosing not to tease and tame your hair, you are also choosing to let your hair express its personality rather than look like everyone else’s hair. That’s why it makes people unhappy. </p>
<p>Notice that I have generalised the issue to people in general rather than writing about white people, because misconceptions about what black hair is are also propagated by black people. In fact, I would argue that most white people don’t know anything about black hair, and get most of their misconceptions about what it is from black people. </p>
<h2>A history of black hair myths</h2>
<p>There are two main misconceptions that are urgent for understanding what the governing body and headmistress of Pretoria Girls High may have been thinking – or not thinking.</p>
<p>The first misconception is that natural hair is “dirty”. The second is that natural hair does/doesn’t grow (hence the obsession with hair length, hair extensions and dreadlocks).</p>
<p>Many black women and men who wear weaves and relax their hair will explain their choice by either saying that their natural hair is “unmanageable” or that natural hair is “dirty”. This is one of the most enduring stereotypes about black hair. People will even cite the “anecdotal” evidence that Bob Marley’s dreads had 47 different types of lice when he died. These are urban legends of the worst kind because they perpetuate the stereotype that only black hair attracts lice, and other vermin, which is simply <a href="https://youtu.be/dN5DXQMxWCY">scientifically untrue</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136051/original/image-20160831-29099-76sed3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob Marley’s hair was the subject of several myths.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historically, the myth comes from images of the pejoratively named “fuzzy-wuzzy” that British soldiers who were fighting Sudanese insurgents in the <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/gah/mahdist-revolution-1881-1898">Mahdist War</a> sent home. This war, from 1881-1899, popularised the image of the wild Afros that people now imagine when they think of black hair. </p>
<p>These images are misleading for the simple reason that they suggest these Sudanese soldiers did not “dress” their hair or wash it, since in the images it often looks unkempt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Across the African continent, techniques for dressing hair were as varied as the hairstyles that they produced. </p>
<p>The “Afro” therefore is not some kind of standard African hairstyle. It is just one of several hundred ways of growing and maintaining curly hair. So, when a black person decides to “dread” or lock their hair, they neither need nor keep “dirt” in it to make it lock. Our hair (as does all hair) locks naturally when it is left uncombed or unbrushed.</p>
<p>The association of locks with dirt partly comes from the Caribbean where <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/">Rastafarianism</a> emerged as a subculture. However, even in this instance, the misconception is that dreadlocks equal Rastafarianism. The Rastas got their locks from Africa. To be exact, matted African hair was transported to the Caribbean by images of Ethiopian soldiers who were fighting the <a href="https://global.britannica.com/event/Italo-Ethiopian-War-1935-1936">Italian invasion</a> which began in 1935. They vowed – using the example of Samson in the bible – that they would not cut their hair until their country and emperor Ras Tafari Makonnnen (also called Haile Selassie) were liberated and the emperor returned from exile. </p>
<p>Before the war the Ethiopian elite sported very neat Afros. The only conclusion we can reach is that it is only under conditions of war and colonialism that black people present their hair as “unkept”. When at peace, the hairdressers and barbers did their jobs and kept black hair looking fabulous.</p>
<h2>Policing black hair</h2>
<p>The myths about how long black hair can or should be are as legion as the myths that natural hair is “dirty”. The misconception partly comes out of the concept of measurement. Natural African hair is curly and so to measure it, one would have to stretch out the coils. This is why limiting the growth of the hair by the width of cornrows or length of strands doesn’t make sense at all. </p>
<p>How would you know – without uncoiling it – how long a black person’s hair is? One black person’s coiffure will look very short because of “shrinkage” and another black person’s locks will look very long because of a loose coil. </p>
<p>The notion that long black hair is or should be cut or trimmed to an “acceptable” length is just ignorance masquerading as “neatness”. No two black people’s hair “grows out” the same. </p>
<p>Pretoria Girls High is not the first institution to try and police black people’s hair. In an article titled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/opinion/when-black-hair-is-against-the-rules.html?_r=0">“When Black Hair Is Against the Rules”</a>, the New York Times responded to hair regulations that had been published by the US Army on March 31 2014. These prohibited twists, “matted” hair and multiple braids – all of which were read as references to natural African hair and hairstyles. </p>
<h2>Whose “common sense”?</h2>
<p>Conservative institutions – schools, militaries, corporations and so on – have the right to prescribe a dress code. However, these should not be based on partial knowledge where these institutions simply don’t do any research into what some of their prohibitions actually mean and instead rely on “common sense”. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, when it comes to black hair, “common sense” is the least reliable tool for decision-making, since even black people are constantly changing their minds about what they want to do with their hair. As an expression of our culture, black hair is as malleable and plastic as our ideas about it. </p>
<p>To attempt to fix such expressions in rules and regulations is to deny black people what the Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop <a href="http://www.centerformaat.com/files/African_Origin_of_Civilization_Complete.pdf">called</a> our “Promethean consciousness”. As black people, our hair is an expression of the infinite possibilities that emanate from this creative and daring consciousness.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hlonipha Mokoena does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When it comes to black hair, “common sense” is the least reliable tool for decision making since even black people are constantly changing their minds about what they want to do with their hair.Hlonipha Mokoena, Associate Professor at the Wits Institute for Social & Economic Research, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/633472016-08-03T17:29:15Z2016-08-03T17:29:15ZUnder the influence of … Bob Marley, the timeless music man<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132752/original/image-20160802-17169-106om32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Marley's album 'Legend' is still an international bestseller</span> </figcaption></figure><p><em>In our new weekly series, “Under the influence”, we ask experts to share what they believe are the most influential works of art or artists in their field. Here, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s Stewart Maganga explains why reggae megastar Bob Marley remains relevant, 35 years after his death in 1981.</em></p>
<p>It would be easy to dismiss <a href="http://www.bobmarley.com/">Bob Marley</a> (1945-1981) as someone who is and should remain a figure of the 20th century. However, this does not help to explain why even after his death from cancer three and a half decades ago, he continues to be revered by millions of people around the world. Marley’s images can be found almost everywhere, ranging from T-shirts and hats, to bags and even coffee mugs. His greatest hits compilation, “<a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/bob-marley-and-the-wailers-legend-20120524">Legend</a>”, has sold an estimated <a href="http://tsort.info/music/faq_album_sales.htm">27.9 million copies</a> since it was released in 1984. It still sells <a href="http://www.mixedracestudies.org/?p=20696">250,000 copies</a> a year.</p>
<p>If there is anything that is to be associated with <a href="http://www.allmusic.com/genre/reggae-ma0000002820">reggae</a> music, the Afrocentric religion of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/ataglance/glance.shtml">Rastafari</a>, or the Caribbean island of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-18784061">Jamaica</a>, the first name that comes to mind is Bob Marley. Despite this, the reality that the world often tends to associate Marley with is far different from the one he grew up in more than 70 years ago.</p>
<p>Marley lived in a Jamaica that had experienced more than <a href="http://jis.gov.jm/information/jamaican-history/">200 years</a> of slavery and colonialism. This would have a great impact on him, considering that he was born from a <a href="https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/gurtman02.htm">white father</a> and <a href="http://caribbean-beat.com/issue-93/mother-legend#axzz4G5zFwK1a">a black mother</a>. The key to understanding Marley was not merely the music but the life experiences that played a part in shaping the individual and, ultimately, the music that the world would come to know. </p>
<p>If there are three areas that played a part in shaping Marley the musician, it would have to be his experience of racism as a mixed-race person, his life in the slums of Kingston’s Trenchtown and his Rastafari beliefs. All three factors have combined to make Marley the so-called superstar that he is still known as today.</p>
<h2>Why Bob Marley remains an influential figure</h2>
<p>Marley’s influence was not limited to simply making music for the sake of entertainment. He was most noted for using his music to spread the message of Rastafari. Rastafari is a phenomenon that began in the 1930s in response to a message given by Jamaican nationalist <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/garvey_marcus.shtml">Marcus Garvey</a>, who proclaimed that African people in the diaspora should look to Africa, where a black king would be crowned. It was here that they would find their redemption.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=818&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/132759/original/image-20160802-17177-1t9h7m0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Ethiopian stamp of Haile Selassie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It so happened that on November 2 1930, <a href="http://www.thewhitereview.org/features/in-the-light-of-ras-tafari/">Tafari Makonnen</a> was crowned emperor of Ethiopia under his baptismal name, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zqqx6sg">Haile Selassie</a>. Rastafari was <a href="http://jamaicans.com/orgins/">derived</a> from Haile Selassie’s name – it is a conflation of Ras, the title given to Amharic royalty in Ethiopia, and Tafari, his pre-coronation name.</p>
<p>What Marley brought to the world stage was something that was perhaps unique for its time. His tireless dedication and hard work to ensuring that the world came to learn and hear of Rastafari is in itself a major contributor to what made it into a global phenomenon.</p>
<p>Through Marley’s music, people in all corners of the world came to embrace Rastafari. This has helped shape the Rasta philosophy to the extent that it can no longer be attuned solely to the needs of believers in Jamaica. </p>
<p>It is found that everywhere it has been adapted to suit the needs and concerns of the society in which it has been embraced. This has further led Rasta scholars such as Richard Salter to <a href="http://www.ideaz-institute.com/Ideaz%20J%20Volumes/IDEAZ%20VOL7%202008.pdf">argue</a> that there is no one thing as Rastafari but rather only “Rastafaris”. What Salter means by this is that as a phenomenon Rastafari is understood in the societies where it is found. This further demonstrates how far and wide the phenomenon has spread globally. There are currently an estimated <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/ataglance/glance.shtml">one million followers</a> around the world.</p>
<p>Marley’s message of Rastafari would further be extended to scholars who would play their part in educating the public about the nature of Rastafari. They would include, among others, <a href="http://www.oberlin.edu/archive/holdings/finding/RG30/SG64/biography.html">George Eaton Simpson</a>, <a href="http://www.cifas.us/sites/g/files/g536796/f/1960e_RasTafariMov_B.pdf">Rex Nettleford</a>, <a href="http://www.rootsreggaeclub.com/culture_reggae_afro/the_rastafarians/the_rastafarians_main.htm">Leonard E Barrett</a>, <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20101106/lead/lead2.html">Barry Chevannes</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272338580_Towards_a_New_Map_of_Africa_through_Rastafari_'Works'">Jahlani Niaah</a>, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/41125667_'Cleave_to_the_Black'_expressions_of_Ethiopianism_in_Jamaica">Charles R Price</a>, <a href="http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120425/ent/ent2.html">Michael Barnett</a> and many others. Without Marley, scholarship on this phenomenon would not exist in such magnitude as is the case today.</p>
<h2>Why Bob Marley’s music is still relevant</h2>
<p>Although Marley may have lived in a world that is different to the one we find ourselves in today, the reality is that the human problems he encountered were no different from the ones we experience in the 21st century. </p>
<p>What is perhaps most significant about Marley’s music is that his message has transcended both time and space. We now find ourselves living in a post-9/11 world where mistrust and intolerance continue to remain dominant, as much as they were back then. It comes as no surprise because Marley spoke of the human condition.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Marley’s ‘So Much Trouble in the World’.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are very few musicians in this present day that may claim to use their music to fight for causes that Marley may have fought for. Marley did not only speak about love and unity among all mankind as seen in his 1977 song <a href="http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3909"><em>One Love</em></a>. He also spoke about the sufferings of the world in his songs. These include <a href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobmarley/somuchtroubleintheworld.html"><em>So Much Trouble in the World</em></a>, <a href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobmarley/burninandlootin.html"><em>Burnin’ and Lootin’</em></a>, <a href="http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/bobmarley/johnnywas.html"><em>Johnny Was</em></a> and <a href="http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=13282"><em>War</em></a>. This is what has made Marley not just relevant to his time but to ours as well.</p>
<h2>My relationship with the music of Bob Marley</h2>
<p>My relationship with Bob Marley’s music began when I was living in England in the 1980s. There was a BBC television programme that my parents used to watch every Thursday night called “<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/totp/history/">Top of the Pops</a>”. One of the songs that introduced me to Marley’s music <em>One Love</em>. Little would I know that, over the years, I would become a fan of Bob Marley’s music and eventually become a scholar of the Rastafari phenomenon.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XbFbkY1tPTI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Bob Marley on ‘Top of the Pops’ in 1984.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Birds of a feather</h2>
<p>To understand Bob Marley the man, it is imperative not to solely listen to his music but also read biographies and watch documentaries that offer different perspectives of the man. Although there are a number of them, I would strongly recommend the following:</p>
<p>Biographies:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>“<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7353179-bob-marley">Bob Marley: The Untold Story</a>” – Chris Salewicz (2009); and</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44968.Catch_a_Fire">Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley</a>” – Timothy White (1983).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Documentaries:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>“<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183919/">Marley</a>” – directed by Kevin McDonald (2012); and</p></li>
<li><p>“<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1297801/">Bob Marley: Freedom Road</a>” – directed by Sonia Anderson (2007).</p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Maganga does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Bob Marley is one of those rare artists who continues to touch the hearts of millions of people across the world, even though he died more than three decades ago.Stewart Maganga, Doctoral Candidate, Nelson Mandela UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.