SONGS OF FREEDOM:
THE MUSIC OF BOB MARLEY AS
TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION
W. Alan Smith, Ph.D.
Florida Southern College,
Lakeland, FL
Open your eyes and look within
Are you satisfied with the life you're living?
We know where we're going; we know where we're from
We're leaving Babylon, we're going to our fatherland.
n Bob Marley, "Exodus", 1977
The music of Robert Nesta Marley, the late Jamaican musician who introduced both reggae
music and Rastafarian religious beliefs to an international audience, combines a "feel good,"
slow-paced rhythm with a militant call for justice and freedom from oppression. Born in the lush
countryside of Jamaica, he moved at a young age to the crushing squalor of Trench Town, one of
Kingston, Jamaica's most hopeless "government yards" where he, like other "Rude Boys"
abandoned formal education for the promise of the street gangs, only to discover music as his
way out of life among the "sufferahs." Bob Marley has been called a prophet, a......
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Approximate Word Count: 14130
Approximate Pages: 55 (260 words per double-spaced page) |