Why is reggae important

Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Users' questions What is the importance of reggae music in Jamaica? Users' questions. Esther Fleming November 22, Table of Contents. Previous Article Which Town City recorded the highest temperature during the year? Next Article What is the largest urban area in Africa? These biblical ideas are also creatively applied to a range of political issues, from local injustices to climate change and the nuclear arms race.

As Ziggy Marley put it:. This type of thinking is rooted in Jamaican history. Following violent confrontations with the police during the s and s, Rasta elders — particularly Mortimer Planno — appealed to Jamaican academics to study Rastafari in order to increase popular understanding and tolerance.

And in , three scholars M. For Rastas, the destruction of Babylon came to be interpreted less in terms of a violent overthrow of oppressive social structures and more in terms of a conversion to new ways of thinking, central to which was the strategic primacy assumed by the arts. Reggae emerged as part of this process. The potency of reggae as an educational and inspirational force became conspicuous shortly after its arrival in Britain.

While some may have been bemused by the reference, for their fans — for whom punk and reggae were first cousins at the very least — the message was obvious: Babylon was the principally white political establishment, which oppressed ethnic minorities and the unemployed poor of the inner cities, and which would eventually be dismantled. Furthermore, as mentally ill people commonly wear dreadlocks simply because they never comb their hair , they usually consider dreadlocks a dirty and messy hairstyle, if not insanity.

Check your history! Photo 3. Alpha Blondy performing in Paris. Throughout his fertile career which he started in , Lucky Dube never stopped denouncing discrimination, segregation and exclusion, which black South Africans were the victims of. He also advocated unity among people.

Among his most representative albums, one must mention Slave , Prisoner and Victims. It is also crucial to emphasize the Pacific region.

Indeed, like Jamaicans and Africans, Maori, Aborigines and Kanaks have experienced colonialism, enslavement, genocides and denial of their traditions and religious beliefs. It is not an overstatement to say that almost the whole world have been culturally influenced by reggae music and its Rastafarian message. How can we explain such a scattering? Besides, foreigners appear to be captivated by reggae music because of its militant, rebellious and spiritual message as well as its positive and universal message dealing with the concept of unity.

Rasta symbols such as dreadlocks, Ethiopian colours, ganja or military clothing also play an important part in charming foreign audience. In other respects, a final remark could be made: the great importance of reggae and Rastafari in the worldwide cultural universe raise the question of the place of reggae and Rastafari in Caribbean studies in France.

Like rock, punk or hippie movements, reggae and Rastafari have influenced societies from a musical, cultural and political point of view. For that reason, they really can not be ignored, especially in the field of Caribbean Studies, which in France and the French West Indies, unfortunately, tend to focus on topics like tourism, migrations or environmental geography.

France-Cameroun, Croisement dangereux! Bonacci, G. Bonacci et S. Fila-Bakabadio dir , Musiques populaires. Bradley, L. Bass Culture , Londres, Penguin Books. Chang, J.

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