Devon Dick A COUPLE Sundays ago, two incidents occurred that got me thinking whether Bob Marley should be regarded as a liberation theologian.
The first incident was when I preached at a charismatic Baptist church in London. The service was very lively. During the worship service, the members spoke in tongues, sang lustily and danced wholeheartedly. After I had finished preaching, the Ghanaian-born pastor led the church into a response in accordance with the sermon.
CLOSING SONG
Then to my amazement, the closing song was One Love by Bob Marley. The leader of the worship service sang the entire song from memory and the congregation joined in and continued to worship God in the Spirit. Indeed, the words of One love have been recognised by the world as the best song of the century. This most popular song encourages one to 'give thanks and praise to the Lord and feel alright'. And in response to persons passing dirty remarks was 'One Love'. Marley even asks if there is a place for the hopeless sinner. He ends the song by pleading to all mankind to engage in One Love. This song and others by Marley and Peter Tosh have been classified by the Honourable Omar Davies as worthy of being used in church worship service.
In addition, in England as children gather at Assembly, the children sing songs such as Three Little Birds and One Love. I have never heard these songs used as a part of a morning worship service or a school assembly. Why is this so? Perhaps, Marley will suffer the fate of persons such as Isaac Watts, the writer of hymns such as When I survey the wondrous Cross whose songs were considered too radical by the established Christians of that age but are now accepted. Quite a few hymns that are now fashionable were despised then because the music was considered secular.
I suspect that Marley's womanising and having children with different women while married would be used against him. However, the psalms, many of which were written by David, who was an adulterer and murderer, are recited and sung by many Christians today! It seems that there is room for Bob Marley to be assessed as a liberation theologian.
Coincidentally, on the same day I preached that sermon, I found a book entitled Jesus is Dread by Robert Beckford. Beckford when he wrote the book was a Pentecostal preacher. He is now a lecturer at the University of Birmingham. This young Pentecostal claims that Bob Marley is a liberation theologian.
GOD-TALK
Theology is essentially God-Talk an attempt to express the meaning of God in the world. Liberation theology interprets the Christian faith in light of an oppressed community. Marley used music to interpret God for the oppressed people. If Marley is to be seen as a liberation theologian what was his method? According to Beckford, Marley's system of knowing does not use the traditional theological methods but uses three Jamaican traditions of 'the use of experience; the second is a commitment to radical change; and the third is the nature of the discourse, reggae music'.
Bob called for radical social change...' the destruction of Babylon and the liberation of the poor'. He felt that the existing social order is the Babylon. Bob wanted militant (Chase Those Crazy Baldheads Out of Town) and psychological revolution (Emancipate yourself from mental slavery). Marley's interpretation had Selassie as Jah Rastafari, Africa the promised land or Zion and Jamaica as Babylon. Marley uses this hermeneutic to interpret the Bible.
Beckford is not attempting a whitewash of Marley and he acknowledges that Marley has been questioned by feminists who claimed that he did not respect women (womanising) and did not praise them in his songs. Bob Marley's genius is yet to be fully appreciated.
Renowned author and poet, Kwame Dawes (2002) has recognised him as a 'Lyrical genius'. Robert and Julia Roskind have been encouraging Jamaicans and citizens of the world to find healing through the power of Marley's One Love song. They have been hosting concerts here and elsewhere encouraging people to increase their love by 60 per cent to mark the 60 anniversary of the birth of Marley but he is largely a 'prophet without honour in his own country'. The evidence does suggest that Marley can be seen as a liberation theologian and should be honoured as such.
Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author, Rebellion to Riot: the Jamaican Church in Nation Building (2004).
