NGOEPE K.M.

222004342

ENGLISH ESSAY 1: MARLEY ESSAY

“Redemption Song” is a folk song by the renowned Jamaican singer, Robert Nesta Marley
well known as Bob Marley. The song was released in June 1980 as the last song in Bob
Marley’s last album with The Wailers, Uprising, just before Bob succumbed to cancer.
Redemption song is believed to be based upon political activist, Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s
1938 speech, ‘The Work That Has Been Done’. Therefore, the Redemption song cannot be
fully understood without the context of Marcus Garvey's speech, which essentially contains
the need to think as free people and to say, "Whatever happened to man, it is his own mind,
who takes it there" (Garvey, 1938). ). In the following essay, I will show how Bob Marley’s
Redemption song narrates the story of the enslaved and persecuted.

Redemption Song is well-structured art to convey a message of freedom to Black

Americans. Black Americans found themselves in the West because of transatlantic trade in
the 18th century. The transatlantic trade included the slave trade. As found in the first stanza
of the Song of Redemption, "the pirates of old sold me to the merchant's ship". The West
was a foreign country and dependent on the slave trade for their livelihood, they were
oppressed by their masters and had no freedom. After years of searching for freedom, Bob
Marley has finally arrived at what he believes to be the solution. Redemption Song tells the
story of slavery through faith, self-preservation, hope and freedom as Marley portrays his
emancipation from Afro-Jamaican slavery. The opening of Redemption Song quickly
establishes the spread of "I-Talk". His fourth line from line 1 declares the following words:
Minutes after they pulled me out of the abyss. 'I' endure the turmoil of being kidnapped from
my hometown and sold to a country where I do business, and whoever hears this song knows
the story of an individual who was once taken from home and sent to a 'strange place'. It
creates an aura of being a product.
The ability of all individuals to think and act their thoughts independently is the invaluable
asset that all individuals must possess and use in order to escape not only physical, but
mental and emotional attachment. Although the enslaved persons without weapons or objects
that might help them escape slavery, they all possessed the wits, the ability to think and to
resist the mental encapsulation of their masters. The Jamaican artist found the right
inspiration, to compose a ballad that deals with freedom, not just physical freedom, but an
abstract spiritual freedom that with the right awareness can be achieved and shared with
others “Emancipate yourself from spiritual slavery, none but us itself can liberate our minds,”
the words refer to an unacceptable state of mind physical bondage of humanity in which we
are the only ones who can free ourselves from our own fears of the past and allow us to face
the future. In these two lines, Bob Marley makes freedom a personal responsibility and
reduces slavery to the activity of the mind. To get out of mental slavery, "free yourself from
mental slavery", mental slavery is self-slavery, therefore you can only escape from self-
slavery.

Marley continues the song of redemption by adding "sacred" aspects to her song. Scattered
throughout Redemption Song, Marley chants many Biblical principles: "But my hand is made
strong, by the hand of the Almighty... How long will they kill our prophets...We must keep
the book." Use of these lines in Marley's song met. The "Almighty," the "Prophets," and the
"Book" refer to the influence that God has in the lives of both Afro-Jamaicans generations
ago and Afro-Jamaicans of the 20th century. The statement that everything happens for a
reason is put into context in terms of God's actions. God did not punish black Americans by
enslaving them to white settlers, but made them realize the strength and spiritual capacity
they had to withstand the brutality, all in the hope of a better future for their descendants.
They may not have had the financial or military strength to resist physical enslavement, but
in God possessed far greater strength in believing that the future is limitless and that their
work in the Lord is not in vain. The Lord's work has prevailed as liberty over black
Americans, but it is the duty of 20th-century Afro-Jamaicans to learn from their predecessors
and to recognize the great power of spirit and faith. Sin is an immoral act that is considered a
violation of divine law and can be associated with God. According to God, sin separates you
from Him. Salvation is the right choice you make after you or someone else has sinned and it
affects you. It is liberation from troubles and evils. In religion, salvation means deliverance
from the power or punishment of sin.
In Conclusion, The Redemption Song shows that human achievement usually has clear
limits. In that sense, humans have the ability to create atomic energy, but slavery cannot stop
it. Also, after being sold to pirates, a person's faith in God makes him stronger. Redemption
song suggests that the mind has the power to free you from harsh situations, however it is
also has the power to withhold one from living to their full capacity.