REGGAE ET POLITIQUE EN AFRIQUE : LE MYTHE DU PARADIS PERDU

Abstract

Born in Jamaica in the late 1960s, reggae is a unique example in the history of urban
folk music. While teeming with styles and trends, it still has strong enough bases to
rally generations of music lovers on the five continents. In fact, reggae, in addition to
being sensitive to the evolution of culture and musical technology, rests on an ideology:
Rastafarianism. Its message echoes the struggle of men and women in an America
plagued by its slave past, oppressing and marginalizing its citizens of color from the
surrounding prosperity. For those left behind, happiness comes through the re-conquest
of black man's dignity, with in view return to Africa, land of opulence and redemption.
Inspired by the biblical book of Exodus, this stream of former slaves' descendants' homecoming was conceived and implemented by Marcus Garvey through the "Black
Star Line", a shipping and commercial branch of the Universal Negro Improvement
Association (UNIA).
In this respect, reggae is a militant music. Embodied by the emblematic figure of Bob
Marley, this musical genre came to Africa in the early 1980s, carrying the hopes of
a continent freed from colonial yoke and having to reduce social iniquities caused
by the exploitation of man by man. However, past the euphoria of the first years of
independence, the contention is that Africa is far from being this lost paradise, idealized
by the followers of Rastafarianism. Instead of being used to finance development, the
huge agricultural and mining resources of the continent serve to fuel social unrest. To
this must be added the lack of democracy, patronage, and public fund squander that
hinder sine die hopes for development. In doing so, reggae men have become the musical
consciousness of an immoral Africa which is ready to assume the role assigned to it in
the concert of nations. Between hope and abnegation, reggae men try to contribute to
the qualitative transformation of the continent, although their activism is not always
without risk.
KEYWORDS
Rastafarianism, slaveholding, independence, paradise, activism.