Peter Tosh: the man, the time, and the music
THE EDITOR, Madam:
AS WE have just closed celebrating Black History and Reggae Month, a special tribute is made to Peter Tosh for his enduring campaign, nationally and internationally, for the legalisation of ganja and his effort against the miseducation of the black youth. His life oscillated between Schopenhauer ’s will and representation and Nietzsche’s life of tragic existence. His ‘will’ – the i nner-self – and its representation i n music illustrates his spiritual embrace and philosophical orientation. He endured the sorrow of suffering during the 1960s, the horror of near-death police brutality in the 1970s, and the tragedy of a brutal and violent killing in the 1980s. He brought joy to many for his militant political strides and spiritual themes. His music connects our lives with our history and contemporary society. It is informed by a new morality and radical politics that were also some of the characteristics of the political leadership and environment during the 1970s. He was a gifted thinker, artiste, performer and musician. It is important that we honour him, who is not popular with status quo. Tosh’s music is a powerful instrument of education. He used the stage to spread the good news about the ‘new’ king and messiah in a similar manner to Leonard P Howell and his street meetings in St Thomas during the 1930s.
ANTI-IMPERLIAST
As an artiste, Tosh captured the essence of Rastafari and asserted it in his music. His song You can’t blame the youth is a deep reflection of themes from Howell’s mission during the 1930s in St Thomas – issues concerning the miseducation of the black youth, and also the false doctrine advanced by the Christian church about ignoring gold, silver, and wealth, but embrace the idea of dying and going to heaven for milk and honey. Like Howell, Tosh was anti-imperialist and anti-Western civilisation.
His anti-imperialist themes appear in his music from as early as Pound Get a Blow to The Day the Dollar Die, Babylon your Queen-dom is Falling, and No Nuclear War. His radical political themes appear in songs such as 400 Years, Get Up Stand Up, Equal Rights and Justice, Only the Poor Man Feel It, and Down Presser Man.
He was also critical of some members of the Rastafari movement in other interviews. Peter Tosh was a long-standing activist for African liberation. There is evidence of his participation in a Kingston demonstration against the Ian Smith’s white racist minority Government and unilateral declaration of Independence in Rhodesia during the 1960s. Tosh and two others were arrested for the mounting of a roadblock on Spanish Town Road. The dominant political leadership in Jamaica during that time led a forceful struggle in support of the liberation in southern Africa.
CULTURAL ROLE IN ZIMBABWEAN FIGHT
In a speech at the same peace concert at the National Stadium, Tosh declared that 1978 is the year celebrating the antiapartheid struggles. He refreshed his solidarity to these struggles. He called on black people to be conscious of themselves and become knowledgeable of the laws that govern them. He asserted his apprehension of themes of African unity and anti-apartheid struggles in songs such as African, Apartheid, and Recruiting Soldiers for Jah Army. His music played an i mportant cultural role among the guerillas fighting in Zimbabwe during the 1970s. As an observer to the transitional election (very early 1980s) in Zimbabwe, this writer was invited to a victory party organised by members of the Zimbabwe National African Union (ZANU) and witnessed guerillas dancing their traditional dances to Peter Tosh’s Equal Rights and Justice album. It was explained that their endurance in the “bush fighting” was buoyed by this kind of music. Tosh made the right kind of music, that which was then and still is today a powerful instrument of education and resistance.
LOUIS E A MOYSTON, PHD