Reggae Month Reggaelution - the reggae man story

The revolution began as heavy bass-filled music rising throughout shanty towns in Kingston Jamaica.- Music that flew across the airwaves into the night clubs and homes in England, Europe North America. The revolution stood firm, chanting down 'Babylon systems' on the continent of Africa and now it parades on world stages rising to prominence in places like Asia. The Reggaelution is upon us.

But where is it going now?

The story of Reggae's rise is as improbable as the likelihood of an unknown Jewish sect, rising to define the spirituality of the western world. But Christianity is here isn't it.

Reggae is here.

Reggae has already decided that it is a powerful sociocultural tool and that it will go around the world and 'civilize' the masses. Reggae's missionary position is not a lateral one awaiting arrival of another, but a vertical and 'upright' position.

If Reggae was a man, he would be a Marcus Garvey, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King. He would have grown up poor in the slums of Kingston and started a song. His father would have been called Mr. Ska, and his mother, with her 'rock-steady' virtues would have been an off-spring of the family tree of the Mento clan. When growing up, this man with the name of Reggae would have been educated at the school of Rastafari, where he would learn his philosophical ideals from the teachings of powerful Pan-Africanists. He would have learned a hatred of all oppression (and learned to call it down-pression, cause there's nothing up about it). This man called Reggae though, would have moved through the world and seen people of different races and persuasions and found common unity with them. And in this communion, he would come to a conclusion that in this life, we are really all the same under the skin.

He would have started a song, a beautiful song. And that one song would echo in many places all over the world, producing different sounds. In some places the people would hear the one song and know that the systems of injustice that they are exposed to must be 'toppled and totally destroyed.'

Some would hear the echoes of that song and feel the love pouring through their veins like a river and beating in their bodies with a steely pulse. When the echo crosses the oceans and reaches other lands, it becomes less of a moment of sound and more a movement of hearts and souls- where even those who don't sway with the bass rhythms of the man called Reggae, but instead rock arhythmically to the lyrics- can still feel connected. Then the man might write many more songs saying we are really all one race- the human race; One people - and One Love.