What made my Dad buy me an album from an artist he knew nothing about? Kaya was that album and after the initial appreciation of the music, the words of Robert Nesta Marley started finding the path to my consciousness.

Side One of Kaya appealed to the teenage recklessness in me with talk about smoking stuff, being in love and dancing feet. Side Two sealed the deal between Bob and I; I was to be happy with doses of reckless-abandon-inducing music complimented by thought provoking and ideas inspiring preaching.

Let’s put it all into context. The year is 1978 and the location is Freetown, Sierra Leone. I am transiting into a new and more adventurous phase of my life, having just started sixth form. My appreciation of the opposite sex is probably only rivalled by that of the party and clubbing scene.  However, there are more serious issues around.

In 1977, I had proudly marched with fellow pupils from schools all over Freetown in protest at the brutal put down by the government of a peaceful protest by university students. The government had an apparently ruthless determination to stay in power and there was no tolerance of opponents or disgruntled voices.  An election that was more of a selection of parliamentarians had been held in 1977 and the One Party State referendum result and the tactics used to achieve it were fresh in our minds.

There was clearly a struggle between the people and the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) whose symbol was the red sun.  The party sought to consolidate its position and the people’s dreams were to be strangled as close as possible to their points of conception.  All this happening as we got told we are all under the same umbrella.

There was a brave member of parliament who informed us some parts of the umbrella were leaking.  Whatever the case, it was clear the APC’s (red) sun did not project its rays into all corners of the land.  So when Bob Marley in “Crisis” stated “they say the sun shines for all, but in some people’s world, it never shine at all”, I immediately latched on to his his wisdom.  His pronouncements from the same LP proved equally magnetic.  In “Misty Morning”, the idea that we “don’t see no sun” while knowing it was “out there, somewhere, having fun” could easily be translated as another hint at what the government of that time was doing for itself and to its people.  The line “light like a feather, heavy as lead” was, to me, a statement on the lack of intellect or credible ideology that went side by side with a willingness to launch the full brutal capability of the security agencies against the people.

“Time will tell” gave the hope it was all going to end some day and the children were even told to “weep no more”.  In “Running Away” was the appreciation that “who feels it knows it”.

So Bob Marley won me over through teachings that somehow interpreted my experiences and observations of the time.  As I listened to his works prior to Kaya, I became even more convinced the man was truly in touch with the suffering, pain, struggles and dreams of the downtrodden.  The entertainment value was obvious.  You can never miss Carlton Barrett’s unique drum intros to many of the Wailers’ music or fail to sway to the bass guitar of Aston “Family Man” Barrett.  Then the voice of Bob will come in with messages that aroused consciousness of the issues of life.

The very first lines somehow always do it for me:

• “Oh please don’t you rock my boat”;
• “Live if you wanna live”;
• “Wake up and live”;
• “Every man’s got the right to decide his own destiny”;
• “We refuse to be what they wanted us to be”;
• “There is a natural mystic blowing through the air”;
• “Old pirates, yes, they rob I, sold I to the merchant ships”;
• “Man to man is so unjust, children ya don’t know who to trust”;
• “Dready got a job to do and he’s got to fulfil that mission”

So we were told about the loveliness of life alongside reminders of what was not so good about the world, backed up by inspiration for action to make a difference.

The woman who “held her head and cry” in “Johnny Was” was that woman who saw her child brutalised after the demonstration in Sierra Leone, murdered by Bokassa’s Imperial ambitions in the then Central African Empire, shot by the apartheid government of South Africa, and the examples go on… We all knew that the “hungry mob is an angry mob” and have seen “the big fish always trying to eat down the small fish”.  Yes, Bob reminded me the world was far from a very nice place by references to the past that put much of the present into perspective. He urged “stand up your right” and mentioned the betrayal of Jesus Christ and Marcus Garvey (So much things to says). We were asked to embrace each other’s struggle and reminded that “when the rain fall, it don’t fall on one man’s housetop”.

So, since Kaya graced that record player on that day in 1978, I have also allowed myself the joy and education of his earlier productions and the subsequent works.  Robert Nesta Marley’s works will do for me… anywhere and anytime.   I can drive to it, run to it, relax to it, dance to it, think to it, and hope to it.  Yes, it is all in his music and, if I accept that “in the abundance of water the fool is thirsty”, why would I want to look elsewhere?

So thank you Dad; thank you for Kaya.  It certainly was the “get up and turn I loose” I didn’t see coming but have happily lived with for over three decades.

© Othame Kabia