Yes, a Zimbabwe trying to rise out of the moral reprehension that was Rhodesia. There are divisions within the majority population and the risk of infighting is very real. Yes, a country trying to find its place in the league of legitimate nations and with an array of potential leaders; each believing he would be best for the new nation… Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Rev Ndabaningi Sithole, Dr Joshua Nkomo, Comrade Robert Mugabe…

“How could you be sitting there, telling me that you care?” (Ambush in the Night). There is an apparent frustration with the endless pronouncements in support of the causes of the downtrodden and exiled “children of the higher man” without action to show real commitment. Marley’s impatience had shown itself in earlier works but it is in the album anticipating majority rule in Zimbabwe, “Survival”, that Bob pleads louder still and preaches with unmistakable passion and irritation.

Bob Marley demanded his brethren “Get up, stand up … for your right” and talked of the “small axe sharpened” to cut down “the big tree” earlier in the 1970s. Alas, the need to call out to the people was no less by the time Survival hit the shelves in 1979.

Bob appears concerned by the lack of unity between his brothers and sisters. “How good and how pleasant it will be, before God and man, to see the unification of all Africans” (Africa Unite). It can be safely assumed that the continuous talk, promises, declarations were all failing to impress; the need for action to replace words is suggested: “as has been said already, let it be done” (Africa Unite). In the same song, he issues the reality check to what he clearly sees as one people – “I tell you who we are under the sun – we are the children of the Higher Man”. In the Survival album itself, there is no disguising Bob’s belief that there is a conspiracy to keep his people down. The “Crazy Baldhead” (from Rastaman Vibration – 1976) who is the “con man coming with his con plan” and “the big fish who always try to eat down the small fish” (Guiltiness – Exodus – 1977) appear ever present in his suspicion as he laments (in Babylon System) that they “can’t educate I for no equal opportunity”, reminding us of their crime of “deceiving the people continually”. Nonetheless, the people’s destiny, he believes and states, is in their own hands.

The belief that “every man got the right to decide his own destiny” (Zimbabwe) goes with the plea (from Wake Up and Live) to “ye mighty people” that strongly encourages “rise from your sleepless slumber” and inspires with the summation that “we’re more than sand on the seashore, we’re more than numbers”. It is clear, so clear, that the man wanted to see change and he wanted to see it now. He no doubt fears that disunity will be the obstacle to achieving the dream. There is the warning that “divide and rule could only tear us apart” (Zimbabwe) and the assertion that “they don’t want to see us unite” (Top Ranking). These are the risk factors in the light of the fact that “Dreadie’s got a job to do and he’s got to fulfil that mission”. Nonetheless, he is hopeful and talks of “the brotherly love, the sisterly love, I feel this morning” and acknowledges it is the people’s fight, stating “we’ve got to face the day… come what may. We the street people talking, we the street people struggling”.

So Robert Nesta Marley wanted it to happen but couldn’t help fearing the obstacles. Yes, “how can you be sitting there telling me that you care, when every time I look around the people suffer in the suffering, in every way, in everywhere?” He accuses “they made the world so hard every day we got to keep on fighting… every day my people are dying” (One Drop). And yet, his faith is forever present and never falters, and he clearly sees a divine hand on the side of his people and declares, “I know Jah would never let us down”.

What is highlighted in the Survival album is the total belief in a conspiracy to get his people to be what they should not want to be. The challenge lies in getting the people to believe in their rights, in their right to decide or influence their destinies. “In this judgement, there is no partiality” and “we’ll fight this little struggle ‘cos it’s the only way we can overcome our little trouble” (Zimbabwe).

The man is very clear about how he sees the struggle and the attitude behind it and is defiant. “We refuse to be what you wanted us to be. We are what we are; that’s the way it’s going to be…”