Music as Resistance

Marley's music was explicitly political. "Get Up, Stand Up" demanded action against injustice. "Redemption Song" quoted Marcus Garvey about mental slavery. "War" set a speech by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to music, drawing a direct line between Rastafarian faith and anti-colonial struggle.

His Rastafarian faith was inseparable from his music. Rastafari — a spiritual movement that emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s — emphasized African identity, resistance to "Babylon" (Western oppression), and the spiritual use of cannabis.