From Dystopia to Utopia, Mythopoeia to Ethiopia: The Narrative of Dis/Placement and pan African Zionism in the Root Reggae Lyrics of Joseph Hill
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Date
2017-04-20
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Abstract
This paper discusses the poetics of the lyrics of the Jamaican root reggae star, poet and cultural icon, Joseph Hill, within the purview of postcolonial diaspora critical concepts such as: dystopia writing, mythopoeia and utopia. While critical discourse on diaspora literary expressions often privilege high canon literary outputs of mainstream authors like Samuel Selvon, Derek Walcott, V. S. Naipaul etc., the passionate pan African rhetoric and lyrical aesthetics of pop culture reggae icons such as Bob Marley and Joseph Hill are either underrepresented (in the case of the former) or overlooked (in the case of the latter). Claiming affinity between black diaspora and the Jewish dispersion, Rastafarian reggae artistes have adopted Nathan Birnbaum’s neologism, “Zionism,” to reconstruct a pan African “alter/native” narrative that embodies the anguish of “displacement” and the burden of identity construction in their lyrics. This enterprise has been labelled black Zionism by Marcus Garvey. Proclaimed as the “Keeper of Zion Gate,” one of the foremost disciples of Marcus Garvey, Joseph Hill, established himself as the most doctrinal pan African reggae artiste and lyrical aesthetician. This paper is a discourse on how the prolific lyrical outputs of Hill offer rich insight on postcolonial narrative strategies of dystopia, mythopoeia and utopia. Indeed, the enterprise of “dismantling… structures of colonial control” (Childs and Williams 1997) is not the preserve of high canon literature. To the Rastafarian reggae poet/singer, singing to destabilize Western hegemonic metanarratives is a way of life, a culture, a religion, an obsession. I conclude that Hill’s lyrics constitute a postcolonial “alter/native” narrative which aims at deconstructing the “master codes” (Ato Quayson) of western cultural universality, and reconstructing an “alter/native” pan African narrative of authenticity and liberation.
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lyrics, reggae star, black diaspora, Rastafarian reggae artistes