Marleys’ eldest pens ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ anthem to kids
When Robert Nesta Marley
and his Wailers’ collaborator
Peter Tosh penned a song titled
“Get Up, Stand Up” there was a
wall in Europe separating East
and West Germany.
Simultaneously, a racist system
of segregation known as
apartheid separated nationals
of South Africa.
In Zimbabwe, a similar form
of oppression subjected a Black
majority to heed the laws of a
white minority.
At the same time natives
of Angola, Namibia and other
southern African nations
endured equally repressive
treatment under their regimes.
The reggae song resonated
in all those regions and in the
Caribbean, Fidel Castro, Maurice
Bishop and Jean-Claude
Duvalier offered alternative
lifestyles from the norm Spanish,
English and the French
colonials exampled.
In this millennium with the
absence of the Berlin Wall, the
dismantling of apartheid, the
passing of revolutionary leaders
including Nelson Mandela, Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert
Mugabe and the authors of the
anthemic, motivational song,
Generation Next must find a
unifying theme to sustain the
varying causes that threaten
world peace.
Cedella, the eldest daughter
of reggae icons Bob and Rita
Marley believes her father’s
message remain relevant and
is perhaps even more pertinent
to a global audience awakening
to the #Me Too Movement, bullying,
climate change, police
brutality, sexual and racial
insensitivity, the proliferation
of guns, white supremacy,
immigration discrimination,
poverty, homelessness, terrorism
and a litany of issues that
plague the planet.
A mother to three young
men, the designer, entrepreneur
and former background
singer to her brothers Ziggy and
Stephen collaborative Grammy
winning group — Ziggy Marley
& The Melody Makers — she
decided to adapt the message
for a primer to young readers
Caribbean L 14 ife, October 4 - 10, 2019 BQ
of all races.
Based on the 1973 single
from the Tuff Gong “Burnin’”
album by Bob Marley & The
Wailers, the book compiles a
colorful and inspirational read,
children will relate.
Illustrated by John Jay
Cabuay, “Get Up, Stand Up”
provides ammunition to an
already empowered force of
activists poised to rule a more
enlightened world.
“Standing up for yourself,
standing up for others and
standing up for what is right
are three very important values
my parents instilled in my
siblings and me when we were
growing up in Jamaica,” Marley
explained.
That worlds away, her parents’
message echoed to inspire
soldiers, warriors and ordinary
citizens is no wonder she chose
the “Burnin’,” 1973 composition
for her third in a series of
musical adaptations.
Her first publication introduced
“The Boy From Nine
Miles,” a biographical tale
about her superstar father.
Youngsters embraced the
page-turner in the process
gleaned much about the Jamaican
national who in his short
lifetime endeared world attention.
On his 56th birthday, along
with her siblings gifted the
deceased king of reggae with
a palm-sized book titled “56
Thoughts.”
The publication highlighted
the Kingston address her Rastafarian
father resided and also
presented Psalms he praised
throughout the 36 years he
lived.
Catch You On The Inside!
Cedella Marley in ‘Get Up’ T.
Inside Life
By Vinette K. Pryce
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