Radical religious thought in Black popular music. Five Percenters and Bobo Shanti in Rap and Reggae

Gansinger, Martin A. M.

Radical religious thought in Black popular music. Five Percenters and Bobo Shanti in Rap and Reggae

by Assist. Prof. Dr. Martin A. M. Gansinger (Author)

Summary

This book is discussing patterns of radical religious thought in popular forms of Black music. The consistent influence of the Five Percent Nation on Rap music as one of the most esoteric groups among the manifold Black Muslim movements has already gained scholarly attention. However, it shares more than a strong pattern of reversed racism with the Bobo Shanti Order, the most rigid branch of the Rastafarian faith, globally popularized by Dancehall-Reggae artists like Sizzla or Capleton. Authentic devotion or calculated marketing?
Apart from providing a possible answer to this question, the historical shift of Bobo adherents from shunned extremists to firmly anchored personifications of authenticity in mainstream Rastafarian culture is being emphasized. A multi-layered comparative case study attempts to shed light on the re-contextualization of language as well as expressed dogmatic perceptions and symbolism, attitude towards other religious groups and aspects of ethnic discrimination. Further analysis includes the visibility of artists and their references to practical and moral issues directly derived from two obscure ideologies that managed to conquer airwaves and concert halls.

Excerpt

Gansinger, Martin A. M.: Radical religious thought in Black popular music.

Five Percenters and Bobo Shanti in Rap and Reggae, Hamburg, Anchor Academic

Publishing 2017

Buch-ISBN: 978-3-96067-198-5

PDF-eBook-ISBN: 978-3-96067-698-0

Druck/Herstellung: Anchor Academic Publishing, Hamburg, 2017

Covermotiv: © pixabay.de

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Printed in Germany

Dedicated to Loubna and Ahmed-Nouri

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah for her support and

encouragement during the realization of this project, big up di Empress! Further thanks

go to Black Rasta and Big Youth in Kokrobite; Ras Kweku and DJ Isaac in Cape Coast;

Paul in Kumasi; Louis Wonder and Las Vegas at the Art Center as well as Abdou,

Tanko and Picolo in Accra; the Honorable Priest Ferdinand and the Honorable Priest

Henry in Koforidua/New Tafo; Prof. John Collins at the University of Ghana/Accra; my

office mate Dr. Ayman Kole for enduring weeks of repeated listening to `sweet'

Jamaican music.

Table of Content

Introduction

Contextual Framework

Research Interest and Methodology

The influence of religion on Black popular music

from a historical perspective

From Bobo Hill to Billboard Charts:

Traces of Bobo Shanti identity and doctrine in Jamaican popular music

Expressed doctrine and ideology among Bobo Shanti artists:

Similarities and differences in regard to Five Percenter Rap

A) Re-interpretation of terminology and the establishment of

counterknowledge: Burning you with Words, Power and Sound

B) Dogmatic perceptions and symbolism: When the Two Sevens Clash

C) Attitude towards other religious groups and ethnic discrimination:

Fire Pon Rome

D) Visibility and declared affiliation of artists

E) Moral superiority, dietary approach and attitude towards drugs

F) Attitude towards gender and homosexuality

From Mecca to Zion, from Priest to God: Lost children and hybrid identities

Outlook and discussion: What's today's mathematics fyah still ah bun?

101

Conclusion

110

References

118

Discography

156

About the author

Dr. Martin Abdel Matin Gansinger (born 1979 in Austria) studied Communication

Science and Political Science at the University of Vienna and passed both with

distinction. His Master's thesis discusses recursive patterns of cultural, social, and

political resistance in various forms of Black American musical expression and the

potential of Hip Hop as an alternative communication-structure for the compensation of

dysfunctional representation through mainstream-media. He furthermore analyzed the

conditions of communication and interaction in regard to the practice of collective

improvisation as a musical method and its correspondence to the concept of the Ideal

Speech Situation as introduced by Habermas as well as its efficiency in the context of

Intercultural Communication to attain a Doctor's degree in Communication Science.

Next to being an editor and journalist for jazzzeit magazine and Vienna-based radio

station orange 94.0 from 2005-2009 he has been working as a PR-coordinator for the

internationally awarded, independent label JazzWerkstatt Records. Martin Abdel Matin

Gansinger conducted several long-term field studies abroad, receiving financial funding

through the University of Vienna's research scholarship. He spent a year in Ghana in

coordination with the Vienna Institue for Development and Cooperation and Prof. John

Collins from the University of Ghana/Accra, researching Intercultural Communication

processes in the context of transfusional West African music styles including an

extended stay at the local compound of the Jamaica-based Bobo Shanti Mansion, one of

the strictest subdivisions of the Rastafarian faith, and allowance to their communal

Nyahbinghi ceremonies. Further field research aiming at extemporaneous

communication techniques and its use in traditional knowledge systems has been done

in Fez/Morocco and the convent of the Naqshbandi Sufi order in Lefke/Cyprus where

he is working and residing since 2009. He is currently holding the position of an

Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Communication at Girne American University,

teaching Undergraduate-, Master-, and PhD-classes as well as appointed Head of

Department of Radio, TV & Cinema. In 2017, Martin A. M. Gansinger initiated

immediate. Currents in Communication, Culture and Philosophy.

Introduction

Popular music has always drawn part of its attracting powers from referring to

religiously connotated sources, obscure movements or charismatic characters in content

and symbolism (Till, 2010). One only needs to think about The Beatles' association

with Indian gurus, Led Zeppelin's fascination with occultist Aleister Crowley, countless

Rock bands' claimed affiliation with the Church of Satan or Rap-millionaire Jay-Z's

lucrative play with Illuminati symbolism (Gosa, 2011, p. 8). Providing the listener with

seemingly meaningful context beyond the plain musical content seems to help to sell

that extra bunch of records.

While in a lot of cases, this displayed affiliation stays mainly on the surface of things

and seems to serve simple marketing agendas, some artists openly commit themselves

or even fully dedicate their artistic output to the cause of certain quasi-religious

movements. If the Wu-Tang Clan as one of the most influential Rap groups of the 1990s

at the peak of their popularity, and probably the one of Hip Hop as a genre as well

decided to fill the seven minutes of the first track (Wu-Tang Clan, 1997a) on their

highly anticipated new album with a preacher-style sermon performed by Five Percenter

ideologist Popa Wu (Killmann, 2014), it can be considered a fundamental statement,

underlining the crucial commitment of the artists towards its primary ideological

influence.

What might be in coherence with the character of the Five Percent Nation as a

missionary movement employing newspapers and websites or street academy

activities (Knight, 2013, p. 96) comes across a lot more ambivalent in the case of

Reggae/Dancehall artists like Sizzla Kalonji, Capleton or Lutan Fyah who openly

demonstrate their affiliation with the Bobo Shanti Order, a rather reclusive branch of the

Rastafarian faith, organized around strict communal services (Barnett, 2002, p. 58) and

quite clear in its rejective stance towards Reggae music (Kamimoto, 2015, p. 47).

However, one of the main questions that has to be asked is concerning the possible

reasons for the fact that two highly commercially successful, globally relevant and

influential musical styles of the last decades (Savishinsky, 1994a; Mitchell, 2001; Alim,

Ibrahim, & Pennycook, 2008) being tied to rather obscure mythologies of somehow

radical religious character that affiliated artists pledge open allegiance to. Are these

ideologies simply being instrumentalized by musicians looking for increased attention

by adding some outstanding attitude and identity on a competitive market or are they

in turn being used and exploited for promotional purposes? In any case, it is nothing

else but astonishing that a considerable audience of listeners would happily vibe to

rather harsh and violent musical enforcements of Mosaic law, delivered by preachy,

self-styled prophets or even more obscure, Islam-inspired Black supremacy

conceptions, circulating around the idea that the creation of the Caucasian race is

resulting from an evil experiment of a mad scientist (Smith, 1998, p. 539).

Contextual Framework

The inflationary use of the term `radical' by news media outlets within the last few

years and its tendency of it being attached to Islamic routine and common practice

such as the wearing of headscarfs, prayer hats, beards, traditional clothes or the simple

act of prayer itself as indications for extremist thought and behavior is asking for a

closer consideration about the connotation of the word in the context of this discussion.

Here, unlike the more hysterical and polarizing depictions in news media, the term is

used neither as a positive nor as a negative evaluation but simply refers to the relatively

strict adherence to rather restrictive concepts and beliefs. Therefore, it applies to the

strong emphasis of the Bobo Shanti Rasta Mansion on the Old Testament and a strict

schedule of commune-oriented practices such as the honoring of the Sabbath or regular

fasting which clearly sets it apart from more moderate and less regulative Rastafarian

branches like the Twelve Tribes of Israel (Rubenstein & Suarez, 1994; Chevannes,

1994, p. 171).

In case of the Five Percent Nation founded 1964 in Harlem the radical aspect is

given by a crude creation mythology based on reversed racism that is somehow shared

with other Black nationalist movements (Isma'ilis, 2014; McCloud, 2014) such as the

Nation of Islam (Essien-Udom, 1962; Tinaz, 1996; Tinaz, 2000; Tinaz, 2001; Bowen,

2013) or the Nuwaubian Nation (Bailey, 2006; Palmer, 2010; Finley, Guillory, & Page,

Jr., 2014) but certainly sets it apart from orthodox Islam (Swedenburg, 1996, p. 2;

Knight, 2013, p. 91). One just needs to consider that the body of its founder Clarence

13X Smith, a former member of the Nation of Islam, referred to by his followers as

Father Allah was cremated after his assassination in 1969 (Knight, 2013), while

orthodox Islam strictly requires the corpse to be buried in the soil. Similarly, despite

considerable references to Biblical texts especially the Psalms of David in the Old

Testament (Murrell, 2000) and adherence to orthodox rites, Semaj (2013, p. 107)

pointed to the Rasta tradition of `let the dead bury their dead' and the absence of rites

of passage as (o)ne major sign in the stagnation of the Rasta culture (p. 106), with

funerals for dead Rastas being facilitated at the church of their parents or the one they

had abandoned when they answered the calling of Rastafari (p. 107). He furthermore

stressed the absence of either original or religious rituals for marriage, which is either by

common-law unions, the laws of the state (Babylon) or a series of casual, undefined

relationships (p. 106), as well as missing ceremonies for birth and the naming of children.

Although the Bobo Shanti Order also known as Bobo Ashanti or the Ethiopian

African Black International Congress Church of Salvation (EABIC), founded 1958 in

Kingston by Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards, today referred to as King Emmanuel I

or Dada by his followers is strongly based on religious concepts and traditions, the

Five Percent Nation as well as the Rastafari ideology as a whole tend to stick to a self-

definition that puts more emphasis on cultural or ethnical aspects and occasionally show

efforts to distance themselves from institutionalized religion (Washington, 2014, p. 86;

Gibbs, 2003, p. 91). Nevertheless, they might still be classified as quasi-religious

movements with even less orthodox Rasta denominations than the Bobo Shanti being

based on strict adherence to varying divine conceptions (Hannah, 1981; Rubenstein &

Suarez, 1994; Barnett, 2005) or at least attributing a strong inherent spiritual aspect to

their lifestyle and belief system (Huhtala, 2015) by frequently using the term `faith' to

describe it (Taylor, 2005). As pointed out by Zips (2006, p. 135), (t)he Bobo Ashanti

state and church are not separated which is demonstrated by the double functions of the

political decision makers as priests of the Melchizedec Righteous Kingdom. On the

other hand, the Nation of Islam has been attested state-religious character by Essien-

Udom (1962) and the Five Percenters conception of each (Black) man being God was

defined as a highly innovative and idiosyncretic religious expression (Gibbs, 2003,

p. 91). In coherence with this individual approach of self-realization, his

acknowledgment of strong gnostic influences in Five Percenter teachings led Knight

(2013, p. 232) to categorize it as some sort of indigenous African American Sufism, in

accordance with O'Connor (1998). Nevertheless, Knight also suggested a relativation of

that very claim at the same time, noting that Clarence 13X Smith had clearly positioned

himself as anti-religion as contrary to the conception of classical Sufism (Knight,

2013, p. 232):

It is easy to imagine parallels with medieval saints such as Ibn-al-

Arabi, who saw man as reflecting the divine, or al-Hallaj, who

famously called himself by one of Allah's 99 Names (al-Haqq, the

`Truth'). While not always off the mark, it's a naive assumption that

Five Percenters approach `God' with mysticism. Sufi themes of divine

union or Manifesting God's Attributes represent a closeness to the

mystery god whose existence is denied in the 120.

In this context it is necessary to note that the 120 at the end of the above quote refers to

the 120 degrees, the core teachings of the Five Percenters. Even though more based on

esoteric than exoteric principles (Gray, 2014), both groups classify as offsprings from a

broader religiously connotated ideology and while the Five Percent Nation tends to be

less regulated, more moderate and individually-oriented in reference to the Nation of

Islam as its core inspiration, it still classifies as being termed as radical and extremist in

more than one aspect. Media comparisons of Five Percenters to the Hitler Youth in the

1960s (Knight, 2013, p. 122) and an infamous appearance of the Wu-Tang Clan on the

Arsenio Hall Show in 1994 with Ol' Dirty Bastard Five Percenter name Unique

Aason Allah (Knight, 2013, p. 184) provocatively shouting `the Black Man is God!'

(2013, p. 182) in the face of a mainstream American audience might serve as evidence

for the widespread consideration of the group as radical in the public eye. The Bobo

Shanti on their behalf have been termed as Reggae Mullahs or Jamaican Taliban by

critics and other artists (Midnite, 2001; DancehalDopeBoi, 2013) who put the religion-

based, judgmental views and rigid lifestyle in context with the general attitude of

Islamic fundamentalists. Another case of portraying the Five Percent Nation as a sort of

hidden fifth column, comprised of radical and militant Islamists, could be observed at

the occasion of the attempt to link the Washington sniper-shootings of 2002 to the direct

influence of affiliated artists like Wu-Tang's Method Man or Killarmy (Swedenburg,

2002; Aidi, 2004; Knight, 2013, p. 185; Hassell, 2015). For the purpose of this

discussion the name Five Percent Nation will be used to address the group, since the

later on established and simultaneously employed Nation of the Gods and Earths does

not seem to be fully accepted in the somewhat fragmented movement (Knight, 2013,

p. 200).

In regard to a conceptual perspective, the following discussion draws heavily from a

comparative analysis of the Nation of Islam and the Rastafari philosophy (Barnett,

2006), which can be considered as the respective roots from which the Five Percenters

and the Bobo Shanti emerged. Soumahoro (2007) provided a less complex approach of

portraying shared elements of Rastafarianism and the Nation of Islam that demonstrates

their attempt to challenge Christianity as the theological reference system for the

identified oppressive power structures they claim to oppose. Due to a formative and

consistent impact on Hip Hop as the most influential cultural movement in terms of

music production, aesthetics, fashion, and rentability throughout the last decades, quite

considerable attention is given to the Five Percenters from a scholarly perspective.

Aptly placed in the Journal of Gang Research, Corbiscello's (1998) slightly judgmental

approach focused mainly on controversial aspects of crime- and race-related matters

throughout the history of the group, with brief captures of major personalities,

symbolism and doctrine. O'Connor (2006) provided an insightful account on

theological aspects of the Five Percenters and its status as a kind of alternative religion

emerging out of the Islamic African-American community but does not cover its ties to

Hip Hop in detail. Swedenburg (1996) authored one of the first attempts that presented

samples of doctrine reflected in lyrics of affiliated artists and explored the application of

Middle Eastern Islamic culture as an African-American tool for cultural resistance in

Islamic Rap. A similar angle has been chosen by Aidi (2004) and Alim (2006), who

portrayed different layers of Islamic influence on US-Hip Hop, from Sunni Islam to the

Nation of Islam and Five Percenters.

Miyakawa's (2005) extensive and detailed attempt to analyze the reflection of Five

Percenters in Hip Hop culture from a musicologist's point of view aiming at traceable

references in lyrical content, rhythmical patterns, symbolism in artwork and even

hidden numerology in the order the tracks are assembled for an album has been

criticized by Knight (2013, p. 227) for not considering a field research approach in order

to capture first-hand views of the movement. Assuming that they would not tolerate

whites among their ranks as has been the case with the Nation of Islam (p. 229) ,

Miyakawa did not consider a personal inquiry to approach the group directly. Knight's

own work benefited from extensive participant observation among the Five Percenters

but touches rather briefly on the various representations of the ideology in Hip Hop

although he provided considerable space to an extensive analysis of Rakim's (Rakim,

1997) Mystery (Who Is God?), which he termed a masterpiece of both hip-hop artistry

and NGE metaphysics (Knight, 2013, p. 180).

However, due to the fact that the wide-scale, direct and consistent influence of Five

Percenter ideology on Rap music and Hip Hop culture has already been sufficiently

illustrated by Miyakawa's work, the purpose of this discussion will mainly consist of

accentuating a similar stringent and cohesive influence of Bobo Shanti doctrine in the

area of Jamaican music, specifically Dancehall-Reggae. Chevannes (1977), Owens

(1977) and Niiah (2005) provided insightful reviews on literature that is based on more

general accounts of Rastafarian Studies. The latter suggested a divison between early

journalistic material throughout the 1930s, academic expositions (2005, p.12) since the

1950s (Simpson, 1955; Smith, Augier, & Nettleford, 1967; Kitzinger, 1969; Edmonds,

2002; Zips, 2006) reflecting outsider North Atlantic impressions to the local

sensitivity (Niiah, 2005, p. 12) and testimonial/autobiographical (p. 12.) material,

provided by members of the group itself (Dizzy, 1967; Hannah, 1981; Mack, 1999).

Pollard (1982) and Slade (2013) are among those who looked at the extended

framework of Dread Talk that is frequently being employed by Jamaican Reggae artists,

with the former investigating its social and historical context and the latter focusing on

morphological aspects and inherent conceptual meanings of cultural resistance. While

Simpson (1985) had looked at legal and political aspects in regard to the religious

dimension of the Rastafarian belief, Waters (1985) presented one of the first attempts to

link its theological core with the political message of Reggae music. An even more

helpful amount of literature considering the specific scope of this discussion has

been provided by Zips (2003; 2006; 2011; 2015), who offered numerous accounts based

on ethnographic research and transnational law in regard to claims of repatriation and

reparation, which he deemed strongly enforced and supported by the global visibility of

Dancehall-Reggae artists affiliated with the Bobo Shanti Rasta Mansion.

Substantial ethnographic information on dogmatic aspects, habitual behavior and

structural organization of the Bobo Shanti Order has been presented by Chevannes

(1994), White (2007; 2012) and Tanis (2010). Kamimoto (2015) furthermore addressed

the influence of Reggae music on the economic activities of the Order by focusing on

the shift of occupational patterns among the Bobo community in Bull Bay, Jamaica,

from traditional, handicraft-oriented means of income towards participation in activities

related to the music industry as a direct consequence of the growing popularity of

Bobo Shanti artists. By clearly portraying the ongoing conflict between the sacred and

the secular, the traditional and the innovation, the righteous occupation and the fast

money, Kamimoto managed to demonstrate the ambivalent but nevertheless

undisputable strong impact of musicians affiliated with the Order on the rather

reclusive community. Together with Pereira (1998), who had already pointed out the

considerable religious connotations inherent to Roots Reggae that rather surprisingly

surfaced and flooded the more secular Dancehall genre from the mid-1990s on, the

aforementioned contributions helped to articulate the approach of this discussion, which

shall be layed out in detail throughout the following part.

Research Interest and Methodology

The main interest here will be to allow conclusions about whether or not the

representation of Bobo Shanti ideology in Jamaican Dancehall-Reggae is corresponding

with the attested influence of the Five Percent Nation on US-Hip Hop in degree and

directional patterns. It is intended to shed light on the question of how Bobo Shanti

artists incorporate considerable elements of religious identity in their creative output as

well as pointing out similarities and differences between Five Percenter conceptions as

presented in US-Hip Hop and Bobo Shanti doctrine in Jamaican Dancehall-Reggae.

However, it is important to note that Five Percenter officials willingly cooperate with

affiliated artists to spread the message and publicly appear in videos (Knight, 2013,

p. 179), while in the case of the Bobo Shanti it appears to be more of a one-directional

flow, in which artists praise and promote the doctrine without official involvement of

the Order and explicit approval of its representatives (Kamimoto, 2015). As a central

time frame for the discussion, the two decades around the millenial turn have been

decided upon, due to the unquestionable peak of popularity and influence of central

artists affiliated with the two ideologies around that time. Whether or not there might be

a common pattern, indicating a correspondance with generally increased interest in

religion and spirituality in the wave of endtime scenarios around the Y2K hype being

reflected in popular culture (Schaefer, 2004; Bendle, 2005) is a question that exceeds

the limits of this discussion, however. Furthermore, more recent examples will be taken

into consideration in order to discuss patterns of continuity and change.

The methodological approach of the following discussion is mainly based on a

descriptive case study (Simons, 1980; Yin, 1984; Stake, 1995), with the core substance

being Jamaican Dancehall-Reggae performed by artists affiliated with the Bobo Shanti

Rasta Order. Following the theoretical conception of Yin (1984), multiple sources of

evidence from lyrical and visual primary sources to ethnographic evidence collected

in a field research situation will be considered to increase internal validity. As for

external validity, next to the consideration of existing literature as secondary sources of

evidence, the design of a cross-case study has been chosen, in which the core substance

content will be contrasted with findings concerning the influence of Five Percenter

ideology on US-Hip Hop. Miyakawa's approach to analyze how lyrics reveal the inner

workings of the Five Percenter theology (2005, p. 41) and her conception of artists as

authoratative teachers that offer personal testimonials by quoting, paraphrasing and

interpreting the movements doctrine (p. 42) can be applied in a similar way to the Bobo

Shanti Rasta Mansion and its affiliated artists.

Therefore, not unlike Miyakawa's work , next to building on existing literature, a multi-

layered analysis using Fairclough's model of Critical Discourse Analysis (1992)

considering textual, discoursive, and social practices has been taken into

consideration. Hence, non-verbal communication such as dress code and overall

appearance, semiotic conceptions and considerations, as well as demonstrated

coherence between expressed views and attitudes in song titles and lyrical content are

expected to provide information about corresponding patterns of ideological influence

and basic doctrine. The references taken into consideration will solely be limited to

indications that carry religious connotations related to the Bobo Shanti doctrine,

therefore more general expressions dealing with common patterns of the Rastafarian

agenda such as repatriation or socio-political criticism will not be considered.

Findings will be contrasted with corresponding samples of Five Percenter artists in

order to define potential differences and similarities. In reference to the expressed

confrontational stance of Rastafari- and Black Power-movements alike, Singh (2004)

identified the use of religion, dress, hair, drugs and music as central elements in their

pursuence of an ideal concept of reality in which social change and social action were

manifested in more symbolic rather than concrete forms (p. 32). Partly based on these

criterias, the following factors have been determined to operationalize the subject

matter, identify patterns of influence and provide defined categories for discussion:

A) Re-interpretation of terminology and the establishment of counterknowledge:

inclusion of coded language derived from ideological vocabulary and concepts

B) Dogmatic perceptions and symbolism:

references to basic concepts of the respective religious doctrine in verbal and

visual representations

C) Attitude towards other religious groups and ethnic discrimination:

consideration of exclusive and inclusive tendencies in regard to orthodox

religion and comparable competitive branches as well as issues of ethnicity and

racism reflecting characteristic practices among the respective group

D) Visibility and declared affiliation of artists:

demonstrative gestures of allegiance in the form of dress code, habitual behavior

or verbal declaration, juxtaposed with data that sheds light on the actual

consideration of artists among the respective group

E) Moral superiority, dietary approach and attitude towards drugs:

verbal claims of moral superiority based on the respective group's regulations in

regard to diet and drugs

F) Attitude towards gender and homosexuality:

correspondance between doctrinal perceptions of gender issues and expressed

views in conduct and articulation

Due to their distinctive consistency and visibility in terms of Bobo-affiliation as well

as being among the most popular and critically acclaimed artists associated with the

Order the cited references will to a large degree be comprised of examples from the

creative output of Sizzla, Capleton and Lutan Fyah (recipient of the International

Reggae and World Music Award for Spiritual Service Through Music in 2009

Roberts, 2011) . The corresponding patterns they are compared to mainly stem from the

Rap groups Brand Nubian a virtual missionary wing for the Nation of the Gods and

Earths (Knight, 2013, p. 179) and Wu-Tang Clan as some of the most active and

visible musical ambassadors of the Five Percent Nation, heavily referenced by

Miyakawa (2005) as well.

While the strictly defined and canonized Five Percenter lessons being documented and

memorized word for word in the 120, as mentioned earlier provided a precise frame of

reference for the directly quoted or paraphrased mentionings found in the output of

affiliated artists, the situation is somewhat different in the context of the Bobo Shanti

teachings, that are more corresponding to informal initiations, aquired during a personal

training period. Further difficulties occur from the fact that Bobo doctrine presents itself

more intermingled with general Rastafarian philosophy in terms of sharing the same

vocabulary, concepts and behavioral patterns than the more distinctive and defined

Five Percenters, who clearly set themselves apart from orthodox Islam as well as other

Black Muslim movements. However, Bobos would stand out more in regard to personal

appearance, which is asking for a multidimensional approach focusing on more than just

the examination of lyrical content. To fill this gap, the discussion incorporates existing

literature to juxtapose the selected samples as well as data collected in the course of an

ethnographic field research conducted at the Bobo Shanti settlement in

Koforidua/Ghana in 2007, adding information generated from primary sources.

The nine-months field study project in Ghana has been developed and conducted in

accordance with the Vienna Institute for Development and Cooperation and was partly

financed with research grants provided by the Department for Research Services and

International Relations of The University of Vienna. After getting stopped at the gate

house of the Bobo compound in Koforidua, the first point that the Honorable Priest

Dennis Mills who made a rather surprising appearance in torn boxer shorts and a worn

out Mickey Mouse T-shirt after being interrupted in his sleep by the guardian in charge

and therefore presenting a quite sharp contrast to the dignified robes and attire he

usually can be seen with on pictures (Zips & Kämpfer, 2001; Zips, 2005) tried to get

across in a rather aggravated manner was the fact that life in his entrusted community is

far from a reggae and reefer-type beach party. Based on strict religious commitment,

residents would be expected to agree with regular fasts at least twice a week, a vegan

diet, separated genders, scheduled labor duties and participate in daily communal

worship ceremonies. In addition, the Honorable Priest Dennis Mills made it clear that

the Bobos in Koforidua are extremely concerned about being infiltrated by CIA agents

and therefore ask visitors to hand over cameras and phones to the guardian at the

entrance gate house, alongside any kind of official documents that are not permitted on

the compound due to the community's severe rejection of any type of governmental link

to imperialistic, neo-colonial rule.

Due to the rather strict settings on the compound and somehow sceptical attitude of the

residing population, an adjustable mix of explorative, qualitative methodological

instruments has been applied to collect data. In accordance with suggestions by

Atteslander (1995) and Girtler (1984), an explorative, non-structured, active and open

qualitative participant observation (Howell, 1973) on an `observer-as-participant' level

of involvement has been chosen to provide flexibility in the field and reduce the risk of

ethnocentristically flawed structural frames combined with non-structured narrative

interviews. As a matter of fact, the conditions for the study quite improved after

mentioning the name of anthropologist Werner Zips, who immediatly got identified as

the Austrian professor, due to his previous visits on the compound which enabled the

establishment of a more beneficial research atmosphere and rather cooperative attitutes.

However, the role of the researcher has somehow been pre-defined by the Order's

general perception that every non-member basically belongs to the lost children, that

have to be introduced to the teachings of Rastafari and King Emmanuel I meaning that

they are basically willing to pass on informations as part of a moderate missionary

effort, once the trainee has accepted to submit to the rules of the community and

participates in the prescribed services. Due to the fact that the results mainly serve to

counterbalance the findings of the identified and analyzed discoursive elements, the

typical method of thick description will not be applied in this case study. The findings

will rather be contrasted with the discussion of the defined categories by using thematic

analysis that allows the organizing of data according to the respective aspects at hand.

During the period of the stay, the compound which is located in close proximity to a

nearby settlement of villagers was populated by the Honorable Priests Henry,

Ferdinand and Dennis Mills, all of them expatriates from Jamaica sent to Ghana in

accordance to the repatriation politics of the Bobo Shanti. Further inhabitants included

two Priests in training that displayed the typical behavior of young adepts in spiritual or

religious circles by being rather closed and seemingly seeking to chastise themselves, as

well as a female member of the Order, kept away from male company during the rather

generous amount of twenty-one days a month she is considered impure. Social life in

the compound circulates around a big wooden building in its center, referred to as the

Holy Tabernacle, where the communal sacred services are held. Priests in training and

visitors alike are obliged to start the day at sunrise by turning towards the East, wave the

characteristic black, red, and green colored Bobo flags and chant the Biblical verses of

the Psalms of David. Trainees furthermore engage in organizational obligations around

the compound, that also grows its own fruits and vegetables. Priests are granted a more

laid-back lifestyle and are usually focusing on individual meditations over Biblical

texts, instructional reasonings or short visits to the nearby settlement. On Saturday the

day of the Sabbath everybody is supposed to abstain from any activity but worship.

Communal services in the Holy Tabernacle are scheduled on Friday at 6 p.m. the

beginning of the Sabbath as well as Saturday noon and evening and inolve the

chanting of Psalms and Nyahbinghi drumming.

The influence of religion on Black popular music from a

historical perspective

There is a long relationship between music and religious concerns,

the former often serving as a vehicle for the articulation of the latter.

What is more, one need not sing explicitely about heaven and hell in

order for one's music to wrestle with deeply religious themes.

(Pinn, 2007, p. 289)

As pointed out in the introductory lines and in coherence with scholars in Religious

and Cultural Studies the study of music offers an opportunity to follow the `flow' of

the religious within cultural production (Pinn, 2007, p. 293) and therefore provides a

promising possibility to better recognize and analyze both religiosity (themes, practices,

etc.) and an important cultural ethos marking our new century (p. 293). Religion and

spirituality have always played a certain role in the history of Black musical expressions

in the USA (Lovell, 1972; Lincoln, 1974; Spencer, 1991; Spencer, 1995; Floyd, 1996;

Harris, 1999; Reed, 2003). The integral function of music as one element among others

dance, vocal articulation, elements of theatralic performances, audience participation

in a bigger, communal cultural experience within the African tradition (Wilson, 1974;

Maultsby, 2000) might serve as a possible explanation for that. Once on American soil,

their specific status as forced immigrants, systemetically alienated from their original

culture and identity, made enslaved Africans willingly embrace Christian religion and

its promise of an afterlife salvation as documented in the enthusiastic engagement of

Blacks in the performance of church hymns and Gospel music (Williams-Jones, 1975;

Boyer, 1979).

Nevertheless, between the lines, the ecstatically invocated hereafter could also be

interpreted as the very earthly stretch of land north of the border, where slavery has

been abolished and those who made it through the underground railroad would find

their salvation in the form of freedom, as illustrated by Werner (2006). He furthermore

developed a classification system, that divides the various forms of Black musical

expression in the USA as being inspired either by a Gospel impulse, a Blues impulse or

a Jazz impulse referring to either optimistic integrationist ideology, rather pessimistic

descriptions of the experienced reality of segregation or a creative approach, seeking to

question the status quo and developing techniques to transform it into something better.

As a consequence, it seems only logical that the Blues has been condemned by Gospel

singers as the devil's music (Burnett, 2015; Kornegay, 2013) and later served as an

inspiration for more politically oriented criticism, as can be found in Hip Hop, for

instance. As pointed out by Aidi (2004, p. 108):

(J)ust as racial segregation and Jim Crow laws had its impact on

early Jazz and the polished, consens-oriented Soul and Rhythm &

Blues of the late 1960s and early 1970s was a product of the civil

rights movement, the neoliberalism, urban blight and nihilism, which

gave rise to the underclass and produced rap, also gave birth to

Islamic hip hop.

However, from the 1940s on, the Jazz scene turned into a promising hunting ground for

various sects based on concepts and beliefs influenced by Islam (Monson, 2000; Turner,

2003; Stowe, 2010). Due to the considerable influence of the missionary and non-

orthodox Ahmadiyyah movement (O'Connor, 1998; Bayoumi, 2001; Bowen, 2013)

and its influence on musicians until the 1960s (Fanusie, 2007; McCloud, 2014), a lot of

artists such as Ahmad Jamal, Yusef Lateef, Idries Muhammad and others had adopted

Muslim names, sometimes simply to pass as North Africans and avoid racist treatment

(Chase, 2010), often inspired by the state-religious claims of the lost-found Nation of

Islam (Essien-Udom, 1962; Curtis, 2002; Curtis, 2006; Bowen, 2013). Far from Sunni

Islam which is often referred to as al-Islam in the Black community, in order to

distinguish it from the various non-orthodox Muslim-inspired movements the Nation

of Islam gained international recognition in the early 1960s under Minister Malcolm X

and Cassious Clay/Muhammad Ali as one of its most prominent members. Although

Warith Deen Muhammad the son of founder Elijah Muhammad attempted to

position the movement more close to orthodox Islam during the 1970s, its origins are

deeply rooted in the teachings of Noble Drew Ali and his Moorish Science Temple, that

also managed to exert a considerable influence on the Jazz scene at some point. As

pointed out by Bayoumi and DeCaro (1999), in the 1960s, jazz became a bridge for

Noble Drew Ali's Moorish Science doctrines to reach white hipsters at NYU and

Columbia, who then formed their own Moorish Orthodox Church (Knight, 2013,

p. 228). In correspondance with many younger members of Western societies who were

urged to abandon their parents' values and religion (Poutiainen & Rantakallio, 2016,

p. 195), a considerable amount of Jazz musicians drew their inspiration from Asian

religions and philosophy, cosmology, Islam, and Christianity (p. 195), which is

especially true for the Free Jazz/Avantgarde movement (Berkman, 2007; Brown, 2010).

Despite striking differences in terms of musical content and direction, similar to jazz

avant-gardists of the 1960s, contemporary Muslim hip-hop artists discuss their

relationship to religion through their musical output (Poutiainen & Rantakallio, 2016,

p. 195).

The influence of religion and spirituality on Rap music and Hip Hop culture has been

discussed in general (Pinn, 2003; Sanneh & Priest, 1997; Pinn, 2007; Sorett, 2009;

Miller, Pinn, & Freeman, 2015) as well as specifically for Islam (Swedenburg, 2001;

Floyd-Thomas, 2003; Aidi, 2004; Alim, 2006; Khabeer, 2007; Miah & Kalra, 2008;

McMurray, 2007; Aidi, 2013; Washington, 2014). Not even considering the vast

amount of artists that are said to be affiliated with the more obscure Nation of Islam

(Decker, 1993) and the Five Percent Nation (Ahmed, 2012), Bracey's (2007) claim that

Hip Hop has the potential to spread Islamic thought in much the same way that Reggae

spread Rastafarianism (p. 458) does not seem surprising. The weight of these words

gets underlined by the following statement of Savishinsky (1994a, p. 260) although it

might need to be updated in favor of Hip Hop and the Five Percent Nation soon:

What is perhaps most interesting and unique about Rastafari is that it

may represent the only contemporary socio-religious movement whose

diffusion is directly linked to various mediums of transnational

popular culture, most notably reggae music.

The perspective that Reggae music has been the main vehicle to spread the rather

obscure Rastafarian conception all over the globe has been argued by scholars

throughout the last decades (Savishinsky, 1994a; Pereira, 1998; Walker, 2005; Davis,

2006; Niiah, 2011; Kamimoto, 2015). Therefore, in the following section, the

incorporation of Bobo Shanti doctrine as a subdivision of the Rastafarian faith into what

used to be secular, Reggae-inspired Jamaican Dancehall music shall be discussed more

detailed.

From Bobo Hill to Billboard Charts: Traces of Bobo Shanti

identity and doctrine in Jamaican popular music

Similar to the notion of Hip Hop and Rap as an alternative media structure (Gansinger,

2008) or the black CNN  as suggested by Chuck D. of Public Enemy (Gold, 1989,

p. 16) , Reggae has been referred to as the newspaper of Jamaica (Blatter, 2008, p. 21)

for the outspoken social and political commentary of the music in the 1970s that

articulated urgent issues related to the still evident structures of colonization in

Jamaican society (Miller, 1993) to an audience suffering from high illiteracy rates. Due

to a period characterized by economical problems, political tensions (Harrison, 1990)

and intensified violence (Harrison, 1988), (i)n the mid 1980s and through the early

`90s, Jamaican music saw a decline in Rastafarian-inspired protest music and an

increase in slack music, or songs featuring lyrics of graphic sexuality, gangster life,

gunplay, and violence (Blatter, 2008, p. 24).

As pointed out by Wexler (1994), the internationally successful song Murderer (Buju

Banton, 1995) by new-born Rasta artist Buju Banton in which the former Dancehall

artist known for typically slack lyrics (Stanley, 2005) strongly condemns gun-inflicted

violence by referring to Biblical punishment for violation of the First Commandment

can be seen as a turning point towards a spiritual revival in Jamaican music and society

that many people embraced out of disappointment for the inability of politicians to

come up with solutions for existing problems. The anti-violence vibe quickly got picked

up and commercialized by other artists (Pereira, 1998, p. 34), a broader opposition to

slack and violent content such as the decision by various members of the Jamaican

Federation of Musicians to refuse to provide musical backing for singers of slackness

and violence, or a renewed policy of filtering of much of this music by certain of the

radio stations and a corresponding promotion of `spiritual' music (p. 34) started to

form. Therefore, the conditions of the industry in general started to turn into being

beneficial for a re-orientation of attitude and lyrical approach. Similarly, the rhetoric of

the Five Percenters started to emerge in Hip Hop during the late 1980s, after a decade of

social cuts, crack and violence in the urban areas and little perspectives to fix issues on

a political level.

Despite the big number of Dancehall artists discovering their Rasta identity and a wave

of Bobo artists such as Capleton, Junior Reid, Anthony B., Sizzla, Jah Mason,

Turbulence or Lutan Fyah on the forefront of a morally and religiously charged,

internationally commercially successful movement in Jamaican music, it was not the

first time that the characteristic tightly wrapped turbans were spotted. One of the first

artists to introduce the Bobo dress code in Jamaican popular music has been the Roots

Reggae band The Abbyssinians. By wearing the characteristic turban to cover their

locks in combination with ceremonial Bobo robes, certain members of The Abbyssinans

could be clearly distinguished from other artists by appearance.

However, the lyrical content of the group does not include any direct references to the

Order on the other hand. Repatriation hymns such as Satta Massagana (The

Abbyssinians, 1976) were touching on issues that are by far not exclusive for Bobos and

easily fit in with other topics on the noble agenda of the 1970s Conscious Reggae

movement that included freedom, equality, justice and liberation for the oppressed,

human rights, peace, education or ecological responsibilities.

Despite that, the small island in the Caribbean did not get spared from the overall

materialistic ideology of the 1980s, that led to the emerge of the more wordly and

aggressive Raggamuffin and Dancehall styles, originated by artists like Count

Matchouki, Lord Comic, and King Stitt and mainly popularized by U-Roy in the late

1960s (Hope, 2006, p. 11). Heavily influenced by global popular culture narratives such

as Western-, Gangster-, or Samurai-movies (Zips, 2011, p. 143), the movement

embraced the re-negotiation of moral values in the rise of capitalism-coined

individualism and accentuated the image of the personalized outlaw or bad guy in

Jamaican music as represented by artists like Yellowman, Elephant Man, Ninja Man

or Shabba Ranks (Hope, 2006). As pointed out by Hope (2009, p. 404):

(D)ancehall music and culture's movement to the forefront of

Jamaican popular music and culture in the early 1980s was perceived

by many reggae-purists as the death knell to the Rastafari-infused

"conscious reggae" that dominated the cultural landscape of the

preceding musical era, a kind of Dark Ages.

However, towards the mid-1990s, several successful Dancehall artists such as the

aforementioned Buju Banton already notorious for his homophobic song Boom Bye

Bye (Buju Banton, 1992) converted to the Rastafarian faith. The Bobo Shanti

affiliated Capleton emerged from the secular realms of Dancehall as `The Fireman',

inflamed with the ethos of Rastafari and touting an incendiary brand of dancehall lyrics

that was peppered with the teachings and ideas of his Rastafari worldview (Hope, 2009,

p. 405). The following years saw a wave of devoted Bobo Shanti artists such as

Anthony B., Sizzla, Jah Mason, Junior Reid, Turbulence, Prophet Benjamin or Lutan

Fyah, who would wear the characteristic turbans and joined the firestarter on his

mission to challenge the capitalist views of the dominating Dancehall scene. Often

labeled as Fire Reggae (Zips, 2011, p. 151), the newly emerged Rasta deejays (singers)

resurrected the outdated Rasta ethos in the more aggressive and contemporary relevant

Dancehall sound as the most popular expression of Jamaican music at that time.

In a sharp contrast to the violent, sexualized representations of Dancehall artists like

Beenie Man, Vybz Kartell or Bounty Killer, (t)hey introduced various Rastafari

elements to dancehall, including dress, prayer, a clear moral message, and percussion

sounds (Kamimoto, 2015, p. 43), passing as an updated version of typical Rastafarian

artists like Fantan Mojah or Mr. Perfect, who would restrict themselves to a

contemporary version of Conscious Roots Reggae and consequently abstain from the

secular Dancehall style (Hope, 2009, p. 410). As noted by Hope (p. 405), in Jamaica,

the ideological/musical transition of a hardcore dancehall artiste to Rastafari is

underscored as a glorious promotion, that would often be interpreted as a sign that

Jamaica would soon experience a corresponding ideological rebirth and a much-

needed social renewal (2009, p. 407). Therefore, the arrival of the Bobos on the

Dancehall scene in the mid-1990s was perceived as the re-turn of Bob Marley and the

death knell for "dutty dancehall" with its explicit and extreme discourses filled with

unclothed, erotic female bodies, errect phalluses and unsheathered lyrical guns (ibid.).

While establishing links with Dancehall as the currently most relevant manifestation of

Jamaican popular music, the obvious cross-fertilization with hardcore patriarchal

dancehall culture and patriarchal, incendiary, revolutionary Rastafari in the music of

this genre of artistes is epitomized in their "bunning" (burning) of the usual deviants

(Hope, 2009, p. 406) as illustrated in Anthony B.'s Fire Pon Rome (Anthony B.,

1996). Although the burning down of Babylon has always been part of the Rasta

rhetoric, the pure militancy (Zips, 2003) of Bobo artists marks a clear evolutionary step

in terms of diction and vigorousity compared to the leading Conscious Reggae artists of

the 1970s and hints to a direct influence of the Order's radical doctrine and rhetoric, to

which it bears clear resemblance to (Chevannes, 1994).

Termed as hybrid dancehall rasta (Hope, 2006, p. 14), artists would shock and astonish

Conscious Reggae and secular Dancehall audiences alike by blending the specific, as

spiritual, pristine and pure (Hope, 2009, p. 410) perceived codes of Rastafari

philosophy with notions of sexualized, heterosexual male identity (p. 410) as

illustrated in Sizzla's Pump Up (Sizzla, 2001). This initiated an ongoing identity

negotiation between the conflicting requirements and expectations of the clean and

humble Rasta lifestyle and the highly competitive, material-centered Dancehall scene

(Hope, 2012). Pereira (1998, p. 34) argued that sex may as well simply be considered as

a physical, non-conflicting manifestation of a higher spiritual concept of love in the

general Rasta philosophy:

It is neither that these singers are being inconsistent nor are they

being opportunist. Indeed, their reconciliation of sex with spirituality

is consistent with a value system that does not dichotomize carnality

and spirituality.

Nevertheless, hardly conform to the more strict and orthodox Bobo Shanti doctrine they

claim to follow, Rasta deejays like Sizzla gave way to current phenomenons such as

Gangsta Ras, that have been characterized by Zips (2011, p. 136) as "clashes" of

divergent habitus formations, a de-essentialization of identity (p. 152), matching the

preconceived emancipatory quality of hybridization against the "conservative" or

presumably reactionary tendencies of "pure authenticity" (p. 136). Termed by Hope

(2009, p. 420) as an assimilation for survival or adaption in the face of growing

pressures on the psyche of men and women who seek validity in the halls of Jamaica

and furthermore characterized as a musical and cultural replica of the conflicted

negotiations of self and identity in a materialistic world (ibid.), the displayed slackness

of Sizzla as well as the righteousness of Gangsta Ras both indicate the historical

movements in the definitions of the Rastafari self (...) within the capitalist-mediated

spaces of 21st century Jamaica (Hope, 2009, p. 412). This point of view is reflected in

Marshall's (2006) remark in regard to Hip-Hop's embrace by young Jamaicans (p. 65)

as being

(...) consistent with a broader cultural pattern across the Caribbean,

whereby American popular culture (...) has come to dominate the

imaginations of young people yearning for the freedom and wealth

denied to them in post- and neo-colonial circumstances and

symbolized by the sensual sounds and images of Afro-Americans

flaunting their power to consume (ibid.).

Referring to the spread of Rastafari from Jamaica's lower-class to its middle-class and

beyond, Marshall (2006, p. 68) stressed its consistent and successful adaptation to

historical developments and social challenges from the death of Emperor Haile

Selassie in the 1970s to the embrace of music and technology as well as the ideology's

ability to change and adjust in order to facilitate the spread of Rastafarian critiques and

perspectives (p. 68) and putting it in context with the successful re-interpretations of the

Bible that the Rasta faith is build upon (p. 64). Pereira (1998) observed a trend to more

spiritual lyrics on one hand and a strong socio-political emphasis on the other among

Conscious Reggae artists that also had an influence on the Dancehall performers, in

noting that (t)he violence for its own sake in many of the gun lyrics now shifts

increasingly towards class confrontation in the mid-nineties. Here, the consciousness of

self in class and race terms merges with religious influences within a discourse of

righteousness versus iniquity (p. 35).

A turn of events, that must have been quite a surprise for those who had expected the

development of a broader social theory, evolving out of the religious concept of

Rastafari, articulated and motivated by Afrocentric persons, who, though inspired by

Rasta, do not necessarily share the Rasta religion (Semaj, 2013, p. 107). This socio-

political orientation, pursued through knowledge of history, politics, economics,

branding, marketing, media, and education, seasoned with the spirit of Rastafari

(p. 107) could not withstand the cleansing fire started by the triumphant arrival of the

Bobo Dancehall-Rastas in the 1990s. Lamenting over the perceived decrease as a

cultural force within the last thirty years, Semaj (p. 108) poses the following question:

Could this be the reason why the consistent greeting and refrain of the

Rastaman in the first thirty years of `peace and love' has transitioned

to `blessed', and now given way to the confrontational `fyah bun' of

the last ten years?

Considering his hopes for an emerging Rasta-based social theory, that would serve to

make the Rastafarian religion obsolete at worst or a quaint novelty at best, now that the

society has been able to successfully extract the essentially useful core of the

Rastafarian faith (Semaj, 2013, p. 96), one can very well relate to his sentiments when a

considerable number of archaic preachers took the stage in storm during the 1990s.

Nevertheless, the relevance and impact of Bobo Shanti doctrine spread by the Fyah

Reggae artists on Jamaican music and the development of how Rastafarian culture is

being perceived on an international level goes undisputed. As a matter of fact, their

mystical references to the cosmic fire for the wicked deeds of Babylon and its

contemporary institutions (Zips, 2006, p. 157) might even serve as a bridge for social

activists, who make use of this symbolism:

Since these agencies are seen as identical with the `evil forces behind

globalization', the Black Bobo Ashanti movements are miraculously at

one with the predominantly white anti-globalization movement that

reinterprets or reinvents the `Fire Bun' Nyahbinghi chants into

revolutionary set-scenes for the dramatic struggle against the super

powers ruling and allegedly destroying the world (Zips, 2006, p. 158).

Zips furthermore considers the internationally acknowledged artists as powerful

advocats of the Bobo's claim for a right to repatriation, which is based on the

transnational human right to repossess their homeland (Zips, 2006, p. 157):

Reggae music produced by dancehall artists identifying with the Bobo

Ashanti, such as Sizzla, Capleton, Anthony B., Jah Cure, or

Turbulence, take these legal claims to another level, namely, the

global communication network of music. Legal claims for repatriation

and reparation are then supported by loud (musical) calls for `more

fire' which are easily misunderstood as support for violent action

against the injustices caused by a unilateral conception of economist

globalization.

He furthermore argues that, by employing the fyah-vocabulary, they actually rally for

moral repentance, legal acknowledgment for the injustice commited and economic

restitutions (Zips, 2006, p. 133):

Seen from their perspective the word `fire' is entirely a non-violent

means to enlighten civil society consciousness in Babylon, as it

currently manifests itself in the Vatican, the Pentagon, Buckingham

Palace and all institutions and human actors who gained and are still

gaining from the historical and continual capture of people of African

origin in the Western hemisphere (ibid.).

Expressed doctrine and ideology among Bobo Shanti artists:

Similarities and differences in regard to Five Percenter Rap

A) Re-interpretation of terminology and the establishment of counterknowledge:

Burning you with Words, Power and Sound

Word, sound and power is Jah way

Blessings haffi shower when we hear Jah name

Word, Sound And Power (Lutan Fyah, 2008a)

By comparing the religious doctrine and terminology of Five Percenters and Bobo

Shanti, several similarities can be discovered. Both groups came up with original terms

for talks, discussions or teachings as central elements for the dissemination of their

traditions and doctrines, for instance which are referred to as reasoning among Rasta

circles and building in Five Percenter terminology. One might as well attest some

similarity in the way that Five Percenters refer to putting facts on the table in a

discussion as dropping bombs and the use of the Bobo's frequently invoked fire bu(r)n!

as a means to express their rejection of information stemming from the imperial powers

as lies. That would also imply the superior perceived religious doctrine of the Rastas

based on the Old Testament as compared to the King James version of John Paul inna

di Vatican, which is symbolically set on fire regularly by adding the aforementioned

rhetorical term in Bobo ceremonies or performances of Bobo-related artists. Capleton

a.k.a `The Fireman', who originated the music that later on got labeled as Fire Reggae

(Zips, 2011, p. 151) by frequent mentioning of the term argued that the expression

alongside the equally popular judgment! is as well prominently featured in the Old

Testament and standard repertoire of a typical Sunday sermon in any Jamaican church

(Cooper, 2005, p. 9).

In a similar way, Bobos tend to avoid the term Africa which is deemed a manipulative

name, introduced by white colonial powers to separate them from a glorious past as

Ethiopian kings or even Black Israelites, the original inhabitants of the Biblical

Jerusalem (Dorman, 2016) to define their origin. Black Muslim movements such as

the Moorish Science Temple, the Nation of Islam and also the Five Percenters (Knight,

2013, p. 241) have applied a very much related empowering strategy with the latter

group insisting on being Original Asiatic Black Man or hailing an even more glorious

past as nothing else than Gods of the Universe (Curtis & Sigler, 2009). While in Bible-

based Rasta terminology, Africa is referred to as Zion the Promised Land and the

corrupted colonial system as Babylon or Rome in return, Father Allah's re-defining and

symbolical charging of space by turning Manhattan and Harlem into Mecca, Brooklyn

into Medina, New Jersey into New Jerusalem or Queens into The Desert (Knight, 2013,

p. 63) is clearly grounded on socio-historical influence of Islamic origin.

Obviously, this consistent re-interpretation of words does not stem from random

occurrence but is systemetically applied out of a strong awareness for the manifold

meanings and implications enclosed in words as symbols and tools for the continuation

or either questioning of power structures and distributions. Rastas strongly believe in

the relevance of words, power and sounds (Blatter, 2008, p. 19), which is frequently and

prominently referred to by Reggae-artists, from recent performers like Sugar Roy &

Conrad Crystal (2014) or the iconic Bobo deejay Sizzla Kalonji on his more than

seventy full-length releases (Sizzla, 1997b; 2002a; 2007a).

Full time Babylon realise

Sizzla is di element of surprise

And wicked heart, I must put you down

Burning you with words, power and sound

No Other Like Jah (Sizzla, 1997b)

That idea traces back to ancient African concepts such as Nommo, referring to the

power of the spoken word and the positive or negative forces it can bring into existence

(Hamlet, 1998; Yancy, 2004; Walker & Kuykendall, 2005). Or as Leach (1966, p. 407),

commenting on traditional ritualistic settings has put it: ...it is not the case that words

are one thing and the rite another. The uttering of the words itself is a ritual. With

signifyin' (Smitherman, 1997, p. 14; Mitchell-Kernan, 1999; Khan, 2012) the

executive technique for identity negotiation within black life (Smith, 2007, p. 204) a

similar African trope lies at the core of the Five Percenters' trickful way of droppin'

science, that has been described as an expansive form of alternative language for

critically tracking one's own identity against that of others within a shared milieu

(p. 204). On a structural level, the building in Five Percenter ciphers initiated with the

obligatory question `What's today's mathematics?', that is inviting participating Gods

to freely share their associations in regard to the respective date and the Supreme

Mathematics hints towards a common collective dimension and shared elements of

encouraged individuality with the reasoning ritual as practiced in Rasta circles

(Edmonds, 1998, p. 356).

Thus, the re-contextualization of words as part of a detailed semiotic analysis

described by Price (2003, p. 18) as redefining words so that their sound aligns with its

meaning  can be attested a central meaning in both groups. Hence, Rastas would re-

shape words in a way that are considered to represent their actual meaning more clear

as opposed to the attempted disguising of the powers that be. Oppressors would turn

into down-pressers for instance, and understanding would re-manifest as over-standing

(Slade, 2013, p. 2; Sullivan, 2007; Bell, 2011). Pollard (1982) pointed out how the

Rastafarian way of life affects the choice of term assigned to articles (p. 36) by

concluding that a man who can label `meat' DEADahs, is hardly a man, who eats it

(ibid.). He furthermore defined word, sound and power as the command of language

over consciousness, and ultimately action (1982, p. 24) and furthermore stressed the

functional use of the forceful creative turn of words against English, the language used

by the oppressor to `increase confusion' (p. 19). Zips (2006, p. 132) in referring to the

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Type of Edition: Erstausgabe
Year: 2017
ISBN (PDF): 9783960676980
ISBN (Softcover): 9783960671985
File size: 13.5 MB
Language: English
Publication date: 2017 (December)
Keywords: Religious radicalism Music Sociology Rastafarian Studies Cultural Studies Black Muslim movement Five Percent Nation Rastafarian culture Black music Dancehall Hip Hop Case study

Author

Assist. Prof. Dr. Martin A. M. Gansinger (Author)

Radical religious thought in Black popular music. Five Percenters and Bobo Shanti in Rap and Reggae

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Author

Assist. Prof. Dr. Martin A. M. Gansinger (Author)