The Impact Of Reggae Music In Africa

Reggae music has become one of the finest and most original genres of music in our world today. Thus, it has come as no surprise that it has produced some of the finest musicians of the past century ranging from Bob Marley to Beenie Man and even the now infamous, Buju Banton. Once, the word, ‘reggae’ is mentioned, one often links it to Jamaica, however, what they do not know is that reggae music actually has links to the African continent. It was a product of the Rastafari movement. The want of the Jamaicans to come back to their homeland, Africa, was the main part of being a Rastafari. This was its core foundation as well as the African culture as a whole. A Rastafari then through reggae music, sent strong messages. They saw Africa as Zion. Africa was like Heaven on Earth and they intended to move back here. They not only wanted to return to Africa, but they intended on building the continent whilst preserving its culture. With all this in mind, in this research paper, I intend to highlight that connection that exists between reggae music and the African continent whilst looking at the entry of reggae music into the Africa continent. I intend on doing this by linking one diasporic community and one African community; Jamaica and Zimbabwe. In his blog post, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe offends Jamaicans, Basil Wilson referred to the two countries as “two countries thousands of miles apart and yet somehow forever linked by cultural bonds.” Nigel Matongorere even goes the extra