Chanting Down Babylon Frantz Fanon Analysis

Rastafarians and reggae artist such as Bob Marley called attention to the institution and practices of the Babylon System that were central to the maintenance of slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. The symbolical music strategies of “chanting down Babylon,” were more effective in the proposition for revolution than Frantz Fanon’s ideas in The Wretched of the Earth.
The symbolical music strategies of “chanting down Babylon” were important because they provided the people with songs that gave them an insight on what it’s like on the oppressed side of the Babylon system. Not everyone was aware of the pain and suffering brought on by this system so when a Rastafarian poet, vocalist, and prophet Bob Marley put these experiences into songs it made them listen.
Rastas got the term Babylon from …show more content…
But how could you relate to someone you don’t even know. The one thing that could bring people together in such a way was music. Bob Marley later on stated the same sentiment in a song, but from a more personal stand point: “I’ve been down on the rock so long, I seem to wear a permanent screw.” He expresses the pain and suffering experienced by him and his people, making the term Babylon fit its definition. Recalling the forced deportation and servitude of the ancient Hebrews under the Babylonian world power.
The use of symbolical musical strategies made people listen to the problem. Music was a way of impacting people to let them feel the pain in their words. The music was used to articulate their grievances and in a way, was trying to make a social change. This was a positive way to try to end oppression, and had a more positive impact on the people back then. Rastafarian music still effects the people of today, and continues to impact us. Rather than Frantz Fanon ideas that outright violence is the only way to end