Interview by : Nathalie Demirciyan
Pictures by : Julian Schmidt - www.reggaephotos.de
on Saturday, July 01st 2006 - 40 501 views
2005: the "Welcome To Jamrock" tidal wave sweeps in. Carried by the title single that literally blew up charts around the world, his third album propels Damian "Junior Gong" Marley onto the international stage. With a cross-over reggae of insolent modernity, Bob's youngest son has managed the alchemy of combining commercial success with civic engagement. A conversation.
Reggaefrance / With "Welcome to Jamrock", Damian Marley woke up the street and got it to "move", or "move!" (one of the album's titles). But what moves Damian Marley?
Damian Marley / Anything that gives me the feeling I can have an influence in favour of the people. I'm a musician, so my voice, my message, are my forms of action. That's how I can help solve problems.
Do you feel you have a mission?
Yes. My mission is the fall of Babylon, the coming of justice, better living conditions everywhere on Earth and the union of mankind. Men create borders, no longer communicate with each other, live in fear, and that's the result of the system. We're trying to break down all those barriers that divide the people: social, economic, racial barriers.
What solutions do you propose?
First of all, it's about understanding what the source of the problem is. That it's because of the system that you don't trust your neighbour, that you aren't in spiritual communion with people... When you realise what the causes are, you can overcome them. One way is to inform the people. Most people don't agree with what's going on - soldiers for example, the majority of them don't want to go to war - but they don't speak up. That's what music allows us to do: communicate.
Bob Marley created the Tuff Gong label to unite the spiritual with the material. With your brothers, you developed Ghetto Youth, which recently joined forces with Tuff Gong. Did you need Universal to become who you are?
No; we need Universal to help people become what they are. We already are who we are. Personally I'm fine. But I need to reach many more people to help them be well too. That's where Universal comes in. With underground labels you reach those who already know you, those who are already aware, who already know the truth. Universal speaks to lost people, those who don't know how to get into underground circles. Those are the people we need to reach. We want to shine the light in the places where darkness reigns, not in those that are already lit.
Doesn't going through such intermediaries dilute the essence of your message, because once again, the money doesn't go to the people?
That's why we have a distribution deal that doesn't bind me personally, but as Ghetto Youth-Tuff Gong. So we keep our representation and control over all our creations. All our initiatives are directed towards achieving our own goals. And Universal gives us its support. We mustn't be afraid of the big: big industries, big oceans. Sometimes, people who have a message like to confine themselves to a fish tank. We can't settle for that. We have to be among the big fishermen.
What do you think of religious radicalisation, notably in the Middle East and Somalia?
(Laughs) Religions... You see, that's why they say "rasta is not a religion, it's a way of life". All men are free. You have no legitimacy to judge others. You have to let them live, only then can you live. That's what's happening in the Middle East and Somalia. Recently we were on tour, and K'Naan was opening for us. He comes from Somalia, and his music is about the conflict there. So we know very well what's going on there. It always comes back to the same thing: the system. These are the same causes that cause problems in Jamaica: managing to exist as a third-world country in a universe of superpowers. Your economy is lost, your identity is lost, then your culture becomes violent. People are aggressive for no reason. In Jamaica you can step on someone's foot and get killed, because it's considered an affront. You have to show desperate people, those who have no education, those closed off to what happens outside their community, what havoc insidious conformity wreaks.
The rasta way of life is an alternative to the ultra-liberal system. Sustainable development, which calls for social and environmental globalisation as much as economic, has grown in recent years. What do you think of it?
My father once said in an interview that Babylon bears no fruit. So everything that is created, invented, always has a positive side, but what matters is the way we use it. So globalisation, obviously there's good to be drawn from it, but what do we do with it at present? It isn't used for the benefit of the masses, because poor countries, third-world countries, countries that suffer, find themselves excluded. They don't have the capacity to compete with the superpowers. They can't rival the "-gies": technology and all the other "-gies". Globalisation is in the wrong hands: it's used in a harmful way. But if it were used for the right goals, it could produce something positive.
Globalisation also ties in with the question of multiculturalism. Do you think cultural mixing is one of the keys to a better understanding between peoples?
I don't go into those considerations: having mixed blood or not...
You are mixed-race yourself. Aren't you proud of it?
No. Why be proud and why be ashamed? I'm not ashamed, but I'm not proud of it. Mixed-race... what does it matter? What counts is that you exist! So what, because my blood is mixed that makes me more special than anyone else? No! As long as the colour of a man's skin matters more than the colour of his eyes, there will be conflict. Whatever your blood, wherever you come from: all that matters is that you exist. As long as you are down here, you are a child of God: that's all that matters. That's precisely the problem with globalisation. Because the men at its head have their idea of what the world should look like, and they want the others to follow that idea. That's not globalisation. It's pretending that nobody has a bad idea, it's accepting other people's ideas, and learning from them. Remember that everything happens according to God's intention. He left you the freedom to pray as you wish, and to live the way you want. You must embrace this freedom of choice. God doesn't discriminate, so who are you to? Judgement is the root of evil. Saying that you're right or wrong, or that I'm right or wrong, that's the problem, instead of learning from what is your right, and what is mine.
These past months have been marked by a revolutionary spirit in many parts of the globe. Two women have notably been elected President for the first time in Liberia and Chile, and...
...And a woman was also appointed Prime Minister in Jamaica.
Do you think women's involvement in politics is a sign of hope?
I hope so! It's too early to say, but I hope so. Politics is very complex. People who come to power and want to bring about change can't, because most of the time their hands are tied. So I hope the hands of these women are not tied.
In your song For the babies, I understood that you condemned abortion. Can you clearly tell me your position on this?
No, I don't condemn abortion. There's an old saying in Jamaica: "prevention is better than cure". That's my message: having a sense of responsibility in your relationships. If you're not ready to have a child, you're not ready for sex. My message is that when you get pregnant you shouldn't have to wonder whether or not you'll keep the child. When a woman is expecting a baby, it's a blessing, and it should always be seen that way. But that's not the case because of the lack of responsibility, of "free" sex. If people took more responsibility for their actions, there would be no debate around abortion, because people would keep their child, because they'd be proud that their "fuck" had been blessed with a child. That's what I meant. So it's not fighting abortion, it's fighting the reason that leads to abortion.
But do you keep your respect for a woman who has had to have an abortion?
I have respect for all people!
Women's assertiveness impresses many men. Some sociologists argue that a generation is lost before men and women readjust. What do you think of all these lonely people?
We are victims of a bigger system that destroys the family structure. It's the way you're raised, what you learn, your culture. Men create borders, no longer communicate with each other, live in fear, and that's the result of the system. These barriers that divide the people, that's what we're trying to break down.
If you weren't a deejay, what would you do?
I don't know.
That question was put to your father, and he answered a revolutionary.
In many ways I'm already a revolutionary.
Remerciements : Julian / Reggaephotos.de
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