Reggae Music Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reggae Music - Essay Example During the run-up to the elections, he arranged concerts where Eccles’ performed politically loaded numbers. The other Reggae groups that were also supportive of Manley were Dennis Brown, the Chosen Few and The Wailers. Let’s take, for example, Eccles’s â€Å"Rod of Correction†. The title of the song is a reference to the staff given to Michael Manley, as a gift, by Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. The Emperor was highly revered across the black diasporas and more so in the Caribbean. The biblical symbolism is noted in how the rod commonly came to be known as â€Å"Joshua’s Rod†, whereby making Manley the Joshua – the personification of the â€Å"good† according to the Old Testament. And just as Joshua brought down the walls of Jericho and led the Jews to the land of Canaan, Manley was projected to lead his fellow countrymen to peace and prosperity. There are other symbolic references too. The parable of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the story of the crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites are the other references to the Old Testament. Manley is portrayed as Joshua (the Savior) and his incumbent opponent is taken as the Pharoah. Need less to say, such powerful biblical symbolism made a critical impact on the Jamaican society, which was highly religious, and made Michael Manley the Prime Minister. The people will later be disappointed with Manley and disillusioned of his promises of paradise are quite another story (Cooper 1996).