73rd birthday of Peter Tosh

(Born 19 October 1944, Grange Hill, Jamaica)

CELEBRATED self-developed musician and Rastafarian who plays a seminal role, beginning in the 1960s, to transform reggae, Jamaica-originated music genre, into an international cultural movement engaged in opposition to centuries of African peoples’ subjugation and all other forms of oppression, and for the promotion of a fairer, equal forms of human relations across the board, offering his prodigious compositional output to the goal, especially: “Get up, Stand up”, “400 years”, “Equal rights”, “Love”, “No sympathy”, “Mama Africa”, “No nuclear war”, “Africa”, “African”, “Here comes the sun”, “Sun valley”, “Creation”, “Oppressor man”, “(You gotta walk and) don’t look back”, “Vampire”, “Apartheid”, “Why must I cry?”, “Go tell it on the mountain”, “You can’t fool me again”, “Keep on moving”

(Peter Tosh: ... “400 years”, 1975)

400 YEARS (400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o)

And it’s the same –
The same (wo-o-o-o) philosophy
I’ve said it’s four hundred years;
(400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o)
Look, how long (wo-o-o-o)
And the people they (wo-o-o-o) still can’t see
Why do they fight against the poor youth of today?
And without these youths, they would be gone –
All gone astray

Come on, let’s make a move:
(make a move, make a move. Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o)
I can (wo-o-o-o) see time (wo-o-o-o) - time has come
And if-a fools don’t see
(fools don’t see, fools don’t see. Wo-o-o-o)
I can’t save the youth:
The youth (wo-o-o-o) is gonna be strong
So, won’t you come with me;
I’ll take you to a land of liberty
Where we can live – live a good, good life
And be free

Look how long: 400 years, (400 years, 400 years) – 
Way too long! (wo-o-o-o)
That’s the reason my people (wo-o-o-o) - my people can’t see
Said, it’s four hundred long years – (400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o)
Give me patience (wo-o-o-o) – same philosophy
It’s been 400 years, (400 years, 400 years)
Wait so long! Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o
How long? 400 long, long years

(lyrics: “400 years”)

(Peter Tosh: ... “Oppressor man”, 1977)

(Peter Tosh and 14-piece band, “Get up, Stand up” [Tosh and Bob Marley composition]; recorded: Randy’s Studio, Kingston, Jamaica, 1977)

GET UP, stand up

Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up
Don’t give up the fight

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up
Don’t give up the fight

You, preacher man, don’t tell me
Heaven is under the earth
You, a duppy and you don’t know
What life is really worth

It's not all that glitter is gold
And half the story has never been told
So now we see the light
We gonna stand up for your rights, come on

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand upDon’t give up the fight

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand upDon’t give up the fight

’Cause you know most people think
A great God will come from the skies
Take away everything
And left everybody dry

But if you know what life is worth
Then you would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
We gonna stand up for your rights

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand up
Don’t give up the fight

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand upDon’t give up the fight

We’re sick and tired of this game of technology
Humbly asking Jesus for his mercy
We know and we know and understand
Almighty Jah is a living man

You fool some people sometimes
But you can’t fool all the people all the time
And now we see the light
We gonna stand up for our rights

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand upDon’t give up the fight

Get up, stand up
Stand up for your rights
Get up, stand upDon’t give up the fight

(lyrics: “Get up, stand up”)

Twitter @HerbertEkweEkwe

62nd birthday of Hilary Beckles

(Born 11 August 1955, Bridgetown, Barbados)

DISTINGUISHED historian on African peoples’ enslavement in the Caribbean by Britain/pan-European World and advocate of programmed reparations to African peoples worldwide by the European perpetrators of this crime against humanity; Britain emerges as lead beneficiary of African enslavement across the Americas during this 400 year-epoch, beginning in the 17th century soon after it takes over the statuses of the Iberian states of Spain and Portugal exercised hitherto since the 1490s

(Professor Beckles delivers his landmark lecture on African reparations from Britain/pan-Europe on the latter’s centuries of the enslavement of African peoples in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Americas; venue: Methodist Church Hall, Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines, 20 August 2013)

(Peter Tosh: ... “400 years”, 1975)

400 YEARS (400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o)

And it’s the same –
The same (wo-o-o-o) philosophy
I’ve said it’s four hundred years;
(400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o)
Look, how long (wo-o-o-o)
And the people they (wo-o-o-o) still can’t see
Why do they fight against the poor youth of today?
And without these youths, they would be gone –
All gone astray

Come on, let’s make a move:
(make a move, make a move. Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o)
I can (wo-o-o-o) see time (wo-o-o-o) - time has come
And if-a fools don’t see
(fools don’t see, fools don’t see. Wo-o-o-o)
I can’t save the youth:
The youth (wo-o-o-o) is gonna be strong
So, won’t you come with me;
I’ll take you to a land of liberty
Where we can live – live a good, good life
And be free

Look how long: 400 years, (400 years, 400 years) – 
Way too long! (wo-o-o-o)
That’s the reason my people (wo-o-o-o) - my people can’t see
Said, it’s four hundred long years – (400 years, 400 years. Wo-o-o-o)
Give me patience (wo-o-o-o) – same philosophy
It’s been 400 years, (400 years, 400 years)
Wait so long! Wo-o-o-o, wo-o-o-o
How long? 400 long, long years

(lyrics: “400 years”)

Twitter@HerbertEkweEkwe