Recorded in 1979 by
Bob Marleyand the
Wailers, this song from the
Survival album is an
anthem of freedom and defiance. At a time when Africa was torn apart by civil war, he entreated us to
Feel it in the one drop
And we'll still find time to rock
We're making the one stop
The generation gap
So feel this drum beat
As it beats within
Playing a rhythm resisting against the system
The One Drop Rule. The doctrine that to have one drop of black blood makes you black in a white world. (Public Enemy discusses this on the Fear of a black planet album.) The doctrine that you are somehow inferior. Marley reverses this.
They made the world so hard
Everyday we got to keep on fighting
Everyday the people are dying
From hunger and starvation, lamentation
Marley hoped to stop the seemingly endless war that African nations had been plunged into. Sadly, that hasn't happened. One difference between the wars that were going on at the time and the wars at the millenial cusp is that in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and Biafra, the wars featured a lot of mercenary activity, wars that seemed to be coming from outside, something inflicted upon the African people. Marley took faith in
his religion.
But read it in
Revelation
You'll find your
redemption
And then you give us the the teaching of
His Majesty
For we no want no
devil philosophy
The Rastafarian splinter of Christianity has many hymns. This is one of them. But the song is about more than faith in a god. It is about faith in yourself. There are many kinds of drops to have, and to be proud of your one drop says you don't care about the majority, you don't care about fitting in, you care about being who you are, and making your ancestors proud by refusing to be assimilated into a culture that was more than willing to commit genocide.
Feel it on the one drop
And we still find time to rock
We're making the one stop
And we fill in the gap
So fell this drum beat
As it beats within, playing a rhythm
Fighting against ism and schism
Leave the isms and the scisms behind. Be you. Bob's one drop was African ancestry. My one drop is the one-eighth Cherokee I did not even know about until I was in my 30's. I feel it in my one drop.
And I still find time to rock.
128/413=31% CST Approved