The Pan-Africanist Vision in Lucky Philip Dube’s The Other Side

Abstract

The African society, in her continuous struggle for liberation from Western dominance, did not depend solely on the gun and letters as chronicled in the negritude poetry of Césaire, Damas and Senghor. Music, which is a more informative communication tool, also played an important role in this struggle. This research, therefore, aims at exploring the ideological and philosophical precepts embedded in the lyrics of Lucky Dube’s Reggae music as an artistic creation. This sort of music concerns itself with cultural identity, self-determination, self-consciousness and emancipation of blacks from mental slavery. This work is also an attempt to show how reggae music can function as a source of socio-political awareness for the black race against the backdrop of Pan-Africanist thought, which is an ideo-philosophical creation of the iconic South African reggae artist, Lucky Philip Dube. The work is based on the theory of Alienation and the critical analysis of the lyrics of the track titled The other side (2003) is used, to project the themes and nuances in Dube’s literary vibrancy. This research posits that there is quintessential reasoning in Reggae and as such, it focuses on the pride of black Identity. To Dube, the grass is not as green as perceived abroad, a reality when you get there and see for yourself. This leads us to question thus, “do blacks really need to go there (Europe) before they can believe that there is no place like home? ”What are the motivating forces for migration? What are the experiences of these migrants? These among other questions give a course for a new probe on the essence of music as an instrument for societal awareness through which socio-cultural messages can be decimated to the world in general and the black race in particular.