The Preacherman has paid his due

By Kofi Akordor
Music can do many wonderful things for us. It excites, incites and inspires us. When in grief, music soothes us. In our happy moments, music adds to the joy.
The Negro Spirituals were a collection of soul-inspiring songs sung mainly by our great grand brothers and grand sisters, while they were toiling on the plantations and in the depths of mines in the Americas and Europe as slaves.
People under political or racial oppression let loose their emotions through music. Apartheid South Africa provided a good example of how music could comfort people and make the enemy shiver. Sometimes music can melt the hearts of even the wicked and strengthen the resolve of the oppressed
A party without music is no party. In the same vein a funeral without dirges will be an affront to the dead while a sermon not interspersed with gospel music will be boring. That is why musicians are not ordinary people. They play an important role in our daily lives.
Music is not only about rhythm and melody. It is not just about singing. It is about words. It is the message it carries. While some will sing just to make sound others sing to create impressions. Musicians can be instruments of change carrying the aspirations of the people on their lips through their lyrics.
Many musicians are able to entertain with their melodious tunes, but few are able to deliver a message. Those in the latter category are the prophets because everything they say comes to pass. And they are legends.
Two weeks ago, the Black race lost one of its greatest prophets to the bullets of assassins or robbers. Whichever was the case, Lucky Dube made an honourable exit from this world on October 18, 2007, albeit prematurely. He has joined other legends like Fela Anikulakpo Kuti, Robert Nesta Marley and James Brown.
Why is Lucky Dube receiving so much attention even after his death, one may ask? It is because, as I pointed out earlier, he belonged to that rare species of musicians who do not only sing, but preach. They preach for humanity to uphold virtues and preach against vices. They are always on the side of the oppressed while giving praise where it is due. He belonged to that class of musicians who raise their voices against corruption, bad governance and racial discrimination.
When Alpha Blondy screamed out, “America, America, break the neck of that Apartheid”, he echoed the feelings of all Africans and indeed all peace-loving and fair-minded people who abhorred the cruel, unjust and inhuman policy of apartheid which segregates human beings on racial lines with the indigenous Blacks lying lowest on the ladder.
In a similar vein, Sonny Okusun’s “Fire in Soweto”, was a cry of anguish against the maltreatment of the Blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Today, both Alpha Blondy and Sony Okusuns and many others who raised their voices against that obnoxious system will sit back with pride that they played their part which collectively brought victory to good sense, f fairness and respect for human dignity.
Both Sonny Okusuns and Alpha Blondy might have derived inspiration from Bob Nesta Marley, who through his music tried to fight the Blackman’s cause. “Until the philosophy which makes one race superior and another inferior is fundamentally and finally abandoned and eliminated, everywhere there will be war”, he sang.
Fela, the superstar of Afro-rock music and the originator of the Afrobeat,was a torn in the flesh of military dictators who have usurped political power under false pretences and ran down the economies of the continent through naked robbery and corruption. Even in his grave, Fela’s soul will be resting in peace because he used music to fight a good cause. The world has come to acknowledge the fakes and criminals that those self-proclaimed redeemers and revolutionaries were.
Long before these young artistes, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul Music, screamed out, “Say it loud, I’m Black and proud”, to sneer at his White supremacists, who were not prepared to give the Black man his due. That song gave momentum to the struggle for equality by the Africa-Americans.
It is this league of exclusive musicians Lucky Dube joined when he decided to use music to address social problems confronting his people. In his, This Crazy World, Lucky Dube observed, “People are dying like flies everyday, you read about it in the news but you don’t believe it. You only know about it when the man in the long black coat knocks on your door, because you are the next victim”.
In apparent reference to the oppressive apartheid system which sent many of his country men and women into exile, Lucky Dube sang, “ Sun went down on the mountain, birds flew back to their hiding places, leaving him standing there like a telephone pole; in the still of the night, you and I dream, dreaming of Romeo and Juliet; all he dreams about is the freedom of the nation, when every man will be equal in the eyes of the law, as he closes his eyes for the last time, he said again, I’m still here in the house exile for the love of the nation”.
Lucky Dube, quite surprising to many because of his Rastafarian beliefs, did not smoke nor drink alcohol. He, therefore, preached against drug addiction. “I have known this preacherman, for a long time, he was a good man; I have known this judge, for a long time, he was a good man; I have known this teacher, for a long time, he was a good man too; but because of the drugs they’ve been taking secretly, them are in loony houses today. We cannot stand aside and look, while the nation is going down the drain.”
Lucky Dube has paid his due. May his achievements serve as an inspiration to those young musicians who want to be known for their message and not the everyday reference to what we all know already.