Yesterday, Kate, Yasmin and I had the honor of being invited to be a panelist at the Saraya High School English Club’s celebration of Bob Marley Day, or the anniversary of Bob Marley’s death. Well, this is not something we turn down. Well, it started with all of our 15 year old boyfriends in Saraya telling us we have to come to the English Club’s Bob Marley day; they said there would be discussion, and raps and music and celebrations. How could we turn that down?
They said it started at 3pm, and we thought we were so culturally integrated when we showed up at 4:30, yet it still did not start until five, almost on Senegalese time, any day now. We walk up to the school and hear Bob Marley music from the large speakers. Kate said she feels like there should be coolers of beer and barbeque. I agreed. This did not occur, but the event did have Fanta, Sprite and Coke. Score.
Kate and I took some seats in the back, but then the English teacher who was leading the event took the microphone (why were we using microphones in the classroom, don’t they teach in the classroom every day sans microphone? And it didn’t work very well and made loud noises sometimes, just leave it folks), and told us that the invitees from the Peace Corps should sit on the front in the panel. Oh, so we are panelists now? Ok. This would be fun, but slightly nervous because the 15 year olds were telling us all day that we should know so much more than they do about Bob Marley because we are American….
We began by going through the entire life of Bob Marley in a very detailed fashion. (In English because it was English class, holler!) They went into everything including the names of the three children he had with his wife (but not the names of the children out of wedlock because those don’t count) and the name of the school he went to. They also said that he was called Bob because he bobbed his head when he sang and he was known for that. Or his name was Robert? I didn’t want to correct him and blow his bubble, because the man clearly did a lot of research on Bob Marley.
After an English fill in the blank song using Bob Marley’s Africa Unite, it was our turn to speak. I volunteered to wing it. This was the easiest time ever because I could speak in English! This never happens! But again, my knowledge on Bob Marley is clearly sub-par to what these students know. So I just rambled on about how he is very popular in the United States, and that people like to wear Bob Marley t-shirts and white and black people both have dread locks and something about Ziggy Marley being in these days. Who knows. The English teacher thanked me by telling the students it is good to hear “native speakers.”
Then it got interesting. The teachers opened the discussion among everyone to discuss the political activism of Bob Marley and the Rasta philosophy. The students were very well-spoken on Pan-Africanism and Bob Marley’s connection to Africa. They talked about how the unification of Africa will bring development and how it will be up to them as youth to make change. Then there was a very long conversation about whether or not Rasta is a religion and if you can be a rasta without smoking and drinking (because Muslims don’t generally do these things, it was an important topic for the Bob Marley fans who do not drink or do drugs). We concluded that it was not a traditional religion but a philosophy, and that one could be a Rasta without smoking and drinking. Very good, now we don’t need to worry about these high school students getting themselves into trouble and justifying it by singing Bob Marley music.
The event concluded with the president of the English club singing a Bob Marley song along with the music and he was just great. He is an avid English speaker and very charismatic. Those 15 year old girls were swooning.
So overall, the event was very educational, I know so much more about Bob Marley, and inspiring. These students and teachers showed motivation by doing this outside of school and talking about the future of this continent and their roles in creating it. There was a soiree that night, but we decided to skip that in fear that what we call our 15 year old boyfriends would actually try to be our boyfriends. And because high school dances are pretty much the same everywhere, a-w-k-w-a-r-d. But being a panelist at Bob Marley day, highlight of the week.
Uncle Bruce Said:
on May 16, 2011 at 2:04 am
Rasta Niece….Well done, mon!