The business of one love
Part 1
The poet Mutabaruka would often say on his Cutting Edge radio show, “the only way to defeat the other culture is to live your culture,” and that has stuck with me. If you understand this simple statement, then you understand much about the politics of Mutabaruka and the message he has spent his life communicating to African people, and Jamaicans in particular. The saying comes from a long tradition of resistance to any oppressive idea, the metaphoric Babylon, that what we have or who we are is not enough and not worthy of respect or value. This tradition of positive reaffirmation of our own African diaspora identity, the validation of self and self-worth, has given to us, the lucky ones, the wholesome tradition of ‘one love’.
Jamaica’s worldview, music, language, food, and Rastafari politics, aesthetics and iconography have become a chosen medium of cultural expression in several international spaces. Indeed, the Jamaican notion of ‘one love’ immortalized by The Wailers group in their 1965 One Love ska recording and later re-released as a reggae recording by the “one love” ambassador himself, Bob Marley, who included the song on his 1977 Exodus album, is the song that was in the year 2000 selected by the BBC as the song of the century as by then it had demonstrated in no uncertain terms the global impact of Jamaica’s liviti – Jamaica’s wholesome “one love” was then acknowledged as unquestionably universal.
I tried, sometime in January 2021, to trace the origin of the use of the term one love to ascertain at what point, and perhaps for what specific reason the term was coined. I was unsuccessful. But, regardless of its origins, there is no question that we Jamaicans have made it our own and, subsequently, gave it to the world. The term was popularized by Bob Marley, but he did not create it. I came across sources that claim that it was actually used by Marcus Garvey, and there were some that suggested that it might have come from his movement’s motto “One God, One Aim, One Destiny”, but I have not seen anything authoritative that confirms any of this as its origin.
On this question a colleague of mine, Dr. Jalani Niaah, highlighted that the Rasta brejrin who were in the circle of Rasta leader Mortimo Planno often used the signature term, “one perfect love”, and that this would have influenced songs in the 1960s. Bob Marley would have been one of those under Planno’s influence as Planno was to serve as Marley’s manager and spiritual guide for several years. One other brejrin, Ras Kaimoh, communicated to me that when he “arrived in Jamaica in January of 1970 the terms “one love” and “one heart” were commonly heard—sometimes used as a greeting— to affirm solidarity in various kinds of social exchanges among bredrin and sistren.” Professor Rupert Lewis did point me to a 1971 publication tilted One Love by Audvil King, Althea Helps, Pam Wint and Frank Hasfal that was a collection of prose literary writings by four Jamaican authors. The publication is now out of print, so I was not able to dig in and see what might have influenced them to go with that title. So, at this point then, I still do not know the origins of the term. Maybe this writing will encourage someone to contact me with some information that my lead me closer to an answer.
Notwithstanding, what I wish to assert is that the phenomenon of “one love” sits at the core of an industry, as in the technically productive commercial enterprise sense of the word. One in which Jamaica and its culture sits at the centre, if we can organize some of our key business enterprises to capitalize on the opportunity. Informally, I have used the expression “one love culture” among my peers as I seek to describe the essence of what the Jamaican resistance culture represents to the world. It is my attempt to describe the cultural and economic space that emerged from the liviti, the daily living of our culture, that is our own, and is globally recognized as our own, even if we are reluctant to claim it. Bob Marley may have been the chief apostle, but it now rests with each Jamaican to make manifest the message of one love, this is indeed the world that Jamaica made. It comes from within us. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, the “one love” culture is informed by the Jamaican worldview, music, spirituality, food, language, lifestyle, history, and politics. And though each of these are sacred aspects of our being, with their own existence despite the world of business and commerce, they also represent viable commercial opportunities that can help to sustain and perpetuate them on their own terms, the “live your culture” of Mutabaruka’s advice, if you will.
In my last reasoning, published 16 May 2021 here in the Jamaica Monitor, we questioned why after 40 years Bob Marley’s brand was able to command the kind of earnings it now does. The fact is that the Marley brand answers to a need that customers have. And it is not just Marley the individual who addresses the need, but also the message of the music of an era coming out of Jamaica that spoke to struggles, triumphs, hopes, and dreams, not only along racial, but also class lines, of which the latter was particularly important to white audiences who did not readily identify with some of the racial references. Marley’s music, therefore, served as an opening to the Jamaican worldview for whole sets of new audiences, its cultural practices, the Rastafari Movement, and Jamaica’s economic arrangements.
Continued next week with the business side of one love.
Kam-Au Amen has several years of combined industry experience across the areas of business management, brand licensing, media production, and eCommerce. He is a researcher of African and Caribbean entertainment and cultural enterprise management, and is a former Deputy Director of Culture in the Ministry of Culture, Jamaica. He has also served a member of the Entertainment Advisory Board. He is the conceptualizer and first coordinator of the pioneering BA in Entertainment and Cultural Enterprise Management at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona.
