Watch the video The soon to be released "Africa Unite" documentary by Stephanie Black features a memorable performance by Damien Marley singing "More Justice" from his Grammy-winning major label debut, Halfway Tree. The song choice is an important one: unlike much of the concert's repertoire, it is an original song, not a Bob Marley cover, but in every way Jr. Gong's selection is an homage to his father.
Like the best of Bob's socially conscious music, "More Justice" gives voice to the voiceless, the poor masses who struggle daily. Damien's point of view comes from the slums of Kingston, where the the "ghetto youths/dem ballin' out", not its hills, where "politicians fightin' down sensimillia" reside. His prediction: that the continual "downpression" of ghetto youth will only bring "disaster."
Like his mega-hit "Welcome to Jamrock," Damien juxtaposes the corruption of the system with crime in the ghetto. "Foot might be dirty but his heart is much cleaner," he says of today's modern rudeboy. He also argues that poverty and hunger are the root of ghetto violence. "Ghetto youths in need and there is no doubt about it/ If baby want feed and can't do without it/ Big 45 goin' to scout it."
His plea, that the problems of poverty be addressed, is not one made on his knees. "We nah goin bow down to no slave master/ Help di youths first and ask di question dem after." Damien's call to social justice requires that the "ghetto youth" and the "politicians" meet as equals, as humans. "Ask di question dem after" can be likened to an amnesty of sorts: before criminalizing the poor and their desperate behavior, solve the problems of poverty.
While colonial powers were either forced out of Africa or left once the tide began to change mid-20th century, the true independence leaders like the Congo's Patrice Lumumba dreamed of was undermined by the The World Bank and the IMF. Black's award-winning film "Life and Debt" goes far in demonstrating the war waged on Third World economies. John Perkins' New York Times bestseller "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" goes further still in exposing that the oppressive practices of the World Bank and IMF in these situations were intentional. The formerly respected leader in the banking community reveals the systemic destabilization of the economies of Latin America, Africa and The Caribbean.
In an era when Bono meets at global summits to beg world leaders to relieve Africa of the crippling, criminal tariffs imposed by the World Bank, and Bush, conversely, argues that aid should be withheld from "corrupt African states," the message of "More Justice" could not be more resonant.