Buju Banton's "Untold Stories". A Song Commentary

Essay , 2018 , 5 Seiten

Musik - Sonstiges

Mark Myrie, otherwise known as Buju Banton or the Gorgamel has made a commentary on the economic difficulties, political involvement in the society and the social upbringing of or youths in a most profound song, "Untold Stories". This essay points out the social commentary of this specific song in hindsight to Jamaican life.

Buju Banton’s – Untold Stories

Mark Myrie, otherwise known as Buju Banton or the Gorgamel has made a commentary on the economic difficulties, political involvement in the society and the social upbringing of or youths in a most profound song, Untold Stories.^[1]

What does the title of the song suggest? In our country politicians will campaign using tricks and empty promises to capture the vote of the masses to ensure that they are a part of the government. In this way, they can control how the masses use to survive such as basic food items, education, taxes and so forth. The rich, who is in the minority, controls the means of production and uses the less fortunate to work for a menial amount of wages. The amount of money that an unskilled worker gets can barely help to purchase food for him and his children. This is a part of the political mix as the politicians ensure that the masses stay poor so that they can maintain control. The cycle continues every four years as the poor and unfortunate seek to get better from the politicians and members of parliament which never happen unless the people open their eyes to see that they are being used by the system to ensure that the rich keeps the means of production while they have to labour to get a small amount of the profits.

In the Jamaican society, it is easy to recognize that there exist three classes:

1. The Upper Class
2. The Middle Class
3. The Lower Class

The Upper-Class and Upper-middle account for about 1% of the Jamaican population. This includes the Matalons, the Azars, Michael Lee Chin, Butch Stewart, the Issas, Wayne Chen, doctors, lawyers and politicians. These wealthy and influential people control the means of production, money, law, medical power, food and the government. If they should pack up their business and leave the country, it may as well be the end of Jamaica.

The Middle Class includes professionals who owns their skills and careers and must be paid for their tasks. They are the teachers, nurses, police officers, bank tellers and so on. They account for about 15% of the population of Jamaica.

The remaining 75% or more are classified among the “lower classes”: small farmers, working class and the unemployed. Interesting to note is the racial percentages of some two million Jamaicans: 1% are of Afro-European descent; 15% Chinese/Afro-Chinese; 1% East Indian; and 78% black. (Class Structure of Jamaica 2017)

Let us peruse the song line by line to see how Mr. Myrie saw his country.

In the first line of the song, we will see the evidence that Jamaica is religious country and so when the pressures of life reaches a certain limit that one cannot bear, they will turn to God for comfort. “I am living, while I am living to the father I will pray, only him know how we get through”. After the politicians have won their seat in the government, they turn a blind eye to the people who voted them in. Bad roads, garbage filled drains, crime, low employment, hike in the price of food and the sliding dollar is the order of the day and the masses will have to deal with it. The constituents cannot find their MP to deal with the atrocities that may occur in the different communities. When he does come around, he will issue promises that may not be fulfilled. So, the question is, who is befitting from politics?

The masses, according to Buju, will have to resort to stealing and killing to ensure their own survival. As they have little or no education to get a decent job. Poverty, guns for drug trade, scamming, drugs and reprisals are the main causes of crime in the country. Those who are educated may be not able to get a job and so will have to resort to illegal activities to ensure survival. The problem herein, may be that job are available however, it is underpaying, or there may not be a job available for the type of qualification. For example, one may go to the University of the West Indies to study Anthropology however, there may not be a job in Jamaica for that type of qualification and so may have to resort to teaching Social Studies in a grade 9 classroom. Not to be taken out of context to believe that teaching is a menial job, however, the qualification and status quo of is of a much higher value.

The masses may barely manage to buy food and to send their child/children to school much less to buy a suit of clothes. However, in Jamaica, we take pride in how we dress and so will use the use the last dollar to buy the most expensive clothing and hair to sport while there is no food to feed the children or money to send them to school. In certain parts of Jamaica, where money is not available to buy food, the clothes with several tears will have to be sown are worn until better comes.

Buju went on to further comment that children should not waste the time and money when they are sent to school to acquire a good education to escape the traps of the society. He encourages the youths that when their mother sends them to school with the last money she has, they should make the best of it as opportunities in Jamaica is a scarce commodity.

For low budget people, it is a competitive world. Those who can run will run but what about those who cannot. He says, they will have to stay. Stay and join the ranks of criminals in the country who lowers the standards and economic value of the country.

This song reminds me of the Marxian Theory of sociologist Karl Marx. He states that there are two types of people that exists in the world. The bourgeoisie and the proletariats. The bourgeoisie owns the means of production while the proletariats own the skills. This type of government is classified as capitalism where all the means of production are own by one set of people while the masses must work to survive from this set. Karl Marx suggests that the means of production should be equally owned so that the class structure can be demolished.

Buju continues to encourage us that although life is the way it is, we must however, not lose hope and give up. We must continue to persevere.

References

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1886. The Manifesto of the Communist. International Publishing Co. https://genius.com/Buju-banton-untold-stories-lyrics

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^[1] The full text of the song can be found under https://genius.com/Buju-banton-untold-stories-lyrics.

• Veranstaltung: Psychology
• Autor: Christopher Beale (Autor:in)
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2018
• Seiten: 5
• Katalognummer: V434625
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668762572
• ISBN (Buch): 9783668762589
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: Buju, Banton, Untold Stories, Commentary