WORD SOUND HAVE POWER

"When we come against Babylon, we don' use stick or gun. We come with word and sound of power."

THE POWER OF WORDS AND SYMBOLS
Kenneth Burke has argued that the 20thj century, so often called the century of technology or the century of industrialization has actually been the century of the symbol. For the first time words and symbols reached out of and beyond specific communities to influence whole portions of the globe:

The dollar sign
The "war to end all wars"
The swastika
The hammer and sickle
The American flag
The gender symbols
The peace sign
The ecology sign
Star of David-Cross-Crescent traditional but never so powerful as now.
The slogan, the slang word, the sound-byte. Politics has moved from whole sentences to sound bytes. Sound bytes have shrunk from 20 seconds to 15 to less than 10.
What are these symbols, really?
Words are arbitrary, invented, dynamic, evolving, and imprecise.
People have meaning, not words. Words reflect what people mean.
But, new words can transfer new meanings.
We are often told that something is not important because it is "just words."
Words have very real power.
To create or change a reality. Consciousness raising.
To move to action.
To hurt: hate speech, verbal abuse, and calls for politically correct speech.
Sexist language as an example.
To heal and comfort.
To create a culture or a subculture,
Culture in isolation will soon create changes in language.
Changes in language are used to create, sustain, and define cultures and subcultures.
Reggae music and Rasta know this. Language is an important, perhaps the most important, part of the culture and the movement.
It allows reality to be reclaimed.
It becomes resistance without violence.
We chant down Babylon, one more time, many times,
Culture is created. Horsemouth says: I give my youth culture. He does it through language and symbols.
Symbols of reggae:
Star of Solomon: history, Bible, God, Origination, Star
The colors of iration: red, black, green, gold
The lion of Judah: Selassie, warrior, proud, king
The symbol of Africa: Origin, heaven, Zion, destination
The Black Star liner: Black owned, return ship
Garvey symbolism: outfits, creation of new symbols, passports, tickets.

ROOTS OF JAMAICAN LANGUAGE
English was the dominant language of military force in Jamaica.
Language adaptation was unidirectional – second level citizens learned the first language, but first level citizens did not learn the second language. Allowed for separation and secrecy.
Language in Jamaica is the product of “becoming”
Africans were already multilingual when they arrived.
What of African languages is left is mostly vocabulary.
Absence of gender and case distinctions.
Maroon language still exists but is rare, based on Twi-Asante.

RASTA LANGUAGE
Emerges as different because it has a need to communicate with each other, but not the English/Anglo power system.

It is not secret or obscure.
Flows from Rastafarian philosophy
Rasta believes in the evocative power of the word.
Four types of Rasta words:
1. Known items with new meanings. Chalice. Science. Magic.
2. Words that bear the weight of their phonological intonation. Oppression-downpression, dedicate-livicate, understand-overstand.
3. I words. I-eye-sight, I & I.
4. Swear words: liquids that come from the body:
a. Bumba clot
b. Ras clot
c. Blood clot
d. Pussy wool
WORD SOUND HAVE POWER: THE POETRY OF MUTABARUKA
JAMAICAN ENGLISH VOCABULARY
Patois dictionary