In this article, Prof Wilfred Uji argues that “Substance imperialism has its roots in the historical situation as a weapon of oppression and not of national liberation and development.”
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It is a long time ago, since the 11th of May, 1981, that Robert Nesta Marley, the black African Reggae Rastafarian cult hero, passed on in the United States of America after a long struggle with brain cancer and tumour, that was allegedly caused by the heavy smoking of marijuana and ganja.
Substance imperialism renders the youthful population vulnerable to all forms of exploitations and social vices including gangsterism, crime, prostitution, destitution, domestic violence and a general sense of anomie and helplessness.
Decades later after his death, revelations from intelligent sources by reconnaissance agents indicated that Bob Marley was the target of a deliberate racial conspiracy that used lethal poisoning through his foot as a means to spread cancer cells over his body and thus leading to his untimely death in 1981.
Whatever the raging controversy that sorrunded the passage of Bob Marley, there were indications that the smoking of marijuana and living on drugs also played a critical role that complicated his destiny and this his untimely demise.
Ganja, marijuana and drugs were instruments of mind control and mental oppression which White Slave Society deployed in the New World Society to recruit and inspire black African slaves to work on plantations in America under very harsh, exploitative and inhuman conditions that impoverished black African slaves.
The opium, just like marijuana and ganja, is a plant that strives and grows very well, mostly in the tropical landscapes of the world. The most fertile belts of the tropics include Asia , Africa and Latin America where the opium and the weeds are naturally nurtured to grow and strive.
As far back as the days of Marco Polo and European contact with the Far East, China and India in particular, Europeans exported the opium and weed to China as a major weapon that was targeted to induce a docile and indolent youthful Chinese population that were incapable of sound mental reasoning and work action.
The youthful population of China were caught in the drugs, weeds and substance imperialism of the West that decimated their productive energies and left them hanging and living on hullicinations and illusions.
As long as opium slavery persisted, the future and destiny of youthful Chinese creative and innovative minds were locked up and shut down under the power of the opium.
The Opium War was the first mind emancipation war that the Chinese nation declared against the West and the opium. The Opium War was a deliberate national liberation effort that was targeted at the importation of opium into China by the West. On the other hand, it was a liberation movement that was designed to free the youths of China from the vestiges and slavery of the opium, just like marijuana and ganja.
What exactly is the import of drugs, weeds and substance on a society?
Historical antecedents based on the antebellum Slave Society in America and the Opium War in China , are powerful and strong examples that demonstrate the substance imperialism of the West to destroy and muffle youthful minds, innovation and creativity in Africa, Asia as well as among black African population and communities in the New World. Substance imperialism renders the youthful population vulnerable to all forms of exploitations and social vices including gangsterism, crime, prostitution, destitution, domestic violence and a general sense of anomie and helplessness.
There is the politics of substance imperialism that in our contemporary world is still designed to exploit and derange the black African wherever he is found in the world society. Black Africans are at the top of the ruthless weaponisation of substance and weeds against the human race.
It is against this background that we need understand the recruitment of weeds, marijuana and ganja by the Rastafarian Movement as a weapon of protest and identity against the West. Substance imperialism has its roots in the historical situation as a weapon of oppression and not of national liberation and development. If we understand the historical dynamics and the interface of global politics of substance imperialism, we will appreciate the fact that weeds and substance should be distant from the struggle to achieve black African freedom and emancipation. What are the reasons for this kind of approach?
1. The foundations and intellectual roots of the Rastafarian movement were deeply embedded in the Pan Africanist movement that sought for a global African solidarity and nationalism. The fathers of the Pan Africanist movement were Africans of great intellectual piece with sound intellect and refined ideological bent. For example, Marcus Garvey, Sylvester Williams, George Padmore, William du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Julius Nyerere, etc.
Looking at the profiles of these great and outstanding Africans, it is clear that the Pan Africanist movement was larger than a fraternity of men and women who lived on the sacrament of weeds and substance. Africa’s emancipation and liberation has deep fundamental roots and implications than living on substance and weeds. Infact, a critical aspect of the Blackman’s Redemption is the defeat and eradication of western substance and weeds imperialism. It is the roots of the brutal and vicious exploitation of the minds of black Africans all over the world by the West. Substance and weeds imperialism depicts Africans as groups of gangsters and cults prone to violence and destruction.
Africa’s emancipation and liberation has deep fundamental roots and implications than living on substance and weeds.
2. The Roots of Rastafarianism adopted from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are deeply embedded in pure Christian worship based upon the Ethiopian Bible and the Christian Bible. There is no relationship and connect between the worship of the God of Israel, the Lion of Judah with substance imperialism. African religious worship abhorred substance and weeds manipulation and control, same as the priest of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Where then is the import of substance and weed abuse on the African continent and blacks across the world? What is the underlying politics behind the globalisation of weeds and substance on the mental and mind control and innovation of black Africans as well as other human racial types?
How have the Asian nations made up of China, India, Japan, Korea, responded to the threat of substance imperialism? what has been the response of Africa in relation to the nations of Asia?
The posers above draw out the importance of the interface of global politics in the ongoing substance and drug war in the world today. There is the politics of substance imperialism that in our contemporary world is still designed to exploit and derange the black African wherever he is found in the world society. Black Africans are at the top of the ruthless weaponisation of substance and weeds against the human race.
There is the politics of substance imperialism that in our contemporary world is still designed to exploit and derange the black African wherever he is found in the world society. Black Africans are at the top of the ruthless weaponisation of substance and weeds against the human race.
Today, being the 11th of May 2025, marks another anniversary of the passage of Robert Nesta Marley aka Bob Marley.
There is need to interrogate this diasporan narrative of substance imperialism and its effects on black Africans in our contemporary world society. As we celebrate, both Rastafarians and Kristofarians, let’s interrogate the conceptual and ideological roots of the Rastafarian movement inorder to interpret and achieve an African revolution based on the ideas of the foundation fathers of Pan Africanism which were listed before.
Both in religion and intellectual content, the Bob Marley Day celebration should transcend the abuse of drugs and substance by our youths across the world.
It is time that Africa should stop this mental slavery like in the song of the legend, “Redemption Song”.
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery….
Big Up Man
Respect.
The author Uji, Wilfred is a reggae artist and Professor of History at the Federal University Lafia, Nigeria.
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