By Howard Campbell—
Observer senior writer—
Michael Manley—
GOING into the 1972 General Election, the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) had an appealing message of social change. In their leader Michael Manley, they had the perfect candidate to pitch it.
To help push that message and Manley’s rebellious image, you needed rebel music. Reggae, which was simmering in Kingston’s ghettoes, provided the perfect soundtrack.
In 1971, the PNP utilized young reggae acts to help their mantra of people power. It was a novel concept, long before Rock The Vote in the United States.
The backing band for the islandwide ‘Bandwagon’ of shows was Inner Circle. Their guitarist Roger Lewis recalls impresario Buddy Pouyatt, lawyer Paul Fitzritson and music producer/show promoter Clancy Eccles as the main organizers.
“They were the people who brought us on board (in) early 1971,” Lewis told the Jamaica Observer.
The governing Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) seemed ripe for picking. Prime Minister Hugh Shearer had not endeared himself to black conscious youth, having banned books by Afrocentric authors and preventing Walter Rodney, a radical Guyanese professor at The University of the West Indies, from re-entering the country in October 1968.
Manley, an island supervisor with the National Workers Union, succeeded his father Norman Manley as PNP head in 1969. His speeches in Parliament leading to the 1972 election professed a transformation of Jamaican society.
Pay for women on maternity leave, educating the illiterate and removing the stigma of being born out of wedlock, were just some of the initiatives he proposed.
That struck a chord with young Jamaicans, many of whom were artistes and musicians.
The Wailers (Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston), Junior Byles, Max Romeo, Ken Boothe, and Delroy Wilson were some of the Bandwagon acts.
While The Wailers were on the verge of being signed to an overseas record company, it was Byles, Romeo and Wilson who were hot in Jamaica with the songs Beat Down Babylon, Let The Power Fall on I and Better Must Come, respectively.
Those tracks complemented Manley’s fiery campaign speeches across the country. Sometimes, he would unveil a cane dubbed ‘the Rod of Correction’ reportedly given him by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I.
Lewis remembers Manley being a hit wherever the Bandwagon went. When the PNP won 37 of the 53 seats in Parliament on election day, he had no doubt reggae was critical to Manley and the PNP’s victory.
“The role music played as the voice of the people in a pivotal time in Jamaican politics…one can truly say that, describing the political climate at that time,” he said.
Most Jamaican artistes supported Manley throughout the 1970’s when his socialist policies found favor with the working-class. He and the PNP were re-elected in 1976 but lost power to the JLP four years later.
Michael Manley died in 1997 at age 72, eight years after the PNP returned to power. He served three years as prime minister before stepping down due to illness.
Fitzritson, Marley, Tosh and Wilson are also dead.
Roger Lewis, who formed Inner Circle with his brother Ian in 1968, still records and tours with the band.
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