Reggae on the streets of Manila

After the ouster of former strongman Pres. Ferdinand Marcos by a people power revolution in 1986, the youth and the nation were gripped by the heat of political awareness. A new found freedom and victory over the dictatorship of the Filipino people sweeps the idealism of the youth of the land, and that includes me.

I was an out-of-school-youth back then at the age of 18 with a burning idealism for my country. As an artist I belong to a cultural group where we express protest using the theater as a medium. We participated in demonstrations and we always carry with us guitars as we perform on a makeshift stage in between programs. During vigils we do some sort of “mini-concerts” in some corner of the streets where we can find people who would listen to our songs. One such memorable song that always reminds me of that political part of my life is Bob Marley’s Get up, Stand up.

The reggae upbeat of that song played in an acoustic guitar going live in the streets filled with tension makes the atmosphere lively; the song somehow morally boosts the raging youth romanticism of that time. One of my comrade (who is a successful recording artist now) even came up with a Filipino version of that song. As I remember, we used to sway the emotional crowd in an instant with the danceable groove of Bob Marley’s political-filled lyrics and upbeat reggae tunes--arousing them to “Get up Stand up.”

After a long and tiring day, as the sun goes down and all things had been said, we dispersed peacefully. And going back to our headquarters and safe houses for some assessment of the day’s event, we found ourselves trying to flush down the surge of energy spilled that day by drinking a couple of rum. In the middle of sharing views and other sentimental notions, we came in chorus with the song “No woman, No cry” by Bob Marley. It's a wonderful memory of my life and my youth; whenever I get to hear the song again it reminds me of the times I nearly drowned in the romanticism of saving the world, though at times I strum my old guitar tying to crack the old chords again.