White God, King James Version criticised

Religious expression and music are long-time reggae soulmates making for a sometimes explosive mix when the rebellious bent of much of roots reggae is added to the mix.

Two songs, very different in tone yet similar in criticising aspects of Christianity, are part of the extensive body of reggae songs which pick a bone with versions of the Bible seen as irrelevant to the black experience - and even untrue.

Sizzla already had an album, the 1996 Burning Up, under his belt when he did the single No White God, which was played extensively, especially on poet and broadcaster Mutabaruka's late-night Cutting Edge radio programme.

The defiant song, coming ahead of his breakthrough 1997 albums Praise Ye Jah and Black Woman and Child, won him the attention and admiration of those opposed to the concept of the Supreme Being as a Caucasian. Sizzla is fiery in his delivery and caustic in his lyrics from the introduction:

"Don't seduce to reduce my knowledge

I will always break those barriers and burn down bondage I have to overcome all the wicked

Them and them false things"

Then he deejays:

"I have no white God

Don't teach me anything wrong

Would the white God save me from white man oppression

I have no white God, is just a black messiah

If you white God bless you, him no bless Sizzla"

He traces the colour back to days of official bondage:

"You give us white Gods to praise in slavery

The doctrine follow in the black community"

And Sizzla states that the holy text has been altered:

"You change the version of the Bible, who you a trick?

Memba all who do evil won't go unpunished

All evilous people shall sink in a pit"

Steel Pulse's King James Version is a gentler - in sound and lyrics - criticism of a specific biblical text, but no less convinced in its rejection of the generally accepted canon. The British-based reggae rockers sing in the track from their 1990 Babylon the Bandit album:

"Dis ya version a no King James version

For out of Africa came the Garden of Eden"

It asserts that many of the Old Testament figures were black:

"Hidden from me I was never told

Ancient prophets black and bold

Like Daniel, King David and Abraham

Israel were all black man"

They trace the mistake to the deliberate action of one of the three sons of Noah (who Bob Marley names in Give Thanks and Praise):

"Japhet tried his best to erase

The godly parts we played

I says he came and took

And never mentioned in his books no"

They go on to list the accomplishments of black people, including the couplet "creators of the alphabet/while the West illiterate".

And throughout the song they check that the listener is following them with "I don't wanna lose you".

- M.C.