Buffalo Soldier
“Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta
There was a Buffalo Soldier
In the heart of America
Stolen from Africa, brought to America
Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival.”
At a point in this song that was released posthumously in 1983, Marley says:
“If you know your history
Then you would know where you coming from
Then you wouldn’t have to ask me
Who the heck do I think I am.”
Buffalo Soldier is an ode to the survivability, the quest for identity and the functionality of the Africans who were forcibly shipped to the New World for European interests.
Marley commiserates with the African in the New World but also seeks to inspire as well.
