ENTITY · VENUE
National Stadium, Kingston
Probable
National Stadium in Kingston is a major national venue complex used for sports, ceremonies and large cultural gatherings, including the kind of mass public events where Jamaican music is presented as national culture.
At a glance
- Type
- venue
- Confidence
- Probable
- Era
- Open era →
Connections
Debate & reception
How people argued about the music — praise, criticism and public debate. See all debate & reception →
debate
The One Love Peace Concert handshake: reconciliation or naive spectacle?
“we're gonna unite, we're gonna make it right”
At the 22 April 1978 One Love Peace Concert in Kingston's National Stadium, Bob Marley pulled rivals Michael Manley (PNP) and Edward Seaga (JLP) onstage during 'Jamming' and joined their hands above his head, saying he wanted to show the people 'we're gonna unite, we're gonna make it right.' Admirers hailed the gesture as a courageous act of reconciliation amid a near-civil war; skeptics — including Peter Tosh, who used his own set to berate both leaders for failing the poor and refusing to legalize ganja — dismissed it as a naive photo-op that lent legitimacy to politicians while the killings continued (1980 saw a sharp rise in political murders). Grounded in the Wikipedia entry on the concert and Biography.com's account.
Stance: brave symbol of unity above party violence vs. hollow spectacle co-opted by the politicians it embraced