The song’s lyrics are a bit of a jumble but it appears to be about slavery, but then there is this line:
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.
What exactly is he saying here? It almost sounds like he supports atomic power?
I was actually thinking the exact same thing the other day…! Now I’m looking forward to answers. 
I’m pretty sure he wasn’t expressing support for atomic power. And the song isn’t simply about slavery, but more about Rastafarian beliefs in general, which include many Afrocentric and Pan-African elements.
As for the meaning of the atomic energy line, my take is that it reflects confidence that Rastafarian prophesies will come to pass and that no amount of atomic bombs will change that. The lines that immediately follow are:
“How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say it’s just a part of it:
We’ve got to fulfill the book.”
Brushing away fears of the “atomic energy” bogeyman just reflected his strong belief that “the book” would be fulfilled and God’s chosen ones would live forever after. In that context, why worry about some piddling nukes?
:smack:And it just occurred to me when the song was released when you used the word bombs, you’re right he probably went bombs or nuclear war meaning the cold war.
I thought he meant something like they can’t stop atomic energy, no one can stop the future(stop the time).
I thought the line you quoted was an unrelated part, like I said the lyrics are kind of jumbled.
Thanks.
In the 70s there were major protests about atomic energy (not bombs) being a threat to the environment. I think his point was that it was a trivial problem given that inevitability of prophesy.
I think some of the Bob Marley songs can be a bit hard to understand sometimes because of the use of language unique to Rastafari. For example they don’t say you and me, they say “I and I.” This reflects the belief in Rastafari that we are all one, part of the same whole - or something along those lines AFAIK (which is why they say the pirates rob “I” instead of “me” in the beginning.
The song is about freeing yourself from mental slavery. God will set you free, even when men try to enslave you. Letting trivial things (fear of atomic energy), distract you keeps you enslaved to some extent.
The way I always interpreted it was “don’t be afraid of atomic energy or atomic weapons and the dangers of nuclear meltdown, war etc, etc. because its all in God’s hands and judgement day will come when it is supposed to come and not any sooner.”
Most Rastafari consider the term Rastafarian derogatory (they are against any ism), AFAIK.
It’s worth noting that this was the last song he wrote and the last he performed, both while he was dying of cancer and in pain, while also refusing medical treatment. He was pretty much singing his own epitaph and probably looking forward to leaving the mortal realm on his journey to the freedom of the “ever-living” life he believed awaited him. Indeed, his songs have proven to be ever-living, at least.
They were one and the same in the minds of many, at the time. I doubt the environmental threat of non-bomb atomic energy by itself would have evoked thoughts of end-times.
Good thing there isn’t an “-ism” in the word Rastafarian, which was referring to the word “beliefs” anyway, not the people themselves.
:smack:
grude, I think you’re having trouble with the meaning of the lyrics because you are assuming they are jumbled and detached. They aren’t really. Or is that what you’re saying you realized in your last post?
Yes that is what I realized in my last post, maybe jumbled is the wrong word but perhaps unconnected would have been better. But now that I realize what was meant(don’t be afraid of nuclear war/energy because it can’t stop prophecy) it makes more sense. I guess I was also thinking of how the song starts in first person narration from a character, and then switches.
A radio station had been overplaying the song lately, so I found myself singing and eventually the atomic energy thing made me go huh.