Africa Unite is a film with noble intentions and a wealth of entertaining and enlightening material. As a documentary, it is a distilation of the annual summit of the same name, during which the musical and political legacy of Bob Marley is celebrated through song and symposium. Every year, ambassadors from across the world gather -- this particular time in Ethiopia, the birthplace of the Rastafari movement -- to engage in academic discourse with the intent of unifying the countries of Africa into one autonomous unit not unlike the United States of America. This goal was the main ideological message of Bob Marley's music, and as such, the summit is held in his honor and features renditions of his songs by a multitude of reggae's current luminaries, including his sons.
That Bob Marley's message was inextricable from his music is sometimes lost on generations of casual fans who only know his songs from commercials and the "Legend" compilation. But to be sure, Marley was a tireless crusader for the reclaiming of Africa from the European nations who colonized it. Before Africa was divided by and distributed among the European powers in 1884, Ethiopia spanned the entire continent; following European encroachment, Ethiopia remained the only independent country in Africa, successfully defending itself against Italian invasion in 1896. In 1930, Haile Selassie I was crowned emperor of Ethiopia and gave voice to the movement of black Africans against imperial European rule. A descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Haile Selassie -- later known as Ras Tafari Mekonnen -- was believed by Rastafarians to be Jah, the true descendent of God and member of the Holy Trinity, and as such, Ethiopia was believed to be Zion.
This is worth noting not only for historical purposes, but also because for many of those attending Africa Unite, the journey signified not only an academic symposium or a music festival, but a religious pilgrimage to the land granted them directly from God. This is best illustrated in the scenes following Bongo Tawney, a Rastafarian who travels for the first time to his motherland for the festival. To follow him from his home in Jamaica -- where as a youth he met Haile Selassie -- to the religious shrines of Ethiopia, one realizes the significance of Africa Unite. The music, which is likely to be the draw for most viewers, is merely at the service of the political and religious determinism at work within these procedings.
"They say Rome was not built in a day," states Dr. Tajudeen Abdulrahim in one of the many political debates, "but the Romans were there to build it. Nobody will build this continent for us, we will build it for ourselves." And so it becomes apparent that Africa Unite is designed to make history, not simply to recognize it. The people who came did so not because they were fans of the musicians but because they felt it was their duty and their right to speak up against a social, political, and religious injustice which is still perpetrated to this day. That their individual voices can be heard and their plight discussed in depth is why Africa Unite succeeds as an event.
As a film, however, it does suffer from wanting to have its cake and eat it too. In an effort to preserve the flavor of the event itself, director Stephanie Black jumps back and forth freely from musical performances to archival newsreels to roundtable discussions to travelogues of those in attendance. It gives you a great sense of the sheer scope of Africa Unite. But ultimately, because the film tries to cover so much ground in less than an hour and a half, it spreads itself a bit too thin and subsequently fails to fully satisfy as either a concert film or as an informative documentary.
Of course, had Black chosen to document only the musical performances, the intent of Africa Unite would have been almost entirely lost. Conversely, a documentary about Africa's history or a less truncated record of the discussions and workshops presented at the symposium would appeal to a much smaller audience and would fail to spread the message of African unity very far beyond those who already champion such a goal. As such, it's hard to fault an eighty-nine minute film for failing to provide the full breadth of a multi day extravaganza. Perhaps we should just consider the words of Bongo Tawney:
"I don't want nothing else from Rasta. I just put away the worldly things and put away the difference and just live love with people."