Reggae, resistance, agency, and higher education in Africa: lessons from Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Survival album

Reggae music has long served as a site of cultural resistance, political consciousness, and epistemic liberation, offering critical perspectives on colonial oppression and African self-determination. Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Survival Album (1979) stand as a seminal work in this tradition, articulating a radical critique of imperialism, (neo)colonial governance, and systemic injustice. This article argues that the Survival album constructs a powerful Afrocentric pedagogy of hope–critiquing the lingering effects of enslavement and colonialism while envisioning futures anchored in unity, spirituality, and resistance. The lyrics speak to the enduring struggle of African peoples but simultaneously insist on joy, healing, and the possibility of transformation. The album thus extends beyond entertainment to read as an anti-colonial text, a resource for educators, activists, and learners seeking to build a world beyond exploitation and oppression. It functions as a counter-hegemonic archive that challenges (neo)colonial curricula and calls on African higher education to embrace onto-epistemic disobedience of hegemonic narratives for onto-epistemic sovereignty.