Power of little axe over big tree

A little axe can cut down a big tree. (Jamaica)

Dear Zayda,

We always have more power than we think we have. A little axe may take a while to bring down the biggest tree, but the tree will come down if the axe keeps going. At the same time, the ax is connected to the tree, so we also need to learn that giving away even a little of our power can come back to harm us.

Let us remember the words Bob Marley sang about the power of the "Small Axe":



Aesop, the African storyteller, also noted the power of the small axe. I re-tell for you his fable of the trees and the axe.

A man came into the forest and said to the trees, “Will one of you please give me a handle for my axe? I want the hardest wood.”

The old oak trees and the great cedar trees agreed to help the man, even though they said they had no branches to spare. From their height, almost touching the clouds, these trees pointed to a little ash tree. “Take that one,” the oak and cedar said to the man, “It probably won’t amount to much, anyway.”

The man was grateful. He fitted his axe with a new handle and went to work. In a short while, he chopped down oak trees, cedar trees, and the biggest giants in the forest.

“Look at what the ash tree did to us!” a cedar tree said. It still had its trunk, but had lost a lot of its branches.

“No,” an oak tree said. “We did this to ourselves.”

“Are you saying we cut ourselves down?” the cedar tree said. “That’s ridiculous!”

“The man cut us down,” the oak said. “But we gave him the handle for his axe.”

“And your point is…” the cedar tree said.

“Well,” the oak tree said, “If we did not give up the rights of the little ash, all of us might still be standing.”

We make a big mistake, my grandniece, if we assume that what is little has no power. You will already have found out how much power you have to change your parents’ lives, even though you are just a few months old. Jamaica, for example, is like a dot on the map compared with the United States of America, but we have some of the fastest runners in the world.

We make an even bigger mistake if we think we are safe when we give away someone else’s rights because we think that person is little and therefore of no great importance. We need to remember that all our rights are connected. If we allow something bad to happen to someone else today, the same thing can happen to us tomorrow.

We put ourselves in danger when we ignore who or what we decide is small stuff. It makes sense to love and care for others (however big or small) just as we would want others to love and care for us.

What do you think?

Blessings,

Your shangazi

Black History Month - Una Marson and Bob Marley

If you are a big tree, we are a small axe. (Jamaica)

1905 - Una Marson, first major Caribbean Jamaican poet & playwright, was born.

Una Marson was born on February 6, 1905, in Santa Cruz, and attended Hampton High School. She went into journalism when she left school, and published a magazine encouraging women to join the workforce and become politically active.

Marson was an advocate on race as well as gender, encouraging Black women to be confident about their beauty. She stopped straightening her hair and went natural.

She lived between Jamaica and England, seeing to promote national literature in Jamaica, and working with the BBC during World War II. She also wrote a play jointly with Louise Bennett. Her special contribution is linking Caribbean literature and nationalism.


1945 - Bob Marley was born.

Bob Marley’s singing career started with the Wailers in the 1960s. Legendary producer Lee “Scratch” Perry took the group to success with songs like “Simmer Down” and ”Small Axe”. Bob's association with Chris Blackwell's Island Records resulted in international success with albums such as “Catch a Fire”, “Burnin’”, “Natty Dread”, and “Rastaman Vibration.” To no one’s surprise, “Exodus” was declared the album of the twentieth century.

Rastafari strongly influenced Bob, and in 1978 he visited Kenya and then went on to Ethiopia. In 1980, he had the honour of performing at Zimbabwe’s independence.

One of his special contributions to Jamaican political life was his 1978 Peace Concert where he brought Michael Manley and Edward Seaga together on stage during a time when PNP and JLP factions behaved as if they were at war.

A month before he died in 1981, Bob received Jamaica's Order of Merit in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to Jamaican culture.

On this day in:

1820: The initial group of 86 freed slaves from the United States, established a settlement in Christopolis (now Monrovia).

1939 – Jamaican musician Derrick Harriott was born.

1950 - Grammy Award singer Natalie Cole was born.

1993 - Arthur Ashe died