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I&I Rasta

Against Apartheid in Israel and South Africa

INTERVIEWER: “I understand that you were planning to tour Israel at the end of October (’83) What happened with that tour?”

TOSH: “Not me was planning to tour, they were trying to get me to go to Israel to tour or to do a couple shows there but then again my integrity will not take me there, cause what I stand for is equal rights and justice in the highest degree. There are many places I have been that I should not have been but then again that’s how the shitstem go. Jah say you have to get your bread out of desolate places so Israel has close ties with South Africa and Israel in this dispensation of time, is the continuation of apartheid and the racial injustice seen. They are the administrators, maybe the key administrators of racial injustice in South Africa to my people and I could not support that. There are many countries that really do support that still. But then again you still hear there are many places that really support it.”

INTERVIEWER: “Isn’t that ironic that the people that would suffer so much racial genocide 30 years ago would now be involved in the same kind?”

TOSH: “Yeah, but you see there is nothing happening on earth today that is a coincidence, everything was designed thousands of years ago, is only a pity that it is so ugly. And it’s only a pity that your eyes have to see it and your ears have to hear about it. But then again it was something that was designed, seen. Everyman is getting paid according to his work, seen. What’s going on in South Africa is very ugly, very, very, very ugly. Everyday you hear them talk about the Jewish holocaust and how much million blood clot Jews Hitler killed but you never hear them talk about how much bumba clot million people the South African regime kill daily, seen. & not only them, them don’t talk about the bloodclot invasion of the Italian into Ethiopia in the 1930s during the government of Emperor Haile Selassie I and how much bloodclot million people them kill. Them don’t talk about that no time. Them tell you about the Jewish bloodclot holocaust. Every bumbaclot you hear about the Jewish fuckin’ holocaust so what ago happen to we? Seen? And the shitstem I can’t take it no more. That’s why there will be so much disaster and destruction.

Ancient Ras Peter Tosh, Interview with Doug Wendt, San Francisco 1983

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I&I Rasta

No Nuclear War

INTEVIEWER: “Why did you write the song “No Nuclear War?”

TOSH:The situation the world is in. The world is being held ransom by what they call two superpowers. Seen? Russia and the United States. And as defender of the universe, I don’t hope to or intend to sit down and play dumb. I am a spokesman for the Almighty. When I speak, it’s just a warning, ’cause He will not speak. He will take planes out of the air like the one that happened last night and they don’t know what caused it. And lots of tornadoes and disasters that guys cannot investigate. So, because of the disaster and destruction that lies ahead in my Father’s kingdom and work that has to be done, it is my duty to let them know, irrespective of how destructive they think they are, they are not as destructive as the Almighty.

Ancient Ras Peter Tosh, Interview with Christ Boyle 1987.

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I&I Rasta

Jah No Dead

INTERVIEWER: “What do you think happened to Selassie and his family?”
TOSH: “Nothin’ ado Emperor Haile Selassie I Man, Igziabeher, Amassagana, nothin’ can do him. He’s the Allmighty. What you hear is what you hear.”
INTERVIEWER: “But somebody came into his country and took over and cut off the heads of his family members and destroyed his regime.”
TOSH: “Well them cut off the heads of some of them and them kills plenty and them kill many people too. But then again that is what the people asked for, seen. The people was tired of the monarchy of his Imperial Majesty and wanted to be or was influenced by Westerns what they call civilization, or western way of life, seen. And many of them wanted that so Jah gave them what they wanted and now that they are suffering the consequences of influences then they are beginning to call back His Imperial Majesty and remembering the good old days when those things never use to happen. Seen, administers of propaganda spread many dangerous public mischief on Emperor Haile Selassie, seen, and we know them all but they cannot hide because they cannot tell themselves no lie, neither can they invent destructive weapons to destroy those who speak the truth because we attack them from the heart. (strums guitar) this time (laughs) seen. So when a guy thinks a well him safe, it’s right into your heart (strums).”
Ancient Ras Peter Tosh,
Interview with Doug Wendt, San Francisco 1983
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I&I Rasta

Rastaman Greatest Fear and Greatest Love

INTERVIEWER: “Peter, what is your greatest fear?”
TOSH:My fear for Jah Almighty! He is so powerful that to love him you must fear him… I man love him!
INTERVIEWER: “Is that, therefore, also your greatest love?”
TOSH:It is… for Jah“.
INTERVIEWER: “Peter, what is your greatest desire?”
TOSH:To serve Jah through passing on his message and to see the brighter day when ‘Right Is Right’ and ‘Wrong Is Wrong’, and every man gets pay according to his work -no more, no less. So keep on working as long as you work for the right, because payday is not far away!!
Ancient Ras Peter Tosh, Interview with Bagga Brown, 1983
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I&I Rasta

Remember the Ethiopian Martyrs

Peter Tosh: “Serious t’ing. Well I got a book the other day, is called ‘History of the Italian Massacres’ something like that, in Ethiopia. I learn that, when I read that book it brings tears to my eyes.”
Interviewer: “Is that Menelek? Or Selassie?”
Peter Tosh: “Selassie I.”
Interviewer: “So it’s the 30’s.”
Peter Tosh: “Yes mon, ’34-’37, around in there. Terrible, terrible. Any man was found with the picture of His Imperial Majesty, head off! Any you can see soldiers, Italian soldiers, and all different kind of soldiers with the head of Rasta in their hands, boasting, posing – send heads, a dozen heads in baskets, to show their family, of the Rastaman’s head. Seen? Plenty people don’t know these things. I see pictures of that.”
Ancient Peter Tosh,
Interview with R.Steffens and H.Holmes, 1980