Amandla Festival

Amandla--Festival of Unity-- was a world music festival held at Harvard Stadium in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 21, 1979. The goals of the concert were to support and celebrate the liberation of Southern Africa as well as the on-going efforts of people in Boston to end racism in their families, schools, workplaces and communities.

The word 'Amandla' is from the South-African Zulu language and means 'power', 'strength' or 'energy'. The headline performance was reggae superstar Bob Marley and his band The Wailers. Marley made several short speeches during his encore when he powerfully blamed the system and urgently claimed Africa's unity and freedom. Those onstage speeches were unusual for Marley, as he normally was threatened with censorship when speaking openly about the system's failure and marijuana smoking, as he did at the Amandla Festival.

Other performers were soul legend Patti LaBelle, jazz pianist Eddie Palmieri, drummer Babatunde Olatunji, the South African band Jabula and comedian Dick Gregory who gave a speech before Marley's performance.