"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds"

 

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds" is a lyric from the song "Redemption Song" by Bob Marley. The song appears on Marley's 12th album, Uprising, and is considered one of his greatest works.

The lyric is based on a speech by Pan-Africanist orator Marcus Garvey called "The Work That Has Been Done". Garvey said, "We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind".

The message of "Redemption Song" is that people are responsible for freeing their minds from mindsets that are harmful to them.