“Lioness Order”: The Women of the Reggae Revival Speak

Abstract:This article investigates the role of contemporary women in reggae music and details the unexpectedness of their growing role in the current industry, given their relative absence since the 1970s. Through critical studies of singers Janine “Jah9” Cunningham and Kelissa [McDonald], I historicize the evolution of female songstresses and their contributions to changing the rhetoric around women’s positionalities in music and their relationship to Caribbean feminisms. Using an interdisciplinary framework that incorporates an intersectional lens with focuses on race, gender, and class, I analyze song lyrics and visual imagery that illuminate Caribbean womanhood. By critically analyzing music lyrics and videos of this movement, this essay builds on Jamaica’s far-reaching history of Black resistance and highlights Jamaican twenty-first-century conversations about anti-imperialism, Rastafari, Afrocentricity, and poverty within Black feminism and women’s empowerment. Lastly, I theorize concerning these women’s cultural contributions as intellectual property, helping to shape the Black radical tradition through music and politics.