While "Get up, Stand up" has become a rallying cry for human rights, it is also a celebration of Rastafari, the Jamaican-born religion that both Bob Marley and Peter Tosh practiced. Many of the belief's adherents, Rastas, consider Emperor Haile Selassie, who was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, as the second coming of Christ, according to National Geographic and Britannica. The religion combines elements of Christianity, mysticism, and Pan-Africanism — a movement to unite people of African descent around the world, per the American Historical Association.
Ennis B. Edmonds, in his book "Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction," asserts that the song, as well as others by Bob Marley, reflects Marley's beliefs and "celebrates Haile Selassie as the great Black liberator" and critiques "social institutions of Western society as oppressive and alienating." The song was influenced by traditional chants used in Rastafari ceremonies called "groundings," according to Edmonds. Because the song is multilayered, it can be both a "devotional tune written to celebrate one's prophet" and "an anthem to unite and liberate," in the words of "Keep On Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip-hop."
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