Bob Marley once said, "I'm a man of God and me come to do God's work." Bob Marley brought reggae to a broad audience and devoted his work to spread a message of peace, unity and love. Bob Marley made an attempt to make blacks recognized. He became an important figure for the Afro-race. In the song "Buffalo Soldier" the author calls its audience to see that there have been sacrifices of black men in America.
Bob Marley began to work in the song in 1978, after reading about the black American soldiers decorated in the late 1800. The issues that the song "Buffalo Soldier" talks about are directly related to its title. This song refers to the Africans (who are the "Buffalo Soldiers") brought to America that where forced to fight against the Native American Indians. The Amerindians probably saw a relation between the huge honored animal with thick hair and the brave and stalwart Africans wearing dreadlocks. Buffalo Soldier is a reflection of Marley's life and the class discrimination he witnessed while growing up in Kingston, Jamaica. Throughout his life Bob Marley was deeply troubled when men where not judged by their character, but by their skin color, and the amount of money they possessed.
The song is dedicated to all the Afro-Americans living in the United States. This song is a recount of the story of some regiments of the post-Civil War. These regiments where formed by black men commanded to fight (pro white interests). "They [the Africans] fought for a quarter of a century against the Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Apache, Ute and Sioux. In the end, fourteen key black campaigners, whom the Indians had dubbed "buffalo soldiers," were awarded the Medal of Honor as part of a public relations move to justify and glorify the genocide of Native Americans, underlining the U.S. government's policy of manifest destiny." The purpose of this song is to honor and extol the life of many black Rastafarians or Buffalo Soldiers (as the Native American Indians called the African men) living in America.