World of Jamaican Music

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An illustrated map of the creators of Jamaican music and how they are connected.

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The Abyssinians

Band. Reggae

Active
1968-present

The Abyssinians were a roots reggae harmony trio whose catalog, small by the standards of their contemporaries, includes one of the most heavily versioned riddims in Jamaican music and some of the finest roots harmony records of the 1970s. "Satta Massagana," sung partly in Amharic, is the best known.

Bernard Collins and Donald Manning formed the group in 1968. A third singer, still in school and often unavailable for rehearsal, was soon replaced by Donald's brother Lynford, who had sung with their older brother Carlton in Carlton and the Shoes. The name referred to Abyssinia, the older name for Ethiopia and, in Rastafarian belief, the spiritual homeland of the African diaspora. Their songs dealt almost exclusively with faith, exile, and repatriation, though when "Satta Massagana" was made only Donald Manning, who wrote it, was a Rastafarian. By the early 1970s they were the only one of the leading roots acts whose members wore dreadlocks.

"Satta Massagana" was recorded for Coxsone Dodd at Studio One in March 1969. Its melody derived from Carlton Manning's "Happy Land," also a Studio One recording. Dodd declined to release it, reportedly judging it commercially hopeless and, in his own account, culturally subversive. Two years later the group bought the master tape back from him and issued the record on their own Clinch label. The title is usually rendered as "give thanks and praise," a loose gloss on the Amharic. The song's slow minor-key figure and unhurried three-part harmony made it a fixture in dancehalls, on radio, and in churches, and within a decade Jamaicans were describing it as a second national anthem.

Jamaican close-harmony singing had grown out of American soul groups such as the Impressions, but the Abyssinians moved it away from those origins, toward minor keys and a somber, devotional feel. Collins sang lead with the Manning brothers underneath him, and the blend was close and unornamented, pitched nearer to congregational singing than to soul. Their lyrics, steeped in the Old Testament and in places sung in Amharic, were devotional and militant at once. Bradley hears in "Satta Massagana" a blueprint for roots reggae, joining conventional Jamaican musical values to a spirituality older than the slave ships; Leroy Sibbles, who led the band on bass, also oversaw the vocal arrangement.

The debut album reached the public through an unusually tangled sequence of releases: a small unofficial pressing supervised by Clive Hunt in 1975, then Jamaican and American issues the following year under two different titles, Satta Massagana and Forward on to Zion. Arise appeared on Tuff Gong in 1978. It disappointed some followers at the time, but the Rough Guide judges that its best tracks, among them "This Land Is for Everyone" and "Let My Days Be Long," stand comparison with any vocal-group records of the period. "Declaration of Rights," "Y Mas Gan," and "African Race" covered the same ground as "Satta Massagana." The "Satta" riddim, played by a Studio One band with Sibbles on bass, Richard Ace on piano and Vin Gordon on trombone, became one of the most heavily versioned in Jamaican music; its early cuts include Big Youth's "I Pray Thee," Dillinger's "I Saw E Saw," Ace's "Charming Version," and the group's own talking cut "Mabrak," on which all three recite scripture in Amharic. Dodd, having passed on the vocal, eventually issued two instrumental cuts of it, a piano version by Jackie Mittoo and a saxophone version by Cedric "Im" Brooks.

The group broke up in 1980 and re-formed more than once, with Collins and the Manning brothers touring at various points as competing versions of the Abyssinians. Heartbeat's 1993 compilation returned the early material to circulation, and configurations of the group have performed since.

Last updated October 31, 2026

Connections

Notes

  1. Lloyd Bradley, This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music (New York: Grove Press, 2001), 273.
  2. "The Abyssinians," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyssinians. The article draws on Colin Larkin, ed., The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae (London: Virgin, 1998). On Donald and Lynford Manning in Carlton and the Shoes, see Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 71.
  3. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 276, which adds that this was typical of the time, when Rastafari was "by no means the dominant doctrine" in Jamaica. Campbell credits the song to Collins and Manning jointly. Howard Campbell, "Birth of an Anthem," Jamaica Observer, April 24, 2019, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/birth-of-an-anthem_162978.
  4. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 289.
  5. "Satta Massa Gana Riddim," Reggae Vibes, October 2018, https://www.reggae-vibes.com/articles/2018/10/satta-massa-gana-riddim/; Howard Campbell, "Birth of an Anthem," Jamaica Observer, April 24, 2019, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/birth-of-an-anthem_162978.
  6. Steve Barrow and Peter Dalton, The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd ed. (London: Rough Guides, 2004), 72, 131; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 195, which calls "Happy Land" the blueprint for "Satta Massa Gana."
  7. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 273; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 182. Wikipedia attributes to Dodd the view that the song amounted to "cultural subversion," but no first-person statement by Dodd to that effect has been located. "The Abyssinians," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyssinians.
  8. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 273, which adds that the group saved up the ninety pounds Dodd wanted for the tape; Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 131, 182. Collins later told the Jamaica Observer that the trio had paid for the original studio time themselves. Howard Campbell, "Birth of an Anthem," Jamaica Observer, April 24, 2019, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/birth-of-an-anthem_162978.
  9. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 276. Campbell glosses the Amharic as "give thanks." Howard Campbell, "Birth of an Anthem," Jamaica Observer, April 24, 2019, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/birth-of-an-anthem_162978.
  10. "Watch the Abyssinians Get Lost in 'Satta Massagana' in Kingston, 1972," In Sheep's Clothing, accessed October 1, 2026, https://insheepsclothinghifi.com/watch-the-abyssinians-get-lost-in-satta-massagana-in-kingston-1972/. Campbell calls it "reggae's anthem." Howard Campbell, "Birth of an Anthem," Jamaica Observer, April 24, 2019, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/birth-of-an-anthem_162978.
  11. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 182; Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 358, which contrasts their minor-key style with "Impressions-based upfulness." On Collins as lead singer, see Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 273.
  12. Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 273, which describes the lyrics as "deeply emotive yet defiantly militant."
  13. Bradley calls it "something of a blueprint for roots reggae" and credits Sibbles with "overseeing vocal arrangements." Bradley, This Is Reggae Music, 273.
  14. "Clive Hunt Shocked by the Death of Abyssinians Founding Member Lynford Manning," World Music Views, July 2024, https://worldmusicviews.com/clive-hunt-shocked-by-the-death-of-abyssinians-founding-member-lynford-manning/; "The Abyssinians: Satta Massagana," master release page, Discogs, accessed October 1, 2026, https://www.discogs.com/master/186956-The-Abyssinians-Satta-Massagana.
  15. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 183, which describes the second LP as coming "courtesy of Virgin"; "The Abyssinians," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyssinians, which lists Arise (1978) on Tuff Gong, Virgin, and Clinch.
  16. The Rough Guide says the second LP "disappointed some of their followers" but that its best tracks "now stand comparison with any vocal-group records of the period." Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 183.
  17. Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 131, 182-83; "Satta Massa Gana Riddim," Reggae Vibes, October 2018, https://www.reggae-vibes.com/articles/2018/10/satta-massa-gana-riddim/.
  18. Sources differ on the second instrumental. Campbell names Jackie Mittoo's "Night in Ethiopia" and Tommy McCook's "Cool It" as the two cuts Dodd released once the record took off. Reggae Vibes lists Studio One recuts of the rhythm by Cedric Brooks, Jah Scotchie, and Mittoo. Howard Campbell, "Birth of an Anthem," Jamaica Observer, April 24, 2019, http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/birth-of-an-anthem_162978; "Satta Massa Gana Riddim," Reggae Vibes, October 2018, https://www.reggae-vibes.com/articles/2018/10/satta-massa-gana-riddim/.
  19. "The Abyssinians," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Abyssinians (on the 1980 breakup); Barrow and Dalton, Rough Guide to Reggae, 183, which notes two rival versions of the group, "one led by Bernard Collins, the other by the Manning brothers."
  20. Heartbeat's 1993 release was an expanded reissue of the debut album, under the title Satta Massagana, rather than a compilation. Carter Van Pelt, "Abyssinians Discography," accessed October 1, 2026, http://cvanpelt.incolor.com/abyssiniansdisc.html; "Satta Massagana," Wikipedia, accessed October 1, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satta_Massagana.

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