THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BOB MARLEY

A Legend Who Died At The Tender Age Of 36

Within walking distance from the official office of the Jamaican Prime
Minister, lies the most visited site in Kingston Jamaica - the Bob
Marley Museum.

Located on Hope Road, the 15-year-old museum is one that touches the
heart of fans all over the world. But fan or not, you would probably
find the museum to be an inspiration as there is a wealth of knowledge
to be gained about Mr. Marley, a man who brought reggae music to the
world.

The Guardian visited the museum on a Jan. 31 trip to Jamaica and took
a peek inside. What we learned is that Bob Marley, whose full name was
Robert Nesta Marley, was born on Feb. 6, 1945 in a small village
called "Nine Miles" in the parish of St. Ann, Jamaica.

His mother is Cedella Marley Booker and his father was a white British
Naval Officer named Norval Marley. The singer and his mother hardly
ever saw Norval, partly because the upper-middle class naval officer's
family did not approve of the relationship between Norval and Cedalla.

We also learned that Marley spent his youth in Nine Miles and in 1957
his mother moved the family to Kingston, where because of their
financial situation, ended up in a shantytown called Trench Town. The
town apparently was so named because it was built over a ditch that
drained the sewage of old Kingston.

By the late '50s, Marley dropped out of school and worked as a welder,
spending all his free time perfecting his singing, which he was
convinced would land him a career.

In 1962, at age 16, he released his first single, "Judge Not." In 1963
the original Wailers formed including Bob Marley, Bunny Livingstone
and Peter Tosh. Their first song 'Simmer Down' became an instant hit
in Jamaica and the Wailing Wailers, as they were later called, became
a Jamaican sensation and released several more hit singles.

On Feb. 10, 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson and later that year,
Haile Sellasie visited Jamaica and Marley and the other Wailers
embraced the Rastafarian faith and began to grow dreadlocks.

Involvement in politics

In early 1967, Marley became heavily involved in the Rastafarian
movement. The change in his faith was later manifested in his music.
His risque lyrics were soon replaced with new spiritual and socially
conscious messages.

With his swing toward the musical mainstream, Marley was becoming
revered as a prophet and politicians followed his influence closely.
Marley approached the then Prime Minister Michael Manley, offering to
do a free concert to coincide with the general elections.

However, the move was seen by many Jamaicans as an endorsement of the
Manley government by Marley; considered dangerous in a country where
people take elections very seriously. Politically outspoken Jamaicans
often find themselves at war, literally, with hot-tempered Jamaicans
who support the opposing party.

Marley's perceived endorsement of the governing party made him a
target of violence; he barely escaped death after being attacked by a
gang.

The details of that attack indicate that he had just taken a break
from a concert rehearsal session in 1977 as part of a festival called
"Smile Jamaica," when a group of thugs believed to be supporters of
the opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), blocked his mansion's
single exit and began shooting through the windows.

One of the gang members then forced his way through the front door and
fired a round of shots at panic-stricken members of the band. Five of
the seven shots, aimed directly at Marley, struck the group's manager,
Don Taylor, mostly in the upper thighs; a sixth shot struck Marley's
friend, Lewis Griffith in the abdomen.

It was also reported that Marley's wife Rita, made a desperate attempt
at escaping in the family's BMW with Marley's four children. But the
gunmen halted her escape by firing a shot, which struck her in the
head. The gang then fled and Marley and his wife were taken to the
hospital where doctor's discovered that the seventh bullet fired in
the Trench Town home had grazed Marley's chest, on the left side near
his heart, and had gone through his upper arm.

Rita's head wound was treated, Marley's arm and chest bandaged and
Taylor was flown to Miami in serious condition. Griffith was
hospitalised in nearby University Hospital for his stomach wounds.

Bob Marley had become directly involved in the disease of violence,
which was overcoming Jamaica barely two weeks before general
elections, the outcome of which kept Michael Manley's party in power
and with greater parliamentary numbers.

The peace maker

But good news was soon to be made when gunmen of the two warring
political factions, the JLP and the Peoples National Party asked
Marley to perform at a concert marking a truce between them.

The concert titled 'One Love' occurred on April 22, 1978 during which
Marley persuaded Prime Minister Manley and the opposition leader
Edward Seaga to join him on stage where the leaders shook hands. As a
result of the act, Marley received the United Nations' Peace Medal in
New York.

Marley's popularity then surged and during 1979 he went on a world
tour and introduced reggae music to Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
His appearance in The Bahamas was not far away.

Marley's concert in The Bahamas

Many Bahamians fell in love with the reggae king's colourful history,
his philosophies and his music, so much so that many wanted him to
perform here to get up close and personal with him, to feel his
presence and to allow his music to sink into their souls.

Spearheading a Nassau concert was Mrs. Beryl Hanna, the chairperson of
a group known as "The Bahamas Year of the Child Commission," which
desperately needed funds to build a home for underprivileged children.

The commission was hoping to raise $300,000, and the best way it
thought that amount could be gained was through a concert where one of
the biggest entertainers in the 70's would perform. All of the funds
were intended to go towards the children's home as Marley accepted the
invitation to come to The Bahamas and apparently to perform for free.

However, once the government approved the mid-December concert, The
Bahamas Christian Council, headed by the then president Rev. Dr.
Phillip Rahming, spoke out against it.

But leading a more serious opposition to the entertainer's presence
here was Baptist minister Rev. Simeon Hall.

Rev. Hall, two weeks before the concert, wrote a letter to Mrs. Hanna
expressing his disapproval of the concert and outlined his views in
great detail as to why it should be scrapped. Rev Hall charged that
the Jamaican artist was associated with natty dread and dread locks
and feared that Bahamians would start fixing their hair in that
fashion and adopt the Rastafarian faith.

The commission however, rejected the reverend's arguments saying they
were unfounded and that the show would go on as planned.

And so he came, landing in The Bahamas on Thursday, Dec. 14, 1979,
where he was driven around in a motorcade and attended a press
conference staged by the commission. Then on Saturday, Dec. 16, he
made his way to the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre to excite an eagerly
awaiting crowd.

More than 6,000 attended the concert, believed to have raised about
$60,000 of the expected $300,000.

His death

Marley went back to Jamaica to perform other acts but there were
rumours circulating that he was ill and that his concert days were
numbered. He refuted those rumours and went on to perform an American
tour in late 1980.

However, he fell ill at a show at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Strangely, he was taken to a cancer hospital in New York for what was
described to the public as a case of "exhaustion." But doctors found
that the toe injury he received and neglected, while playing soccer
several years prior, had become cancerous. Through further medical
tests, it was determined that the cancer had spread to his brain,
lungs and stomach.

New York doctors gave him the best western treatments but after they
said they could not do anything further to help him, they recommended
that he fly to Bavaria for unconventional treatments. The
unconventional treatments helped only marginally for a short time. The
Bavarian doctor then determined that the cancer had affected too much
of the singer's internal organs and that he had no chance of recovering.

With the grim diagnosis, Marley left the hospital and said he wanted
to spend his last days in Jamaica but, on his way back, he became
extremely ill and had to deplane in Miami.

On May 11, 1981, Marley died in a Miami hospital. He was 36. His was
buried in his hometown of Nine Miles, Jamaica in grand style and was
later awarded Jamaica's Order of Merit for his humanitarian efforts,
considered one of the country's highest honours.

Meanwhile, back in The Bahamas, Marley's death affected many of his
followers and their desire to be more like him intensified. In fact,
members of The Bahamas Christian Council said following the reggae
star's passing, they noticed hundreds of young people parading around
the streets of New Providence in dreadlocks and smoking marijuana,
claiming to be Rastas.

And somehow the Christian Council got word that the Marley fever would
deepen as Rita Marley, his widow, was schedule to perform here in
April 1982, an act which was supposed to mimic the 1979 Bob Marley
concert. The government however, denied the report about a Rita
Marley's concert. It said there were no plans for her to perform here.