Remembering Bob Marley

Bob Marley died 29 years ago today.

Bob Marley was an activist for social justice whose interpreted life with a unique visionary of a soothsayer. His message has proven that it would survive the taste of time. No wonder Time magazine named him the Rock Musician of the Century. His Legend album has remained on the Billboard top 100 for over 15 years.

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In his song, Natural Mystic, Bob Marley sings:

“There’s a natural mystic blowing through the air

If you listen carefully now you will hear

This could be the first trumpet, might as well be the last

Many more will have to suffer

Many more will have to die- don’t ask me why.

Things are not the way they used to be

I won’t tell you no lie

One and all have to face reality now.

‘Thou I’ve tried to find the answer to all the questions they ask

‘Thou I know it’s impossible to go living through the past

Don’t tell no lie…”

Placing the message of this lyric in our world's context, one has this sense that those who listen carefully to the heartbeat of the world know that our current situation “could be the first trumpet and might as well be the last”. The daily threats to world peace are signs of danger. Then, there is the obvious realization that before it becomes good, it has to be worse. Which means that “many more will have to suffer, many more will have to die.”

The change our world has undergone in recent years is tremendous. “Things are not the way they used to be.” A lot of hidden fractures have been brought to the fore. It is therefore necessary for citizens of our world to take an honest look at themselves. In the words of Bob Marley, “one and all have to face the reality now.” What is the world's reality? How do we face it? By dialogue or by shying away from reconciliation in pretence that things will work out somehow? Is it not apparent that we shall be lying to ourselves if we hope there is a way to continue to go through life living in the past?

Bob Marley’s music is a treasure that those in-tune with the trials and tribulation of the world, especially the oppressed people of this world truly appreciate. Bob Marley had his distrust about western mentality and how it has distorted the natural order of things. Bob Marley protested “We refused to be/ what they wanted us to be/ We are what we want/ That’s the way it’s going to be.” But is it the way it is? Are we what they wanted us to be or are we what we are?

In his song Zimbabwe, Bob Marley opinioned that “Every man got the right to decide his destiny.” Has it been true for us? Has it? Do we know our destiny? Do we have the feeling that we have the right to decide our destiny? Or are we just running and running and running away, hoping to run away from ourselves? To those running away in that manner, Bob Marley said they must have done something wrong. They must have done something they do not want anybody to know.

What have we done wrong? Sold the Gods of our forefathers? Why are we so busy running away from ourselves? How come we have this high affinity for places that will make us think we are living in heaven while we are actually living in hell? Is our eyes open? Are we satisfied with the life we are living? Do we ever ask why they made the world so hard? Do we ever care that everyday our people are dying, from hunger and starvation? In Africa, 5000 people die of AIDS everyday. To give everyone on earth clean water, the UN estimates that it would cost $17 billion dollars. Somehow, the money has not been forthcoming?

In his song Positive Vibration, Bob Marley sings that:

“If you get down and quarrel everyday

You’re saying prayers to the devil, I say

Why not love one another all the way

Makes it much easier…

Say you can leave that negative way

If you know what I mean

Make way for the positive day…”

A look at the contemporary issues of our time brings these concerns to the mind. We quarrel everyday; to whom do we say prayers? The devil? From India to Chile up to America- to whom do we say prayers to? It is all negatives everywhere. When shall we see the positive day? From Iraq to Sudan, from London to Russia, when shall we see the positive day?

Born in the ghetto of Rhoden hall, St. Ann, Jamaica on February 6th 1945, Bob Marley grew up in troubled Jamaican Trench Town where he witnessed social and political injustices on his people. When he dropped out of school and began a musical career with the likes of Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and David Livingstone, Bob Marley had the zeal of a lion out to tear down the chains around the feet of the oppressed. Using his songs as a medium of communication, he rekindled the conscience of all and sundry with music decorated with philosophy and lyrics manifesting the moods and emotions of the downtrodden. Robert Nesta Marley died on May 11th 1981 at the age of 36. David Diop captured the essence of Bob Marley’s message in his poem, Vultures. He wrote:

“In those days

When civilization kicked us in the face

When holy water slapped our cringing brow

The vultures built in the shadow of their talons

The bloodstained monument of tutelage…

Of promises broken at the point of a gun

Of foreigners who did not seem human

Who knew all the books but did not know love

But we whose hands fertilize the womb of the earth

In spite of your songs of pride

In spite of the desolated villages of torn Africa

Hope was preserved in us as in a fortress

And from the mines of Swaziland to the factories of Europe

Spring will be reborn under our bright steps.”

May the spring of black man’s renaissance be reborn under the bright steps of Bob Marley.