One Love

Today marks the 30th year since we lost reggae legend and activist Bob Marley. People across the world today are remembering the legacy the 36 year-old artist through celebration of his life and craft. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican of English descent whose family came from Essex, England. Norval was a captain in the Royal Marines, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, an Afro-Jamaican then 18 years old. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. In 1955, when Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at age 60. Marley faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:

“I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”

The London footprint left by Bob Marley includes a Bayswater B&B, a Chelsea townhouse and the unlikely setting of a school gym in Peckham. Guide books tend to point visitors to an apartment block in Camden, where a heritage plaque unveiled in 2006 honours the Jamaican musician at his former north London home. Robert Nesta Marley lived at 34 Ridgmount Gardens in 1972 when he first came to England, just as his group the Wailers were making a name for themselves.





They also lived in the somewhat bizarre confines of a semi-detached house in Neasden. From here Marley & Co would have enjoyed panoramic views of the North Circular, parts of Wembley and the Welsh Harp by Brent Reservoir.

1977 brought another sojourn in London for Marley, this time for nearly two years as he and the Wailers decamped a Chelsea townhouse at 42, Oakley Street. The financial constraints of the past were gone; the reggae star could afford a cook and was able to bankroll a huge entourage. Marley had a cosy retreat at the top of the house where he was visited by his girlfriend Cindy Breakspeare, a former Miss World.

It was also a highly creative time and the Wailers went on to make a further two albums, Exodus and Kaya, the latter recorded in a converted laundry in Ravenscourt Park. This was the era of hits such as Jammin', One Love and Waiting in Vain. It was also here that a cancerous tumour was discovered in Marley's toe, which later would spread fatally to the rest of his body. Within three years reggae's global ambassador would be dead, leaving a wife, 13 children and no will - and a back catalogue of music that would be mined, reversioned and reissued for decades to come.



Marley is considered by many to be one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Most critics agree that no other musician has single-handedly held such sway over a music genre the way Marley did with reggae.

Bob Marley also helped popularise Rastafarianism, which venerates the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. Selassie, who was deposed in 1974 and died in 1975 (many people believe he was murdered), is hailed by Rastafarians as an incarnation of God.

Bob Marley, who was born Robert Nesta Marley, grew up dirt poor on the streets of Kingston, Jamaica. Much of his music aims to lift up the impoverished and powerless, and anthems like "Get Up Stand Up" and "I Shot the Sheriff" carry a strong antiauthoritarian streak.

At a young age Marley fell in with the Rastafarians—known as the blackheart men among the Kingston residents who feared them. The Rastas then were a group of street preachers who taught the Bible and smoked marijuana.


Haile Selassie in 1934


Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, the only African country not to have been colonised.

Although its roots go back to the early 1900s, Rastafarianism takes its name from Ras (Prince or Duke) Tafari Makonnen, Haile Selassie's name until he was crowned emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. The faith predicted that a new king with the power of God would rise out of Africa.

Many of Bob Marley's songs had an African connection. "Exodus" and "Redemption Song," for example, decried racism and the European colonisation of Africa, and celebrated freedom from oppression.


Bob Marley and the Wailers, Dalymount Park, Dublin


I only saw him once the summer before he died when Bob and the wailers played their only Irish gig on 6th July 1980 at Dalymount Park in Phibsboro, the home ground of Dublin’s Bohemian Football club. It was a precious memory and despite the lousy sound quality a great concert. But it had its surreal moments also. Behind Bob, The Wailers And his backing singers The I-trees was a large cloth banner in Rasta colours of the Emperor Ras Tafari with the Lion of Judah in the background. By way of contrast in front of the stage being wildly distracting were a group of 30 Dublin skin heads moshing and jumping up and down. I remember Marley looking askance at them on a number of occasions – like the rest of us he wasn’t sure seeing these animated skinheads if Jah would be there. I’m not sure the skinheads “got it.”

Later that year Bob Marley and the Wailers played in New York City in September 1980 (Madison Square Garden), as support to The Commodores. Two days after this concert Bob Marley collapsed in Central Park, and was diagnosed with cancer. He died a few months later on 11th May 1981. What a great journey Marley had made from Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. To his fellow Rasta he is on that journey still.

"One love, one heart, one destiny."

Bob Marley

Nesta Robert "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981)

http://www.bobmarley-foundation.com/foundation.html