The legacy of Bob Marley

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(1)" Explore #bobmarley." #bobmarley - DeviantArt. Accessed January 7, 2017. http://www.deviantart.com/tag/bobmarley.

(2) Moore, Jeffrey I. "30 Bob Marley Quotes On Life, Love and Money - Everyday Power." Inspirational Quotes | Motivational Blog | Images | Pictures. March 19, 2004. Accessed January 3, 2017. http://everydaypowerblog.com/2014/03/22/bob-marley-quotes-life/

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DEVELOPMENT

Biography

To fully understand how Bob Marley became the symbol he was and still be and why he wanted to realize that, it’s important to understand how his background and all the difficulties he has overcame during his life were sources of inspirations.

Robert Nesta Marley alias Bob Marley was born on the 6th of February 1945 on the farm of his maternal grandfather in Nine Mile, Saint Ann in the North of Jamaica. His parents were Normal Sinclair Marley and Cedella Booker. His father was a white European man and his mother was a black Jamaican. (3) At this period being in love with a black girl was not easy due to rights equity. He was a captain in the Royal Marines and he met Bob’s mother when he was on deployment, a Jamaican teenager, only a few times but he was already in love. (3) The lovers got married shortly after the birth of their son but Norval left their home shortly after it happened because of his family who strongly disapproved of their union due to racism issues. However, he still gave financial support.

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When Bob was only five years old, the captain took him to Kingston, the capital of the Island, saying that it was to live with his nephew, a businessman and to attend school leaving the mother alone without any news. (4) But one day, almost eighteen months later, she learned that Bob had not followed any lessons and was living with an aged couple without any member of his family. Shocked, she went to the capital, found Bob and brought him at the farm at Nine Miles, his native town. (4)

Therefore, he spent his childhood in the poor community of Nine Miles, situated in the mountainous terrain of the parish of St Ann, the largest parish in Jamaica on the North coast of the Island.

(3) Marley Family. "The Official Site." Bob Marley. Accessed November 22, 2016. http://www.bobmarley.com/

(4) "THE DREAD LIBRARY." Debate Central - Since 1994. Accessed December 20, 2016. https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/dorsey.html

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[pic 2]

Figure 2: Jamaica parishes map (5)

As the years passed, Cedella was alone to educate Bob. She started having difficulties earning a living and as her husband died when their son was only 10, she no longer received financial support. So, she decided to leave the parish with her son and move to Kingston’s Trenchtown neighbourhood, a low-income community where different families were living together in different. Bob didn’t have any other option than to learn how to defend himself and his mother against Trench Town evil-minded men. Apart from enemies, he also made new friends like Neville Livingstone alias "Bunny". Sharing the same interest and love for music and being conquered by the desire to learn more about what is really the music and its impact, those two young boys took a class given by Joe Higgs, a Jamaican singer. During this time, the two teenagers became friend with one of their classmates named Peter Macintosh aka Peter Tosh. (6) 9

The colourful and diversified culture of Kingston inspired Bob Marley in his music and more specially in his lyrics and in his lifestyle. In fact, it’s in this town that he began playing music., which he saw as a way out of poverty but mostly as a means to create change in society.

“I don’t have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated I would be a damn fool” – Bob Marley (7)

At this period, the Jamaican’s music industry was becoming more and more famous, and it’s development gave birth to a new style of music which was focused on the indigenous popular songs called Ska: the reggae (see glossary). It was a kind of American soul and R&B.

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(5) Jamaica Country Parishes Map. Accessed January 7, 2017. http://www.emapsworld.com/jamaica-parishes-map.html.

(6) McHugh, Catherine. "7 Fascinating Facts About Bob Marley." Biography.com. May 06, 2016. Accessed December 20, 2016. http://www.biography.com/news/bob-marley-biography-facts.

(7) Costa, Adam. "137 Bob Marley Quotes on Life, Love, and Happiness." KeepInspiringme. February 4, 2016. Accessed January 4, 2017. http://www.keepinspiring.me/bob-marley-quotes/.`

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At this time, Bob's dream was to become a globally recognized musician, he searched for any opportunity to achieve it. The rise in the popularity of the rastafarism (see glossary) and of the Jamaican music was the chance he needed. Being helped by the singer named Jimmy Cliff, he had the honour to meet Leslie Kong, Beverley's label owner, and audition when he was only 17 years old. He then recorded two singles called 'Judge Not' and 'One More Cup of Coffee' in the label’s studios. These didn’t succeed, but this failure did not discourage him. Together with his classmates Bunny and Peter, he formed a vocal reggae group called “Wailing Wailers” in 1963 when they started to record their first singles and make their first successes. (3)

In addition of being influenced by the different parts of his life and its difficulties he has overcame, the artist was witness of a society in which he was very interested but not able to understand how people were able to be so cruel with one another. His music is really a projection of his soul he formed during his whole life and his weapon to solve the different social issues in the World.

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Issues : Slavery and Black and white issue

Before and during the life of the singer, there was a real issue about the equity in the rights of the black and the white people majorly centred in the United States.

In fact, early in the history of the country, black Africans