THE BEGINNING

Born to Cedella Malcolm and Norval Marley on Tuesday February 6, 1945 at 2:30 am weighing 6 1/2 pounds in the village of Nine Miles St. Ann was Robert Nesta Marley called by many Bob Marley.

Bob's mother was a Jamaican who grew up with her father Omeriah Malcolm in Nine Miles St. Ann. Ciddy, as she was commonly called met Bob's father Norval Marley of the British West India Regiment two years after he moved there. Marley was a pipe puffing superintendent for the crown lands, who came riding into Nine Miles on a fine government bought horse trying to induce poor country people; to sow crops or even resettle in the deepest sections on the 'John Williams' jungle, the largely inhabited 'bridal lands' beyond the point where the crudest roads quit. Those were his activities in the day, at nights he was busy romancing with 'Ciddy' who was seventeen-year-old at the time with Norval being two or three years her senior. Out of this secret relationship came Bob Marley.

A couple of months after Bob was born his father left, but Bob had a happy childhood regardless. He lived with his mother, grandfather and other extended family in the steep hills of Rhoden Hill.

Tragedy struck and Bob's Grandfather died in 1957 and so most of the family migrated to the United States of America and Bob and his mother moved to Trench Town Kingston.

Trench Town was a housing scheme, built after the 1951 hurricane had destroyed the area's squatter camps. These camps which had gradually grown up around West Kingston had been built around the former Kingston refuge dump, where the country folks and displaced city dwellers would scavenge for whatever they could find. The area had been a sugar plantation, owned by the Lindos, one of the twenty-one families that are said to rule Jamaica.

Like other city dwellers Cedella came from the quiet rural surroundings to Jamaica's capital in search of work and excitement. As a youth Bob knew from an early age exactly what he wanted in life, he was not caught up in the negative existence of the ghetto bad boy profile. Bob was not a side walk bully, although Pauline (who was living in the community at the time when Bob was a youth) says, "if a guy come for him an' trouble him, he can defend himself." Even then Bob operated on several levels; on one hand he was affable, openly eager to assist. "He was a very easy going person, he was never rude or anything, him never aggressive and him always irie to me even as a kid coming from school, then on the other hand he was a loner, it was always the 'man and his guitar,' he was very moody, if people were sitting together with him, he would suddenly just get up and go somewhere else, just to be by himself," Pauline explained.

Six years after moving to Kingston at age eighteen (18) Bob met Rita Anderson who he later made his wife after three years of courting on February 10 1966, four days after his 21st birthday. Out of Bob and Rita's marriage came David (Ziggy), Stephen, Cedella and Stephanie Marley; a union inclusive of Rita's first child Sharon. Bob, however, had other outside children - Jah Nesta, Julian, Karen and Kimani Marley who were accepted openly by Rita. At the time of Bob's death there were eight children that were publicly known, but since Bob's death there has been an estimate of about twenty-two children that Bob Marley has fathered.

HIS MUSIC

Bob's music started way back in the 1950's when he was allegedly kidnapped by his father Norval Marley when he was just five years old and taken to Kingston and it is at this time he learnt about music. When he returned to Nine Miles he wanted to do nothing but play or sing. He started playing music using two sticks and tapping on a vegetable bin, his first guitar was made out of a large herring pan with strings attached to a wooden fret work.

In 1962 two years after Bob and his mother moved to Kingston the group 'Teenagers' was formed and the name was later changed to the 'Wailers' the members included Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer and Bob Marley. Their first album was "Judge not" which was well accepted. Then came "Catch a Fire" and "Burning" which were both critically acclaimed.

Bob Marley has contributed significantly to Jamaica and the world. His songs took on real life stories, the group did more than entertain and their music translated a remarkable style and brought to the forefront the pain and feelings of million of people throughout the world.

HIS DEATH

There were many things that led up to Bob's death which takes me to the incident that happened on the morning of September 21, 1980 when Bob and his friend Skelly was jogging in Central Park, New York and he collapsed. Bob said, "I felt my body freezing."

After the incident the decision was taken to admit Bob in the Manhattan's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and he underwent radium treatment that caused the locks around his head and templates to drop off.

After extensive treatment Bob's health deteriorated. We hold close the memory of one instance when Ciddy stood at his bedside, clutching his hand he turned and said to her "I'll be alright. I am going to prepare a place."

He died just before noon on May 11, 1981, only forty hours after he left Germany. At that moment in Kingston, Judy Mowatt was sitting on the veranda of her home on the outskirts of Liguanea section of Kingston when a great burst of thunder shook the heavens and a bolt of lightening hurtled through her open window glancing off the framed photograph of Bob on her mantle piece. Frightened, her children began to cry; after calming them down Judy turned on the radio and heard the JBC bulletin that Bob was gone.

Tens of thousands of mourners Jamaicans, Africans, Americans, Europeans and West Indians attended the funeral which was a state funeral. His last performance was on the 23rd September 1980 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Bob now rest in peace at his birth place in Nine Miles, St. Ann.

He remains one of the greatest superstars of all time.

Long live the Crowned King Of Reggae Music. The Legend Robert Nesta Marley O.M. Jah Live.

Awards and honors

1976 - Band of the Year (Rolling Stone)
June 1978 - Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United
Nations
February 1981 - Awarded Jamaica's third highest honor, the Order of Merit
1999 - Album of the Century (Time Magazine) for Exodus)
February 2001 - A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
February 2001 - Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award