Bob Marley: Jah’s Messenger of Love
To many of his ardent fans across the globe, Bob Marley is known as the ‘Legend!’ In-fact, many people don’t know any other meaning of the word ‘legend’ except as a definition for Marley!
But for his devout disciples, he is ‘Berhaine Selassie’ – The Light of the Trinity. For, it was by Divine inspiration that Bob was called to spread the message of love, and justice for all humanity with ‘Ras Tafari’ (Haile Selassie) – ‘The Power of the Trinity’, as his centrepiece.
Sadly, many Africans don’t really understand the profoundness and significance of Bob and the genre of his music in the scheme of Africa’s liberation! So, let’s unravel the mystery but for a while.
When the whole of Africa was under Western imperialists’ subjugation and colonisation following the Berlin conference which partitioned the continent in 1884/5, our only hope became none other than the world’s oldest Christian Empire, Abyssinia, Ethiopia.
And indeed she did not disappoint, but lived up to expectations when in March 1896 under Emperor Menelik II, she (Ethiopia) waged a chivalrous campaign against Italy’s colonial aspirations in the Battle of Adowa.
The defeat of the Italian forces stunned imperial Europe to the extent that it was even written in some of their Press that Menelik was a White man!
Fast-forward to September 23, 1930 when the rest of the world, including Imperial Europe, descends on Addis Ababa (Flower Town, so named by Menelik I), for the coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen, who now takes the Imperial name, Haile Selassie, in accord with the Kebra Negast (Law of Kings)!
But five years later, on the third of October, the Italian fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, spurred by a hatred and a longing to revenge his fathers’ humiliation of 1896, invaded Ethiopia and partially occupied the land.
Haile Selassie (who had joined the League of Nations much earlier) went in exile to Bath, England from where he launched a diplomatic campaign against Italy’s occupation, and finally drove away the fascists in 1941. Back in the Caribbean, especially the small island of Jamaica, a sect known as Ras Tafari, inspired by the teachings of Marcus Garvey (who urged Africans in the Diaspora to look to the east where a Black King shall be crowned) had already formed and was spreading the fervour of freedom for Africa.
And naturally, it came to pass that Ethiopia and Haile Selassie became Africa’s guiding light in that dark period of colonisation.
When, therefore the collective efforts begun by the African Diaspora with the likes of Henry Sylvester Williams, William Edward Burghandt Du Bois, C.L.R James, George Padmore etal, and later joined by Africans from the motherland, Jomo Kenyattas, Leopold Senghor and Kwame Nkrumah- culminated in the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in May 23, 1963, it was only fitting that Haile Selassie should preside as Chairman over that gathering.
Not only was it a symbolic gesture, but also an acknowledgement of the standing that Ethiopia holds for the rest of Africa. For it is the only unpolluted, unblemished, unadulterated, and uncontaminated region of Africa, which represents Africa in its pristine form!
Bob Marley, born in February 6, 1945 some 50 years after Marcus Garvey in the Parish of St. Ann, Jamaica, was a troubadour par excellence, invested with a message of love, freedom and justice, which ideals he infused and promoted with spiritual zeal.
With his friends – Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingstone – they formed the Wailing Wailers, later renamed The Wailers and finally Bob Marley and the Wailers following the departure of the other two, who had not only been the bastion of the band’s back-up harmony, but also contributed to writing songs.
Bob, would eventually replace them with the all-female trio of Rita Marley (nee Anderson); Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths – known simply as ‘The I Threes’. Let me not delve into the composition of the rest of the band, but suffice to acknowledge the bassist, Aston ‘Family Man’ Barrett, who died
February 3, 2024; and the lead guitarists, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson.
Marley’s music, as in his own words, ‘this music will go on, and on until it finds its right people’, has defied the test of time, since his transition on May 11th 1981 and appears destined for eternity. It has since transcended definitions of genre to assume the role of a ‘Gospel’.
From the slums of Trenchtown to international renown is the path this man blazed in his 36 years of earthly trod. He bequeathed us timeless messages wrapped in lyrical forms calling on us to stand up and fight for our rights; to board the Zion Train in this Exodus to Jerusalem!
Here is a man that singlehandedly fought the system with no guns or weapons but his guitar and words, to the extent that the liberation fighters of the Chimurenga struggle invited him to perform at Zimbabwe’s 1980 Independence celebrations in Fufaro stadium.
In Nairobi, Kenya en-route to Zimbabwe, a famous story is told of how Marley spurned Prince Charles (now King Charles III), who was also travelling to Rhodesia to take the Union Jack down to give way for the Zimbabwean banner!
It’s really ironic that King Charles’ son – Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle recently joined the premier of Bob Marley’s biopic, ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ in Kingston, Jamaica, but then that’s the power of Marley’s music – it transcends race, ethnicities, religions or ideologies!
Bob is a mystery. He is a Godsend. He once had a vision about wearing Haile Selassie’s ring, and felt it burning his finger. It would later come to pass when the Crown Prince, Asfaw Wossen gave him the ring once worn by Haile Selassie. He never took it off, but somehow during his interment, it suddenly disappeared!
Let us all go and watch the film, Bob Marley: One Love, and perchance find something of ourselves in this man’s incredible life story. Above all else, let’s enjoy the redemption songs he’s left us and allow him to fly away to Zion, since his work is over!
Only then, can we understand why the Ethiopian Orthodox Church gave him the name, Berhane Selassie!