Bob’s Ethiopian pilgrimage
Jamaica Observer’s
The
Entertainment Desk presents the 23rd in a series titled Bob Marley — The Last 40 Days to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his passing.
ETHIOPIA, birthplace of HIM Emperor Haile Selassie, is the spiritual home for members of the Rastafari community.
Bob Marley made his pilgrimage to the ‘holy land’ in 1979.
“The man (Bob) come look fi mi ah Addis Abba. Mi did down deh ah coach and play football. I was a player-coach for Ethiopian Airlines FC (football club),” former Jamaica national player, Allan “Skill” Cole
— Marley’s manager and confidant — told the Jamaica Observer.
“Him (Marley) waan come to di land. Like nuff Rastaman, him waan come to di land. He spent a couple days — three or four,” the 70-yearold continued.
Marley and Cole were members of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Selassie had reserved 500 hectares (1,200 acres) of land in the fertile region of Shashamane as a gesture to descendants of slaves eager to return to the motherland. Many Twelve Tribes members had settled there.
Selassie began a three-day State visit to Jamaica on April 21, 1966, when Marley was living in Delaware. Cole had relocated to the east African country in the Christmas of 1976, shortly after Marley was shot at his Hope Road residence. By January 1977, he was in charge of the Ethiopian football squad.
He said Marley enjoyed his days by playing football and meeting other Jamaican acquaintances who called Ethiopia home. Cole also took Marley on the town.
“Mi carry him go Shashamane; and him go Hot Water Spring; and
(Addis) Mercato, one of di biggest market inna Africa where you can get everything there... It’s a very big, big, big market. Coronation Market (in downtown Kingston) can whole in it about 50 to 100 times,” he said.
The crowning glory of Marley’s trip, however, came when he met an old Twelve Tribes of Israel colleague,
Donald “Flippin” Leach.
The former Santos striker said he and Marley took Leach to the airport when he was leaving Jamaica for Ethiopia in 1975.
“He (Leach) gave him (Bob) di song Zimbabwe before everybody; about 20-odd of us in the apartment. He (Leach) then take di guitar and run it down. Then Bob take di guitar an’ sey: ‘Bwoy, mi come yah come get a hit song’. And then he took out a Motorola tape and sey: ‘Make wi run it,” said Cole.
“That song (Zimbabwe) was written before Bob come to Ethiopia. And, of course, with all of that, a deh so we set up all di show fi go Zimbabwe because they were just about to get their independence and the man dem link wi. Right deh so, Don Taylor and everybody, wi just hook dem up,” he continued.
Leach’s name does not appear on the album credits.
Zimbabwe appeared on Bob Marley and The Wailers’ 11th studio album, Survival, released in October 1979. Marley performed the song at the Rufaro Stadium in Harare, Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) for its independence celebrations in on April 18, 1980.
Cole said he stayed in Ethiopia until July 1980 when he joined Marley in France for the
European leg of his Uprising Tour.
Marley collapsed during the tour’s United States leg in September 1980. An injury to his right toe during a previous football game had caused cancer to spread throughout his body. He performed at the Stanley Theater on September 23 in Pittsburgh after which Cole pulled the plug on the remaining gigs, for him to seek treatment.
Marley spent seven months in West Germany as a patient of Dr Josef Issels. When his health deteriorated even further, he decided to return to Jamaica.
His condition worsened en route to Jamaica and he was rushed to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (later University of Miami Hospital) where he died on May 11, 1981. He was 36 years old.