KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Scores of reggae fans from across the globe placed roses before a statue of Bob Marley yesterday to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of the musician, whose charismatic, loose-limbed stage presence and lyrics promoting “one love” took the Jamaican musical genre to an international audience.
Tourists watched as three clerics from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church spread incense and holy water around the Bob Marley Museum, the singer’s former home in the capital of Kingston. Rastafarians who gathered around the property spoke in reverential tones about the icon of reggae music who died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.
“We’re trying to quietly and somberly honour and recognise his life on this day,” said Jackie Lynch-Stewart, general manager of the Bob Marley Foundation.
Roger Steffens, a Marley historian and reggae archivist, said Marley’s music remains alive 30 years after his death “because the situations that Bob was singing about are exactly the same situations we’re undergoing today.”
“He told us that if we stand up for ourselves we can bring about change, that love conquers evil and that a divine spark animates us all,” Steffens said in an email. “Bob spoke to the best in each of us and is an enduring symbol of rebellion for youth everywhere.”
Born in 1945, Marley came of age in the gritty Trench Town community of Kingston and later shot to global stardom with hits including ‘Get Up, Stand Up’ and ‘No Woman, No Cry.’ His lyrics promoting social justice and African unity made him an icon in developing countries.
In his Jamaica, Marley’s legend was cemented in 1978 when he famously united warring political leaders Michael Manley and Edward Seaga in a solidarity handshake during his One Love Peace Concert in Kingston — a moment that has become immortalized in Jamaican consciousness.
