“I don’t really have no ambition. I only have one thing fe I would really like to see happen. I’d like to see mankind live together, black, white, Chinee. That’s all.” – Bob Marley Robert Nesta Marley (later changed to Bob Marley by a passport official) was born on February 6, 1945 to Norval Sinclair Marley, a middle-aged white plantation owner from England, and Cedella Booker, a black teenage St. Ann native. Bob’s childhood was spent in the rural community of St. Ann’s Parish, Jamaica. Residents of this area have preserved many customs derived from their African ancestry, especially the art of storytelling, as a means of sharing traditions. The proverbs, fables and various chores associated with rural life that were inherent to Bob’s childhood …show more content…
The last time Bob Marley saw his father was when he was five years old. During this period of time, Norval took his son to Kingston to live with his nephew, a businessman, and attend school. However, eighteen months later, Bob returned home due to his mother discovering that he wasn’t going to school, and was living with an elderly couple. The next chapter of Bob Marley’s life commenced in the late 1950s when Bob, barely into his teens, left St. Ann and returned to Jamaica’s capital. He eventually settled in Trench Town, located in the western region of Kingston; a low-income community comprised of small settlements and government yard developments that housed a minimum of four families. Despite the poverty and despair, Trench Town was a culturally rich community where Bob Marley’s abundant musical talents were developed. A lifelong source of inspiration, Bob immortalized Trench Town in his songs “No Woman No Cry” (1974), “Trench Town Rock” (1975) and “Trench Town”, the latter released posthumously in 1983. By the early 1960s the island’s music industry was beginning to form, and its …show more content…
Many people today believe that reggae is an international style, widely perceived as a way for oppressed people to advocate for their beliefs and get their voice heard. Dodd did not make any significant changes in his label releases, despite Jamaica’s evolving music industry, and did not embrace the new lyrics of reggae, which embodied Rastafarian ideals and was essential to reggae’s development. As a result, overtime, the Wailer’s sales began to decline due to a lack of financial compensation from Dodd, eventually leading to their departure from Studio One. Simultaneously, Cedella Booker decided to move to the US state of Delaware in 1966. A few months later, Bob Marley married Rita Anderson, a well-known Cuban-Jamaican singer, and joined his mother in Delaware, where he worked as a lab assistant on an assembly line at a Chrysler factory under the alias Donald Marley. During his absence from Jamaica, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia visited the island from April 21-24, 1966. According to Rastafarian beliefs, His Majesty is believed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Through his visit to Jamaica, he had a profound impact on thousands of people, including Rita and Bob. Bob