BOB MARLEY FEBRUARY 6-1945

BOB MARLEY FEBRUARY 6-1945

Murphy Browne © February 6-2020

Nesta Robert Marley was born on February 6, 1945 in St Ann Parish, Jamaica, which is also the birthplace of the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. Marley transitioned to the ancestral realm on May 11, 1981 when he was 36 years old. During his relatively short life, Marley achieved superstar status internationally, performing reggae music. Marley also became an unofficial ambassador of the Rastafari faith, a Pan-African religion. He inspired many Africans on the continent and the Diaspora to proudly wear their natural hair in locs. Even some who do not adhere to the Rastafari faith proudly sport their locs.

Some of Marley’s lyrics educated about the history of Africans. “Buffalo soldiers” tells the story of enslaved Africans throughout the Americas. “Buffalo soldier, dreadlocked Rasta. There was a Buffalo Soldier in the heart of America. Stolen from Africa, brought to America. Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival. If you know your history then you would know where you're coming from, then you wouldn't have to ask me who the heck do I think I am. Driven from the mainland to the heart of the Caribbean.” Our ancestors were stolen from Africa, kidnapped and transported in the filthy holds of ships to work their entire lives enriching the White men and women who worked them to death in places like Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Cuba, Chile, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Peru, Suriname and the USA. The wealth that the coerced, unpaid labour of enslaved Africans generated for White people is still being enjoyed by their descendants in the 21st century.

In 1979 Marley sang: “Africa, Unite

'Cause we're moving right out of Babylon

And we're going to our father's land

How good and how pleasant it would be

Before God and man

To see the unification of all Africans”

 “Africa Unite” is Bob Marley’s Pan-African anthem. For those who want to remember Marley as merely the man who sang “One Love,” the image of a Pan-Africanist Marley is hard to take. Similar to the whitewashed “dreamer” image of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., there is a movement to strip Marley of his Pan-African reality. Many songs Marley wrote and sang, clearly illustrate his philosophy. Listening to the lyrics of songs from his “Survival” album is to hear his protests against “Babylon System.”

The lyrics of Marley’s “Babylon System” leave no doubt that he adhered to the philosophies of his fellow Jamaican and Pan-Africanist, the Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey. “We refuse to be, what you wanted us to be. We are what we are. That's the way it’s going to be (if you don't know.) You can't educate I, for no equal opportunity. Talking 'bout my freedom, people freedom and liberty. Yeah, we've been trodding on the winepress. Much too long rebel, rebel. Babylon system is the vampire. Sucking the children day by day. Sucking the blood of the sufferers.” The “Babylon System” to which Marley refers is the same system that racially profiles Africans in Canada, the USA, the UK etc., Those people who claim to love Marley’s music yet are part of the system that racially profiles our youth here in Toronto need to listen to Marley’s “Uprising,” “Survival” and “Confrontation” albums. The lyrics of Marley’s “War” where he uses the words of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, will certainly give them something to talk and think about.

His Majesty made his speech to the United Nations in 1963 and the speech was published in 1972 in the book “Important Utterances of H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I 1963-1972.” The lyrics of Marley’s song “War” from the album “Rastaman Vibrations” which was released in 1976, include: “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned. Everywhere is war, me say war. That until there’s no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation; until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes. Me say war. That until that day, the dream of lasting peace, world citizenship, rule of international morality, will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued, but never attained.”



Bob Marley would have celebrated his 75th birthday on February 6, 2020. His birthday is celebrated wherever his music is heard. Almost 30 years ago, in 1991, former Toronto Mayor Art Eggleton made a “Bob Marley Day” proclamation from City Hall. Marley is one of our heroes who contributed to the cause of Africa and Africans worldwide and deserves to be remembered.

Murphy Browne © February 6-2020