The Sunday Mail
Garikai Mazara
Bob Marley was not Jamaican. Neither was he Caribbean. Nor African.
He was a global icon and as such, no part of the world can claim to own him.
And there have been a few other individuals in the past century or so who went on to become global icons, opinion shapers and global influencers.
And it is not the intention of this article to deflect attention away from Bob Marley by mentioning such other luminaries.
Rather, Bob Marley deserves no equating, deserves no comparison for he was a trendsetter himself, largely touted as the first global superstar to emerge out of the Third World.
And rightly so.
Bob Marley died on May 11 1981, roughly a year after performing at Zimbabwe’s ground-breaking Independence celebrations on April 18 1980.
And he passed on roughly two years after releasing “Survival”, his eleventh studio album.
Maybe a run-down of the 10 tracks that make “Survival” might be eye-opening.
The album opens with “So Much Trouble in the World”, then comes “Zimbabwe”, “Top Rankin’”, “Babylon System”, “Survival”, “Africa Unite”, “One Drop”, “Ride Natty Ride”, “Ambush in The Night” and closes with “Wake Up and Live”.
Coming on the back of Kaya, Bob Marley is largely thought to have adopted the outwardly and open militancy on “Survival”, moving away from the laid-back tunes of Kaya.
That is largely an opinion, but what cannot be disputed is that he chose to celebrate Zimbabwe, then engaged in a protracted war with Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, when the signs of independence were not even in sight.
Some have used the word “prophet” to describe him, that he was a “seer” of things that ordinary people could not.
Maybe, maybe not.
Probably a listen to “One Love”, off the “Exodus” album, released two years earlier than “Zimbabwe” (in 1977), and which still remains iconic and relevant even today, 43 years after, speaks volumes of Bob Marley’s vision and power of lyrics.
But let us rewind a bit: around 8.30pm on December 3 1976, Bob Marley gets shot at.
That is two days before the Smile Jamaica concert, where he went on to perform in front of some 80 000 people at the National Heroes’ Park in Kingston.
As Jamaica prepared for its landmark elections in December 1976, of which Michael Manley’s supporters were engaged in deadly fights with Edward Seaga’s, Bob Marley organised the Smile Jamaica concert to help quell the violence.
Manley and Seaga were the two foremost antagonists in the Jamaican conflict.
With Manley bringing forward the elections to within 10 days of the concert (and probably a political decision to hold the vote when the concert was still fresh in people’s minds), Bob Marley was largely seen as a Manley sympathiser, thus the attempt on his life: to silence him partially, or even for good.
Being the Bob Marley that he was, the seer and unifier, he went ahead with the concert.
But after the elections, the violence did not abate, with the two leading opposing parties engaged in heavy violence, which threatened to tear Jamaica apart.
As Jamaica was on the verge of becoming torn along political lines, the One Love Peace concert was birthed and staged on April 22 1978.
By then Bob Marley was living in exile in London and always being the unifier, he consented to playing at the 16-band concert.
Never mind that his life had been on the line two years earlier.
With the National Stadium roaring and tears of joy flowing endlessly, Bob Marley, with “Jammin’” strumming in the background, took the hands of Manley and Seaga, and held them up to the cheering crowd.
The gesture was akin to holding up the hands of Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai in June 2008 at the National Sports Stadium.
Having successfully placed the conflict — and its resolution — firmly in the hands of none but Jamaicans, Bob Marley was to turn international attention the following year, 1979, onto Zimbabwe, with the release of the song — off the “Survival” album — that exhorted the world to look at the liberation of our country.
There has been a lot of literature on who made the decision to bring Bob Marley for the April 1980 celebrations.
Was it the Cliff Richard-loving Robert Mugabe?
Was it Edgar Tekere (widely rumoured to puff)? Was it Lord Soames (the Lancaster House settlement overseer)?
Was it a Zanu-PF unanimous decision?
Was it the hardliner Ian Smith?
Was it a Patriotic Front decision?
But then again, that is not the premise of this writing.
Whoever invited him, after penning “Zimbabwe” and bringing the throes of the protracted Rhodesian liberation war into global perspective and attention, Bob Marley then paid his own way to Harare, personally made sure his public address system was in town for the celebrations, and once Rhodesia was officially declared dead and Zimbabwe born, he took to the stage and paid tribute in song.
There is hardly no need to emphasise that “Zimbabwe” was the cornerstone of Bob Marley’s April 1980 Independence Day tribute.
Some, if not most, of us were too young to know the impact of Bob Marley then, so what we rely on is whatever is documented.
But sooner or later, that documentation will be erased by events, by history, which makes a compelling case for elevating Bob Marley to immortality in our socio-economic sphere.
But it is painful — is it not? — that 40 years have gone by, since Bob Marley came and celebrated the birth of Zimbabwe with us, 41 years after he released “Zimbabwe” and 39 years since he passed on, and we seem to have collectively forgotten about him.
Collective amnesia, if you may please.
What have we done to honour him? Celebrate him? The only global superstar to sing for us, with us and by us? Not even a street in his honour? Not even a statue? Not even an iconic building? Not even a school (preferably a music institute)?
Bob Marley was a Rastafarian and by their nature, these “rastas” have their own way with life: always huffing and puffing ganja and sporting dreadlocks, which some of our “well-meaning”, smartly dressed politicians might not subscribe to.
Maybe that is the reason why he has been lost on us, that he did not fit into the straitjacket?
But Bob Marley was in a class of his own: he cut across cultural, religious and political differences. His messages, not only on “Zimbabwe”, but most of his songs, still resonate today, just like they did four decades ago.
His influence across the globe has been defining, for it is not every generation that is blessed with a superstar that is easily recognised from every corner of the globe.
As Zimbabwe, the country, celebrates its 40 years of birth, it might as well find it in its conscience to remember its “son”, the indomitable Bob Marley, who passed away aged 36. He would have been 75 on February 6 this year. And next year it would be 40 years since he passed away; whichever year our Government — and our people — decide to honour him, it would still be an epic occasion.
But what better way to remember his iconic performance at Rufaro Stadium than by honouring him, through either a statue, street name, building or school, in his name.
This is just a thought.
And it is up to the leaders, to celebrate and remember Bob Marley, the first global superstar to come out of the Third World.
And the first global superstar to sing for Zimbabwe.
