adminThe Herald, 21 May, 1981
BOB Marley, the renowned reggae musician will be buried in Kingston, Jamaica, today. It will be his first and last trip home since he left “for good” in 1976.
The Prime Minister, Mr Edward Seaga, will deliver the eulogy at the funeral. Marley, the world’s leading exponent of reggae, died of cancer of the brain and lungs in a Miami hospital on May 11.
A spokesman for Island Records in New York said the office had received a “flood, an outpouring of grief” from Marley’s fans in America.
Marley left Jamaica after he escaped an apparent assassination attempt during stormy political battle over the Prime Ministership of the island in 1976 and never returned.
He was born in Jamaica, the son of an English army captain and a local Jamaican woman.
His father died when he was nine, and he grew up in poverty in St Ann, the same suburb where he will be buried.
Tomorrow his body will lie “in state” in the national arena in Kingston. He is being mourned by audiences all over the world who appreciated the music of Marley and the Wailers, the group he played with all his years as a musician.
Reggae was one of the earliest Third World forms of popular music to make a mark here and in Britain, and in many other parts of the world, especially Africa.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
Home is best. No matter how far people travel away from their homes most always find their way back. Bob Marley left Jamaica in 1976 “for good” but he found his way back even though he had passed on.
Bob Marley was an international music icon as his music was loved throughout the world including in Zimbabwe when he achieved iconic stature after performing live during the country’s independence celebrations on 18 April 1980, where he sang the song Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter