Bob re bob

To commemorate the birthday of the reggae legend Bob Marley, Jamaica annually hosts a week-long celebration from February 6 to 9, writes Ashok Rai.

To commemorate the birthday of the reggae legend Bob Marley, Jamaica annually hosts a week-long celebration from February 6 to 9.

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Musicians and singers of all genres from different parts of the world come together in Kingston Jamaica to sing, jam and make merry.

In profile
This legendary Rastafarian, Bob Marley, was born Robert Nesta Marley on February 6, 1945, in rural St Ann’s Parish to a middle-aged white father and a black mother.

He left home when he was 14 to pursue a music career in Kingston, becoming a pupil of the local singer and devout Rastafarian Joe Higgs.

Marley died at the age of 36 in a hospital at Miami on May 11, 1981, due to cancer. Marley was known as the ‘the first Third World superstar’. In 1963 he had teamed up with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingston, Junior Braithwaite, Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith to form the vocal group the Teenagers which subsequently came to be known as the Wailers. “One world, one love” was his abiding theme.