The Zion Bus trundled up Fern Gully and into the mountains of Jamaica. Eli, the driver, honked his chrome horn around the tight bends, warning oncoming drivers that we were coming.
Many years before, this same bus had been filled with squawking chickens and sacks of coffee beans. Now it was decorated in graffiti and ferried pilgrims off to Nine Mile, the birthplace and final resting place of Bob Marley.
On May 11, 1981 Marley died in a Miami hospital, desperately trying to get back to this little Jamaican village. He was only 36 years old, but he’d already changed the world.
Nine years before, a group of dreadlocked young men from Trenchtown – the roughest part of Kingston – strutted into Island Records in London, England. They came out with 4,000 British pounds, which was enough to record their first album.
Chris Blackwell, the head of Island Records, was warned that he’d never see the money again, but a few months later, Marley and the Wailers returned with Catch A Fire. Within the year, Get Up, Stand Up and I Shot the Sheriff had rocketed to the top of the charts and the infectious rhythms of Jamaican Reggae were everywhere.
Those early songs were playing on a pair of scratchy speakers taped to the roof of the Zion bus and up we went into the mountains. Nine Mile is west of the more famous Blue Mountains, a place known for its coffee beans. Outside the bumping bus, we could see patches of a different sort of crop – marijuana plants as high as haystacks.
About five per cent of Jamaicans are Rastafarian, a homespun offshoot of Christianity that recognizes Haile Selassie – the former emperor of Ethiopia – as the second coming. Marley’s song Exodus draws parallels between the slave ships of Africa and the Diaspora of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Famously, Rastafarians also have a great fondness for “the spiritual use of cannabis” and when we finally entered Nine Mile, the smell of it was everywhere.
Marley himself was born to a white plantation overseer named Norval Sinclair Marley and an 18-year-old black girl named Cedella Booker. His father was never really a part of his life.
For a time, Marley lived with his mother in the United States where he worked on the assembly line of a Chrysler plant. In 1966, he married Rita, the love of his life.
On the path up to his grave, you can stop in a long room that holds many of his gold records.
It is often assumed that Bob Marley died from lung cancer as a direct result of his love for marijuana, but this isn’t true.
In 1978, Marley was playing an impromptu soccer game in Europe with some of his bandmates. He stubbed a toe so badly that he lost a part of the toenail and when a doctor had a quick look at it, he noticed something under the nail. Tests showed it to be a rare form of skin cancer that it is not linked to sun exposure.
Marley continued touring and recording and refused treatment, adhering to his Rastafarian faith. Only later, when it had spread through his body, did he arrive at a German clinic specializing in holistic treatments.
In 1981, he collapsed in Central Park in New York and the decision was made to fly him back to Jamaica for the end, but he didn’t make it, dying in a Miami hospital.
Just outside the tiny house where Bob Marley was born, Eli showed us a flat rock with a sort of indentation in it.
“Bob, he lay down here when he was a boy,” said Eli in his Jamaican lilt. “Like a pillow. He be looking up at the stars and be dreaming about his future.”
And for the poor country boy, born out here in the Jamaican mountains, what a future it would be.
Round up a few of his quotes to mark the 30 years since his death:
"Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet."
"Do you have a record contract? I have a recording agreement. What’s the difference? One is an agreement and one is a contract! I am a man who deals by ear."
"I don’t stand for the black man’s side, I don’ t stand for the white man’s side. I stand for God’s side."
"I love the development of our music, that’s what I really dig about the whole thing. How we’ve tried to develop, y’know? It grows. That’s why every day people come forward with new songs. Music goes on forever."
"I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all."
"I like Wagner’s music much better than anybody’s. It’s so loud that one can talk the whole time without people hearing you."
"I pledged to work for righteousness. God’s given me inspiration. God’s the boss, he tell me what to do."
"Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality . Wake Up and live!"
"I have a BMW. But only because BMW stands for Bob Marley and The Wailers, and not because I need an expensive car."
"I drive a jeep. An old jeep, so nobody will say I’m driving a BMW anymore. I couldn’t stand that BMW. BMW make pure trouble!"
"People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people."
"Politics no interest me. Never play with peoples minds."
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