Robert Nesta Marley, born on February 6, 1945 in Rhoden Hall, Nine Miles, St. Ann, Jamaica to Cedella Malcolm and Captain Norval Sinclair Marley (white Jamaican originally from Sussex, England, whose family claimed Syrian Jewish origins) was the son of a black teenage mother and much older white father. His father died when he was 10 years old, and his mother moved with him to Kingston’s Trenchtown neighbourhood after his death.
Marley became a spokesperson for his faith and for his people, becoming the first major public face of Rastafari and using his influence to speak openly about black liberation, Pan-Africanism, fundamental social justice, and relief from poverty and oppression, particularly for black Jamaicans, but also for oppressed people throughout the world.
Marley agitated for social change while allowing listeners
to forget their troubles and dance
In 1977, Marley found a wound on his foot, which he believed to be a soccer injury, but was later discovered to be malignant melanoma. Doctors recommended an amputation of his toe, but he refused for religious reasons. The cancer eventually spread. When he finally decided to get medical help (in 1980), the cancer had become terminal. He wanted to die in Jamaica, but could not withstand the flight home, and died in Miami. His final recording, at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Theatre, was recorded and released for posterity as Bob Marley and the Wailers Live Forever.
Bob Marley was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994; in December 1999, his 1977 album “Exodus” was named Album of the Century by Time Magazine and his song “One Love” was designated Song of the Millennium by the BBC.
Bob Marley married Alpharita Constantia Anderson, known as Rita, on February 10, 1966, in Kingston. The couple had three children, Cedella, Ziggy, and Stephen. Bob had children from other relationships and also adopted the children Rita had borne from other affairs.