Get up, stand up, get up for your right!; One Love, One Heart, Let get together and feel alright!: those are lyrics and words that will last for centuries to come. Whenever I think of Marley and remember that there are still fathers, mothers, uncles and aunties who are still alive and are of same age with Bob, there is this smile that hits my face. The tale of Robert Nesta Marley is like the tale of the ancient Greek wall lord; Achilles who died in the battle of Troy but is still remembered since he died. Born in the month of Febraury in 1945 at Nine Mile, British Jamaica; was not just an ordinary man who was to make music, but someone who would champion a whole new era of pop culture. Marley’s Reggae Music was one of the major announcers of this blessed genre of music to the world. This is because Marley was able to cross boarders even when there was no internet or 21st century technology. His lyrics of love, freedom and civil rights is one that cannot be matched by any musician. He knew how to make words of love sip through someone’s soul when he marches his voice to the composition of the Wailers. Bob Marley can be rated in same category with The Beatles and Michael Jackson when it come to their influence in music, pop culture and world reach. He is true a legend to be remembered for ages.
However, Bob Marley can be regarded as a Stained Legend because of one of his ideologies which is misread by lots of young individual. Marley being a Rastafarian and a known smoker of Indian hem, affected the world in different ways that stained his good legendary works. In Africa, especially Nigeria where I am from, People have lost their mind trying to copy the looks and ideas of the great Nesta. Many have lost their life and visions just because of blind followership of Nesta. It can be proved that average Indian hem abusers in Africa and most Black Countries are all fans of Marley. In the ghettos of Lagos, Kampala and in south Africa; one will always find young men and women getting high on daily basis. They speak the Rastafarian gospel with boldness and vigor supporting the abuse of the good but harmful Narcotic. The truth however is that many of these individual really don’t know what it means to be a real Rasta. They only use the disguise of a world renowned figure to support the vanity ways which they have adopted.
Speaking to a Rasta man I once bumped into at a bus stop in Lagos Nigeria; it made me understand that lazy-wayward individuals are mostly the propagator of the Rastafarian religion in ghettos. What these individual forget is that humans are machined in different ways. Some have the capacity to hold down the effect of Indian hem and other narcotics just like Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. While some are so weak that just a drag of the unfiltered rap of a hem can make them go psycho in a matter of minutes.
In summary Bob Marley can regarded as a good gift to the world because he fourth for freedom, love and rights of humans in world. People who experienced the evil of racism, human right abuse and lack of love grew in strength and confidence when they listened to the songs of Marley and Wailers. However the personal life of Marley proved to be a stain to his legacy because it was abused by people of little knowledge abused it and made it a curse that might just linger on as long as the great Bob Marley lives the hearts of the world.
