The Mannenberg and The Book Café in Fife Avenue have over the last few years become the reggae hub in Harare, regularly featuring the likes of the legendary Transit Crew of 30 years standing, and fresh blood ‘Micinity’ – both of whom fill the two venues on Saturday and Wednesday nights, respectively.

Monday 11 May will be the end of what rastafari call the ‘strong-end’ of the Bob Marley commemoration. At the time of writing the lineup includes Ras Jabu (Trevor Hall) and Crucial Mix, Lighthead Family, 3 Wise Men, King Kodza, Jnr Banton, Calabash, Daddy Distress, Iawata, Sista Eyahra, Xapa and Sista Fyah – a hot lineup for a unique event which will be celebrated throughout the world on that Monday night.

ROBERT NESTA MARLEY was born in the Garden Parish of St Ann’s in Jamaica in 1945, to a white father and black mother. From his early youth Bob showed outstanding talent for music and lyrical composition.

Like many young musicians in Jamaica, he started off playing ‘ska’, which was influenced by rhythm n blues, with serious lyrics, then into ‘rock steady’, a slowed down version of ska with more bass guitar influence starting with 2 chords on second and fourt beats, during 1965-69, and then developed in reggae with more bass guitar and more percussion rhythm chords on second and fourth beats and very serious lyrics now coming from the influence of Rastafari cultural music to the commercial form of reggae.

Musical stardom was seen as the only escape route from the poverty and frustration of ghetto life in Jamaica. In 1958 Bob moved to Trenchtown in west Kingston, where he lived for three years. Here he embraced the philosophy of Rastafari from the elders of the movement. He recalls these years with nostalgia in the classic song ‘No Woman No Cry’.

In 1962 Bob teamed up with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and the Barrett Brothers, Carlton and Family Man who had formed the group Wailing Wailers, later called ‘The Wailers’. They became the most successful musical ensemble ever to come out of Jamaica. For over a decade they attracted big audiences wherever they performed, in Europe, America and the Caribbean. The reggae idiom reached out to a growing white audience who were increasingly able to sympathise and identify with aspects of the black struggle. The message of peace and love was sung in a cool militancy that inspired a post-war generation seeking answers to the pressures of the modern world. The Wailers articulated this hope, they were messenger of a new and equitable world order, hence the inspiration and motivation that reggae music gave to our liberation fighters during the liberations struggle for an independent African continent.

With the rise of Rastafari, through Bob Marley’s lyrical content of his music, he was widely seen as a prophetical spokesman for the Rastafari movement. His flowing dreadlocks and winning smile featured on thousands of posters across the world, became a household symbol of liberation from oppression and social injustice. Bob’s lyrics became the catchphrase of the masses. By the late 1970s, Bob was acclaimed from the Caribbean to Japan, from the Americas to Africa, from Europe to Australia and the Pacific isles, and the premier ambassador of world peace and good will.

In 1980, for the Independence of Zimbabwe, Bob Marley &The Wailers graced Zimbabwe to help to lower the British flag and hoist the Zimbabwe flag. The song ‘Zimbabwe’ which went around the world highlighting and brining awareness to Zim, and was sung at Independence, bore great significance for Bob Marley and The Wailers as they had worked to inspire and motivate Zimbabweans during the liberation struggle.

His passing on 11 May 1981 shook the world. Since then Zimbabweans have commemorated Bob Marley and his works, with the first big Bob Marley commemoration involving many local reggae artists held in the Harare Gardens in 1987. Annual commemorations have been organised and led by Ras Jabu - a longstanding and well-respected reggae musician and promoter, participating and working with reggae artists of the region.

The Mannenberg Jazz Club falls under Pamberi Trust’s Harare Culture House umbrella, which combines arts development with business, providing facilities for training, performance, and development of reggae, jazz, mbira, theatre and many other genres and disciplines. Pamberi Trust is registered with the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, and its programmes include youth, gender, poetry, information and HIV/Aids.

_______

COMMEMORATION: The Rt Hon ROBERT NESTA MARLEY, O.M. (1945-1981)

The Mannenberg Jazz Club, Fife Ave

Monday 11 May 2009, From 10pm