Letter of the Day | Make Bob Marley a national hero

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Why have successive governments failed miserably in declaring Bob Marley, the people’s authentic prophet and poet alongside Marcus Garvey, a national hero? Especially since Independence, the slave mentality still throttles a great many of us, including, of course, our post-Independence leaders.

This fact is borne out most forcefully yet again by the latest round of chatter, mostly from high places, about which Jamaican(s) should or should not be declared a national hero. In my opinion, any effort to debunk any move to place Bob in the pantheon of our existing seven national heroes is mean-spirited and coming out of self-righteous bleat.

It was the late historian C.L.R. James who advanced the view that an immature society exhibits its backwardness by its generosity in denigrating public and private figures, seeing to it that anyone who is on the make is unmade, defaming character if it appears to be gathering glitter, and targeting the weakness of others rather than their strengths. Happily, none of this rules out the possibility of the emergence and functioning of individuals who turn out to be better than the very society that spawns them. They, by their dedicated service, vision, and strength of character, can rise above the dint of folly and bequeath maxims of prudence, values and inspiration for future action.

There is universal celebration of the resonance and redemptive powers of Bob’s timeless music, which, lest we forget, was the anthem of the freedom fighters in Zimbabwe and apartheid South Africa. His music, which formed the background melody accompanying the revolutionary and historic breaking down of the Berlin Wall, propelled him into the universally prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the first international superstar from the so-called Third World. His album Exodus was Time magazine’s (1999) Album of the 20th Century, and the song One Love voted by the BBC as Song of the Century, in 2007, underscoring the heroic legend that he is.

All of this, and a great deal more, make elevating Bob Marley to national hero a mere formality. As such, I say to our leaders: let’s get on with it!

EVERTON PRYCE

Justice of the Peace