Letter of the Day | He is not a hero, he is a legend

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Many younger people today may not even know about the assassination attempt on Bob Marley’s life, and those who were old enough at the time may have forgotten. Bob, his wife Rita, and manager Don Taylor, were shot in December 1976, exactly 45 years ago, at the Marley 56 Hope Road home. The motive was to prevent Bob from performing at the Smile Jamaica concert. But Bob would not be intimidated, despite warnings that he could be shot again.

He emerged two days after the shooting, with his injured wife, both bandaged, to demand peace. As he walked up the steps to the stage, he sang War, inspired by Emperor Haile Selassie’s 1968 address to the United Nations. In memorable defiance, Bob belted out the song of hope, repeating Selassie’s optimism that “We know we shall win (the war for peace), as we are confident in the victory of good over evil”.

Soon after this criminal attempt on the life of Jamaica’s most famous citizen, Bob penned a rebuke to the plan to eliminate him. His Ambush in the Night is a testament to those interested in a crime plan for our murder capital. Marley predicted that “this music is going to grow and grow, until it finds its right people”. He wrote the message in this song on behalf of the youth in the belly of the Jamaican ghetto, and describes his own encounter with gunmen thus:

“Ambush in the night all guns aiming at me

Ambush in the night they opened fire on me”

Listen to Bob’s condemnation of those who, in their fight for power, clandestinely invest in crime, and who tried to prevent his performance in support of peace at the Smile Concert 1976:

“Through political strategy they keep us hungry

And when you gonna get some food

Your brother got to be your enemy”

In a clear reference to those who pulled the trigger, becoming pawns of “political strategists”:

“… and we are so ignorant that every time they can reach us”

Too often society does not listen to the victim of crime, but with Ambush in the Night, we have no choice but hear what it feels like to be on the other end of the gun. In our pervasive revenge culture, no one would have been surprised by subsequent violence to settle the score. But, surviving an attempt on his life without retaliating, and braving the politically motivated forces of discord, disunity, and enemies of peace in Jamaica, to perform on the open stage – then turning that experience into a positive message to our youth, makes him not a hero but, in the words of his backup singers the I-Threes in their tribute to Bob, He is a Legend.

BERT SAMUELS

ATTORNEY-AT-LAW