Emerging from the shadow of the Gong

A flurry of tweets and Facebook posts advising that Damian 'Jr Gong' Marley would be speaking on his career at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, on Friday, February 10, brought a decent turnout to the Assembly Hall, despite the short notice.

The session was staged by the Department of Literatures in English, and their poster boasting images of Shakespeare, Bob Marley, Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul, Jean Rhys, T.S. Elliott and Jimmy Cliff suggests that the department embraces different kinds of texts.

Indeed, the talk was staged to complement the reggae poetry course taught by main organiser, Professor Carolyn Cooper. The talk is also well timed, as February is Reggae Month. Cooper explained that she had asked Marley to give the talk at last week's Trench Town Rock concert and it had only been confirmed last Thursday night, hence the limited advertising.

Another member of the department, Tanya Shirley, was the evening's opening act, and she delivered a few of the pieces of her 'dancehall' poetry, a jaw-dropping orgy of sensuality and spirituality.

The cavernous room that is the Assembly Hall isn't the best place to have a talk. The sound is horrendous. Yet it was a good session where Damian fielded numerous questions, giving his views on talent, spirituality, music and his mother.

Several of the questions were posed almost expecting that Marley would be critical of those who espouse different views. He was asked what he thinks of Vybz Kartel, and he expressed admiration for Kartel's talent even though he does not agree with all his life choices.

One of the questions that obviously would have been voiced spoke to the idea of Damian Marley being born with a silver spoon.

According to him, however, people don't merely listen because he's Bob Marley's son. He pointed out that people needed to realise that success takes more than talent; it takes hard work. When asked about working with his brothers, he pointed out that music was just one of the things that they did together, and he referred to Stephen's influence as that of producer and big brother. The dynamic between the two is always intriguing to watch on stage.

Damian admits to having come to music when, as a very young child, he pretended to be his legendary father. Now, several albums into his own career, and no longer having to declare "a me name Jr Gong", he has been able to embrace his father's magnetic shadow without being swallowed by it.

His rise even received its own pop-culture reference in the post-apocalyptic film, I am Legend, when a reference to Bob is mistaken for a reference to him. Though of all of Marley's sons Damian is not the most physically similar, something about his relaxed yet confident stance on the stage echoes Bob Marley, and certainly his music bears Marley's rebel/'rude bwoy' spirit transmitted through a dancehall aesthetic.

The talk reveals a man clearly still on a journey who appears to be willing to accept several viewpoints. He is able to speak of his achievements without showing hubris, and at the end of the night, he said more than a few things that were worth remembering:

"It's not about being a Marley, it's about being a human being.

"It's a privilege to be remembered. I can't tell people how to remember me.

"I think religion is a guiding tool to spirituality.

"Follow your passions responsibly."

The previous article, with minor changes, was taken from The Bitter Beans Weblog, a publication done by Tanya Batson Savage.