Most people know Bob Marley as the man who single handedly revolutionized the genre of music called reggae. What most people do not know is that how Bob brought the religion of Rastafari to the mainstream, and was the political leader for the people of poverty stricken Jamaica as well as many Africans. He was a symbol of freedom for all that faced oppression and racial distress. .
Bob was born on February sixth 1945, in Nine Mile, Jamaica. Nine Mile is a small hamlet located in the rolling hills of tropical Jamaica (Nine Mile alone has more than 200 species of indigenous trees flowering plants). The people of Nine Mile have no running water so they collect rainwater in a giant reservoir located in the center of town. ("Life" bobmarley.com) .
In 1957 Bob's mother moved him from Nine Mile to live in the capital of Jamaica, Kingston. There, he went to Stepney School where he met Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. Bob, Peter, and Bunny would later be the founding members for the band The Wailing Wailers. Bob, Peter, and Bunny learned the fundamentals of music from Joe Higgs, a man who offered a music clinic for anyone who had enough ambition. (Corvette, 128).
Mother moved him from Nine Mile to live in the capital of Jamaica, Kingston. There, he went to Stepney School where he met Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. Bob, Peter, and Bunny would later be the founding members for the band The Wailing Wailers. Bob, Peter, and Bunny learned the fundamentals of music from Joe Higgs, a man who offered a music clinic for anyone who had enough ambition.(Corvette, 128).
The band soon changed their name to The Wailers and began to record for their first album. Bob released his first single, One Cup of Coffee, at the age of sixteen.
The name The Wailers represented more than just a style of singing. The name also represented the pain and anguish the boys suffered while growing up in the ghettos of Kingston.