Bob Marley

These people seem to have a pride and confidence in their talents - a pride and confidence that western educational and employment systems seem to conspire against. .
             The pace of life in Jamaica also seems to be more in keeping with the rhythms of nature: rising with the sun, people are active from early morning until the sun goes down. Such a harnessing of man's soul to the day's natural process seems to allow the creative forces a greater freedom to emerge. .
             So it was for Nesta Robert Marley. In the cool of first daylight or long after sunset he could be found, with or without his spar Bunny, strumming his sardine-can guitar and trying out melodies and harmonies - his only solace apart from football. .
             Joe Higgs: Nesta's First Mentor.
             For often Nesta would feel alienated in the city. Considered a white boy, his complexion would often bring out the worst in people: after all, why was this boy from 'country' living down in the ghetto and not uptown with all the other light skin people? .
             Being tested so consistently can virtually destroy someone; or, on the other hand, it can resolutely build their character. Such daily bullying ultimately created the iron will and overpowering self-confidence in Nesta. .
             In 1960 Bob began to take part in the evening music sessions held by Joe Higgs in his Third Street yard. One of the area's most famous residents and a musically prominent Rasta, Higgs was subjected to police brutality during the political riots in Trench Town in May 1959. This experience only strengthened him in his resolve; Higgs used the music clinics to motivate the youth. Higgs was as conscious in his actions as in his lyrics; these included publicly espousing the unmentionable, radical subject of Rastafari, which was growing by quantum leaps among the ghetto sufferahs. .
             Another of the male role models who appeared consistently through the course of Nesta's life, Joe Higgs assiduously coached the fifteen-year-old and his spar Bunny in the art of harmonizing: he would advise Bob to sing all the time, to strengthen his voice.