Bob Marley: the Man & His Music

This lively collection of essays, coming out of the 1995 symposium held in Jamaica to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Bob Marley's birth, is a distinctive contribution to the substantial body of knowledge on 'glocal' reggae that circulates in cyberspace and on the ground. 'Glocal' signifies the local specificity of reggae in its indigenous context of first production - Jamaica. 'Glocal' simultaneously acknowledges reggae's global dispersal and adaptation in other local contexts of consumption and transformation. Co-sponsored by the Bob Marley Foundation and the International Reggae Studies Centre at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, the symposium provided an opportunity for scholars and cultural practitioners from Jamaica and around the world to consider the international flowering of reggae, particularly as manifested in the prolific career of Marley, Jamaica's most distinguished cultural ambassador. The essays in this text will attract readers from every spectrum. For the academics and the sophisticated 'layman', the papers serve as an initial base which allows critical discourse around Bob's lyrics, music, language and message, discourse which will increase as we become more and more aware of the timeliness and relevance of his existence in an increasingly turbulent world. Altogether, these essays suggest the breadth of Bob Marley's vision and the importance of his contribution to Jamaican society and world culture. Speaking from a variety of perspectives, the authors engage in a cross-cultural conversation, a reasoning that illuminates the many meanings of the work of the man whose birth we celebrate.