A Party For Bob Marley

By ’Dimeji Ogedengbe

I saw Ziggy and Damien Marley among other children popping champagne with their father and toasting to a longer life at a celebration for Bob Marley which held in Jamaica today. I saw wraps of Jamaican weed being passed round among the Rastafarians present at the party. I saw Barack Obama on dreadlocks puffing and bouncing to the left and to the right. Everyone was high and wild, like intoxicated illegal immigrants who have just been granted the American green card. Alas!

If my phone didn’t ring I wouldn’t have known I was only dreaming. It was all just a dream!

Here am I dreaming of Bob and his kids throwing a wild birthday gig; getting high on Marijuana and soaking up alcohol; meanwhile it’s already 29 years since Bob Marley’s death. Ain’t no party happening anywhere! At least, not a birthday party; not for Bob Marley. The Reggae god is long gone. Long. Gone! All of 29 years, and I’m here dreaming of a birthday gig! SMH.

But then, that shows us the two sides of a coin; the irony we all often ignore – the irony of birth and death.

In any part of the world where the subject of music evocation, activism, peace, revolution and freedom is being discussed, the service of a Rasta protégé would be recommended to quickly dash out to the grave side of the Rasta Prophet Bob Marley. To appease his spirit, chanting the hooks from his ‘Redemption song’ track, swindling his dreadlocks, jumping up and down like the man who is under the influence of an overdose of the Jamaican weed. That been done would automatically bestow the consent spirit of the world superstar, the Honourable Robert Nesta Marley on such gathering. That is what an African would call ‘RESPECT’.

Legends upon legends have gone six feet down the ground. Those who made positive and negative impacts before Bob Marley and after him have fallen out of the race of life. The sepulchres have taken all the riches, brains and extraordinary talents that the living are supposed to be enriched with. Who will unravel the mystery of death to us? The wisest thing to do with life is to enjoy it while it lasts, but never without leaving a positive mark engraved on the mind of your friends, family, fans and followers. Anything else would amount to waste; a wasted life.

I was only born a year after he passed on, but guess what, I met something – his legacy. His motivating and hope-filled songs still represent what he stood for. He was one of the most charismatic and challenging performers that ever visited this world. He was a prophet’s prophet and an advocate’s advocate. He was the evangelist of love, unity and peace that sought to change the world long before the UN embarked on the mission.

Robert Nesta Marley has been gone for almost three decades. But Bob Marley is here with us. With you, with me. He’s here – the hairstyles, the lyrics, the quotes, the message, the devotion, the philosophy. Bob Marley will always be here. Always.

So, maybe it’s fine to throw a Marley party then? Where’s the Sensi?