No Woman No Cry - In Bob Marley's backyard.

One of Jamaica's most famous sons - Nesta Robert Marley

I MUST say the fun started the moment the British Airways flight took off from Gatwick Airport, just outside London that morning. I had arrived at dawn at Heathrow on a flight out of Kuala Lumpur, then hopped on an airport transfer coach for Gatwick.
 The 10-hour flight was to take me to Kingston in Jamaica, birthplace of the reggae music, Bob Marley's backyard, home to some of the fastest men and women on earth, the Rasta movement, and indeed 'weed', if you know what I mean.

 From Kingston, I was to fly south to Jamaica's resort town of Montego Bay, a resort town of white sandy beaches on the southern Atlantic coast, lined by palm trees, the blue sea, graced by sounds of reggae and steel band music, filled with happy people and always lulled by even more weed.
 I wasn't actually a fan of reggae music then, not even now by the way, although I have heard of Bob Marley and his band, the Wailers, Peter Tosh and the more recent UB40's 'Red Red Wine'.
 The genre of music has a history that is somewhat still being debated to this day although musical historians somewhat agreed that it began to take root in the early 1960s in Jamaica. The music didn't look back thereafter and in 1985, the Grammy's eventually introduced 'the best reggae music' category in its annual awards.
 Many reggae songs tells about social imbalances, political consciousness and even Apartheid during height of the world's movement against racism then widespread in southern Africa. It is also widely known that many reggae songs promote the use of cannabis, or herb, or weed, as some others would call it.
 Rasta meanwhile came from the Rastafari movement which surfaced around the 1930s in Jamaica. As a place populated mostly by descendants of slaves from Africa, the movement worship the former emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, them believing that the place was where mankind first evolved.
 This movement too encourages the supposedly spiritual use of, what else but cannabis, and promotes rejection of western society.
 But never mind all that. All I knew was that during taxiing before it took off, the British Airways plane had Bob Marley's 'No Woman No Cry' on its cabin speakers. I wasn't really bothered about what the song was trying to promote, or to tell, but I knew that I was in for one great time.
 I did not get out of the Kingston airport as it was a short stop before the jetliner took to the air once more for Montego Bay. But while the plane was making its final approach, I could see that it was a big and busy place.


A beach in Montego Bay

 It was just a short hop thereafter to Montego Bay and the first Jamaican who spoke to me that day, the guy who stamped my passport, said I was lucky as I had arrived on the day Jamaicans were remembering the day of death of theirs and one of the world's reggae icons, Nesta Robert Marley, or simply Bob Marley as the world knew him.
 So throughout the day, I heard Bob Marley's songs being aired all over town and other souvenirs bearing the legend's name and portrait were being sold everywhere
 Montego Bay is a seaside resort town. There were several international-class resorts there offering six-star accomodation and facilities. All the quoted prices were in US dollars. In fact, the American dollar was readily accepted, without the need to change them into the local currency.
 At night, the hotel I stayed in prepared a sumptous seafood dinner on the beach. The weather was pleasant, with a slight wind blowing as I tucked a baked lobster and a fried crab into my empty stomach after dipping them in the very spicy Jerk sauce, a sauce that also has its roots in Africa.
 Soon musicians appeared and as a tribute to Bob Marley, that evening they sang his songs. There was 'Redemption Song'; 'Buffalo Soldier' and of course the famous 'I Shot The Sheriff'.
 Perhaps in rememberance of the man and the Rasta movement he upheld which like I've written earlier, idolises among others, cannabis, the air on that beach that night was filled with the distinct smell of 'weed'. Needless to say, soon, everybody was having a great time.

ENDS