Business and Financial events

Business and Financial stories and conversations making headlines across the globe.

Conversation across cities

Dialogues and conversations across diverse cities and people globally

Old Mombasa

History of the Kadhi Courts in Kenya.

Soul Almighty the formative years

A long-awaited look at some of the most intriguing and highly anticipated material of Bob Marley's entire career, compelling experiments that have been locked away in the vaults ever since the late 1960s.

Global Power

Impact of global currency shifts on policies that directly impact on societies.

Feb 28, 2008

Robert Nesta Marley "The Biography"

Robert Nesta Marley
BORN: February 6, 1945, St. Ann, Jamaica
DIED: May 11, 1981, Miami, FL

In the year 1944, Captain Norval Marley married a young Jamaican girl named Cedalla Booker. On February 6, 1945 at two thirty in the morning their son, Robert Nesta Marley was born in his grandfather's house. Soon after Bob was born his father left his mother. He did however give financial support and occasionally returned to see his son.

It was now the late fifties, jobs were scarce in Jamaica, so Bob followed his mother from their home in St. Ann to Trenchtown (West Kingston) to seek employment in the big city. Trenchtown got it's name because it was built over a ditch which drained the sewage of old Kingston. In Trenchtown Bob spent a lot of his time with his good friend Neville Livingstone who people called by his nickname, Bunny. Also in the big city Bob was more exposed to the music which he had loved, including such greats as Fats Domino and Ray Charles. Bob and Bunny attended a music class together which was held by the famous Jamaican singer Joe Higgs. In that class they met Peter Macintosh and soon became good friends.

In the meantime Jamaican music evolving and became very popular throughout the Caribbean due to it's invention of Ska music. When Bob was 16, he started to follow his dream of becoming a musician. Music to many young Jamaicans was an escape from the harshness of everyday life. One of those kids was Jimmy Cliff who at the age of 14 had already recorded a couple of hits. After meeting Bob, Jimmy introduced him to Leslie Kong, a local record producer. Bob followed his advice and auditioned for Leslie Kong. Bob's musical talents shone much more brightly then anyone else that day and found himself in the studio recording his first single "Judge Not". Unfortunately neither "Judge Not" nor his 1962 single "One more cup of Coffee" did very well. Bob soon left Kong after she failed to give him his pay.

The following year Bob, Bunny and some other friends formed the Wailing Wailers.