No one did more to bring the island of Jamaica, with all its vibrant sounds and glorious colours, to the world's attention than Bob Marley. In fact, to the world at large, Bob Marley is Jamaica – the man who made reggae and Rastafarianism a global phenomenon, and transformed Kingston and Trench Town into places of pilgrimage. And nowhere in Kingston is more charged with his legacy than his former home, the Bob Marley Museum – a museum dedicated to a legend.
Marley moved into this white-board 19th-century mansion (now decked out in red, green and gold) in 1975, and lived here until his death in 1981. His wife, Rita, helped turn it into a museum in 1987, wanting to provide somewhere for Bob's legion of fans and admirers to come and learn more about the man, his music and his life. Watch films about the early days of reggae, the spread of this, the first 'world music', and the extraordinary life of Bob Marley in the small cinema.
Bob Marley was born in nearby Trench Town in 1945, and became an early innovator in the Jamaican music scene, as it moved from ska to rocksteady to reggae, in the 1960s. While the early ‘70s saw Bob Marley and the Wailers explode across the world, he spent much time here, in the latter half of the decade. 56 Hope Road was both his studio and home. A failed attempt on his life, in 1976, also took place in this house.
His simple bedroom has been preserved as it was, filled with posters of his heroes, Rastafarian symbols and, of course, his guitar. There is also a photo gallery documenting the journey of Nesta Robert Marley, from local lad to global icon. And if you really want to get into the rasta swing of things, the Museum's restaurant – Legend Café – serves up the vegetarian ital food that Bob ate through his adult life.
Bob Marley may have died far from home in Miami (having finally succumbed to the cancer he was diagnosed with in 1980) but the legend lives on. A visit to the Bob Marley Museum will help make that legend burn a little brighter.
