Why Is Bob Marley's Life Influence Literacy?

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What would it feel like to change the world for many people, even when there are many men and women who disprove that type of lifestyle? Bob Marley has been respected for his literacy contribution, and though the themes are controversial his life influenced the literacy. Robert Nesta Marley, better known as Bob Marley, was born on February 6, 1945 in Jamaica to a British naval officer, Norman Marley and a Jamaican woman, Cedellar Booker (Bob, Encyclopedia of World Biography). Marley completed his education at a private school in Kington, Jamaica (Sims, 6). While growing up, Marley showed a great amount of interest in music, “By 1959 Marley was taking singing lessons, honing his guitar skills, and performing in local talent shows” (Bob, St. …show more content…

Marley had dreads as a style because the cutting of the hair was forbidden in his religion (Bob, Encyclopedia of World Biography). Rastafarianism also included “…the divinity of the late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, preaching peace, love, and racial reconciliation, promising repatriation to Zion…Marley wore his hair fourteen-inch-long ‘dreadlocks’ or ‘natty dreads’ (long serpentine plaits of hair that according to tradition were never cut or combed), chain-smoked ‘spliffs’ of the ‘holy herb’, was a vegetarian, and abhorred the use of alcohol” (Sims, 6). Marley became really involved in the religion which lead to also incorporating his faith into his music (Bob, St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture). In the year 1979, “Bob Marley was a global superstar fighting accusations of selling out his roots with the deliberately commercial Kaya by reigniting his political conscience with that year’s Survival (Needs, 1). Marley became a powerful political ion in Jamaica, “Marley did not just sing about social justice; he practiced what he preached. He took on series of community projects, at one time supporting more than 6,000 people with food, jobs, and housing. He invested in schools and infrastructure in Jamaica” (Bob, …show more content…

He wanted his music to inspire others, let others be aware of what is going on in the world, “Marely first authentically reggae songs drew on Caribbean myths, ghetto scenes, Old Testaments verses, and radical sentiments” (Bob, Encyclopedia of World Biography). Marley thought of music as a way of learning about yourselves and your history, things that schools won’t teach you (Bogues, 1). As a teen, Marley and his friends created a band called The Teenagers, which they ended up changing it to the Waling Rudeboys, and then the Wailing Wailers. Once the group got back together after starting solo careers they became known as Bob Marley and the Wailers (Sims, 7). Marley was more than singer, he was a composer, guitarist and lyricist (Sims, 5). As a musician, Marley “sold more than twenty million record albums – worth approximately $190 million…” (Sims, 6). On December 3,1976, Marley survived as assassination attempt, “seven gunmen with automatic weapons stormed Marley’s home, critically wounding Don Taylor, the entertainment manager at the time, and injuring Marley and his wife, Rita. In spite of the incident, Marley performed at the concert as scheduled, displaying his wounds to an audience of more than eighty thousand people” (Sims, 7). In spite of almost dying, Marley

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