Bob Marley and Marijuana: A Song of Redemption

Bob Marley, the iconic Jamaican musician, not only left an indelible mark on the history of reggae music but also became a passionate advocate for the cannabis plant and freedom. Through his songs and words, Marley spread free and unprejudiced thoughts about this plant worldwide.

To commemorate Bob Marley’s upcoming anniversary on February 6th, today on the Cannactiva blog, we take a look back at Bob Marley’s biography: his connection with marijuana, his songs, and his influence on society’s perception of cannabis.

Bob Marley: The Seed of Free and Unprejudiced Thought on Cannabis

Wearing a red Adidas jacket and with his dreadlocks arranged for posterity, Bob Marley reflects while the singing of a group of birds can be heard over his voice. From what can be seen in the TV image, it’s a cloudy day, with a river and tall trees in the background.

“You understand it in one sense, and suddenly you say: marijuana, marijuana is a plant! I mean, plants are good for everything. Why do these people who ‘want to do good’ to everyone, to each one, who call themselves ‘rulers’ and this and that, why do they say we shouldn’t use the plant?”

He is in New Zealand, it’s the year 1979, and the most important musician in the history of Jamaica, the man who globalized and turned the rhythm of a small Caribbean island into a universal fashion, kicks the globe against the silence formed over the taboo subject of a plant considered a drug. Eight years earlier, US President Richard Nixon had declared that drugs, including marijuana, were Public Enemy Number One. Marley finishes his thought: “I always keep it in mind, and you hear them say ‘you shouldn’t smoke because it makes you a rebel’. A rebel against what?”

February 6: Bob Marley’s Birthday

Robert Nesta Marley, who would have turned 79 on this February 6, 2024, had he not been taken by cancer at 36, was something of a cultural shaman. With the fantastic spread of his reggae songs, with the arrival of his legendary personality in Europe, with the frenzy his songs caused in North America, the musician scattered across the world—like the winds over the desert—the seed of free and unprejudiced thinking about cannabis.

Marley’s Religious Connection with Marijuana and Rastafarianism

Marley’s experience with the plant is a religious one, derived from his faith in Rastafarianism, a spiritual movement originating in the slums of Kingstown, the Jamaican capital, in the early 20th century, with the center of belief in Africa. Essentially, this movement is based on the idea that Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie (known as Ras Tafari before ascending to the throne), who was said to belong to a dynasty descending from the biblical King Solomon, was considered the Messiah.

Sacramental Use of Cannabis in Rastafarian Belief

The sacramental use of the cannabis plant dates back thousands of years. Religions in India and China incorporated it into their mystical beliefs for its medicinal properties (unknown in those pre-scientific times) and from there, from its Hindu and Pan-African influences, the Rastafarians’ link to marijuana is derived, who hold the myth that it was found at the site of King Solomon’s tomb. Although there is no evidence for this belief, for them, the effect of THC the effect of THC opens their consciousness, enhances internal connection, and brings them closer to “Jah,” their god.

Marley as a Spiritual Figure and Natural Leader

Marley made his art a religious quest. In his time, Jamaica was experiencing political and social tensions, with stark economic inequalities, poverty, and political violence. Marley converted to Rastafarianism, a Jamaican religious movement that promoted racial equality and the sacramental use of marijuana.

He became the voice of the marginalized on a small island, and then that voice spread across the planet. In fact, American journalist and collector Roger Steffens, perhaps his best biographer, explains the phenomenon based on a spiritual theory.

In his book “So Much Things to Say“, many of the interviewees who knew him portray him as an archetypal figure of the Christian myth: a child born poor, son of a white man and a black woman, and discriminated against, then, by whites and blacks, who becomes a deeply spiritual person, a natural leader and also, why not, a prophet. “His live shows began to resemble gospel meetings with a preacher and his (female) choir,” writes Steffens.

The Evolution of Bob Marley & The Wailers

In 1963, at the age of 18, Marley joined forces with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh to form the group The Wailing Wailers, which was later joined by Junior Braithwaite and the backing vocalists Beverly Kelso and Cherry Smith. They released the single Simmer Down, a ska song depicting the street gangs of Kingston. Shortly after, they changed their name to The Wailers and a couple of years later, they became Bob Marley & The Wailers.

With this project, Bob arrived in England in 1972 and was signed by the small label Island Records, owned by a Jamaican music lover living in London, Chris Blackwell. The entrepreneur claims he gave him £4,000 to record an album. “I never thought I’d get anything out of that, but four months later he came back with Catch a fire,” he explained, referring to what would be the first Bob Marley & The Wailers album in Europe, the big bang of the legend.

The Impact of “Catch a Fire” in Europe

The first 20,000 copies of the original 1973 vinyl were designed by artists Rod Dyer and Bob Weiner to mimic Zippo lighters. The top of the lighter would open, and the record could be removed. But the technology of the time did not allow it to be manufactured on this massive scale, as it would increase the price significantly, so eventually, a photo was chosen for a simpler cover: a portrait of Marley smoking a joint.

The 60s and 70s were a time of social movements, protests, and political changes. Marley became a symbol of the fight for equality and freedom, especially in relation to the struggle against racial oppression and economic inequality.

Bob Marley’s music became a symbol of resistance and struggle for social justice around the world, changing the perception of cannabis as a plant associated with peace, equality and spirituality, at a time when it was heavily criminalized as an illegal and heavily banned drug.

The Attempted Assassination of Marley and His Call for Peace

In 1976 Marley incredibly survived a brutal assassination attempt against him and his band (presumed to be due to his pacifist political stance in a tumultuous Jamaica). One of the 86 bullets fired grazed his chest and lodged in his arm.

Two days after the shooting, with wounds still fresh, Bob appeared with his band at the Smile Jamaica festival where he attempted, once again, to call for peace. The concert went down in history and forced him into exile first in Nassau, Bahamas, and later in London, where he settled for a year and a half. Enough to change his career and his life, because there he composed and recorded two essential albums in his huge work: Exodus (1977), which precisely narrates his exile, and Kaya (1978), written to love and (love for) marijuana.

Kaya: An album on the importance of cannabis for Rastafarians

The musical ambience of Kaya reflects a more peaceful and harmonious state of mind, easier to relate to marijuana effects. Precisely because he was smoking joints all day, the police arrested Marley during his London days. Marylebone Magistrates’ Court found him guilty of possession on June 4, 1977 and punished him with a fine of £50.

Kaya was, without a doubt, a luminous response to the UK’s repressive security forces. “Excuse me while I light up my joint / My God, I’ve got to get my momentum going,” sings “Easy Skanking,” Kaya’s opening track, with a cadence so smooth that, just listening to it, one seems to enter the cannabis trip.

In the album’s title track, “Kaya,” Marley says that the joint gives him a high “that even touches the sky.” It was originally recorded in 1971, with production by wizard Lee Scratch Perry, when Marley was not yet the big star he was to become.

This is not a song about legalization but rather about the importance of “kaya” to Rastafarians: “Wake up and relax / the rain is falling / there’s gotta be kaya now, there’s gotta be kaya now, from the rain is falling / I’m so high / I even touch the sky above the falling rain / I feel so good in my neighborhood, that’s why I’m here.”

“Cannabis was an important part of my father’s spirituality and his music. He saw it as a tool to connect with the divine and to promote peace and equality.”

Ziggy Marley, músico de reggae jamaicano e hijo de Bob Marley 

Kaya became Marley’s highest charting album of original Marley tracks in the UK, reaching #4. Some critics at the time suggested that Marley had somehow traded his supposedly staunch political convictions for the production of an emotionally softer album in order to become popular.

“Bob always championed the right of people to use weed. He believed it made you free and allowed you to see things from a higher perspective.”

Peter Tosh, musician and Bob Marley’s partner in The Wailers

However, Bob told Hot Press magazine at the time of the album’s release back in 1978, “I never liked what politics really stands for,” adding that the new songs “don’t really take away from anything, it’s music, it can’t be political all the time.”

The point is that, even if he disguised it, Bob Marley was always a political man. It is not for nothing that his face has become an icon of the peoples’ struggle, like that of Che Guevara.

“A rebel against what?” asks Bob in 1979. More political than ever, he responds and hits the nail on the head: “They have material things and want to captivate your mind until they tell you: ‘go to work and we will give you a pension’. And they keep everything. Then the weed makes you look at yourself, and instead of wanting to work for a boss, you want to be the boss, like ‘why do I have to give in to this?’ The plant makes you see that you are your own boss, you own yourself for the first time. You do what you want, you don’t care what people say about you.” Amen.

Bob Marley died on May 11, 1981 in Miami, Florida. He was 36 years old and suffered from cancer, a malignant melanoma that originated in his left foot. Despite his diagnosis in 1977, Marley did not want to undergo an amputation, as it was contrary to his Rastafarian beliefs. He was buried in his birthplace, Nine Mile, Jamaica. His body was placed in a mausoleum with a Gibson Les Paul guitar and a bible. The exact location of his grave is a secret, perhaps someone will bring him, every day, a marijuana flower to celebrate his passing through the world of the living.