The Evolution of Reggae Through - Bob's life takes new form Marley

By Winston Wilson, Jr., Staff reporter

Steffens and Marley

DURING AND after Roger Steffens' video presentation on Robert Nesta Marley jaws dropped and tongues wagged.

Accolades for the reggae king ricocheted off the walls of the University of Technology Auditorium on Friday night.

The revolutionary icon, his rebel worth and his hypnotic mystique took new form and lived in a brighter light.

The Caucasian New Yorker told sections of the reggae king's life with a two-and-a-half hour film that awed the capacity audience. When the screen went black, he received a one-minute standing ovation.

The exhibition was tagged 'The Evolution of Reggae Through Marley'. But Steffens had told The Gleaner before the start that it would be "the half that has never been told". And true to his word it was that and more.

When the lights came up during a pause, a dread-locked Rastafarian, wearing a t-shirt of a pensive Marley, puffed mightily on a big-headed ganja 'spliff'. He then reluctantly released the smoke in thick clouds, as if in salute to the Pandora's box being opened.

It had seemed impossible that reggae icon Robert Nesta Marley could be elevated to any higher esteem. But as Steffens unveiled his filmed, private collection, hands got sore from clapping and there were several very loud exclamations of "Wow!"

Steffens displayed 6000 Bob Marley and reggae music-related pieces of history from his collection which were narrated as the camera rolled. The 6000, he said, was only one per cent of his total collection that was on show at the Queen Mary complex, California, United States.

A 1972 black-and-white film clip of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley upstairs Tuff Gong playing guitars on (what we now know as) 'Nice Time' was shown. The reggae icon receiving the United Nations Peace Medal in 1978 was also part of the display.

Steffens 'hooked up' the audience with the Marley experience. He painted poignant portraits of the Nine Miles street boy, who even now (20 years after his death) remains a symbol of freedom and social consciousness; hope and heroism and revolutionary accomplishment to millions.

Marley's life was re-lived, from welder to struggling musician and finally to becoming one of the most accomplished musicians to date.

Bob Marley performing at Harvard Stadium in Boston, United States for African freedom fighters, scores of album jackets and reggae/Marley-decorated porcelain plates from all over the world and cutlery from Haile Selassie's palace were also shown.

The audience saw Marley's first television appearance in the United States, where he performed Kinky Reggae and learnt that his father was not an Englishman, but a white Jamaican.

Proving Bob Marley as world-revered, Steffen said that in addition to titles from institutions like Time Magazine and BBC, special recognition was also given by the New York Times. According to him, the newspaper asked their senior staff and critics to vote on what best represents the 20th century and Marley's album, Burning was chosen. The album has been put in a time capsule to be opened in the year 3000.

Omar Davies and Carolyn Cooper; Mortimer Planno and Clinton Hutton; 'bald-head' and 'Rasta', made up the audience, and were all riveted by the academic and folksy, conversational and insightful exhibition.

At the end of the presentation Steffens said he hoped one day the collection would come home to Jamaica, "where it belonged". But Carolyn Cooper, who was the emcee, was quick to assure that it was "probably doing Jamaica better where it was."

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