1 The Country Boy

CHAPTER 1 The Country Boy By the time Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1945, the island country of Jamaica had been ruled by Great Britain for nearly three hundred years. Bob's father, Norval Marley, was a white man who was employed by the British government. Norval's job was to manage

government-owned property in the village of Nine Mile in the district of Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. A parish is another name for a county. Jamaica has fourteen parishes. Norval was a little over sixty years old when he moved to a small shack in Nine Mile. He soon fell in love with Cedella Malcolm, a beautiful black Jamaican girl much younger than he was. Cedella's grandmother owned the shack where Norval lived. By the time Cedella was eighteen, she was married to Norval and expecting her first child. Neighbors did not approve of Cedella marrying a white man so much older than she was. Cedella wanted to build a better life for herself and hoped Norval would help her see the world beyond the Jamaican countryside. But soon after the marriage, Norval had to leave Nine Mile. He said that working in the hills was not good for

his health. He needed to find an easier job in Kingston. Norval promised Cedella he would return. Years later, he did, but only for a short time. They never lived together again. Their baby, Robert Nesta Marley, was born in Nine Mile on February 6, 1945. From the start, Bob was a good boy. With his father gone, his grandfather taught him many things. He explained Bible stories to Bob and taught him how to farm potatoes and yams. Bob's grandparents were always proud of how hard he worked—even when he was very young. Bob was a quick learner at everything he did. His teachers at school said he was ahead of the other kids in his class.

Sometime before he turned ten, Bob stepped on a piece of glass while playing soccer barefoot. The cut on his toe became infected. Bob limped for a long time. Finally, Bob's cousin brought him some natural medicine that he had made from herbs. His foot healed, but it was never quite the same. While he rested, Bob picked at a guitar that the same cousin had made for him out of bamboo and goatskin. He spent hours and hours with the guitar while his foot healed. Folk Instruments of Jamaica For much of the twentieth century, people in the Jamaican countryside made their musical instruments by hand. One of the most popular was the rumba box. A

rumba box is usually made of wood, and it has a hole cut in the front like a guitar. But unlike a guitar, a rumba box has small metal strips screwed in a straight line at the bottom of the hole. The metal strips are like keys on a piano. The rumba-box player sits on top of the box and reaches down to play the keys. Other handmade instruments were the shake-shake (an instrument similar to maracas) and simple wood blocks knocked together to keep rhythm. Drums, banjos, and guitars were made out of buckets, bamboo, sardine cans, and cowhide or goatskin.

When Bob was still a young boy, Cedella opened her own grocery store. Thaddius "Toddy" Livingston owned a grocery in Nine Mile, too. Cedella and Toddy began spending a lot of time together, even though Toddy was married. Toddy also had a son Bob's age named Neville. His nickname was "Bunny." Bunny and Bob went to the same school and worked at their families' grocery stores in the afternoons. They had something else in common: They both loved music! Bob and Bunny became close friends. They played their homemade guitars together at the end of the day when all their homework and chores were done.