February 22, 2007
By Lesego Madumo
IT has been a while in coming, but the photo exhibition of the late reggae rebel, Bob Marley, has opened in Joburg.
Freedom Fighters, on at the Old Fort on Constitution Hill, features rare pictures of Marley in his everyday life, meeting other celebrities and making music. Walking into the exhibition is like walking into a warm Jamaican neighbourhood. Music warbles in the background; a documentary video plays on a screen; and, of course, there are the photos, documenting his life since the 1960s.
The video features Marley's widow, Rita, speaking about her famous husband and their plans to unite Africa. On the walls are shots of Marley in a rehearsal studio in the mid-1970s, his wedding to Rita when he was a young man of 21, and of the 1978 peace concert at the Kingston National Stadium, "One Love One Peace".
One of Marley's most outstanding shows, at London's Lyceum in 1975, was recorded as a live album – and photographs also document the event. They show Marley entranced with the music and his audience reaching out and trying to touch the great man.
Photographs from Freedom Fighter at the Old Fort
Other shots show Marley, a religious man, reading the bible. True to the way he lived his life, there are pictures of him building and burning a spliff, or a dagga joint, at Hope Road, his home in Kingston, Jamaica. "Bob would often proclaim that smoking 'the herb' is a healing of the nation, some kind of meditation," reads the photo caption.
In another photo, taken in 1980, Bob strums his guitar on his final North American tour. He had to retire shortly thereafter as he was battling cancer.
"Every picture taken, whether a formal, candid or live shot, tells its own story," reads a caption. "This exhibition does not seek to be a complete or linear narrative, rather the aim is more impressionistic, with aesthetic consideration."
The exhibition is an initiative of the Bob and Rita Marley Africa Unite project. "It forms part of Constitution Hill's partnership with the Marley project in the use of temporary exhibition space," explains a press release.
There will be a series of concerts, seminars and fundraising events during the exhibition. It was opened in February to celebrate Black History Month and follows the launch of Rita Marley's book No Woman, No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley on 12 February at the Women's Jail, also on Constitution Hill.
February is also the month in which Marley was born – on the sixth – and later got married. The reggae legend would have turned 62 this year. He died in 1982 from cancer.
Speaking at the launch, Johannesburg's executive mayor Amos Masondo said: "Bob Marley despised racism, colonialism and oppression and this remains an important element of his legacy; and no doubt he would be pleased to see it remembered in a free South Africa."
His widow explained why she had brought her family to South Africa. "We had a dream about coming to Africa and how we could stop apartheid," she said.
Freedom Fighters runs for three months. It opened on Valentine's Day, 14 February and closes on 14 April, at the Old Fort, on Constitution Hill. The pictures will be auctioned after the exhibition closes.
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