Since the biopic film Bob Marley: One Love hit theatres Feb. 14, audiences are being reminded of the iconic reggae musician’s call for unity, peace and positive change.
And for Stephanie Marley, BA’99, growing up as one of 10 children of music legends Bob and Rita Marley, that message was more than a song and sentiment. “It was the way we lived.”
“We were raised with the Rastafarian backbone and culture, which is very much one of love, peace and caring for humanity,” she said from her home in Kingston, Jamaica.
Now Stephanie’s issuing her own rallying cry as Jamaica seeks to become a republic by the time of its next general election in 2025. Her call comes in the form of Wake Up Jamaica, a public education campaign to “empower Jamaican citizens at home and abroad to become active participants in the development, safety and governance of their country.”
To engage fellow Jamaicans, she’s drawing on her training as a psychologist and as a witness to the power of music in promoting social justice and human rights.
Family ties and forging her own path
The movie, Bob Marley: One Love, which her siblings Ziggy and Cedella Marley and her mother Rita helped produce, takes place from 1976 to 1978. It was a period of extreme political division between the People’s National Party and the Jamaica Labour Party. Violence was a common tactic for supporters on both sides. Bob supported neither party, but his musical messages of peace were perceived as a threat.
The film opens with the Dec. 3, 1976, assassination attempt on the musician’s life, in which he, his manager and Rita were shot. The event sent the musician and his family, including two-year-old Stephanie, into exile.
“We went to the Bahamas initially,” she said. “I don’t remember much of it, but from what I’ve been told and what I know from how we were raised, we became very close and protective of each other after what happened.”
Her father then headed to the U.K. for 18 months, where he and the Wailers recorded their best studio-selling album Exodus, featuring the hits One Love, Three Little Birds and Jamming.
Exodus was named the 20th Century’s most important album by Time magazine, which hailed it as “a political and cultural nexus, drawing inspiration from the Third World and then giving voice to it the world over.”
For Stephanie, who recalls her father as “soft and gentle,” the Marley legacy is natural, knowing nothing other than her first-hand experience, in a front-row seat.
“I grew up watching my parents, my brothers and sisters singing in the studio making music and understanding the power of music,” she said.
But she forged her own path, completing her A Levels in social studies and psychology in London, U.K., before coming to Western as a psychology major.
“I decided I wanted to do something different,” said Stephanie. “I always had an interest in people and how we behave as social beings, from a psychological, emotional perspective.”
Stephanie and Rita Marley, celebrating Stephanie’s graduation from Western in 1999. (Shawn Simpson/SWS Photography photo)
She counts her time at Western among her “best memories,” and London, Ont. as her second home. It’s where she gave birth to Solomon Marley-Spence, one of her four sons, better known as King Cruff, the Universal Music recording artist.
After graduating from Western, Stephanie immersed herself in the family business of music and entertainment. For the next three years, she served as managing director of the Bob Marley Foundation, Bob Marley Museum, Tuff Gong International, Tuff Gong Recording, URGE and the Rita Marley Foundation. She also oversaw the development of the Marley Resort and Spa in Nassau, Bahamas.
Stephanie returned to Western in 2016, with plans to complete her master’s degree in psychology, but went back home to Kingston when her mother suffered a stroke. After completing her graduate studies in Jamaica, she’s now a psychologist, working in her own practice and at the University of Technology in Kingston.
Stephanie Marley outside the Bob Marley Museum in 2014 with an issue of the Western Alumni magazine. (File photo)
Wake Up Jamaica: A call for unity in constitutional reform
Today, Stephanie devotes much of her time leading Wake Up Jamaica, reaching out to her fellow citizens to become involved in the country’s constitutional reform process.
Stephanie and other advocates observed their government was prepared to make constitutional change and go into the referendum without stopping to involve the Jamaican population.
“That is why Wake up Jamaica was formed, to unite the people to take action,” she said. “While reforming the constitution, we’re saying it should be rewritten for the benefit of Jamaicans. Created by the people for the people, instead of being governed by a constitution that was handed down to us.”
Through the Wake Up Jamaica website and booklets, Jamaicans are offered “bite-sized” pieces of information about the constitution as a “connection to our past and a way forward.” The organization is also leading “wake-up sessions” to educate youth and to collect people’s thoughts, concerns and ideas for sustainable solutions.
Recognizing that “all people learn differently” Stephanie’s using multiple mediums to help spread the message including street art, literature and of course, music.
But, before Jamaicans can ‘wake up,’ “they first need to heal,” Stephanie said, noting they are numb from generational pain and oppression under colonialism.
“I know as a psychologist, and from coming from a musical family, the healing power of music and the impact it has,” she said. “The psychological response to pain is numbness. It’s also the physical response to pain. We’re numb, we’re asleep. That is why the campaign also includes an aspect we call ‘the healing of our nation.’ We’re hoping to bring true liberation and real emancipation, so people are no longer comatose.”
“When my parents started singing, they weren’t singing for fame and fortune. They were singing as a means of liberating themselves from what was going on inside them and the political violence in our country.”
Stephanie has reached out to her musical “fraternity” to help spread the word.
“The musicians have to make the call, to make the noise. Our people learn so much through music, it is ingrained in who we are.”
Her goal is to first engage Jamaicans as individuals, encouraging them to be self-aware and resilient.
“Then we move on to do something in the family, then from family to community and community to the nation.”
In the spirit of the One Love message, “We can love ourselves, love each other and love the country,” Stephanie said.
