Grounation, the annual symposium hosted by the Jamaica Music Museum (JaMM), is all set for February’s Reggae Month celebrations and will present a unique opportunity to delve into the life and enduring legacy of the cultural iconoclast, Robert Nesta ‘Bob’ Marley.
This year’s 13th staging of JaMM’s flagship event promises to be an engaging and educational exploration under the theme ‘Bob Marley at Eighty: His Music, Legend and Legacy’, a press release stated.
Marley’s life and his abiding Rastafari philosophy, his assertive revolutionary stance against oppression and discrimination “in low and high places”, his enshrinement of education and cultural awareness as an ideal, and his unerring quest for universal peace, love and unity, will be commemorated.
Each Sunday in February, at the Institute of Jamaica’s Lecture Hall, the symposium will explore Marley’s continued resonance within the global sociopolitical climate and his universal appeal through the lens of keen observers of the humanitarian and visionary.
JaMM will also launch the exhibition ‘From African to Jamaican: Music and Black Culture’, chronicling and highlighting the Afro-Jamaican creative ethos, an aesthetic of global acclaim. The exhibition – featuring an Egungun costume of the Yuruban people and a local Pitchy Patchy Jonkanoo customs, African and Jamaican ritual drums and stringed instruments, art and ephemera – showcases the power of black music through African material objects juxtaposed against Jamaican creolised versions as an interpretation of Jamaican cultural history.
The exhibition also features a gallery dedicated to the iconoclastic Bob Marley, the focus of this year’s symposium.
“It has been 13 years since Grounation last focused on Bob’s singularity and importance to national, global, cultural, political, spiritual, and human experiences. This long-awaited attention to Marley’s influence relies on contributions from several knowledgeable voices, including renowned musicologists, historians, sociologists, and other individuals who have focused attention and personal experiences with Marley,” said Herbie Miller, director/curator, JaMM.
Born February 6, 1945 in Nine Mile, St Ann, Marley started his career in 1963 after forming the group Teenagers with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, which became the Wailers. In 1965, they released their début studio album, The Wailing Wailers, which included the single One Love, a reworking of People Get Ready. It was popular worldwide and established the group as a rising figure in reggae, Marley’s Wikipedia bio states..
The Wailers released 11 more studio albums and, after signing to Island Records, changed their name to Bob Marley and the Wailers. While initially employing louder instrumentation and singing, they began engaging in rhythmic-based song construction in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which coincided with Marley’s conversion to Rastafari. Around this time, Marley relocated to London, and the group embodied their musical shift with the release of the album, The Best of The Wailers, (1971).
“The public is encouraged to join us for this unique exploration of Jamaican idiomatic culture and Bob Marley’s life and legacy,” Miller continued.
Grounation lectures and discussions are punctuated by music and additional artistic expressions, giving voice to continued perspectives relevant to Jamaica’s past, present and future. Since its inception in 2012, Grounation has attracted a diverse following and is considered one of the most significant events on Jamaica’s cultural calendar.
The 2024 series was held under the theme ‘Music and Reasoning in Working Class Culture: Implications for Governance and Constitutional Reform’.
The Jamaica Music Museum is a division of the Institute of Jamaica, which is an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport.