December 3, 1976. The attack on Bob Marley

 

It was December 3, 1976. At 56 Hope Road in Kingston, Bob Marley was in his home with his wife Rita and Don Taylor. They were two days away from “Smile Jamaica”, a large free concert organized by Jamaica’s Prime Minister, Michael Manley. Robert Nesta Marley would also be on that stage, and he agreed to participate in an attempt to ease the tensions that had arisen between the two warring political groups.

Some, however, saw Marley’s participation in the concert organized by Manley as a political stance by the king of reggae: some individuals with their faces covered, reached 56 Hope Road by car and broke in, firing several gunshots. A ricocheting bullet hit Bob’s elbow, who also suffered minor wounds to the chest: Taylor and Rita suffered more serious wounds, but fortunately they were treated without consequences. An episode that really affected Marley and that could have had a much worse outcome. Despite this episode, Bob Marley, on December 5, 1976, went on stage at “Smile Jamaica” and without fear that someone from the crowd might try to hit him again, he performed as scheduled. When someone asked him why he had sung that night he responded with what became one of his most famous phrases: “Because the people who try to make this world worse don’t take a day off… How could I?!“.