Black History Month - Una Marson and Bob Marley

If you are a big tree, we are a small axe. (Jamaica)

1905 - Una Marson, first major Caribbean Jamaican poet & playwright, was born.

Una Marson was born on February 6, 1905, in Santa Cruz, and attended Hampton High School. She went into journalism when she left school, and published a magazine encouraging women to join the workforce and become politically active.

Marson was an advocate on race as well as gender, encouraging Black women to be confident about their beauty. She stopped straightening her hair and went natural.

She lived between Jamaica and England, seeing to promote national literature in Jamaica, and working with the BBC during World War II. She also wrote a play jointly with Louise Bennett. Her special contribution is linking Caribbean literature and nationalism.


1945 - Bob Marley was born.

Bob Marley’s singing career started with the Wailers in the 1960s. Legendary producer Lee “Scratch” Perry took the group to success with songs like “Simmer Down” and ”Small Axe”. Bob's association with Chris Blackwell's Island Records resulted in international success with albums such as “Catch a Fire”, “Burnin’”, “Natty Dread”, and “Rastaman Vibration.” To no one’s surprise, “Exodus” was declared the album of the twentieth century.

Rastafari strongly influenced Bob, and in 1978 he visited Kenya and then went on to Ethiopia. In 1980, he had the honour of performing at Zimbabwe’s independence.

One of his special contributions to Jamaican political life was his 1978 Peace Concert where he brought Michael Manley and Edward Seaga together on stage during a time when PNP and JLP factions behaved as if they were at war.

A month before he died in 1981, Bob received Jamaica's Order of Merit in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to Jamaican culture.

On this day in:

1820: The initial group of 86 freed slaves from the United States, established a settlement in Christopolis (now Monrovia).

1939 – Jamaican musician Derrick Harriott was born.

1950 - Grammy Award singer Natalie Cole was born.

1993 - Arthur Ashe died