SEVERAL activities are scheduled across the island, and the world, to comemmorate the birth of late reggae king Bob Marley, who would have been 62 years old today.

Locally Tuff Gong International is organising a special Making of Music tour for invited schools, beginning at 9:00 am at the Tuff Gong facility on Marcus Garvey Drive. Later on, the Soul Shakedown party gets underway at the Bob Marley Museum on Hope Road, with music ‘of Bob’s era’ being played, beginning at 7:00 pm. There will also be an observance at the Culture Yard in Trench Town, where Bob and luminaries of Jamaican music spent their formative years.

The Jamaica Bicentenary Committee will screen the film Sankofa, starring dub poet and radio commentator Mutababruka on Wednesday, February 7, beginning at 7:00 pm.

Discussion takes the spotlight on Thursday, at 6:00 pm with Leahcim Semaj leading the debate on the issue Bob Marley: National Hero or National Icon at the Undercroft of the Senate Building of the UWI Mona campus. A concert, featuring Marley progeny Stephen, Damian, Julian and Kymani will take place at the Culture Yard.

The Jamaican observances will culminate with the Smile Jamaica concert, again featuring the Marley brothers, among other artistes, at Marley’s birthplace in Nine Miles, St Ann.