There were smiles all round on Wednesday as a star-studded audience, which included members of the political directorate and entertainment fraternity, welcomed the Peter Tosh Museum as it was opened at Pulse Complex in New Kingston.

The brainchild of Pulse Chairman Kingsley Cooper and the Peter Tosh Estate, it pays homage to Tosh, the musician and human rights activist, who earned acclaim as a member of The Wailers along with Bob Marley and Bunny ‘Wailer’ Livingston, and as a solo artiste, before he was murdered at age 42 in September 1987.

The museum showcases personal artefacts including tour jackets, the artiste’s passports, telephone and radio, as well as the famed M16 guitar which was saved from the auction block a few years ago.

Tosh’s companion for the last nine years of his life, Marlene Brown, could not contain her joy at the museum’s opening.

“Peter and I were together from mi a 17. He was a great man and this is just wonderful to see… it’s great,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Niambe McIntosh, youngest child of the reggae icon, told the audience her father died when she was five years old and, therefore, her memories of him are wrapped up in the experiences of his friends and family members.

But for renowned reggae historian and archivist Roger Steffens, this was an event long in coming but worth the wait.

“To see the type of work that this man left us, it warms my soul. It’s a wonderful accomplishment. It’s really thrilling because I know for how long Peter was a kind of enemy of the state. The idea that Peter Tosh is now being given his due, having received the Order of Merit a few years ago and now with this wonderful museum, is something that frankly I never expected to see in Jamaica. It just shows how physically things are evolving to a much better place. I am just so sorry that my good friend Peter Tosh could not be here to see the decriminalisation of herb, to see a museum in his honour where people are celebrating his life and work,” said Steffens.

That theme was echoed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who was guest speaker and who declared the museum open.

“Many years ago, you maybe would not have had this profile and composition of a gathering for Peter Tosh… my, how things have changed. So, when he said back then, ‘legalise it’, you probably could imagine the consternation that some of you would have gotten from your parents. We are not quite there yet. We are not about to have the chalice lit at Buckingham Palace. But there is a certain progressiveness in how we view the things which are our natural culture. It can only evolve, it can only grow, we can only become more positive about ourselves. And that is part of the contribution of Peter Tosh,” the prime minister said.

Holness lauded those at the project’s helm, noting that it is another way of building the tourism product in Kingston.

“I want to say how very important it is for us to put in place the institutions that will protect and preserve, but also project our history, and that is what this museum will do. This is Peter’s night obviously, but there are other artistes, other people who have contributed to our culture that, if we were just to take the time, initiative and the energy. That’s why I want to congratulate Kingsley and the Tosh family for doing this, because while it may be your own personal endeavour, you have given something of immeasurable value to the country. We want to return tourism to Kingston in a big way. We do have people coming but we want to make it a big thing. I see Jamaica as the centre of the Caribbean, not just geographically, but the centre for culture and lifestyle, innovation and creativity. When we put up institutions like this we are stamping our authority on this claim.”