AS a teenager in the city of Mutare in eastern Rhodesia, Fred Zindi heard little reggae music. Under the renegade State’s racist laws there was little black music on the radio.

At the time of Bob Marley’s visit to his country in April 1980, Zindi was a 22-year-old university student. Like most of his countrymen, he was excited about the transition from white-ruled Rhodesia to independent Zimbabwe and black majority rule.

Marley performed April 18 at Rufaro Stadium in the capital Harare. He was the featured act in a ceremony marking the birth of Zimbabwe. In attendance were Robert Mugabe, a former freedom fighter and the new nation’s first prime minister, Prince Charles; British Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington; and P J Patterson, then Jamaica’s minister of foreign affairs.

It is widely reported that Marley was a hero among guerillas during the Rhodesia Bush wars of the 1970s, but Zindi said he knew little about him.

“I was not very familiar with his music at the time because, as Rhodesians, we were subjected to rock music from Britain and the United States —the likes of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Wishbone Ash, and Thin Lizzy. We had heard about reggae music coming from Jamaica via Jimmy Cliff and Desmond Dekker and Johnny Nash, an American who also played reggae,” he told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

“However in 1979, Gallo Records Company released Bob Marley Live at The Lyceum. We all rushed to buy the single No Woman No Cry, a cover version of which was done by Jimmy Cliff. It wasn’t until the Survival album was locally released just before Bob Marley arrived in Zimbabwe, which contained the track Zimbabwe, that the whole country became familiar with Marley’s music,” Zindi added.

Released by Island Records in late 1979, Survival was Marley’s salute to Africa, which was a hotbed of anti-colonialism during the 1970s. Jamaican artistes and musicians supported that movement with militant songs like MPLA by The Revolutionaries.

Tommy Cowan was marketing manager at the Marley-owned Tuff Gong Records in 1980. He recalls two Africans visiting the star at his St Andrew home in early April and requesting his presence at the historic ceremony in their country.

“They told us that they were from Rhodesia and were about to get their independence, and it would be an honour to have Marley perform for this occasion as when they were losing the battle it was his music that won the war.

“We discovered that they had no money to bring Bob and The Wailers to Rhodesia, so Bob decided to foot the cost himself,” Cowan recalled.

“I had never been to Africa up to that time but was quite aware of the apartheid movement in Rhodesia and its leader, Ian Smith.”

According to Cowan, he contacted booking agent Mick Cater in England to fly equipment from that country to Rhodesia; he (Cowan) was responsible for production; accompanying Marley were his band, The Wailers, harmony group The I-Three, and his sons Ziggy and Stephen.

There were two concerts, both at Rufaro Stadium. The first was the independence ceremony during which Prince Charles hoisted Zimbabwe’s flag at midnight, officially registering the country’s birth.

Zindi remembers the Marley performance that night.

“It’s a poignant moment; Bob Marley, draped in his red, gold and green Rastafarian colours, takes a celebratory stance at the front of the stage, calling out to over 100,000 people who had come to celebrate: ‘Viva Zimbabwe!’ and each time eliciting a greater response from the audience,” he said. “It is a moment pregnant with possibilities. Rastafari in our father’s land. A realisation of the inherent unity in black culture; as emotional for the audience as it is for the band. Homecoming!”

For Cowan, the event was memorable for a freak incident.

“I think it would be when Bob was on his third song, Belly Full. I had positioned myself at the back of the stadium to listen for sound quality done by our sound engineers, Dennis Thompson, Errol Brown, and lights by Neville Garrick. All of a sudden I heard a commotion coming from the outside. On checking, I realised that thousands of guerillas/freedom fighters had broken out of their camp and headed towards the stadium gate, of course because Bob was performing,” Cowan remembered. “I remember Ziggy was standing sidestage watching his dad perform. I had to run and cover him with a wet towel due to the burning effect of tear gas that was fired among the crowd that broke into the stadium. By this time it seemed that Bob was not aware that the musicians had left stage and he was the last to leave. They had to stop the show, and after about 45 minutes it was restarted.”

According to Cowan, the second show was held to accommodate persons who could not attend the previous day’s festivities. It did not go well.

“For some reason, this was a low-energy performance. Not sure what was on Bob’s mind,” he said.

Marley died from cancer at age 36 in May 1981. Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe with an iron grip for nearly 40 years until he was removed from office in 2017; he died last year at age 95.

Fred Zindi is a professor of education and director of the Human Resources Research Centre (HRRC) at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare.