Many predictions of Bob Marley the prophet came true

For mainstream revolutionaries, Bob Marley was a revolutionary musician who condemned injustice. For many Reggae ‘fanatics,’ he was an innovator and founder of all Reggae subgenres like Ska, Rocksteady, and Roots. And for many Christafarians and Rastafarians, he was a prophet.

Bob Marley died at the age of 36, 3 years older than Jesus Christ. Like Christ, his short lifetime changed the world. Songs like “Rat Race,” “Crisis,” “Forever Loving Jah,” “Guiltiness,” and “One Love” introduced themes that had never been thought to come together and reconciled universal love with music, spirituality, toleration, and militancy.

Bob Marley, just like what many people believe Jesus did, predicted several things to happen, among which his own death. “So Old Man River, don’t cry for me, I’ve got a running stream, Of love you see,” he said in ‘Forever Loving Jah.’ Many interpret these words as a prediction of Marley’s own death.

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another Inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned -Everywhere is war - That until there no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation until the colour of a man's skin is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -Me say war. War in the east, War in the west, War up north, War down south - War - war -Rumours of war,” he said his famous song ‘War.’

What is happening in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and other places these days was triggered by Sectarian, racial, and ethnic fanatic beliefs that take one’s identity to be superior. And this is what Marley warned us against.        

Being part of the Rastafarian philosophy, Marley was already connected to world of prophecy. Marcus Garvey, the founder of the movement, prophesized that Jesus was black and that the coming of the Messiah will be in Africa. The Messiah will defeat an army of evil, according to the same prophecy. In the 1930s, saw Haile Selassie, member of a royal family that traces its roots to king Solomon, taking power in Ethiopia and defeating the Italian Fascist army.