| CanWest News Service |
Saturday, March 24, 2007
NINE MILE, Jamaica -- A rattling pickup truck honks and squeezes by us on a type of road Jamaicans aptly named a "one-lane two-way."
"Head gown. Head no good!" my companion, Paul Norman, says, chuckling and gesturing toward the red dust kicked up by the swerving car.
In local lingo that means the guy who passed us is a little out of his mind, loopy. The road is so narrow, with so many terrifying hairpin turns, that I am wondering if I'm not a bit out of my mind, too. But I'm a pilgrim, after all.
We're winding our way up a potholed road into the embrace of these remote green mountains in northern Jamaica, up the 60 kilometres from Ocho Rios to Nine Mile, the birthplace and final resting place of reggae megastar Bob Marley. The route, which takes us high into the Jamaican hills and through tiny villages, is less touristy and more beautiful than I could have imagined.
Marley, a celebrity of the '70s music scene whose One Love and Get Up, Stand Up were anthems for a disaffected generation of middle-class North American kids, has, in his homeland, the stature of a prophet.
The massive purple doors of Nine Mile clank open in greeting and a khaki-uniformed guard with shoulder-length dreadlocks smiles and says, as if he has been expecting us all along, "Welcome, brother and sister."
The Nine Mile compound is both inspiring and cheesy. This is where Robert Nester Marley was born on Feb. 6, 1945, and where he lies encased in marble and where thousands of fans flock every February for music and memories. Posters of the holy one are on the interior gates.
The Rasta incantation on coming and going, Respect, is painted on the wall, as is much graffiti, all of it paying homage. ("He says you don't drink and jive, but if you wish you can smoke and fly.") The tinny sound of a radio playing reggae blends with the unmistakable odour of ganja.
A variety of relative neighbours and friends of the Marley family lounge around on beat up aluminum lawn chairs and wooden boxes. There's Fuzzy, a grizzled childhood playmate of Marley's who tells tales to anyone who will listen. There's a store full of junky souvenirs and Marley memorabilia such as over the-top T-shirts, commemorative rolling papers and kitschy cigarette lighters with Marley's image. There's also a cave-like little restaurant decorated like a '50s Tiki Tiki room that serves spicy patties.
But the real draw, what brings die-hard reggae fans from as far away as Japan, is the opportunity to walk where Marley walked, to see the small house where he was born and raised, to sit on the rock where Marley "read the Bible and meditated," our guide tells us, and, finally, to pay homage at the Marley mausoleum.
We amble along with our guide as he alternately sings snatches of Marley tunes and rambles on in a mixture of anecdote and Bible quotes until we reach the tiny house where the young "Nesta," as his family called him, lived until his early teens. We duck into the little bedroom and suddenly the guide is almost breathless with awe, as if he hasn't been in this low-ceilinged room hundreds of times with hundreds of tourists. He points to a narrow bed. "He" -- with intake of breath -- "slept here!"
The house, full of photos and memorabilia, is interesting. The painted stumpy rock called Mt. Zion Rock, where Marley meditated on his trips to his childhood home, is curious, but the sacred spot, the Taj Mahal of Nine Mile, is surely the mausoleum where Marley lies in a brass coffin with his guitar, beloved soccer ball and Bible.
The tomb, a marble monolith almost two metres high, is draped with multicoloured fabric, its base laden with gifts from reverential fans. There are shells, drawings, scraps of paper with poems, tambourines, African stringed instruments and ukuleles. Incense burns at a makeshift altar and candles are laid out for lighting. Over the bits of paper, trinkets, photos and shards of offerings, the sun glints through stained-glass windows of David, the Lion of Judah and a sycamore tree.
Thousands of pilgrims make this journey every year. Many come in early February for the annual Bob Marley birthday bash. While some arrive on their own, others opt for a kind of reggae fest roulant, a rolling pilgrimage on Zion Bus Line. This 5 1/2-hour trip on an old country-style Jamaican bus is for the hearty fans: Call them dread heads. The bus may look old-fashioned, but it has been outfitted with the latest audio and video technologies, so hardcore enthusiasts get to watch a documentary about Marley's life and a one-hour tribute concert.
IF YOU GO ...
Nine Mile is open year round, but the annual Bob Marley birthday music festival in February is a highlight. See bobmarleymovement.com; info@ninemilejamaica.com.
- The Zion Bus Line runs a 5 1/2 bus tour that includes snacks and lunch. Passengers must be 18 or older. Cost: $73 US. Zion also offers Jeep tours to Nine Mile for those who prefer to go on their own. 876-972-2506. Tours can be booked online at chukkacaribbean.com.
- The Jamaica Inn in Ocho Rios offers easy access to transportation to Nine Mile. The half-century-old guest house has played host to the likes of Katharine Hepburn and Noel Coward.
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