| He was a man obsessed with privacy and devoted | | | | Malignant melanoma is a cancer which usually starts in |
| much of his lifetime protecting this mystique. It was said | | | | the skin, either in a mole or in normal-looking skin. |
| that not even some of his closest friends, family, and | | | | Although the number of people who develop |
| associates were not able to get a full picture of this | | | | melanoma is rising, it is still an uncommon type of |
| Rasta Man. His unfathomable easy going attitude | | | | cancer. |
| towards life added to his allure. His lyrics were able to | | | | Melanoma develops from cells in the skin known as |
| transcend languages, cultures, and nationalities. Rising | | | | melanocytes. Melanocytes give the skin its color. In |
| like the phoenix from the ashes he was able to rise | | | | melanoma, the melanocytes start to grow and divide |
| out to his humble Trench Town beginnings to become | | | | more quickly than usual and start to spread into the |
| the Reggae Superstar. | | | | surrounding surface layers of skin. This happens slowly |
| Born of a middle-aged white father and a teenage | | | | over some months. If the melanoma is found at this |
| black mother, Robert Nesta Marley or popularly known | | | | early stage, it can be removed with surgery. Most |
| as Bob Marley grew up poor in Trenchtown, Jamaica | | | | people with melanoma less than one millimeter in depth |
| and was the biological product of a mixed race | | | | are cured. In the United States, most melanomas are |
| relationship. Cedella, his teenage mother, became | | | | found at this early stage. |
| involved with Norval Marley. Bob Marley was the | | | | If the melanoma is not removed, the cells can begin to |
| product of that relationship. Norval was of an English | | | | grow down into the deeper layers of the skin. These |
| upper class background. This fact placed a strain on | | | | layers contain tiny blood vessels and lymph channels. If |
| the relationship between the two from the very | | | | the melanoma cells go into the blood vessels or lymph |
| beginning. | | | | channels, they can travel to other parts of the body in |
| Marley began singing professionally at 16 with two | | | | the blood stream or lymph system, which what |
| friends, Bunny Livingston (a.k.a. Bunny Wailer) and | | | | actually happened to Marley. The cancer had spread |
| Peter McIntosh (a.k.a. "Tosh"). He made his first record, | | | | to his brain, lungs, and liver. He did have surgery to try |
| "Judge Not," in 1962 with the band called Teenagers. A | | | | to excise the cancer cells. The cancer was kept a |
| few years later, as the Wailers, Marley and associates | | | | secret from the wider public. |
| had begun mixing political content with unusual covers | | | | He was advised to get his toe amputated, but he |
| such as "And I Love Her" and "What's New | | | | refused because of the Rastafarian belief that doctors |
| Pussycat?" --- slowing the quick, prevalent ska beat | | | | are "samfai," men who cheat the gullible by pretending |
| down and calling it "rude boy music." | | | | to have the power of witchcraft. He was also |
| It wasn't until 1973 that Marley made his first | | | | concerned about the impact the operation would have |
| professional recording. It was the album, "Catch A | | | | on his dancing. Amputation would greatly affect his |
| Fire" which introduced the reggae idiom to an | | | | career at a time when success was close at hand. |
| international audience. With the Wailers, one of the | | | | Still, Marley based this refusal on his Rastafarian |
| greatest back-up bands of all time behind him, the | | | | beliefs, saying, "Rasta no abide amputation. I and I don't |
| freshness gave rock fans something new to dance to | | | | allow a mon ta be dismantled." |
| and a powerfully compelling brand of lyrical | | | | In 1980, again on tour, Marley collapsed while jogging in |
| consciousness to hear. In the late '70s, Marley | | | | New York's Central Park, and he died eight months |
| continued to enjoy worldwide hits with songs like | | | | later. The music world had lost one of its true and |
| "Exodus" (1977), "Waiting In Vain" (1977), "Jamming" | | | | potent activists, a man who had grown up from the |
| (1977), and "Is This Love" (1978), and albums | | | | ghettos of Trenchtown to become a musical |
| "Rastaman Vibration" and "Exodus." | | | | ambassador the world over. |
| On a European tour in 1977, Marley & the Wailers | | | | Powered by his Rastafarian faith and lifestyle, his love |
| played his other passion, a soccer game against a | | | | for pop music, and his transparently honest political |
| team of French journalists. In the process, Marley | | | | convictions, Bob Marley was certainly the one and only |
| injured his foot. Treatment revealed cancerous cells, | | | | universal ambassador of Jamaica's renowned reggae |
| but he refused surgery. The wound would not | | | | music. His songs of resolution, rebellion, and justice |
| completely heal, and his toenail later fell off during the | | | | moved millions of audiences all over the world then |
| soccer game. It was then that the correct diagnosis | | | | and even until now. As a top-selling superstar and a |
| was made. Marley actually had a form of skin cancer, | | | | semi-religious icon, Marley's work in promoting peace, |
| malignant melanoma, which grew under his toenail. | | | | justice, and brotherhood nearly outweighed the |
| Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer. | | | | brilliance of his reggae music. Sadly, the cancer that |
| It involves the cells that produce the skin pigment | | | | struck him ended his career and led him to another |
| melanin which is responsible for skin and hair color. | | | | exodus to the next world. |