How to explore Bob Marley’s Jamaica

Ahead of Bob Marley Week, 1-6 February, Sasha Wood follows in the footsteps of a musical legend by taking a trip to his Caribbean island home

Bob Marley’s legacy can be felt across Jamaica (Sasha Wood)

One good thing about the music, when it hits you, you feel no pain,” sang Bob Marley in “Trenchtown Rock”. At a time when political divides were costing lives in Jamaica’s capital, reggae was salve for the soul.

The unique sound popularised by Bob Marley made the Unesco world heritage list in 2018 and, 75 years after he was born, I had travelled to Jamaica to discover more about the legendary artist. In the intense humidity of a Kingston morning, I was welcomed into Bob’s world in a dusty grid of streets lined with candelabra cacti and colourful murals, where he composed his classics in a government yard.

Now a makeshift museum, the Culture Yard in Trench Town was Bob Marley’s home as a teenager. Standing on the doorstep outside the cramped room where he penned “Three Little Birds”, I peered inside at his single bed, and one of his first guitars. Today a life-size bronze statue of Marley watches over the yard and walls painted with bright murals commemorate his life and lyrics.