The annual Bob Marley Lecture is hosted by the Institute of Caribbean Studies & the Reggae Studies Unit at The UWI Mona Campus. Held in Reggae Month, the lecture is intended to commemorate the birth of Marley as Jamaica’s most successful reggae icon and celebrate reggae among the genres of music Jamaica gave the world in the latter half of the C20th. Inaugurated in 1997, the lecture has traditionally focused on a wide range of topics from Marley, Trench Town, Rastafari and psycho-historiography, to Jamaica’s music business and creative products. Distinguished Jamaicans, scholars, and Marley’s close associates, among them Dr Louis Chude-Sokei, Professor Gordon Rohlehr and Frederick Hickling, Doctor The Hon. Omar Davies, Mr Alan ‘Skill’ Cole, Mr Roger Steffens, and Miss Cindy Breakspeare, have delivered lectures.

Marlon James, the celebrated UWI alumnus and recipient of the Man Booker Prize (2015) for his novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings, will deliver the 2016 lecture. Mr. James has the distinction of being the first Jamaican and the second overall Caribbean National to be awarded the coveted prize. His work, A Brief History of Seven Killings, explores through several characters, the events surrounding the attempted assassination of Bob Marley and the ensuing aftermath.

The lecture will take place at The UWI Mona Campus on February 12, 2016 from 6:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. at the Undercroft.