Bob Marley's Tragic Real-Life Story

The history of Jamaica is a tale of both oppression and rebellion, with slaves pitted against colonial subjugation. The origin of Bob Marley, according to Rolling Stone, was a microcosm of this bigger story. His mother was Cedella, a descendant of slaves, and his father was Captain Norval Sinclair Marley, a privileged white politician working for the British government. The power imbalance here would be obvious enough, but to make things worse, Cedella was only 17 years old. 

With promises of marriage and economic stability, Norval Marley manipulated Cedella into a romantic relationship with him. Then, as soon as Cedella got pregnant, he hit the road. This left Cedella as a poor, single mother, pregnant with a child who would probably be severely ostracized for his mixed-race heritage. Determined to give her son the best life possible, Cedella left behind her home in the rural village of Nine Mile and made a new life in Kingston. 

Cedella named her son Robert, and though Bob carried his father's surname, the famous singer never felt attached to the unknown man who had treated his mother so cruelly. According to the BBC, the adult Bob almost never spoke about his father, and never stopped being angry at him. As for Norval himself, he died when his son was only 10 years old.