‘Every time you reach the edge, the edge move ahead of you like a shadow until the whole world is a ghetto, and you wait’ (Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings) ¹

The One Love Concert is held in 1978 at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Bob Marley symbolically joins the hands of the two political rivals on stage, Michael Manley of the People’s National Party (PNP) and Edward Seaga of the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP), a politician of Lebanese ancestry.

Following Jamaica’s independence in 1961, it was hoped that the two-party “Westminster-style” democracy bequeathed by its former colonial master would bring stability and prosperity to the Caribbean Island nation.

However, there was a great deal of political violence in the 1970s between the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) of Prime Minister Michael Manley who pursued a socialist agenda intent on redistributing wealth by nationalising the country’s major export industries and the more conservative Edward Seaga of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Elections always brought a rise in violence. The contests of 1972 and 1976 had seen victories for the charismatic PNP leader. Jamaican politics of the time were more often about resources. The political elite had a “winner takes all” mentality based on what could be extracted from victory. If the JLP lost an election, an area stood to lose housing schemes, public contracts, guns and other favours thrown at them by politicians (and vice versa).

The two parties became so polarised across the PNP’s two terms from 1972 to 1980 that the political conflict began to manifest itself into an upsurge of street violence between armed gangs led by “Dons” loyal to each party. The turf wars of West Kingston (a dangerous, rundown part of the capital where the gun reigned supreme) in particular, took a terrifying toll in lives among combatants and innocent bystanders alike – all in the name of vendetta politics.

Surprisingly given its laidback stereotype portrayed in more contemporary films like Cool Runnings ² Jamaica was then a Cold War hotspot. An added dimension to the viciousness. Seen as too sympathetic to nearby communist Cuba, the US had concerns about Manley’s authoritarian tendencies, particularly when state security had begun to hunt down and murder opponents like vigilantes. In 1978 for example, five opposition JLP activists were executed by the army on Kingston’s Green Bay firing range (The Green Bay Massacre).

Never known to exercise restraint when faced with a perceived threat in its own backyard, President Ford and later even the relatively benign Carter administration of the United States felt compelled to act. The historical record now attests to the fact that the CIA allegedly supplied arms to supporters of the JLP, including local gangsters hired to help them increase their hold on power. One organisation that has been linked with Edward Seaga was the deadly Shower Posse that would go on to wreak murder, violence, and later drug running in the Caribbean, North America and Europe. The name “shower” is thought to have been taken from a speech by Seaga where he promised that “Blessings will shower from the sky and money going jingle in your pockets”.

The two parties struggled for control of areas in West Kingston like Trench Town and Tivoli Gardens in particular. Gunfights between JLP (nicknamed “Jelly”) and PNP (nicknamed “Peanut”) gangs raged with frightening regularity and many hundreds died.

The 1976 general election (which Manley won) was conducted in a state of national emergency, and towards the end of the decade the country was teetering on the brink of economic collapse with much of the electorate viewing Seaga as the country’s most likely saviour.

Bob Marley and the Wailers had since 1971 been putting Jamaica on the world map for more positive reasons with a succession of hit singles, albums, and sell-out tours which turned Marley into a superstar, also popularising reggae and Rastafarianism. He was one of Michael Manley’s favourite singers (Manley consulted Marley before cutting a reggae political campaign record) and in 1976 was scheduled to perform at the Smile Jamaica free concert organised by Manley, aimed at stopping the street fighting.

However, two nights before on 3 December 1976, unknown gunmen, assumed to be linked to the JLP (Wailers’ percussionist Alvin Patteron reportedly shouted “Is Seaga men! Dem come fi kill Bob!” ³ upon their sudden arrival) fired on Bob Marley inside his home on Kingston’s Hope Road in a politically motivated assassination attempt, wounding him, his wife Rita and his manager Don Taylor. Incredibly nobody died. Concluding afterward that his country had become a “rotten egg that had broken and could be put back together again” ⁴ , Marley fled to Britain vowing never to return.

The idea for another peace was conceived by two opposing ghetto warlords, Claude Massop (leader of the JLP backed Shower Posse based in Tivoli Gardens) and Bucky Marshall (of the PNP) who found themselves sharing a Kingston prison cell. Though sworn political enemies, the two Dons saw common ground, both wanting to alleviate the senseless and uncontrollable violence that had become rife in their communities. After their release from prison, Massop and Marshall called an uneasy political truce.

Massop was an old acquaintance of Bob Marley’s. They had shared earlier days in Trench Town in tenement yards playing pickup football. Indeed, there are some who believe that Edward Seaga personally ordered his own bodyguard, Lester “Jim Brown” Coke to co-ordinate and be present during the Marley shooting and that it was arranged without Massop’s knowledge. Massop travelled to London to convince Marley to come back to Jamaica and perform at a peace and reconciliation concert

Marley agreed knowing (as a former ghetto youth himself) how important the project could be for West Kingston. He was the perfect frontman given his international fame and reputation for personal integrity. Marley returned to Jamaica in February 1978 with the concert scheduled for 22 April at the National Stadium.

The One Love Peace Concert as it was named, brought together sixteen of reggae’s biggest acts including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer, Big Youth and the Mighty Diamonds all of whom agreed to appear free of charge. It was the longest and most political reggae concert ever staged. Somewhat derisively dubbed by the media as the “Third World Woodstock”, there were more than 32,000 spectators (including Mick Jagger) with all proceeds going towards sanitary facilities and housing in West Kingston.

Both leaders of the PNP and the JLP, and their wives, along with members of parliament, the diplomatic corps, the police commissioner, Jamaica Defence Force chief of staff, visiting international and local journalists and photographers were all seated only a few feet away from the stage.

With the eyes of the world’s press upon them, the multitude of politicians and security forces in attendance refused to be publicly angered by the performers’ provocations: Jacob Miller lit an enormous joint, and offered it to a policeman after first removing him of his helmet. Peter Tosh bitterly berated Prime Minister Manley and his political failings to his face.

Naturally Bob Marley and the Wailers were the final act. As their set climaxed to the sound of Jammin’ ⁵ filling the stadium, Marley danced, skipped, swayed, and began to speak, half-shouting, over the music. He then did something unexpected, summoning both Manley and Seaga onstage for a symbolic act of reconciliation: “I just want to shake hands and show the people that we’re gonna make it right, we’re gonna unite, we’re gonna make it right…” They each had to respond as refusal would have spelt political disaster.

Seaga looked as uneasy as Manley at having to take part in such a gesture of rapprochement but he tried to force a smile and go with the moment. “I wasn’t expecting it and I don’t think Michael was either” ⁶ Seaga would later say. The music eased into One Love ⁷ as the two figures embraced. Marley then placed his hands on the hands of both leaders raising them in a show of peace, pulling off a final great trick.

The photo of the Manley-Seaga handshake, their arms reaching over Marley’s dreadlocks, is one of the great iconic images of Jamaican modern history. A mixture of discomfort and resignation is etched on both politicians’ faces while Marley looks positively gleeful.

Though a memorable night – and though the rate of political killings did momentarily slow in its aftermath- it ultimately brought no lasting peace. Massop would be gunned down by police (shot at least forty times) at a Kingston road block on 4 February 1979 after leaving a football match. Marshall would be murdered in a New York nightclub on 8 March 1980. Then Marley, already ill with cancer at the time of the concert, died on 11 May 1981, at the Cedars of Lebanon Medical Centre in Miami, aged just 36.

The subsequent 1980 election was the bloodiest in Jamaica’s history, often involving running gun battles between gunmen of the JLP and PNP. The concert had failed to stem the tide of inner-city violence. The violence would continue. There would be no peace. There would be no reconciliation.

It was not until after Seaga had led the JLP to a massive electoral victory over Manley’s PNP and their ‘democratic-socialist’ experiment that the violence began to abate. It required the neutralisation of this perceived geo-political threat, not a peace concert, to bring an end to the surge in political violence. Tragically hundreds would first fall dead and tens of thousands more be displaced.