NEW YORK, United States — The Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, a division of the Tisch School of Arts at New York University (NYU) recently embarked on an intensive three-week winter programme dedicated to the life of Jamaican legend Bob Marley. 

Instructor Vivien Goldman, is teaching the class “Topics in Recorded Music: Bob Marley and Post-Colonial Music.”

According to Caribbean 360 online, the course covers Marley’s music, as well as Jamaican history and Rastafarianism.

In the course description, it was noted that Marley is often called a “prophet,” and that the biracial musician and activist “smashed restrictions of race and class imposed on his generation by the colonial system.”

The class will seek to answer the question: “How did Marley, an effectively fatherless child from a tiny village, achieve his rise to global authority and influence, musically, socio-politically, spiritually, personally and in terms of the industry?”

Also coming under the microscope is Jamaica’s history and its connection with Britain; Marley’s evolution as a writer and musician and his creative partnerships; his struggle to control the business of his music, and his commitment to pan-Africanism and Rastafarianism as a way of life.

The class got underway this week and will continue on Tuesdays and Thursdays through January 26.