The Bob Marley Foundation is trying to persuade Jamaican authorities to make the legendary singer's birthday - 6 Feb - a national holiday. The moves are part of a proposal to give Marley the title of 'national hero', an honour previously bestowed on just seven other Jamaicans, including civil rights leader Marcus Garvey and former Prime Minister Alexander Bustamante.
Talking up their proposals, the Foundation's Jacqueline Knight-Campbell told reporters: "Anywhere you go in the world the first thing people think of when they hear Jamaica is Bob Marley. He has inspired so many people with his songs so it's time for us to step up and take Bob's recognition to a higher level."
The campaign is gathering pace just now because next month would have been Marley's 60th birthday. That event will be marked by a month of events in Ethiopia, including a major concert in Addis Ababa on 6 Feb featuring the likes of Quincy Jones, Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour. In case you wondered, the African country has been chosen to host the Marley celebrations because it was the home of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, the spiritual leader of Marley's Rastafarian faith.