Bob Marley

How Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and his reggae band The Wailers sought to use music to unite a divided country during the Cold War.

Taking place from 1976 to 1978 during a period of fierce political divisions in Jamaica. The country had been independent since 1962, and there were two main political parties: the People's National Party (PNP)--represented by the socialist prime minister Michael Manley--and the Jamaica Labor Party (JLP)--represented by the capitalist politician Edward Seaga. The U.S. government saw Manley as a concern because of his democratic socialist politics. "He was hanging out with Fidel Castro trying to find out how he's running his country so that he might run Jamaica in that way, and the United States did not want to have another Cuba so close to its borders", says Matt Jenson, who teaches about the politics of Bob Marley's music at the Berklee College of Music. In the tense political climate of the time in Jamaica, violence regularly broke out among supporters of both politicians.