Judy Mowatt's Conversion

More from Kernow Youth.

[Abuna] Yesehaq's testimony is supported by Judy Mowatt, one of Marley's backing singers the "I-Threes", which also included his wife Rita Marley and Marcia Griffiths. Judy...sang with Bob for 6 years and told British journalist and broadcaster Mike Rimmer in an interview that was published in Christian Herald in March 2005 of a phonecall she received from Rita when Bob was dying. "She said to me that Bob was in such excruciating pain and he stretched out his hand and said 'Jesus take me'. I was wondering to myself 'Why is it that Bob said 'Jesus' and not 'Selassie'? But I never said it to anyone. Then I met a friend whose sister is a Christian and was a nurse at the hospital where Bob was treated and she had led him to the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Rita saw him saying 'Jesus take me', I now know it was after he had received the Lord Jesus Christ in his life."

Judy Mowatt became a Pentecostal Christian herself in the mid 90s and is now a gospel reggae performer. Mike Rimmer asked her why the story of Bob Marley's conversion was not more widely known:

"If people knew, they would be drawn to Jesus Christ. Nobody wants to promote that in Jamaica. I said it on a popular television programme over there and a Rasta man met me and asked me why did I have to say that? I told him it was because it's the truth! But he never wanted me to reveal that and I think that nobody ants it to be revealed because so many people would be drawn to Jesus." Bob Marley's official website doesn't even mention his conversion, although a number of fan sites do.

This raises an interesting question, by the way - if Bob Marley's website is presumably controlled by Rita, and if it was Rita that was a major factor in Bob's conversion, then why isn't the conversion mentioned?

judymowatt

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