Disappointment That Bob Marley's Photograph Not On Jamaican $5,000 Bill

KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Cultural stakeholders in Jamaica say that music icon Bob Marley should have been on the new Jamaica $5,000 bill (US$70) and not former prime minister Hugh Shearer, whose impact, they claim, wanes in comparison to that of the reggae legend.

Bob Marley

The Jamaica Observer said that some see the khaki-colored note as a political counteraction to the JA$1,000 bill, which bears the image of Michael Manley, former prime minister and People's National Party politician.

"I can't understand why someone who has done so much for his country has been side-tracked," Cleveland Brownie, chairman of the Recording Industry Association of Jamaica said in reference to Marley.

"If we were to measure the impact of all politicians and other cultural icons, I think that Bob Marley would exceed all the others," Brownie said.

“The BBC declared One Love the song of the century and Time magazine called Exodus the album of the millennium. I need not say more," he said.

However, the Head of the Edna Manley School of Drama, Eugene Williams, went against popular opinion and chose Louise Bennett-Coverty over Marley. He said Shearer could never compare with either.