Interview with Fikisha Cumbo

ivan

– 30/01/2001Posted in: Magazine Interviews

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Fikisha Cumbo is an artist who had the previlege to meet Bob Marley and Peter Tosh in the 70s. Now I have the previlege to indroduce Fikisha to you. Fikisha was born in Houston Texas though many people think she is from Jamaica. She finished school in biology and chemistry and taught biology and communication skill at the City University here in NYC. During this time she met up with reggae music which “blew her mind” and she pursued it relentlessly. It was helpful to have friends connected with Bob and Peter. She started photography in 1975 and pursued freelance work as photographer and journalist. Won a top prize for an essay on “Growing up Black in Houston Texas” from the Houston Public Library in the early 80′s. Wrote for several years many newspapers including: the Jamaican Daily Gleaner and Daily News and several New York based newspapers. Published photojournalist articles on Bob Marley in Circus Mag in 1976 and did a cover story on Peter Tosh in 1977 for Head Mag, as well as an article on Stevie Wonder for Circus. Traveled as a photographer for Kool & The Gang to Reunion Island; to Morocco with jazz master Randy Weston for an international art and music festival. Has done album covers for Peter Tosh’s EQUAL RIGHTS and HONORARY CITIZEN albums.

Covered in photographs the Jimi Hendrix Reunion in Seattle a few years ago. Have done one woman photography shows and took her 28 photo tribute to Bob in august of 1981 out to California to exhibit them at Stevie Wonders RadioVision art Lyrics. She has a television show called CACE INTERNATIONAL (Creative Artists’ Cultural Exchange). You can see her website on then go to producers and open CREATIVE ARTISTS’ CULTURAL EXCHANGE. It has been on New York television stations for 15 years and has over 215 shows completed including several on Bob and Peter, Burning Spear, Jimmy Cliff, Judy Mowatt, Carlos Santana, documentaries on the blues, Jimi Hendrix and on and on. She spent several days traveling with Peter Tosh in 1977 in Jamaica. Has traveled thru out Europe, the USA and the Caribbean as well as Mexico, Canada and of course Morocco and Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean.

Marco Virgona for BobMarleyMagazine: You followed Bob Marley and Peter Tosh from 1975 thru ‘80s, getting the chance to talk with them: what was the relationship between Bob and Peter?
FIKISHA CUMBO: They loved and respected each other. The media made it more of a problem than in reality it really was. Bob came to see Peter perform and vice versa. It was unfortunate the way in which the Wailers disbanded.
MV: We know that you are going to publish a book, a diary on reggae music.
FC: The book is my diary on my experiences with Tosh and Marley from 1975 thru 1983. I am editing all my photographs that I took from 1975 thru 1983 of those wonderful guys for inclusion in the book. You will love many of them for they are none like the ones you’ve seen before. As Bob said to me when I first took him a set of black and whites (to his Island House in Kingston) from the interview and the Manhattan Center performance (June 1975) “You take some different kind’a photo”.
MV: What do you remember of the period in the 70s when reggae went suddenly worldwide bigger and bigger?
FC: I was “in the mix” and greatly a part of that period I am thankful to say. It was unbelievable. A special vibe.

MV:You surely knew Bob Marley very well. Can you tell us something about him?
FC: He was pensive, kind, thoughtful, funny, generous, playful, very spiritual and had the most intense penetrating eyes of anyone I have ever known. He looked directly in your eyes when talking with him, ALL OF THE TIME. That was amazing and somewhat disarming as well.
MV: Did you find him to be a bit too much a disciplinarian during sessions and rehearsals?
FC: He had to have his music right. Several episodes of his rehearsals are included in my book.

MV: What is your favourite Bob Marley song and why?FC: “SO JAH SEH”. It touches a spiritual part of me that I can not describe and I think he always related to me in regards that song.

MV: We know that Bob was a “lady-killer” (in Italy we would say latin- lover). Didn’t he appeal to you?
FC: Actually Bob was “fine” but I was more attracted to Peter. When I went to Bob’s house for the first time in august of 1975 with my friend Herbie Miller (who was a friend of Bob’s and later Tosh’s manager), he (Herbie) told me that either he or someone in the house asked Bob why he did not “hit” on me (make a pass for me). Bob told him that I was too tall!! Ha ha ha. That is true because I am 5 ft 10 inches tall!
MV: a lik’le anecdote?
FC: Once in NYC waiting on the bus for Bob to get on as we were on our way down to Madison Square Garden for a performance. Bob was the last to get on the bus as all of us, his band, the pretty women, the I Threes were all there. He boarded the bus, put both hands on the handrails of the first two seats, observing that this was HIS DOMAIN, threw his massive locks around just like a lion, made a sound like a lion’s roar and then walked back to his seat in the back of the bus among the pretty women. I would have given anything to have taken that picture of the “Lion of Judea overlooking his pride” so to speak.

MV: Thank you very much Fikisha, we respect you for what you’ve done and you’re doing for reggae music and for Bob Marley. As soon as she publish her book, we will promote it on our site.