Bob Marley
"The Singer," Bob Marley, is a cult icon, even in his culture and time. Bob Marley famously advocates a unique version of Christianity called Rastafarianism, where they worship the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Salassie I as the divine reincarnation of Jesus Christ. His music is about peace, non-violence, and hope.
But, the highly divided nation of Jamaica doesn't understand his message. They assume that secretly, he intends to start his own political party to take over the island. The PNP and JLP (rival political parties) each believe Marley is secretly working with the other side, because they cannot understand his bipartisan ways. The gangs who do the politicians dirty work harass Marley and they attack his home, nearly killing him. Marley dies of foot cancer, or Josey shoots him, depending on which account is actually true—both are offered in the novel.
Papa-Lo
A gang member who leads the operations for all of the JLP's criminal enterprises. He "goes soft," though, when he realizes that he can actually achieve some success in life by using his network constructively. For this, he is excommunicated from power, and his young protege, Josey, assumes his position at the head of the gang.
Josey
Josey works under Papa-Lo for much of his life until one day, he realizes that he has more to gain from the criminal called Doctor Love, an explosives dealer. When Josey takes over has head kingpin in the the gang, they start a drug trafficking operation to take cocaine to New York City. When Josey does business in the City, he does it the Jamaican way, and when he finds out some of his dealers are using the drugs instead of selling them, Josey murders them all without a second thought.
Barry Diflorio
This CIA agent is in way over his head. By the end of the novel, he has accomplished almost nothing, and he gets sent to Argentina. Although on his face, Barry seems to be interested in quelling the gang warfare in Jamaica, we later learn that the CIA helped to plan Marley's assassination attempts.
Alex Piece
A reporter for the Rolling Stone Magazine who loses that job when his assignment becomes a part of his fate. Instead of simply publishing a rock-and-roll account of how awesome Bob Marley is, he discovers that Marley's life has farther reaching implications than anyone in America would understand, so he makes it his life long journey to share the truth of Marley's life, persecution, and death. In the end, we learn that the gang intimidates Alex into recalling part of this very story, the party where we learn that actually, Josey murdered Marley in cold blood. Alex is continually harassed and tortured by Jamaican gangs.
Nina Burgess
A troubled lover of Bob Marley who desperately wants to flee Jamaica, but she wants to go with him. Marley chooses to stay, and Nina is harassed by the police. Instead of raping the woman, as the police often did at that time, they release her. She goes to Marley's home to discover that he is being attacked by a small militia of heavily armed gang members. Throughout the novel, she moves to NYC and goes by many aliases.
Doctor Love
An explosives technician in the criminal underground, and Josey's second tutor. Josey learned organizational skills from Papa-Lo, but Doctor Love teaches him everything else he needs to become a true kingpin. He shows him how to use terrorist tactics to manipulate people, and ultimately, he pushes Josey to do evil, heinous things.
Bam-Bam
The story begins with this minor character, a cocaine addict who works with the gang. When the attack happens on Marley's home, we learn that Bam-Bam headed the charge after doing an enormous amount of cocaine with the rest of the gang. When the gang turns on itself, Bam-Bam is buried alive.
Ken
An elderly man for whom Nina works as a hospice nurse. She cares for him and enjoys his ruthless sense of humor and his abrasive honesty. When she decides to be honest with him, he forgets what she tells him, and she realizes that she is going to be alright.
Eubie
A gang leader who works with Josey until Josey is arrested. When Josey pretends to be running the mob from prison, it is clear that actually, Eubie has assumed complete control. He is the man who takes a few men to beat and torture Alex for publishing his final project about Bob Marley and the corruption of Jamaica.
Weeper
Weeper is a powerful Jamaican gang member who lives in New York. His identity feels secure until one day, he has an opportunity to sleep with an attractive gay man, and he realizes that he has always been gay. As he falls away from the gang, they arrange an assassination, and when the assailant comes to kill him, Weeper sits with him and they discuss their homosexuality. Weeper dies when the murderer gives him an overdose of medication.
Benji
Benji is Josey's son who runs the criminal operations in New York, allegedly. In actuality, he is a lame duck and a puppet. Benji is shot in the course of business, and at the hospital, they fail to save him. An angry mob surrounds the hospital, proof that the neighborhood sees the gang as an important part of their lives.
