Why Bob Marley can't rest in peace

[XXPANTHAXX]

Why Bob Marley can't rest in peace

As musicians gather in Ethiopia to celebrate what would have
been the 60th birthday of Jamaica's biggest music star, Ian
Burrell reports on how a new controversy has erupted over his
remains

01 February 2005

To borrow a phrase from Shakespeare, the 200,000 people
expected to gather for a historic concert in the Ethiopian
capital, Addis Ababa, on Sunday will come to praise Bob
Marley but not to bury him. The Africa Unite concert on 6
February was dreamt up as the culmination of a week of
celebrations, which begin today, in memory of the 60th
anniversary of the birth of the late reggae superstar.

Tonight, the life of one of the most iconic musical figures
of the late 20th century will be celebrated at a spectacular
opening ceremony at Addis Ababa city hall.

But the festivities have been almost overshadowed by an
almighty row over Marley's final resting place. As plans for
the week were being enthusiastically finalised, a thunderbolt
came from nowhere: Ethiopia was briefly set to be not just
the venue for a music festival but a mausoleum for the
remains of a man who has become a symbol of the culture of
his native country, Jamaica.

The suggestion was made by Marley's wife, Rita, who was in
Addis to organise the concert and its related events.

According to the Associated Press news agency reporter
Anthony Mitchell, Ms Marley told him: "We are working on
bringing his remains to Ethiopia. It is part of Bob's own
mission." In what was promptly taken as a slight on the
Caribbean nation with whom Marley's name is synonymous, Rita
allegedly added: "Bob's whole life is about Africa, it is not
about Jamaica. How can you give up a continent for an island?
He has a right for his remains to be where he would love them
to be. This was his mission. Ethiopia is his spiritual
resting place. With the 60th anniversary this year, the
impact is there and the time is right."

The story was instantly picked up by media outlets around the
world. Jamaica reacted with indignation. Diana Ginter wrote
to The Jamaica Observer to complain: "What about his
spiritual ties to Jamaica? Wasn't Bob born and raised in
Jamaica and didn't he call Jamaica home?" "Has Rita lost her
mind?" wrote P Chin to the Jamaica Gleaner. "Bob loved
Jamaica. He wouldn't have made it his home if it were
otherwise."

Possibly taken aback by the response, Rita Marley went to
ground, refusing to return calls. A representative of the
Rita Marley Foundation told the Gleaner: "There's absolutely
no truth to the story, and I'm quoting Mrs Marley to you. I
spoke with her this morning as it relates to the story,
because we have been getting calls, and she said that there
were no such plans."

Desta Meghoo-Peddie, of the Bob Marley Foundation, weighed in
to say that Rita's words had been "twisted". AP said that the
interview had been taped and that other reporters had been
present.

What is certain is that the issue had touched a raw nerve.
For some observers the row was, more than anything, about the
terse relationship between the Cuba-born Ms Marley and the
people of Jamaica, who she feels have not always given her
the respect she deserves.

Tony Sewell, Jamaican author of Garvey's Children: the Legacy
of Marcus Garvey, says: "What's interesting about this is
Rita's position. This goes back to the whole situation around
the will and how the Marley property was divided up. She has
been marginalised in the story and part of this is that she
wants to reinvent herself within the Marley context."

Rita Marley has already caused outrage in Jamaica by claiming
that her husband raped her. Speaking from the Caribbean
island, Michael Edwards, features writer on The Jamaica
Observer, says: "There's a fair amount of lingering
malcontent against Rita stemming from the previous
controversy over her book, in which she initially claimed he
had forcible sex with her, and later rescinded. That started
some bad feeling among the general public who still hold Bob
Marley in a very, very high regard." That book - Rita's
autobiography, No Woman No Cry - was published in May last
year and is being "released" again at the Africa Unite
festival, the day after the big concert.

If Marley's widow had hired a publicist they could have
achieved no greater interest than the worldwide story that
has reignited interest in her book and in the Africa Unite
concert (VIP tickets: US$100), which had until the furore
attracted surprisingly little interest. But out of the
acrimony has come a positive in the form of the recognition
by Jamaicans of just how highly they regard the island's most
famous son.

Bob Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 36, has
through his musical legacy come to epitomise the Jamaican
spirit of triumph through adversity. As a Rastafarian he was
a follower of the former Ethiopian leader Haile Selassie. He
believed in the doctrine of the repatriation to Africa of the
descendants of slaves who were shipped to the West. He wrote
mighty anthems of African liberation, including "War",
"Zimbabwe" and "Africa Unite". But he was also the artist who
more than any before or since has epitomised the Jamaican
heartbeat sound of reggae. It was not for nothing that the
island's tourist board adopted his "Smile Jamaica" to lure
foreign visitors with its uplifting message of a people
determined to enjoy themselves.

But Rita Marley does not enjoy a similar relationship with
Jamaica. She left the island for Ghana, and the logo for her
Rita Marley Foundation is the outline of the continent of
Africa, with her face inset.

She met "Robbie" Marley when she was a teenager, living with
her aunt in the deprived Trenchtown district of the Jamaican
capital, Kingston. He was then a member of the upcoming group
the Wailing Wailers. The son of a white British Army captain,
Norvel Marley - who in effect abandoned him - and a young
black country girl, Cedella, Bob was sent to Kingston at the
age of five from the village of Nine Mile, deep in the
Jamaican countryside.

When Bob was 21 and Rita was 19 they married. Their
relationship endured in spite of Bob's rise to international
stardom and his notorious womanising.

The other two Wailers, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, left the
band but Bob formed a backing vocal group of three female
singers, the I-Threes, including the talented Rita. When an
attempt was made on the singer's life in 1976, Rita was also
shot. She steadfastly stood by her man, bringing up not only
the couple's children but those the singer nicknamed Tuff
Gong had with a string of other beautiful women.

Those children have grown up to be important musicians in
their own right, and no less than five of Marley's sons
(Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Damian and Kymani) will perform in
their father's honour in Addis Ababa.

In spite of much of what is written about modern Jamaican
music and its fascination with violence and sex, there has
been in recent years an emergence of young singers who have
embraced the Marley message of clean living and brotherly
love. Rastafarian artists such as Richie Spice, Natty King
and I-Wayne uphold the Marley tradition and stand tall on the
current Jamaican charts.

On Wednesday, in Brixton, south London, another event will be
held in honour of Marley's 60th birthday. The host and
veteran British reggae DJ David Rodigan says that even today
the Marley anthems attract the most frenzied signals of
flaming lighters and waved handkerchiefs from Jamaican music
followers. "His music speaks to all generations but
particularly to young generations because they have so much
hope and feel they can change the world," he says.

Even now, Marley may be the most famous Jamaican in history
but he is recognised only by the island's Order of Merit. The
row about his body has helped to fuel a fierce debate on
whether he should be upgraded to a National Hero, alongside
such freedom fighters as Marcus Garvey, Paul Bogle, Sam
Sharpe and Nanny, who helped to build the modern Jamaica.

Among Jamaica's many churchgoers there is some opposition to
Marley enjoying such status, with his famed infidelity and
fondness for marijuana.

When Marley died, the island went into prolonged mourning,
thronging the streets as his body was taken back to Nine Mile
and placed in a white-washed mausoleum. That resting place
has remained very much off the beaten track, ignored by most
tourists in favour of the beach resorts and the nearby
spectacular Dunn's River Falls. Diehard music lovers make the
trip, navigating the country roads and primitive signs to the
superstar's childhood home. "It's no Graceland," said one
American visitor.

Despite Marley's Rastafarian beliefs, he apparently wanted to
die in the land of his birth (passing away in a Miami
hospital en route to Jamaica). He visited Ethiopia only once,
in a private capacity in 1978, and found that the local
population did not share his reverence for Selassie, who had
just been overthrown in a Marxist coup.

Rita has apparently become convinced that Bob's final resting
place should be in Shashemene, the small Rastafarian commune
in Ethiopia that Selassie created for his dreadlocked
followers after he visited Jamaica in 1966 and was received
with adulation.

Speaking several days after the body row erupted, Gerry
Lyseight, of the Bob Marley Foundation, suggests that the
singer's wife would not be swayed. "Rita said in interviews
that this was something that may well happen in the future
because it was one of Bob's wishes when he was alive," he
says. "It's very, very delicate because he's a huge national
hero in Jamaica and Jamaicans would take this as some kind of
snub. But as his wife she retains the last say in this."

Dervan Malcolm, executive producer on the Jamaican radio
station Power 106, says that even moving Marley's grave will
not affect his inextricable relationship with his
homeland. "You cannot take Trenchtown out of Jamaica. You
cannot take Nine Mile out of Jamaica. Bob Marley is Jamaica
and Jamaica is Bob Marley. It doesn't matter where you go
with the bones," he says. "The fact of the matter is that Bob
Marley is enshrined in the psyche, the culture, the history
and music of the country and there is no taking that away.
Ethiopia would be getting just that: the remains."

A RELUCTANT WELCOME

Ethiopia may be happy to host celebrations for the 60th
anniversary of Bob Marley's birth, but the country has had an
uneasy relationship with Rastafarians.

Emperor Haile Selassie, whom Rastas consider a living god,
granted 500 acres of his own land to Jamaican Rastafarians
who wanted to return to Africa. The first came to Shashamene
in 1971 to set up farms, and at one point more than 2,500
lived in Ethiopia, filling the streets of the market town
with their Caribbean food and multicoloured hats. But their
easygoing lifestyle and attachment to marijuana has led to
clashes with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Some moved away during the brutal Mengistu regime which
overthrew Selassie in 1974, but in recent years they have
returned. Now there are about 100 Rastafarian families
settled among Shashamene's 60,000 Ethiopian residents, many
struggling to make a living in one of the poorest countries
on earth. Ethiopians are especially wary of the Rastafarian
belief that marijuana should be used for meditation and
medicinal purposes. Marijuana is illegal in Ethiopia and
every few months the police swoop on Shashamene, burning
gardens of marijuana plants and arresting the dealers.

The government also makes its displeasure known by setting up
bureaucratic hurdles for the small community. "We have
problems getting residency and full work permits in
Ethiopia," says a Jamaican community spokesman. "I think
everyone accepts we are entitled to be on this land given to
us by Haile Selassie but they don't want to make us feel
welcome."

Meera Selva

[RecoveringAA]

Efaun Double X

Akpe for the information. So informative!!...

:cheers:

Akpe for allowing me to share

In Love of Afrikans home and abroad