Marley can't rest in peace

To borrow from Shakespeare, the 200,000 people expected to gather for a concert in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, this weekend will come to praise Bob Marley but not to bury him. Sunday's Africa Unite concert is the culmination of a week of celebrations in the city marking the 60th anniversary of the late reggae superstar's birth.

But the festivities have been almost overshadowed by an almighty row over Marley's final resting place. As plans for the week were being finalised, a thunderbolt came from nowhere: Ethiopia was briefly set to be the venue for a music festival as well as a mausoleum for the remains of a man who has become a symbol of his native country, Jamaica.

The suggestion was made by Marley's wife, Rita, who was in Addis to organise the celebrations. Associated Press news agency reporter Anthony Mitchell says Rita Marley told him: "We are working on bringing his remains to Ethiopia. It is part of Bob's own mission."

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."

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."

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."

Desta Meghoo-Peddie, of the Bob Marley Foundation, says Rita's words were "twisted". AP says the interview was taped and that other reporters were present.

The issue 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 is 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. 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."

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.

If Marley's widow had hired publicists they could have achieved no greater interest than the worldwide story that has reignited interest in her book and in the Africa Unite concert, to which VIP tickets cost US$100 ($140). But out of the acrimony has come a recognition by Jamaicans of just how highly they regard the island's most famous son.

Through his musical legacy, Bob Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 aged 36, has 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 repatriation to Africa of the descendants of slaves who were shipped to the West. He wrote mighty anthems of African liberation, including 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.

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 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 5 from the rural village of Nine Mile.

When Bob was 21 and Rita was 19 they married. Their relationship endured despite Bob's rise to 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 women.

THOSE children have grown up to be important musicians, and no less than five of Marley's sons (Ziggy, Stephen, Julian, Damian and Kymani) will perform in Addis Ababa. In spite of much of what is written about modern Jamaican music and its fascination with violence and sex, young singers such as Richie Spice, Natty King and I-Wayne have emerged who have embraced the Marley message of clean living and brotherly love.

 

In Brixton, south London, another event will honour Marley's 60th birthday. The host and veteran British reggae DJ David Rodigan says the Marley anthems still 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.

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.

Many of Jamaica's many churchgoers are opposed 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 to Nine Mile and placed in a whitewashed mausoleum.

That resting place is ignored by most tourists in favour of the beach resorts and the nearby spectacular Dunn's River Falls.

Diehard music lovers navigate the country roads and primitive signs to the superstar's childhood home. "It's no Graceland," says one American visitor.

Marley 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 1978, and found the local population did not share his reverence for Selassie, who had just been overthrown in a Marxist coup.

But Rita became 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.

Gerry Lyseight, of the Bob Marley Foundation, suggests that the singer's wife will not be swayed. "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 Jamaican radio station Power 106, says even moving Marley's grave will not affect his 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," he says.

"It doesn't matter where you go with the bones, 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."

- INDEPENDENT