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Wed 12 Jan, 2005 04:03 pm
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - The wife of reggae legend Bob Marley said Wednesday she plans to exhume his remains in Jamaica and rebury them in his "spiritual resting place" - Ethiopia.
No date has been set for the reburial, but it will be after February when monthlong celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Marley's birth are planned in Ethiopia. Both the Ethiopian church and government officials support the project, Rita Marley told The Associated Press.
"We are working on bringing his remains to Ethiopia," said Rita Marley, a former backup singer for her husband's band, The Wailers. "It is part of Bob's own mission."
Born in 1945 in rural St. Ann parish in Jamaica, Bob Marley rose from the gritty shantytowns of Kingston to global stardom with hits such as "No Woman, No Cry" and "I Shot the Sheriff." His lyrics promoting "one love" and social revolution made him an icon in developing countries worldwide. Bob Marley died of cancer in Miami in 1981 at age 36.
Rita Marley said her husband would be reburied in Shashemene, 155 miles south of Addis Ababa where several hundred Rastafarians have lived since they were given land by Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile Selassie.
Hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans embraced Haile as their living god and head of the Rastafarian religious movement.
Bob Marley was a devout Rastafarian, a faith whose followers preach a oneness with nature, grow their hair uncombed into dreadlocks and smoke marijuana as a sacrament. About 700,000 people practice it worldwide.
"Bob's whole life is about Africa. It is not about Jamaica," said Rita Marley, a Jamaican singer who was born in Cuba and married the reggae star in 1966.
"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."
Together with the African Union and the U.N. children's agency, Rita Marley has organized celebrations in Ethiopia, including a concert on Bob Marley's birthday, Feb. 6, to be held in Addis Ababa.
The monthlong celebration, dubbed "Africa Unite" after one of Bob Marley's songs, aims to raise funds to help poor families in Ethiopia.
African and reggae artists - including the Marley Family, Senegal's Baaba Maal and Youssou N'Dour, and Benin's Angelique Kidjo - will perform as part of the $1 million program. The event is expected to be broadcast in Africa and beyond.
Ok, I have to say one thing...
By now, there is nothing left of his body .
Decomposition, even in a closed casket , underground , destroyes the entire body with in 3 years.
Why is this important?
I guess i understand..... but then again.. I dont.
Exactly what I was thinking.
i don't care where I'm buried. It's just a body. Won't be me.
Rasta man ask, Can we smoke in Addis Abbaba?
Rasta man like "I shots de sheerriff" but he cain remembah de werd.
I would like to smoke his ashes to acquire his power.....and his royalty checks....
What is IMdb?
I want to read that article.
That IS sad if her words were twisted so much that it actually made the news as FACT instead of suggestion or idea...
I couldnt imagine being in her shoes right now.
That is awful.
For a wife to loose her husband first of all..
THEN have her words of grief be taken, twisted , and then posted by a news group as fact...
I feel for her. I cant imagine being there in her shoes, as I have said before.
Thanks for the article Zane.
AWWW, this is compleete disasteah fo Rasta Man. We lookien fowahhd goiin AAddia ABBABBA , smokeeen some good ganga, Now me sociaal calendaah all eeen tuhhmoil.
Complete woooa fo Raasta Maan