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Monday, January 31, 2005 1:18 PM
Bob Marley to be exhumed then buried in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia —
The wife of reggae star Bob Marley said Wednesday that she plans to exhume
his remains in Jamaica and rebury them in his “spiritual resting place,”
Ethiopia.
The reburial is set for an unspecified date after monthlong celebrations of
the 60th anniversary of Marley’s birth to be held next month in Ethiopia.
Both the Ethiopian church and government officials have expressed support
for the project, Rita Marley said.
Working on bringing his remains to Ethiopia,” said Rita, a former backing
singer for Marley’s band, The Wailers. “It is part of Bob’s
own mission.”
Marley was born in St. Ann, Jamaica, in 1945. He died of cancer in 1981.
Rita Marley said her husband would be reburied in Shashemene, 250 kilometers
(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.
Marley was a devout Rastafarian, a faith whose followers preach a oneness
with nature, grow their hair into long matted strands called dreadlocks and
smoke marijuana as a sacrament.
“Bob’s whole life is about Africa, it is not about Jamaica,”
said Rita, a Cuban-born singer who married Marley 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,” she said. “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 Marley’s
birthday, February 6, to be held in Addis Ababa.
The monthlong celebration, dubbed “Africa Unite” after one of
Marley’s songs, aims to raise funds to help poor families in Ethiopia.
The Marley Family, Senegal’s Baaba Maal and Youssou N’Dour, Angelique
Kidjo of Benin and other African and reggae artists will perform as part of
the US$1 million (euro760,000) program.
The event is expected to be broadcast in Africa and beyond.
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