Marley’s Remains To Be Moved

Bob Marley’s widow said she plans to exhume the reggae legend’s remains in Jamaica and rebury them in his “spiritual resting place” of Ethiopia.

A date has not been set for the reburial, but it will be after February, when monthlong celebrations of Marley’s 60th birthday are planned in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian church and government officials support the move, Rita Marley said.

Rita, along with the African Union and U.N. children’s agency, has organized celebrations, including a concert on Bob’s February 6th birthday. The show will be held in Addis Ababa.

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.

Rita added that Bob, a devout Rastafarian, would be reburied in Shashemene, which is 155 miles south of Addis Ababa where several hundred Rastafarians have lived since they were given land by Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie.

“Bob’s whole life is about Africa. It is not about Jamaica,” Rita said. “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 (of his birth) this year, the impact is there and the time is right.”

Bob Marley died of cancer in 1981 at age 36.