Ethiopia reburial for Bob Marley

[emad]

Anthony Mitchell in Addis Ababa, AP
Thursday January 13, 2005
The Guardian

The widow of the reggae star Bob Marley said yesterday that she planned to exhume his remains in Jamaica and rebury them in his "spiritual resting place", Ethiopia.
The reburial is set for an unspecified date after month-long celebrations of the 60th anniversary of Marley's birth, to be held next month in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian church and government officials had expressed support for the project, Rita Marley said.

Marley was born in St Ann, Jamaica, in 1945. He died of cancer in 1981.

Mrs Marley said the remains would be reburied in Shashemene, 150 miles south of Addis Ababa, where several hundred Rastafarians have lived since they were given land by Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile Selassie.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1389054,00.html

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. Why now?

I mean, shouldn't they just leave him be at this point?

[benburch]

2. Because he would have wanted it. nt

[HuckleB]

3. Do we know this for sure?

[bobbobbins]

4. yeah, thats the homeland for rastafarians

[HuckleB]

5. Well, that's a complex issue in itself.

But that doesn't mean that Marley voiced a desire to be buried there in finality near the end of his life. His views changed greatly over time on a number of issues, including his beliefs. So I'm looking for something that shows that he actually voiced a desire to be buried there, especially when he knew he was dying.

[bobbobbins]

6. well i'd imagine his beliefs didn't change that much

considering the album he was working on when he died had a number of religious songs on it. I trust that his wife knows what his final wishes were. The only question is why they didn't do it in the first place.

[HuckleB]

7. Actually, his beliefs did change and grew in complexity a great deal.

And the fact that they didn't do this in the first place is very good evidence that this may not have been what he wanted, in the first place.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. When Marley died, Ethiopia was ruled by General Mengistu

who had executed Selassie, and the Rastafarian community was living under persecution.

I expect that has something to do with why the Ethiopian burial didn't happen in the first place.

[MADem]

9. Oh, well

None of my business, but I would have left him on JamRock. Where will the tourists go to lay flowers just before heading off to Dunn's River Falls?