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, who helped to build the modern Jamaica. "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.". "Rita said in interviews that this was something that may well happen in the future because it was one of Bob's wishes when he was alive," he says. "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 the Jamaican radio station Power 106, says that even moving Marley's grave will not affect his inextricable 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 It doesn't matter where you go with the bones," he says. But out of the acrimony has come a positive in the form of the recognition by Jamaicans of just how highly they regard the island's most famous son.Bob Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 at the age of 36, has through his musical legacy 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 doctrine of the repatriation to Africa of the descendants of slaves who were shipped to the West. He wrote mighty anthems of African liberation, including "War", "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 with its uplifting message of a people determined to enjoy themselves.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 upcoming group 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 five from the village of Nine Mile, deep in the Jamaican countryside.When Bob was 21 and Rita was 19 they married. Their relationship endured in spite of Bob's rise to international 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.
