Bob Marley Month

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Bob Marley’s 80-year-old mother sang for thousands of Rastafarians in Ethiopia this week, to kick off a month-long celebration of her late son’s birthday. The reggae legend is usually celebrated in his native Jamaica, but this year the festivities were moved to Ethiopia, in honor of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, who was considered the spiritual leader of the Rastafarian religion. Rita Marley, the singer’s widow, said she hoped to move his remains to Addis Ababa someday. “It was a dream of Bob Marley, and it is a dream of the family, to bury him in Ethiopia,” she said. Marley died of cancer in 1981. He would have turned 60 this year.

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