Rita Marley

On 3 August 2013 Rita Marley, widow of the reggae star Bob Marley, was granted honorary Ghanaian citizenship. She had already lived for years in Aburi, in the Eastern Region, where her foundation runs community projects.

Early life

Alfarita Constantia Anderson was born on 25 July 1946; she has said she was born in Santiago de Cuba, a claim her mother-in-law disputed. She grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and was raised largely by an aunt in Trenchtown.

Music

She first sang with the Soulettes, who released "Time for Everything" in 1966, and was coached by Bob Marley, whom she married that year. From 1974 she was one of the I-Threes, with Marcia Griffiths and Judy Mowatt, singing harmonies with Bob Marley and the Wailers on albums such as Natty Dread and Rastaman Vibration. On 3 December 1976 she was shot in the head during an attack on their Kingston home and survived. Her solo work includes Who Feels It Knows It (1981), the single "Harambe" (1982) and We Must Carry On (1988).

After Bob

After Marley's death in 1981 she bought the Federal Records studio in Kingston, turned the family home into the Bob Marley Museum in 1986 and set up the Rita Marley Foundation in 2000. Her memoir, No Woman, No Cry, came out in 2004. She has six children, including Cedella, Ziggy and Stephen Marley. She suffered a stroke in 2016 and has rarely appeared in public since.

Honours

Jamaica gave her the Order of Distinction in 1996 and the Order of Jamaica in 2019. The University of the West Indies made her an honorary Doctor of Letters in 2015.