RITA MARLEY ON LIFE IN GHANA – SHE LOVES IT!
The entire clan of Marleys – three dozen plus – packed up and moved to Ghana about ten years ago. The family, including 37 grandchildren, lives in a huge house overlooking Accra. Rita Marley is known there as Nana Afua Addobea
“This is heaven,” she said. Since moving there, she has established a day care centre and school for children and adopted at least 30 children. She is running her Rita Marley Foundation from Accra. The Foundation is a non-governmental organisation financed with money from the Bob Marley Trust and private donations which works toward the alleviation of poverty among people of the developing countries.
The Foundation contributed to building a main road to Konkonuru; supporting the village of Fete Kekabre, on the road to the Cape Coast, with food, medicine and clothing; bringing water to Konkonuru and remodeling the basic school.
“I see myself still as a Jamaican, but Africa is our roots and I was always looking forward to this transition,” she said. “Nigeria is more like New York, but Ghana is a lot more like what we expect Africa to me.”
She has no problem adapting to the culture and customs and has been eating mostly Fufu, breadfruit, ackee and plantains. She admits that she is still having problems digesting Fufu, which tastes like cassava. The Ghanaians, she says, don’t eat ackee and were surprised to see Jamaicans taking a liking to it. And they don’t roast breadfruit, but drink it as a juice.
In fact, she says, her family has now found that a boiled “turn” breadfruit, or a ripe blended one, mixed with a Guinness and condensed milk is considered a powerful aphrodisiac.
The Marleys are so settled in Ghana that they have built a new studio there, which means they won’t have to fly back to Jamaica to do recordings. She said that the studio will not be restricted to the family, but will be open to commercial users.
“They are very musical there and they love reggae. In fact they have a radio station, Vibes FM, which is just like Irie FM: They play good reggae music all the time,” she said. BLESS!!!
originally posted on 876 Icons & Voices by Neo Makeba
