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Rita, Cindy and Calabash
Left: Rita Marley, widow of the late reggae icon, Bob Marley, is seen in a contemplative mood, as a team of musicians sang and played 'No Woman No Cry', at the Calabash Literary and Music Festival held at Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth on Sunday (May 27), when the festival ended. Right: Cindy Breakspeare, mother of Damion 'Junior Gong' Marley, giving a rendition of Bob Marley's 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' at the Calabash Literary and Music Festival held at Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth on Sunday (May 27), when the festival ended. - Noel Thompson photos
I have always been amazed that Cindy Breakspeare has no qualms whatsoever about being involved with Bob Marley. Of course, they have a son, Junior Gong, but I have always found it odd that she acts as if the man was not married and his wife does not exist.
It is the ultimate matey dis to the wife.
To compound it, the media has treated the matter in a similar fashion. Not that I expect Breakspeare and the other women apart from Bob Marley's wife to be tarred and feathered and various hairy parts of their bodies plucked, but there is a certain decorum that suggests "arright, me tek de man an it sweet but still me know it sorta wrong, even though a Jamaica dis and we done know how it go. Nuff man have nuff woman an nuff woman have nuff man".
So on Sunday morning, when before reading from VS Naipauls' The Mystic Masseur at the 2007 Calabash International Literary Festival, Cindy Breakspeare said she had been involved with mystic at an early age, I wondered if there was anyone else in the audience who wondered 'damn, this is a hell of a former matey'. I get the feeling I was not, because although there was applause in the afternoon when Breakspeare sang Turn Your Lights Down Low, there was a standing ovation (not universal) when guitarist Steve Golding pointed out that Rita Marley was there and sang No Woman No Cry for her.
I had the feeling that among the standers there were those who rose to show the matey that wife is wife.
I have always wondered, though, what would have happened if that particular triangle had been Cindy Marley, Bob Marley and Rita Anderson. I seriously doubt that Rita would have been accepted as the matey apparent, not with her dark skin. We still have this deference to the 'browning' and it is accepted that possession of such, plus breeding it to demonstrate that you have been there and dug out that, is a lofty ideal.
And I do wonder if we would have ever heard Welcome to Jamrock.
Left: Rita Marley, widow of the late reggae icon, Bob Marley, is seen in a contemplative mood, as a team of musicians sang and played 'No Woman No Cry', at the Calabash Literary and Music Festival held at Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth on Sunday (May 27), when the festival ended. Right: Cindy Breakspeare, mother of Damion 'Junior Gong' Marley, giving a rendition of Bob Marley's 'Turn Your Lights Down Low' at the Calabash Literary and Music Festival held at Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth on Sunday (May 27), when the festival ended. - Noel Thompson photos
I have always been amazed that Cindy Breakspeare has no qualms whatsoever about being involved with Bob Marley. Of course, they have a son, Junior Gong, but I have always found it odd that she acts as if the man was not married and his wife does not exist.
It is the ultimate matey dis to the wife.
To compound it, the media has treated the matter in a similar fashion. Not that I expect Breakspeare and the other women apart from Bob Marley's wife to be tarred and feathered and various hairy parts of their bodies plucked, but there is a certain decorum that suggests "arright, me tek de man an it sweet but still me know it sorta wrong, even though a Jamaica dis and we done know how it go. Nuff man have nuff woman an nuff woman have nuff man".
So on Sunday morning, when before reading from VS Naipauls' The Mystic Masseur at the 2007 Calabash International Literary Festival, Cindy Breakspeare said she had been involved with mystic at an early age, I wondered if there was anyone else in the audience who wondered 'damn, this is a hell of a former matey'. I get the feeling I was not, because although there was applause in the afternoon when Breakspeare sang Turn Your Lights Down Low, there was a standing ovation (not universal) when guitarist Steve Golding pointed out that Rita Marley was there and sang No Woman No Cry for her.
I had the feeling that among the standers there were those who rose to show the matey that wife is wife.
I have always wondered, though, what would have happened if that particular triangle had been Cindy Marley, Bob Marley and Rita Anderson. I seriously doubt that Rita would have been accepted as the matey apparent, not with her dark skin. We still have this deference to the 'browning' and it is accepted that possession of such, plus breeding it to demonstrate that you have been there and dug out that, is a lofty ideal.
And I do wonder if we would have ever heard Welcome to Jamrock.
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