In her recently published autobiography “No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley
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Rita came under heavy criticism from the Rastafarian community—most outspoken of which was Bunny Wailer, former member of the now world famous trio The Wailers. In an interview with the Jamaica Observer, the ex-wailer demanded that Rita apologize for her damage to Bob Marley’s image saying Mrs. Marley’s revelation “…is a disrespect and she owes the world, Bob Marley and their children and grandchildren, an apology… at a time when he is being treated as a saint – this individual who the world is now seeing as an icon, a prophet and a spiritual leader, because of the legacy that he has left us and the legacy that he has left her.” Regardless of how ludicrous it is to ask Mrs. Marley to sacrifice her own healing in favor of the deceased star’s image, few rose to defend her although sales of the book soared with the disclosure hitting the press worldwide.
Bunny’s demand for Rita’s apology cannot be exclusively attributed to Rastafarianism. It is still common in Caribbean society for women to protect the male’s ego through silence—even in cases of sexual violence; a detrimental byproduct of a sexist society. According to Caribbean Sociologist Dr. Linden Lewis, the continuing trend of Caribbean women excelling and assuming positions of power in their society is giving rise to “a growing backlash over what has been described as the marginalization of men.”
“…the status of women’” he said, “changes in tandem with deteriorating economic conditions, there has been a corresponding rise in traditional tensions between men and women, and in some cases, some men believe that the progress of women is being made at the expense of men. The changing gender dynamics of the region present new challenges which have to be negotiated.”
“Violence against women is part of a wider problem of violence in the society as a whole. There is considerably violence that takes place among men themselves and that also needs to be addressed. The violence against women is of a particular quality because it involves people of different strengths, who stand in different relations to power, and who have different types of institutional mechanisms of support and protection, but more importantly, this violence participates in a general pattern of abuse of women which is verbal, emotional and physical.” Lewis further cautions that, “The region has an urgent challenge to fix this problem because every major report on the Caribbean has indicated an increase in the violence against women and this is an unacceptable state of affairs.”
Perhaps Bob Marley was as much a victim of his society as he was its savior; in his paper “Gender Tension and Change in the Contemporary Caribbean” Lewis affirms that “It is reasonable to argue that in the Caribbean as a whole, sexual harassment represents behavior which is largely normalized. The patriarchal culture of the region nurtures this type of behavior.”
In her book, Rita Marley’s rag to riches story tracks the couple’s tumultuous relationship fraught with marital infidelity and emotional hard times. Although many credit his widow’s current fame and fortune to the legacy of Bob Marley, her book attributes her success to her resourcefulness, independence, talent and faith.
