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This article peaked my interest............. I wanted to share it.


Ghana - Tuesday, April 06, 2004

Rita Marley New Book Creates Waves Worldwide
Brief - Says media is out to get her after she says that Bob raped her news archives - search for news from this country and others
e-mail: this story Rita Marley made waves by leaving Jamaica a few years ago for the African shores of Ghana to provide local community support. Rita has definitely created waves again with the release of her new book called “No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley”. It’s creating quite a stir.

What’s made headlines and got people talking about “No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley” was Rita’s claim that her husband the Reggae prophet Bob Marley raped her. When pressed to elaborate, Rita Marley claimed that the British media conducted a witch-hunt against her.

In “No Woman, No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley”, Rita describes in the book as well as in an interview with the black British newspaper The Voice, the times when Bob would ask for sex and she would decline because she didn’t consent and that she knew that Bob was having unprotected sexual relations with other women. She claims that Bob would force to her if she said no.

Rita accused newspapers of exaggerating the point: “They said Bob raped me. But what happened was that he would come home for sex and if I said ‘no’ he would force me. I would say no because he had so many women……In those days I knew about condoms but I knew he wasn’t using them with all of these girls who were coming round, so I’d say ‘no, I’m not having sex with you,’ and he’d say ‘but I’m, your husband, what are you talking about?……..So that’s why I called it rape – because I didn’t officially consent. But the way the guy put it in the newspaper, he made it look like Bob had me by my neck. When you think about it, you ask yourself whether a husband can actually rape his wife?”.

Rita Marley remained with Bob for 15 years. It was widely known of his frequent extra-marital affairs namely with 1976 Miss World Cindy Breakspeare, whom he wrote the song “Turn The Lights Down Low”, a song that The I-Threes (Rita, Judy Mowatt, and Marcia Griffiths) refused to sing back-up.

I read this article myself and the one thing that stood out for me was this line:

There is a thing called spousal abuse.. I mean I don't know what exactly she went through w/ Bob, but if a man forces you to have sex or a woman forces a man, that is RAPE, married or not!!

It never ceases to amaze me that people just cannot get it through their heads that whether it´s your wife,husband,daughter,son or sheep; if the answer is no and the sex act takes place...IT IS RAPE.

Wow...unbelieveable to hear that Rita thinks she did not get rape. Wonder what she would tell her girl children if the same thing happened to them

This is a classic reason why I don't believe in idolizing anyone! These people that we think are so "great" have so many skeletons in their closet. Well in the case of Bob, I think it was pretty well known that he was cheating on his wife. I don't believe in putting any man (or woman) on any pedestals!