Rita Marley gets Living Legend Award
Marley family matriarch Rita Marley was a recipient of the Living Legends Award at the African Women of Excellence awards ceremony in New York last week.
The event is held by the African Union Diaspora Africa Forum in collaboration with the United Nations Women to recognise women in the African Diaspora whose humanitarian works have uplifted the African continent and the diaspora.
Rita Marley received the ceremony’s highest honour “for philanthropic works in Africa and Jamaica through the Rita Marley Foundation and for being the driving force that has kept Bob Marley’s legacy alive.”
“I grew up a black woman and keen on my identity as a black queen. My mantra has been ‘Say it loud. I am black and proud.’ I am happy and honoured to open the eyes and minds of young girls to love their African identity. As my husband said in his song No Woman No Cry. ‘Oh little sister don’t shed no tears cause everything is gonna be alright.’ He also said ‘So much trouble in the world. All we have to do is give a little,” Rita Marley, the widow of Bob Marley, said.
She explained that the Foundation works in Ghana and Jamaica to improve the lives of women, children and the elderly through health, education, nutrition and community projects. However, she said that more work needs to be done for Africa.
“This Living Legends Award means the Rita Marley Foundation is on the right path. However, I tell you that all of us gathered here this evening still have a great deal of work ahead of us; because right now in Africa young girls and women are being killed for pursuing an education,” Marley said, adding “Children and women are also the most impoverished people on the continent. At this moment little girls are condemned into childhood marriages and young girls forced into prostitution.”
The other Living Legends awardee was Madame Xernona Clayton, a philanthropist & founder of Trumpet Awards.
Other AWEA awardees were: Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka; Justice Julia Sarkodie-Mensah ; Ambassador Alice Dear; Dr Gloria Herndon; Dr Arikana Chihombori; Vivian Derryck; MCecilia Anim; Claudette Perry and Florizelle Liser.
Dr. Joyce Banda ( Former President of Malawi ); Dr. Toni Luck ( African Transformation & Development Specialist) and Olivia Jordan (Miss U.S.A 2015) were among the acclaimed women who participated in the event.
