AFRICA UNITE 2008

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Africa Unite comes with Smile Jamaica and an array of international stars
The Bob Marley/Rita Marley Foundation's global initiative, Africa Unite concert, will be held in Jamaica for the first time on Saturday February 23, 2008 at James Bond Beach, St Mary.


It will be a combination of two events with a host of national and international artistes at which the feature documentary, Africa Unite, will make its Caribbean debut as part of the celebrations marking the anniversary of the birth of late Reggae superstar Robert Nesta Marley.

The film, starring Rita Marley, Danny Glover, Angelique Kidjo, Lauryn Hill and the Marley children, is produced and directed by Stephanie Black of Life and Debt, H-2 Worker's fame. It will be launched in February 2008 at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.


People's Telecom will host the launch of the documentary which highlights the vision for African unity to which Bob Marley was devoted throughout his musical career.


"We feel extremely honoured now in 2007 to be asked by Mrs Rita Marley to host Africa Unite in 2008," stated Michael Dawson, CEO and co-founder of the Jamaican-owned telecommunications company.

"This is a perfect synergy between the Marley Foundation and People's Telecom, as the company, from the outset, was founded on the principles of stalwarts like Marcus Garvey and His Imperial Majesty (Haile Selassie I), and influenced by the words of Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer," Dawson added in a press release.


The month of February will be bursting with activities celebrating what would have been Bob Marley's 63rd birthday had he lived. In addition to the documentary launch, youth symposiums, lectures, and a Bob Marley football competition are planned.


On February 6, 2005, over 350,000 people gathered in the historic Meskel Square of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to celebrate what would have been Marley's 60th birthday. That 12-hour concert featuring a host of internationally acclaimed artistes is interwoven throughout the documentary, highlighting the reggae icon's global influence.

According to reports of the event, American singer Lauryn Hill passionately debuted new material; Benin-born Angelique Kidjo jumped into the audience during her performance; and Jamaica's Bob Andy serenaded the Ethiopian crowd with his timeless classics.


The concert culminated with a spectacular performance by Rita Marley along with the I-Threes and all Marley's sons singing their father's songs.

"Last year, Stephen Marley put together the Smile Jamaica concert and that worked very well, and then Mrs Marley, who has been doing Africa Unite for three years before that in Ethiopia, Ghana and in South Africa, decided to combine both," a source close to the event told Splash.

"While it is important to have it in Africa, she thought it important as well to have the Caribbean and the people of African descent to also unite as well. The idea is next year to have Smile Jamaica/Africa Unite combined as one event.

"The idea is to push a positive message, it's not just about Jamaicans, but Jamaicans need to think more Afrocentric. we'll be having a nice mixture of national and international artistes. We're working with Ghetto Youth International and the Bob Marley Group of Companies and Headline Entertainment is co-producing the event," the source said.

Source: www.jamaicaobserver.com

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Marley film to debut at Carib
published: Tuesday | January 29, 2008

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter



A film-maker with a conscious purpose, American director Stephanie Black is on the path to critical success.

An independent documentary film maker, Black has won critical success with her works such as H-2 Worker, Life and Debt and the yet to be released Africa Unite: A Celebration of Bob Marley's Vision - all of which focus on Jamaica.

Black has always loved film-making and over the last ten years she has made her name in film producing and directing live-action documentary segments for Children's Television Workshop for Sesame Street as well as Nickelodeon's Playful Parent and more.

Black has also produced and directed music videos for artistes such as Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Buju Banton, Snow and Anthony B, among others. In 1999, Stephanie Black directed and produced a 30-minute documentary on the making of Chant Down Babylon a Bob Marley tribute album produced by Stephen Marley featuring Lauryn Hill, Busta Rhymes, Erykah Badu, among others.

Having lived in Jamaica in the late '90s Black first developed a love for the country when she was filming H-2 Worker. The film documents the plight of the Caribbean man who is brought to Florida each year under a temporary guest worker (H-2) visa to harvest sugar cane for American sugar corporations.

The film was broadcast on national television stations in 20 countries abroad and won both Best Documentary and Best Cinematography at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.

Black told The Gleaner, "I just love Jamaica since I came here to film H-2 Worker. It's like no other place on Earth. I have great faith in the island, it's such a small country that has influenced the world greatly and it has this mystic quality about it."

It was this love for the island and her time spent here that led her to develop Life and Debt. This award-winning documentary looks at the impact of the IMF and the World Bank on Jamaica. The film wove in stories of individual Jamaicans whose strategies for survival for day-to-day existence are determined by the US and other foreign economic agendas.

Black explained, "being here I came to understand the structural adjustment programmes. Being in the US I wasn't familiar with it, it was the first time I lived in a country that had that day-to-day policy, I naively thought it was a good thing, like the Red Cross."

Black was asked by the Marley family to direct the film: Africa Unite. They gave her creative freedom in its production. A lover of Marley's music, Black was happy to accept. "The whole experience was great," she said. "I was very excited to go to Ethiopia, it was a privilege to be there to see a free concert of 350,000 persons in Meskel Square where a lot of brutality occurred. It was very symbolic," she said.

For Black, the film was not wholly centred on Marley but the things Marley loved such as his message, his family and his music. "It's interesting when you have a musical film that has a message, it's a youth empowerment film. Having lived in Jamaica for a while you develop a respect for Rastafari and going to Ethiopia with Ras Bongo seeing how significant the experience was to him was great," Black said.

Currently residing in the United States, Black is excited to return to Jamaica for the premiere of Africa Unite at the Carib 5 Cinema on February 6th. She is in the process of working on another film which she describes as a positive story about Jamaica.

Source:www.jamaicagleaner.com