ADDIS ABABA Month-long festivities got under way to mark the 60th anniversary of the birth of the late reggae superstar Bob Marley, cut down by cancer aged 36 back in 1981. Those at the opening ceremony included the grandson of former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, considered the spiritual leader of the Rasta movement to which Marley belonged, and Hollywood movie star Danny Glover. Hundreds of thousands of Rastafarians and music lovers descended on the Ethiopian capital for celebrations in the capital of Ethiopia, the country Jamaican-born Marley regarded as his spiritual home because of his Rastafarian religious beliefs. Others at the two-hour opening ceremony included members of the Rastafarian community, the city mayor, local leaders of the Orthodox and Muslim religions, and members of Marley's own family. Ethiopia, home of the African Union and birthplace of Rastafarianism, was chosen by his family to host events marking what would have been his 60th birthday. It was the first time that celebrations of the singer's birth had ever taken place outside Marley's Jamaican birthplace. "It has always been the wish of Bob Marley to return to Ethiopia and become a Rastafarian ... and with the African Union, Addis Ababa is the capital of Africa and therefore a very symbolic place," said Marley's widow Rita ahead of the celebration. "We are here tonight to commemorate Bob Marley's memory and to realize that brother Bob lives on," said Said Desta-Meghoo-Peddie, head of the Bob Marley Foundation, speaking on behalf of his widow: "It is a fulfillment for all of us to stand here in our fatherland, the land of Haile Selassie Jah Rastafari." Adherents of the Rastafarian movement that Marley championed regard former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) as their spiritual leader and for the past two years Addis Ababa has been headquarters to the African Union. "It is a matter of justice that Bob Marley would be celebrated today in Ethiopia," said Prince Bede Mariam Mekonnen, grandson of the former emperor Haile Selassie. At the opening ceremony, Abuna Paulos, head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, led prayers for the late singer. Addis Ababa Mayor Akebe Oqubay then conferred honorary citizenship on Marley's widow. The evening ended with Marley's 80 year-old mother entering in a wheelchair to sing a gospel song with her daughter, dedicated to the children of Ethiopia, a poverty-stricken East African country ravaged by a history of civil war. A fanfare by the Ethiopian army greeted the guests, followed by a peace parade by 30 young people from a variety of African countries. Festivities this week were set to include a concert by the I-three, the singers who backed Marley, and Angelique Kidjo, the west African singer from the state of Benin. The commemoration, dubbed "Africa Unite," will feature concerts, lectures, art exhibits to raise funds for Somali victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami, a youth center and a museum to honor Haile Selassie. The grand finale in Addis Ababa will be an open-air concert next Sunday on Addis Ababa's biggest square attended by members of Marley's family, plus Senegalese singers Babaa Maal and Youssou N'Dour, and also Angelique Kidjo and Ethiopia's Teddy Afro. Concerts will take place during February elsewhere in Ethiopia including the Rastafarian village community of Shashemene set up in 1948, which Marley visited in 1979, two years before his death. Rita Marley has said she wishes to rebury her husband, now interred in Jamaica, in Shashamene. "It was a dream of Bob Marley and it is a dream of the family to bury him in Ethiopia," she said. "As we believe in what is to be, must be, it will happen in due course." In Marley's birthplace, Jamaica, the Prime Minister, PJ Patterson, has announced that the commemoration of Marley's 60th birthday will be held over a one year period. A major entertainment gala will be held on Sunday and this year's independence celebrations will also focus on the legacy of the reggae legend. But much of the focus remains on Ethiopia which is regarded by Rastafarians as their promised land. Reprinted from Caribupdate.com