Bob Marley's tenth acknowledged child, Ky-Mani Marley has known everything about life as a "son of"... but without the perks. He tells the story in an autobiographical book, "Dear Dad", released at the start of the year (for the 65th anniversary of Bob Marley's birth) and now translated into French.
The son of Bob and Anita Belnavis, a table tennis champion, Ky-Mani grew up apart from the Marley family, first in Jamaica and then in Miami, always in difficult conditions, in stark contrast to his half-brothers. It was a painful childhood that he had already sung about on the song of the same name, on the album "The Journey" in 1999. Dear Dad paints a particularly acid portrait of Rita Marley, and it will come as no surprise that the Marley family tried to prevent its publication.
On the cover of the English edition, the line "The Story The Marley Family Apparently Doesn't Want You To Know" even sparked a row between Ky-Mani and his publisher, whom he accused of including it without his consent. Claiming that he only wanted to tell his story without creating conflict, he said he might even take legal action. For its part, the publisher laid bare the book's backstage without mincing words, revealing that it was the work of a ghostwriter and that it was ready to release the recorded interviews. In the end, an agreement was reached. In short, there has been plenty of commotion around the release of this book, which scratches the veneer of the Marley family and which will be available in France on 26 October 2010.
Dear Dad
288 pages
€19.90