Matriarch of the Marley family, music artiste and entrepreneur, Nana Rita Marley, will be honoured at the 30^th Anniversary of International Reggae Day (IRD) on July 1 with the inaugural International Reggae Day Winnie Mandela Humanitarian Award.

In a release, International Reggae Day Founder, Andrea Davis says the organizers were thrilled to announce the award named in honour of IRD’s inspiration Winnie Mandela. She said, Nana Rita will be presented with the award for her invaluable service to humanity through her music and philanthropic works in communities from Jamaica to Africa.  

As the Matriarch of the Marley Family, Nana Rita has been instrumental in the initiation and completion of great works locally, regionally and internationally. In 1986, she had the vision to transform Bob Marley’s house at 56 Hope Road in Kingston, into the Bob Marley Museum.

Throughout her lifetime, Nana Rita has received multiple awards, including the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government in 1996,  the prestigious Marcus Garvey Lifetime Achievement Award at the Caribbean American Heritage Awards in 2011, a Living Legends Awards at the 2012 African International Media Summit in Malawi, an honorary Ghanaian citizenship from the government of Ghana in 2013  and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of the West Indies in 2015 .

The International Reggae Day Winnie Mandela Humanitarian Award will be presented to the Marley matriarch in a ceremony in Florida on July 1 to be hosted by the City of Miramar and Consul General Oliver Muir.

International Reggae Day will this year pay homage to thirty years of “Riddims and Resistance” in recognition of the thirtieth anniversary of Reggae Day as well as the thirtieth anniversary since the end of apartheid in South Africa.