Bob Marley & The Wailers ADD

Bob Marley Et La Fille Du Dictateur

BOOK [Grasset et Fasquelle]

Release date: 04/07/2021

Anne-Sophie Jahn

"You are naughty." This is the first sentence that Bob Marley throws at Pascaline, the eldest daughter of Gabonese President Omar Bongo. She is 23 years old and has just slipped into the singer's dressing room after one of his concerts in the United States. We are in 1979, Bob is 34 years old and at the height of his career. Around him, a swarm of groupies tries desperately to get his attention, under the suspicious eye of his wife and backing vocalist, Rita Marley. But Pascaline, darling daughter of her almighty father, is not used to being snubbed. Sculptural, she looks the superstar straight in the eye for a moment, dumbfounded, then bursts out laughing. It's because her hair is straightened, but for rastas, hair is sacred, it shouldn't be cut or styled... Pascaline then suggested that Bob gives a concert in Gabon, for her father's birthday. The singer has never performed in Africa. Thus begins the great love story, the last of his life, long kept secret, between Pascaline and him. A passion that crystallizes around the history of decolonization, the Rasta religion and slavery. Anne-Sophie Jahn investigated for many months and collected the unpublished testimony of Pascaline Bongo. Her personal account mixes scenes and confidences, solos and crowds in a trance, in a free, burning, desirable tone. The Rastafarian icon, gone at 36 years of age, thus lives on...