Rohan Marley in Paris while launching the new headphones of HOUSE OF MARLEY !
Photo Pierre Schwartz
A story by UFFP editor Feriel Berraies Guigny
The House of Marley has just launched in France, this month of june a new collection of Headphones. United Fashion for Peace had the honour and pleasure to meet up with Rohan Marley the son of the « legend » of reggae music.
A magical encounter in beautiful Paris, chatting with an amazing and warm person; a heart to heart gathering where we could exchange our vision of ethics sustainable africa and peace. But before sharing with you this superb encounter, just a brief note on the amazing products that have been launched in Paris by House of Marley.
The Headphones will surely be your best seller shopper this summer dear UFFP readers
With House of Marley head and earphones join up to a sound that satisfies your soul !
Cause when it comes to buy quality sound and doing the right thing, there is no hesitation » not only we believe in making our products in the right way, we believe in making our products right » explains Rohan Marley.
Earth-Friendly headphones
House of Marley has created products that are sustainable, renewable and recyclable. Each of the products are packaged in recycled and recyclable material so it avoids the waste stream and can manifest into something useful again.
A product that’s Cause-Minded
» We all have to stand for something. It’s not in us to be complacent » that is the spirit of House of Marley products. For every product you purchase, a portion of your money goes to 1Love.org causes that focus on charities that benefit youth, planet and peace.
Interview with Rohan Marley
Africa if you could describe how you feel about this Continent ? I think it is time to empower Africa, give Africa it’s great and right full place ! Africa is our mother earth, Africa is great and selfsufficient, the only reason being that Africa is the future ! We need to become one country today to be really one Continent. It means more brotherhood between Nations, solidarity and sharing.
What is your perception of the Arab Awakening? Tunisia opened a window of Hope, it showed that the people for once could speak up for their own destiny. It is time to hear the voice of people, to give them the chance to change their life. It will take some time before real changes happen, but together we can change the world if we believe in change and at any costs, no matter the sacrifice.
How do you manage living with your father’s legacy? being the son all your life, reminds you that what you have is a god consciousness. Being the son of Bob Marley means that you are the son of a man who preachs love, peace. A man who loved people, it is a blessing and you learn everyday from him, even now that he is gone and yet is all around us. I remember the time when there were these acrobats washing the windows and they would come to my father, and us children we were dreaming of doing the same thing ! and one sunday they came to my father’s ranch in Jamaica , we were playing with my other brothers in the yard, they came to the gate. The gate was closed, they were street boys, we went to talk to them » hey listen today is not your day, today is our day with daddy « !
My father was watching us through the window upstairs and he saw us being rude to the boys telling them to stay outside, he called us and gave us money and said listen let them inside the gate and buy them some ice cream, he had just seen an icecream man passing by. He watched them eat.
We learned from that as he explained to us later on » you are inside the gate, you are ok and am not for you » ! it was a great lesson from our father he did not want to preach for his own deacon.
Did you miss him? Well when you are young, you always want to please your parent. I cannot say today they i missed him because we learned very young to accept things, but i did cry at times but my brother steven told me not to cry even when he passed away. From that day i always try to keep my composure. But of course, everyone would like to see his father more when he grows up. I would have loved for him to have known about my past athletic victories in University because i was said that i was a guy that would never go to school!
Hyperactiv you were ? i did not like rules and academics i got expelled when i was a little boy and yet i went to school, got a scolarship, got a college degree when i moved to America.
Ethics in Arts what do you think ? you have to live this message and experience it on a daily basis. Being the son of Bob it is his heritage. It’s all about the human transcending it. You go by what people say. If i have property and i can share with my brother i shall do it without thinking or any expectations of a return. We have to speak the truth always cause its a fair offense but not a sin.
Once you start hearing the right voice it will be a natural process, people must hear their inner voice of good. When i rest i see a lot of things and when am awaike too. It’s my inner soul, my first thought comes from a greater heaven, we live in a magnetic world and we can feel and sense these forces that guide you. You have to have your own path, your own way and be a living example. We have to show people that there is always another way!
1love.org tell us about it? its a creation of the House of Marley so that we can support the ideas we love, which are peace unity youth and the planet. We want to support the futur generations, also protect the environment in a sustainable way. We like to support the charities of the Countries we work with.
How about United Fashion for Peace? We are definitly interested in such an initiative and we also are supporting le Petit Prince as a local charity. We want to make a change for people, we must contribute to the awakening of people. Whatever we do we must always think of sustainability !
How can we take and not give ?!
Tell us now about this baby product of House of Marley ? Paris is another step for the launching of our products, After the US and some other nine countries. It took some time because we were looking for the right partner. We will be working exclusively with the FNAC in France. We want to bring our other side of creations and creativity to the World. We are known for music of course but at the same time we wanted also to create products that would contain our philosophy, our soul and spirit. We try to stay faithfull to our father’s legacy.
Can you describe the principles of House of Marley ? It mainly deals with Peace, unity, environmental protection and youth. The difficulty concretly was to apply those principles to our daily lives. Thats why we focus on eco friendly products, ecocertified products, we use recycled plastic and organic coton. We have to cope with distance to even bring good wood. Wood gives to the products a more natural feeling and a better sound quality. Our products are sustainable because people can survive thanks to the wood we adhere to a program that is called the FSI/ Forest Conscience Program wich teaches to people how to live healthily with the forest, to protect her. We make people aware of the danger to erosion for our planet. It is important to guide those population on which trees can be cut and what is too young to be cut. We do our products under FSI certifications and part of our sales benefits goes to help the people of these communities.
Where do you produce ? the development as far of the mind and creation starts in Jamaica and then we take it to America where we have our headquarters with our inhouse designer team coming fromvarious parts of the World. We produce in China and we buy the wood all over the world. Once we have our concept done we bring to China and then we teach them to respect our standards. We have to balance this collaboration, we teach them and at the same time we give them the opportunity to give back to their own environment. They become more sustainable, more conscious of what we are doing then .
When we grow, we shall increase our production around the world. Presently we sell in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, UK, Singapor, Hong Kong, Korea, Germany, Holland, Japan, South Africa soon and Arab Emirates, Tunisia. For subsaharan Africa yes it will be a next step but we must first find the good distributor.
How about France, glad to be here ? We are very happy to launch our products in France, because it is one of the countries having reaggae pupping in their blood ! french people and all the diverse ethnic groups living in France loved my father.
Thank you Rohan and stay blessed you and Isabella 🙂
HOUSE OF MARLY HEADPHONES
Love the Man, love the earth
the ideals and the philosophy of Bob Marley focused on one thing: LOVE
SATISFY YOUR SOUL
For further informations please go to:
http://www.thehouseofmarley.com/