RASTAFARIAN MOVEMENT

HISTORY

Emperor Haile Selassie was crowned "King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah" and is, according to Ethiopian tradition, the 225th in an unbroken line of kings from the lineage of King David's son Solomon . Of note is the lavish ceremony in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he received the name of Haile Selassie (Power of the Holy Trinity), and leaving behind the title of Ras Tafari, against representatives of major countries.

Garvey believed in Pan-Africanism, the proposal that all black people of the world should join in brotherhood and retake the continent of white colonial powers. He promoted this cause during the decades of the twenties and thirties, and was particularly successful and influential among lower-class blacks in Jamaica, mainly in rural and urban communities. Haile Selassie of Ethiopia came to the throne in 1930, and almost immediately gained a following among those who came to be known as the Rastas. The Rastafari movement began as a network of similar religions, which were held together mainly by the idea of ​​Ethiopian Zion. As Ethiopia was the only African country that escaped European colonialism, and Haile Selassie was the only black leader accepted among the kings and queens of Europe, the early Rastas kept him great respect for their repression and level of justice that kept since slavery .

Haile Selassie himself was head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Africa. He did not mention anything about the status of divinity they had given the Rastafarians. Never boasted of being. Then he met several Rastafarian elders in Addis Ababa and allowed Rastafarians and other people of African descent to settle on his personal land in Shashamane.

The first Rastafarian legal persecution occurred in 1934 for not swear allegiance to the King of England George V. The British government would not tolerate Jamaicans loyal to Haile Selassie in what was by then his colony. The Rastafarian movement was one of the first sectors of Jamaican society to recover the historical memory of the descendants of black slaves. A song from the 70s of Horace Andy, Jamaican rasta musician reads:

"When I was a child I did not know my culture. As a child I did not know that my ancestors came from Africa. When I was a kid I used to say that the Rastas were not good. I used to run away from them in the streets. But now, let me tell you, are saying the truth. "

Leonard Howell was the highlight of the early leaders of Rastafari Movement. He was arrested and put in prison for two years for slander and threaten the Jamaican government. After his release, he founded the Pinnacle commune, which is considered the source of medicinal and sacramental use of Ganja for the Rastafarians. The herb also reached a spiritual significance as a holy sacrament between the Warriors called Nyahbinghi.

During the 30s, depression wrecked Jamaica and Ethiopia alike. The Fascist Italy led by Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935 (see the Second Italo-Ethiopian War), which was considered one of the biggest events that preceded World War II. Haile Selassie, in exile in the UK, created the Ethiopian World Federation for world unite black support to Ethiopian rule. After the end of the war, donated a large plot of land in Shashamane, Ethiopia, to allow black settlers to return to their homeland.

In the '50s, the Rastafarian movement's message of racial pride and unity had alerted the ruling class in Jamaica, and confrontations between the poor black Rastas and middle-class white police were common. Many Rastafarians were brutally suppressed, and some died. Others were humiliated by having their sacred tresses were cut.

On 1 March 1958, Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards founded the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress (Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress), and established his headquarters in the 54B Central Spanish Town Road in Kingston, Jamaica. Its members are known as boboshantis.

The visit to Jamaica of Haile Selassie on April 21, 1966 and his meeting with Rastafarian elders shoved remarkable movement: its disappearance in 1975 coincided paradoxically with the beginning of his most spectacular period of growth, supported in part by the international popularity of reggae music in which the Rastafarian movement found a means of expression, and the believer's world famous Bob Marley. Indeed reggae is not part of ceremonial order rastafari.10 Because of Haile Selassie's visit, April 21 is celebrated as the Day Groundation. It was during this visit that Selassie told the Rastafari community leaders that they should not emigrate to Ethiopia until they had liberated the people of Jamaica. Liberation before repatriation.