BLACKHERBALS.COM
The Rastafari Movement and Ethiopia's Third Millennium
David González López
December 2007
http://www.walterlippmann.com.docs1673.html
Translated by the author. Edited by Walter Lippmann.
To be published 2008 in the journal Del Caribe, published in
Santiago de Cuba.
Spanish original: http://www.walterlippmann.com.docs1673-e.html
On September 17, 2007, Ethiopia hosted the world premiere of Africa Unite, a
full-length documentary about the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the
birth of Jamaican musician Bob Marley that had also taken place in Ethiopia
two years before. The screening at the National Palace, with the presence of
President Girma W. Giorgis, highlighted the importance that the government
of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia attributed to this event, in
the framework of the Africa Unite celebrations organized by the Bob and Rita
Marley Foundation.[1]
Six days before the screening, on September 11, the Ethiopian nation
celebrated the beginning of its third millennium, almost eight years after
most of the rest of the world, because this country continues to follow an
ancient national calendar. Treasured by its indigenous Ethiopian Orthodox
Church, this calendar is the product of old Egyptian astronomic calculations
together with the Hebrew and Julian calendars, adopted ages ago.
Nevertheless, since 1582 Europe chose the Gregorian calendar, gradually
accepted after by most of the world and continuing in force today.
In this article we will address, on the one hand, the peculiar and sometimes
surprising Ethiopian history and culture and, on the other, the way that
these influenced the appearance of the Rastafari in our region of the world.
But we must caution that, as the Rastafari movement lacks a center and
ruling scriptures, and, furthermore, its practices are not identical in
every house or group, except the most general ones, each individual enjoys a
great deal of autonomy, and thus, whatever might be said of them will not
necessarily be applicable to all.
The attraction exerted by Ethiopia
We have seen that Ethiopia, as so many times in history, refused to forego
its tradition, took a course contrary to world developments and opted for
keeping its thirteen-month calendar (twelve 30-days months plus a five or
six-day final month depending on whether it is a leap year or not). The
calculations that led to this calendar are intertwined with the beliefs of
its Orthodox Church, according to which God created the earth 5 500 years
prior to the birth of Jesus Christ, so the world would now be about 7 500
years old. But the solar Coptic calendar -the oldest in force today- would
have originated at an unknown date some 3000 years before Jesus Christ,
because its New Year supposedly marked the end of the great flood for which
Noah built his Arc.[2]
Adding to the almost magical attraction that Ethiopia exercises on whoever
approaches its history or culture, some of the oldest fossils of our pre-human
and human ancestors have been found in its soil, together with their
oldest stone tools. It was there, furthermore, that the first homo
sapiens evolved and perfected their early subsistence -including
agricultural- techniques; from its territory, crossing the Red Sea,
primitive men started out on their long quest to reproduce humankind elsewhere
in the world and, millennia afterwards, the first big civilizations extended
to portions of its territory. Land of trade and passage, Ethiopia appears,
millennia ago, in stories and accounts of European and Asian travellers.
Ethiopia also appears and reappears in the sacred texts of Judaism,
Christianity and Islam, because it offered safe haven to the followers of
those three major religions since their very inceptions. Menelik I, born
from a romance between the Sabean pagan Queen of Sheba and Hebrew King
Solomon, was the first Ethiopian emperor, who, after a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, is said to have returned home with the Arc of the Covenant and
the slabs of the Ten Commandments received by Moses on Mount Sinai. Today
they are supposedly hidden at the Cathedral of Our Lady Saint Mary of Sion,
constantly guarded by a monk, the only one authorised, until his death, to
access them.
This cathedral is in Axum, the two-thousand-year-old capital of one of the
great ancient states, founded around the time of the birth of Christ and
first well-documented link in the long chain of Ethiopian culture until
today. Following Armenia, Ethiopia was the second country in the world to
adopt Christianity, [3] when Axum's King Ezana, proclaimed it as state
religion around 330-350 a.c.
It is precisely due to the antiquity of Ethiopia's irruption in history that
it becomes more difficult than elsewhere to separate myths, legends,
religion and history. Ethiopia's own history is hard to explain because it
not always responds to the "logics" of historians. Instead of inciting
study, this has tended to foment a comparative lack of interest of the
academia, that already attributed scant attention to African history in
general. This "difference" of Ethiopian history has been conceptualized by
David Phillipson as "the proverbial autonomy of Ethiopian events with
respect to those of the rest of the world."[4] In other words, few things
would happen there as would be expected from a comparison with events
elsewhere, and this is so because everything is mediated and re-processed by
its very peculiar culture. For instance, it has been said of the very rich
Ethiopian religious art that it underlines a characteristic that the Ethiopian
nation has preserved during the centuries of its existence: its capacity
to re-fuse old traditions and outside influences, not by copying, but by
always endowing them with an original expression, adapted to its national
conditions.[5]
All this goes to explain why many Ethiopian developments, until recent times,
tend to surprise and fill people with admiration in many parts of the world.
The paradigm of those moments was the one that occurred in the second half of
the 19th Century and that, in the end, allowed Ethiopia to become, against
every calculation from abroad, in the sole African country capable of
resisting the otherwise unstoppable European push to subject and submit the
entire Afro-Asian universe.[6] In the course of the first decades of the 20th
Century, therefore, Ethiopia appeared as a singular, almost unexplainable
case, of an African nation that remained unconquered by European colonialism.
Marcus Garvey: unwilling promoter of the Ethiopian myth
Three factors converged to foment the emergence of the Rastafari towards
the third decade of the 20th Century. Firstly, the tense racial relations
existing in Jamaica due to its colour bar, further tensed by the
declining economic situation of the poor majority. Secondly, the ideas of
Marcus
Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940), elaborated either in Jamaica or in New York City.
Thirdly, an absolutely random development, disconnected from the two
previous ones: the coronation of a new sovereign in Ethiopia on November
2, 1930. This last element provided a crucial ingredient to the whole
articulation of the Rastafari imaginary.
In the 1920s, Garvey had been elaborating his Pan-Africanist ideas, marked by
what has been labeled his separatism. Contrary to the criteria of other
Black leaders of his time, Garvey believed that the Blacks of the
Diaspora could never prosper in countries governed by whites and therefore
must
migrate to Africa, in order to contribute to the creation of a strong nation,
governed by Blacks and capable, in turn, of defending the well-being
of Blacks anywhere in the world. However, between the only two
independent African nations, led by Black governments at the time, Ethiopia
and Liberia, Garvey chose the second for his projects of migration and
colonization, because, due to negative historic experiences, Ethiopia tended
to reject
foreign presence, whereas Liberia's government elite was itself a product
of migration from the Americas. Nevertheless, in his speeches, full of
mysterious prophecies sprinkled with biblical passages, Garvey stated
things that later seemed to point to Ethiopia. He warned that Blacks,
oppressed at
the time, would "surprise the world"[7] and said: "Look to Africa, to
the crowning of a Black King that will be the Redemptor."[8] And,
turning their
eyes in that direction, many thought the prophecy fulfilled when, on November
2, 1930, an emperor was crowned in Addis Ababa and named Haile
Selassie I.
Garvey provided a sizeable portion of the Rastafari ideological corpus,
and many see the movement itself as an extension of Garveyism. Also, many
Rastafari relieve that Garvey was "a new Saint John the Baptist, and in
the movement's esteem he is only surpassed by Selassie":[9] the Rastafari
celebrate both their birthdays. There is no documentary proof, however,
of Garvey's identification with the Rastafari, and indirectly he rather marked
his differences with them around the figure of Selassie: the
organization that he founded, the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA),
opposed
the tendency of the so-called first Rasta preacher, Jamaican Leonard
P. Howell, to divinize Selassie.[10] In his writings, Garvey also criticized
Selassie for fleeing Ethiopia during the fascist Italian invasion, and
even Ethiopians, who he went as far as to accuse of "fanaticism".[11] But the
few
leaders of independent African countries at the times would not have
been thrilled to hear of Garvey's self-proclamation -symbolic rather than
anything else- as President of Africa.
Haile Selassie and Ethiopia in the Rastafari imaginary
In its first years of existence, the Rastafari seemed in fact to
concentrate on the "back to Africa" initiative and on the adoration of
Selassie: even the name of the movement comes from the Negus' title and
pre-coronation name: Ras Tafari Makonen. Furthermore, deifying the Ethiopian
emperor is among the basic factors of the movement and one of the few common
aspects among all its affiliates. One of the six basic principles enunciated
by Howell at the time of its emergence (the other five, by the way,
have already lost all validity) were to acknowledge Selassie "as Supreme
Being and only ruler of Blacks."[12]
It has been observed that the four Rastafari groups that were recognizable in
Jamaica in the 1930s differed in the styles of their cults and on the emphasis
placed on one or the other aspect of their doctrines, and only had in common
four points: they condemned Jamaican colonial society, called for a return to
Africa, spoke in favor of non-violence and -again- worshiped Selassie's
divinity.[13]
The Rastafari movement has been classified as a very syncretic religion
that traces its origins back to Prophet Abraham and seeks explanations in the
Bible. Precisely, its followers interpret passages such as Psalms 87:4-6
and 5:5 from the Book of Revelation of the New Testament as a prophecy of
Selassie's coronation and the substantiation of his divine nature.[14]
The Negus is frequently called Jah, Selassie Jah or Jah Rastafari, names
to which a great power is attributed.[15] It is, however, difficult to
establish the exact essence that the Rastafari attribute to Selassie, because
ideas differ from group to group and even among individuals. Some see and
venerate him as an all-powerful living, God of flesh and blood or -according
to their interpretations of the Bible- a divine spirit manifest and
represented in Selassie; for others, he is the Messiah, the Son of Psalm Two,
or a reincarnation of Jesus (in his second coming to earth prophesized in
the Bible), or at least akin to Him, from his same lineage, whose arrival
the first Jesus Christ had announced.[16] Others still consider that he is
at the same time God the Father and God the Son from the Holy Trinity, to
which every human being would be potentially linked in the form of the
Holy Spirit, to complete the Holy Trinity:[17] by considering themselves
in communion with Selassie, and because the latter would live inside them,
they would also be kings and princes.[18] Some Rastafari take Selassie for
"the fourth avatar" and the "climax of God's revelation", following Moses,
Elijah and Jesus Christ.[19] More generally, the Rastafari saw in Selassie
"the Black Messiah appeared in flesh and blood to redeem all Blacks that
are exiled in the world of white oppressors,"[20] taking them to Africa,
the promised land. Many believed that Selassie would fix the date of the
Final Judgment, when the righteous would return to their home on Mount Zion
and forever live in peace, love and harmony.[21]
Beyond the coincidences with biblical enunciations and the effects of
the unusual access to power of a Black sovereign in an independent African
territory, certain circumstances surrounding Selassie's crowning
contributed to foment his deification. The document conventionally considered
the first
of true Rastafari inspiration, The Promised Key, published by Howell under
a pseudonym in the early 1930s, offers us a glimpse of the impact that
Selassie's crowning had among Caribbean Blacks. Howell assures that
he witnessed the coronation on November 2, 1930 in Addis Ababa, and since
them proclaimed a doctrine that places Selassie as "true leader of
Creation".[22]
To understand the commotion experienced in the minds of many one must
bear in mind -on the one hand- the effects of the splendour of the ceremony,
abundantly reported by the world media, that excited the imagination
of readers in various countries.[23] On the other hand, the information that Selassie
was a direct descendant of King David and 225th sovereign in an uninterrupted
list of kings since Menelik I, son of Solomon, had a special impact in the
minds of Blacks in search for a Messiah. The racial pride evident in the
monarch's bearing, the meaning of his name (Haile Selassie meant "Power of the
Trinity" in ancient Geez) and his titles of "Chosen by God," "Conquering Lion
of the Tribe of Judah" [24], also captured Caribbean minds, although they were
the normal titles of Ethiopian monarchs. That is why, in the Rastafari
imaginary, his throne should represent that of God on Earth, established
through the Alliance sealed between God and King David, mentioned in the Old
Testament (2 Samuel 7).[25]
Even if searching mainly in the New Testament the prophecies that
would justify Selassie's divinity, the Rastafari -as does the Orthodox
Ethiopian Church- emphasize the Old Testament much more than other Christian
churches. This would explain the association, on the one hand, of Zion and
Ethiopia, Africa, the Promised Land, Paradise stolen from them and to be
restored, and, on the other, Babylon and suffering on earth in the midst of
white Western culture, and that is why they willingly embraced Garvey's
proposals about migrating to Africa.[26] Four of the eight dates that the
Rastafari usually celebrate have to do with Selassie (his royal and
ceremonial birthdays and the anniversaries of his coronation and his visit to
Jamaica), and a fifth, with Ethiopia: the Ethiopian Orthodox Christmas.[27]
At the inception of Ethiopian culture we find the Sabean peoples of
Semitic origin, who brought their Geez lenguage and writing from Arabia around
the
last millennium b.c., and mixed with Kushitic Black Africans. In Ethiopia
we also find falasha or "Black Jews", whose practices must have entered the
country in remote times, considering the ancient type of Judaism that
they practice and their use of vernacular Ethiopian languages -and not Hebrew-
in
their liturgy.[28] On the other hand, many Rastafari consider themselves
the legitimate Israeli, descendants of one of the twelve tribes of
Israel, enslaved later on. Therefore, they tend to follow an ital diet
according tothe norms of the Old Testament (as Orthodox Ethiopians), excluding
pork. Furthermore, some Rastafari highly appraise (besides the Bible)
the Kebra Negast, "Book of the Glory of Kings," written in the late 13th
Century to substantiate the Solomonic origin of ruling dynasties.[29] It was
precisely this work that allowed Selassie to present himself -in an
exaggerated way, as far as history has proven- as king number 225 in an
uninterrupted list begun, according to tradition, with Menelik I in 980 b.c.[30]
Repercussions in Africa and the Caribbean
Haile Selassie's popularity -and even more: his deification- among the Blacks
of Jamaica and other parts of the Diaspora exploded at the very instant of his
crowning and must have surprised the monarch: in fact, during the more than
four decades of Selassie's rule -as a distant God- we cannot find any
testimony whatsoever of his opinions on the Rastafari movement.[31]
As in Medieval European countries, the Negus was invested with a
supreme religious authority at the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, even
over
the Abuna, its major national hierarchy, underlining the fusion of
religious and political powers in one and the same individual. But at the time
of his
crowning, as from the inception of Ethiopia's Christianization in
mid-4th Century a.c., Ethiopian Orthodoxy was ruled by the Coptic Orthodox
Pope in
Alexandria, Patriarch of All Africa, a situation that ended in 1959.
From this year on, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church became independent, and then
Selassie's religious authority was unlimited. Nevertheless, the Patriarch
of that church cautioned, at a given moment, against an excessive
"deification"
of Selassie, and there are reports that this church has baptized
and converted many Rastafari to Orthodox Christianity.
In Jamaica, the loyalty extended by the Rastafari to someone who was also the
head of state of a foreign nation had its repercussions. By pinning all
their faith on Selassie at the beginning of the movement, the Rastafari proclaimed
themselves free citizens of Ethiopia, subordinated to its Emperor and devoted
to its flag: even the colors adopted by the Rastafari are the Ethiopian
national hue -red, yellow or gold and green-, to which Garvey had
added Black. All this led to a ferocious repression by British colonialism in
Jamaica that caused deaths and Leonard Howell's incarceration in 1934,
accused of sedition[32] for having called the King of England an impostor
in The Promised Key.[33] In the following decades the movement grew and
political unrest increased, also due to agitation for independence.
Although in the 1950s Selassie had received several Rastafari elders and even
allowed
some Blacks from the Diaspora to establish themselves on lands that he owned,
in 1960 a Rastafari delegation returned from Ethiopia seemingly convinced of
the impossibility of large-scale migrations of Caribbean Blacks to that
country.[34] In 1963, shortly after the creation of the Organization of
African Unity, that fixed its secretariat in Addis Ababa -a step that enhanced
Ethiopia's world prestige- Haile Selassie pronounced a memorable address at
the United Nations headquarters that had repercussions among the Rastafari due
to his calls to peace, and also inspired a song by Bob Marley.
Afterwards, in April 1966, Selassie visited Jamaica and enjoyed a
grandiose popular welcome: many Jamaicans -as did Rita, who would later marry
Bob Marley-thought they saw signs of Selassie's divinity (it is true that
a long drought concluded upon his very arrival) that induced them to join the Rastafari.
Nevertheless, Selassie also advised that, before attempting to migrate to
Ethiopia, Jamaicans should seek to free themselves.[35] Selassie continued,
however, to be a central icon in Rastafari ideology and frequently came up in
Jamaican national politics, as evidenced by Michael Manley's (leader of the
National People's Party) appearance, in the course of the 1972 electoral
campaign, with a cane -a present from the Negus- appealing to Rastafari
support.[36]
Haile Selassie's demise in 1974, and above all his death on the
following year, shook the Rastafari faith. Many followers refused to accept
the death
of a "God"; others, again, searched for biblical explanations and thought they
found them in the prophecies of Apocalipse 2 Esdras 7:28; others took
it as a normal development and argued that his spirit would
remain omnipresent[37] and his divinity would not perish, for it would
reincarnate and continue to live, furthermore, within each Rastafari.[38]
Nevertheless, Selassie's physical disappearance did affect the movement.
In spite of this, the Rastafari continued to operate in various
directions. Many approached the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and nowadays some
associate
the movement to this faith. Some of the converts argue that there
are deliberate mistranslations of the Bible to European languages and
therefore seek the Ahmaric version that Haile Selassie authorized in the
1950s, for until then all copies circulating in Ethiopia were written in Geez.
As a consequence of this, and of the wish to approach Ethiopian culture, it
is now frequent to find Rastafari who study Ahmaric.
Lastly (and although some Rastafari criticize reggae as a commercial
product akin to Babylon), music, and more particularly that of Bob Marley,
have had an enormous importance in the dissemination of Rastafari ideas.
Inspired by Selassie's above-mentioned speech, Marley composed the following
text of a song:
WAR
Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and
abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war
That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour
of his eyes
Me say war
That until the basic human rights are
equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world
citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be persued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola, in
Mozambique,
South Africa sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war, me say war
War in the east, war in the west
War up north, war down south
War, war, rumours of war
And until that day, the African continent
Will not know peace, we Africans will fight
We find it necessary and we know we shall
win
As we are confident in the victory
Of good over evil, good over evil, good
over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over
evil [39]
In February 2005, tens of thousands of peoples converged on Addis Ababa, venue
cosen by his widow and sons to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the birth
of Bob Marley, who had died in 1981, and this celebration provided
the material for the documentary Africa Unite. With his work of humanity
and peace, Marley incarnates the best of the Rastafari movement and its genetical
link with Ethiopian culture, that continues to re-fashion itself and to
disseminate, vigorously still, on its third millennium.
[1] Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa): "Ethiopia: Marley Documentary Film Premiered
at National Palace", 17 September 2007. Celebrations counted on
the collaboration of the African Union, the Ethiopian government, the
UN Commission for Africa, the World Bank and UNICEF. (Id.)
[2] Molla, Dr. A.: "Ethiopian Millennium Project", in http://www.millenniumethiopia.com/calendar.html
[3] Phillipson, D. W.: Ancient Ethiopia: Aksum: Its Antecedents
and Successors, Frome & London, The British Museum Press , 1998, p. 145
[4] Phillipson, o.c., p. 9
[5] Pager, O.: Éthiopie: Manuscrits à peintures, Collection UNESCO de l'Art mondial,
Paris, 1961, p. 15
[6] For a detailed explanation of the causes that allowed Ethiopia
to safeguard its independence at this crucial juncture, see Rubenson, S.: The
Survival of Ethiopian Independence, London, Heinemann, 1976, or its
summary in González López, D.: Etiopía, la oposición contrarrevolucionaria, La
Habana, Ed. Ciencias Sociales, 1987, p. 21-59.
[7] Address by Garvey on 6 June, 1928, at the Royal Albert Hall, in London.
[8] Address of 1927, quoted by Barret, L. E.: The Rastafarians: Sounds
of Cultural Dissonance, 1998, Library of Congress Cataloging in Publications
Data, p. 67; also in "Rastafarians", http://www.africana.com/tt_010.htm , p.
2
[9] Ibid., p. 67
[10] By the way, although Howell is conventionally considered the "first rasta",
it has been observed that various other street preachers in Jamaica and
elsewhere in the Caribbean had already arrived on their own, towards 1930, to
the same conclusion of seeing in the newly crowned sovereign in Ethiopia the
cherished saviour of Blacks -others would be Joseph Hibbert, Archibald
Dunkley, Leonard Howell and Robert Hind-, so it has been recommended not to
give Howell all the credit for founding the movement. See "Rastafari
movement", Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari_movement)
[11] King, S.: "International Reggae, Democratic Socialism, and
the Secularization of the Rastafarian Movement, 1972-1980", Popular Music and
Society, 22 (3), 1998, p. 51-52
[12] Patterson, O. "Ras Tafari: The Cult of Outcasts." New Society(1),
1964, p. 16. The other five principles were "hatred towards the white race,
the
total superiority of the Black race, revenge from whites because of
their wickedness and the negation, persecution and humiliation at the hands of
the
Jamaican government and its legal entities". (Id.)
[13] Id., p. 16
[14] "Rastafari movement", Wikipedia, o.c.
[15] Id.
[16] Branch, R.: "Rastafarianism", in The Watchman Expositor: Rastafarianism
Profile, in http://www.watchman.org/profile/rastapro.htm
[17] Id.
[18] "Rastafari movement", Wikipedia, o.c.
[19] Branch, o.c.
[20] Pettiford, E. T.: "Rastafarianism", in
http://saxakali.com/caribbean/EdP.htm
[21] "Rastafari movement", Wikipedia, o.c.
[22] Id.
[23] Between the dates of the coronation (1930) and the Italian
invasion (1935), that Selassie exerted extraordinary but useless diplomatic
efforts to avoid, his photos appeared frequently in the world press: in fact,
his was the first Black face to appear on the cover of Time Magazine (on
3 November 1935), that chose him "personality of the year" in 1935 and
had already published, as well as the National Geographic, two articles
on successive issues on the coronation. But also in Caribbean countries
the local press closely followed the steps of the young monarch. See "Rastafari movement",
Wikipedia, o.c.
[24] The Rastafari dreadlocks, inspired on Kenya's Kikuyu fighters of
the early 1950s, also imitated the lion's mane.
[25] Pettiford, o.c.
[26] Id..
[27] The three others are Marcus Garvey's and Bob Marley's birthdays, and the
anniversary of the abolition of slavery.
[28] Phillipson, o.c., p. 20, observes that, consequently, "they are not Jews
in the sense usually attributed to the term nowadays," although "they share a
common ancestry with modern Judaism".
[29] Id., p. 140
[30] "Rastafari movement", in Wikipedia, o.c.
[31] "A Sketch of Rastafari History" in
http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jmr08860/rasta1.html , p. 2
[32] "Rastafari movement", in Wikipedia, o.c.
[33] Id.
[34] Barret, o.c., p. 100-101
[35] Barret, o.c., p. 158-160
[36] "Rastafari movement", in Wikipedia, o.c.
[37] Cashmore, E.: "Rastaman: The Rastafarian Movement in England",
London, 1979, G. Allen and Unwin, p. 59-60
[38] Branch, o.c.
[39] Pettiford, o.c.