Posted on 02/06/2005 8:37:14 PM PST by rface
ADDIS ABABA - Even as hundreds of thousands of cheering Ethiopians and visitors came together happily to celebrate Bob Marley here Sunday, an undercurrent of mistrust and uncertainty swelled through the crowd.
Many of the late reggae legend’s fans pose enormous problems for Ethiopia’s overwhelmingly devout orthodox Christian majority who regard the teachings and precepts of Rastafarians to be suspect at best and blasphemous at worst.
Most cannot fathom how or why Rastafarians believe their former emperor Haile Selassie is god, consider Ethiopia the Biblical promised land or smoke marijuana, illegal in this country, as a sacrament.
And beneath a sea of dreadlocked rastas waving portaits of the emperor and hoisting the red, green and yellow colors of the Ethiopian flag in Addis Ababa’s Meskel Square, those concerns were evident.
“I don’t have much affection for them, but I am not against them,” said Zenbe Biru, a 22-year-old student at Addis Ababa University. “I have a problem understanding their philosophy.”
Like many other Ethiopians in the estimated crowd of more than 200,000, he said he had been prepared to put aside his misgivings in order to watch the free outdoor concert, a rare and exciting event with good music.
“I have my own reservations about the Rastafarians,” said 18-year-old high school pupil Alem Desta. “I hate the way they dress and mostly I hate what they smoke.
“I have never dreamed of considering them as one of us. They have their own home, we have our own,” he said. “But I like their music.”
The Rastafarian movement was born in the slums of Jamaica in the decades after Ras Tafari Mekonen in 1930 was coronated Emperor Haile Selassie the First of Ethiopia, then the only African nation not to have been colonized.
With titles such as “King of Kings,” ”Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah” and “Elect of God,” Haile Selassie became the object of veneration for Jamaicans tought a mixture of Biblical prophecy and anti-colonial rhetoric.
And when Haile Selassie visited the island in 1966, not accepting divinity, but not discouraging it either, the Back to Africa movement begun in the United States in the 1940s picked up steam in Jamaica.
The emperor offered the Rastafarians land to settle south of Addis Ababa and since his death in 1975, a succession of post-Haile Selassie governments in Ethiopia has been trying to deal with their presence.
Persecuted in the 1970s and “80s by a Marxist dictatorship that had no use for royalty or god, Ethiopia’s Rastafarians are now tolerated by a government that walks a fine line when it comes to religion.
“The government is not interested in contesting religious claims,” said Information Minister Simon Bedekat, when asked about complaints from conservative Christians that the Bob Marley celebrations were blasphemous.
“This is a secular government that acknowledes the right to believe in what you believe,” he said. “Basically the Rastafarians have the right to believe in what they believe and the evangelicals also have that right.”
But the use of marijuana, as closely held as belief as any for Rastafarians, does bother the government, Bedekat said.
“We’re worried about it,” he said. “We believe that an emerging society must guard itself from any scourge, be it drugs or other types of negative influences.”
And yet, despite the drugs and dress, the unusual beliefs and other misgivings about the rastas, a number of Ethiopians were amused and pleased to see all the attention Haile Selessie is getting 30 years since his death.
“I am really surprised to see this celebration in a place where I was condemning Haile Selassie on the orders of (the communist government),” said pensioner Abebe Gutama, who turned out to watch the concert.
A septuagenarian former employee in the emperor’s palace, Assefa Tessema, said he was stunned by Haile Selassie’s new-found prominence.
“I was afraid his deeds and activities would remain buried like his body,” he said. “I never expected to hear his name again as glorified as today in dignity and honor. It’s really a miracle.”
Perhaps divine after all.
At Selassie's second stop, in Kingston, Jamaica, the airport was mobbed by 2,000 members of a minority Negro cult called the Rastafarians, who worship Selassie as God and want the Jamaican government to send them "home" to Ethiopia. Prrime Minister Sir Alexander Bustamante, 82, has discouraged such repatriation, saying wryly: "We must protect them. They would just get out there in the jungle and be trampled by elephants and eaten by the lions." Undiscouraged the Rastas showed up at the airport waving placards reading "Hail to the Lord Anointed" and chanting "Selassie is Christ" and "Welcome to our God and King." Somewhat taken aback, Selassie was quickly bundled into a waiting car and rushed to a reception, where he observed politely that he had found the welcoming demonstration "beyond my expectations."
They are harmless, Pot heads are just too high to pose a threat to anyone.
Umm, that they were just smoking a sacrament.
rasta ping
I am also interested in learning more about the history of Ethiopia .... especially how Ethiopia and Christianity and the Jews are tied together (ark of the covenant and early Christianity)
Ethiopian advantage is their written language. Ethiopia history is truly fascinating. I work with rastas and for the younger people I dare not bring up anything about Haile Selassie I.
Are you refering to that Graham Hancock book? I picked it up at a yard sale, haven't read it yet... looks interesting...
I don't know this book
Thanks for posting this. I had no idea that The Rastafarians were followers of Haile Selassie.
Now my interest is sparked... of to my library...
He is GOD to them. Despite the fact that he protested their prostrations, Ras-tah Iron Like a Lion in Zion was crowned Lord and Savior.
You don't follow Snoop much do you dear.
In the early 70's I went to a Bob Marley concert here in Portland. I just liked his music, but didn't know much about Rastafarians and we were greeted by people carrying signs: to beware of false prophets.
I had no clue at that time that he really was one (a false prophet)
BTW the music was great, but the air was quite heavy there.
Rein
Given that Haile Selassie's real name is Rast Fari and he is belived to be descended from the Queen of Sheba, I can see how you mignt be confused.
there's some tech guy I see on NBC whose wearing them, I think they are fake and are sewn on.
The mention of Ras Tafari would cause much vexation in some circles..
Not everyone with locks are rasta. True rastas are few in number. Most Americans who are rasta are posers, using it as excuse to smoke weed. Some men's locks look fake because they're long and so on but they're most likely real. I've seen all kinds where I work.
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