HAILE SELASSIE 1

Look to the East for the crowning of a Black King was not actually said in one of Marcus

Garveys many eloquent speeches, it was instead a final act in one of his plays. In this play, there was, as some would say, a prophetic declaration of a Black King that would come from the East. Marcus Garvey is seen by many as a prophet, so his words were taken with great reverence. Garvey spoke of going back to Africa and the greatness of Africans. It was in this same spirit that he gave the downtrodden the hope of seeing a Black man crowned King.

Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands unto God. Psalm 68 vs 31

The Jamaican lower class(the majority that made up/makes up Rastafari) were the downtrodden. These were the masses that Garvey spoke to, asking them to elevate themselves and later these were the people that Walter Rodney spoke to, as he made an effort to grounds.

Post-Colonialism

The underpriviledged in the Jamaican society as in all societies long for a redeemer. They long for that great voice of truth and justice that will take them away from the hands of the unjust. The situation in Jamaica prior to the crowning of Ras Tafari is sadly, not very different from the way it is today. There are many people who are under educated and those with some amount of education may find themselves underemployed. The system never quite seems fair to the little man.

Jamaicans were looking for a saviour, as much of the world is doing today. The colonial power had left a country that was yet without a strong identity. And beyond that, the idea of rulership and order was seen to be

manageable only by those of lighter skin tones than the African. The idea of a Black King was a radical idea to those who had been fed with hate for themselves and for their ancestral homeland. The seed of Rastafari was nurtured in Garveys Pan Africanism and his back to Africa movement.

Tafari Makonnen

Haile Selassie I (23 July 1892 27 August 1975), born Tafari Makonnen,was Ethiopias Regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He was the heir to a dynasty that traced its origins to the 13th century, and from there by tradition back to King Solomon and Queen Makeda, Empress of Axum, known in the Abrahamic tradition as the Queen of Sheba. Haile Selassie is a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history.

At the League of Nations in 1936, the emperor condemned the use of chemical weapons by Italy against his people.