1. King, God or Redeemer?

Think about Rastafari and you’ll immediately
conjure images of the charismatic reggae
master Bob Marley and his headful of swirling
dreadlocks. Marley is certainly a Rastafari icon,
but there is another man at the heart of the
Jamaican movement. He is Ras Tafari: that was
the birth name of Ethiopia's 225th and last
emperor, who was born on 23 July 1892, and
took the regal name Haile Selassie I when he
was crowned. For Rastas, he is God (or Jah)
incarnate - the redeeming messiah.
Nearly 8,000 miles separate Addis Ababa, the
capital of Ethiopia, and Kingston, Jamaica, but
a link between them was forged by a number
of poor black Jamaicans who believed Ras
Tafari’s coronation was the fulfillment of a
prophecy and that he was their redeemer, the
messiah written of in the Bible’s Book of
Revelation: “King of Kings, Lord of lords”. They
believed he would arrange for a deliverance,
which, as they saw it, involved a miraculous
transformation. They would be spirited away
from their lives of poverty in the Caribbean
and relocated in Africa, the land of their
ancestors and their spiritual epicentre.

2.From Ras Tafari to Haile Selassie

Emperor Selassie uncovers a statue in his
honour at his coronation in Addis Ababa. This
video has no sound.
Tafari was a son of a chief adviser to Emperor
Menelik IIl, one of Ethiopia's greatest rulers.
Since childhood, his intelligence impressed the
Emperor, who facilitated his political career.
When in 1930 Menelik II's daughter Empress
Zauditu died, Tafari was crowned emperor.
Haile Selassie's coronation was a lavish event
attended by royals and representatives from
all over the world. The New York Times
reported on the expensive gifts received by
the attendees and speculated that the
celebrations may have cost more than
$3,000,000. Time Magazine dedicated its
iconic cover to the Emperor: it was a world
sensation.
Soon after his coronation, Haile Selassie gave
Ethiopia its first written constitution, which
greatly restricted the powers of Parliament.
Effectively, he was the Ethiopian government.
Succession to the throne was restricted to his
descendants and, the constitution stated, "the
person of the Emperor is sacred, his dignity
inviolable, and his power indisputable."
But in Jamaica, Haile Selassie was becoming
more than the name of a powerful emperor.

3.Marcus Garvey and the vision of Africa

“Look to Africa when a black king shall be
crowned, for the day of deliverance is near.”
This was the prophecy that started it all.
The prophecy was Marcus Garvey’s. Garvey
was a Jamaican activist who campaigned for
political and social change on an island that
had been an important centre for slavery. After
the slave trade was abolished in 1833 and
Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation
freed "all persons held as slaves", life did not
improve dramatically for ex-slaves, their
children and successive generations of black
people.
It's unclear whether the “black king” Marcus
Garvey had referred to was an actual person;
more likely, he meant it as a symbolic figure.
But, when news of Haile Selassie's coronation
in 1930 reached Jamaica, many of Garvey’s
followers made what seemed to them a logical
link. Ras Tafari was the king, and so the day of
deliverance was imminent. That meant they
should prepare themselves for an exodus to
Africa.
Although Marcus Garvey was never actually a
Rastafarian, he is considered to be one of the
religion's prophets, as his ideals heavily
shaped the Rastafarian philosophy.
Only a few years after Haile Selassie's
coronation, Ethiopia became involved in a
terrible war.

4.War in Ethiopia



In 1935, Benito Mussolini's troops invaded
Ethiopia and, in 1936, Haile Selassie fled in
exile with his family. That year, he delivered a
famous speech to the League of Nations in
Geneva, appealing for help to fight the
invaders.
Although during that time he tried to raise
awareness for the Ethiopian cause in Europe,
Selassie spent five years away from his
country. He stayed mainly at Bath's Fairfield
House, but he also briefly stayed in London - a
time that is commemorated by a bust in the
city's Cannizaro Park - and in Malvern, in
Worcestershire. Marcus Garvey heavily
criticised him for leaving his own countrymen
at the mercy of Italy. Haile Selassie
reinstituted his powers as emperor in 1941,
with support from Britain.
Visit to Jamaica
On April 21, 1966, Haile Selassie visited
Jamaica. This was 36-years after his coronation
and the enthusiasm of Rastas was undimmed.
There was now a new generation of Rastas,
many of whom still harboured the vision of an
African exodus.
Haile Selassie was overwhelmed by the
rapturous reception.
He did nothing to dispel thoughts of his divine
status. By this time, Garvey had died and his
criticism of Haile Selassie forgotten in Jamaica.
But around the world, the jury was not
unanimous. Although he wanted to project the
image of a progressive emperor, he faced
accusations of being a greedy dictator.
Among the rapturous crowds who turned out
to honour their redeemer was the wife of a 21 year old Jamaican musician. He had just
formed a band called the Wailers and his name
was Robert Nesta Marley.

5.The Rastaman cometh


Bob Marley was arguably the most influential
Rasta in history. He never claimed to be a
prophet, though his songs had a prophetic
character; and he was never a leader, though
his many followers treated him as one.
Marley and his band the Wailers, in 1973,
released their album Catch a Fire. Two years
later the album Natty Dread sold well
internationally. Both records were loaded with
Rasta symbols and motifs, prompting music
fans to ask questions about their meanings. By
the time of the release of Rastaman Vibration
in 1976, there were Rastas in practically every
British city and in many parts of North
America.
Young black people had fashioned their hair
into the long coiled dreadlocks, as worn by
Marley, were carrying what were called prayer
sticks (i.e. walking canes) and wearing clothes
in the colours of the Ethiopian flag, green,
yellow and red, usually with the addition of
black. While their parents were, in the main,
Christians, young blacks in places like London,
Birmingham and Manchester, were drawn to a
different theology, which incorporated a
political critique.
All around them they saw evidence of Babylon,
personified in the police, but were guided by
an image of deliverance in the form of Africa.

6.I and I


Famine and revolution
Back at home, things took a turn for the worse
for Emperor Selassie. In 1973, a terrible
famine killed approximately 200,000
Ethiopians, mostly in Wollo province.
Only a year later, the Derg, a group of army
officers with a Marxist agenda, overthrew Haile
Selassie in a military coup. Sick and
imprisoned, he died in 1975.
'Lies of Babylon'
Haile Selassie's death was described by his
followers as his 'disappearance', since they
refused to believe he had passed away. And
when the subject came up, the phrase 'lies of
Babylon' was frequently used in the Rasta
community.
Many Rastas believed the white-dominated
structure they called Babylon had propagated
a falsehood in an attempt to undermine the
then fast-growing Rastafarian movement.
Others discounted the news by pointing out
that Jah (the Rasta name for God) had
temporarily occupied the earthly body of Haile
Selassie. The passing of Haile Selassie’s body
was merely a sign that Jah was not just a
human being but also a spirit.
A third interpretation and the one most Rastas
adhere to, concerns the concept I and I: this
refers to the essential unity of all humanity;
we may inhabit different human bodies, but
we are all spiritually united. Haile Selassie may
have gone, but to see him as a single deity
misunderstands the meaning of Rastafari: his
spirit lies in all of us and can’t be
extinguished. From birth, we are all ephemeral
bodies, but our souls live on.

7.How does Haile Selassie live in music?

Many musicians wrote songs inspired by
Selassie. Bob Marley's song War, is almost
verbatim from his speech before the United
Nations in 1963.

Source: BBC
africanleadership.co.uk/blog/?p=4509

OP's thought- after reading this I must confess that while ii respect the intelligence of rastafarians, idolising Haile Selassie this much goes to show how much weed can mess your senses up.

Wow i thought Africans were the only gullible ones....Pure Mumus

Another religious bubble of delusion

manny4u:
OP's thought- after reading this I must confess that while ii respect the intelligence of rastafarians, idolising Haile Selassie this much goes to show how much weed can mess your senses up.

O Jesus, LWKM Ooo.
Father, where will you start from judging this world. So many mad people in the world.
Haile Selassie. Messiah, redeemer and God. Wonderful. HahahahahahahahaHHHa. O Lord my God.