In the late 1920s, a new spiritual vibration began to spread, to the descendants of Afrikan Prisoners of War that was carried beyond (Caribbean) onto the island of Jamaica. Tired of the colonial way, an individual, named Leonard Howell carried a news paper clipping of the Ethiopian Monarch Negus (King) Ras Tafari who in 1930 was crowned with the biblical accolades and titles King of Kings, Prevailing Lion of Judah, and the Elect of God. His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie the First, stood bright for the world to see as one of the most decorative and significant coronations that the world through the medium of the media has ever seen.
The Jamaican people who were taught from a Negro Slave bible, that excluded the book of Revelations or any verse that would incite rebellion or revolution of the European enterprise were placed in chains mentally and physically and began to see redemption through Haile Selassie I. A collective of people who have mixed their indigenous spirituality with Christianity, through the veneration of the ancestors, opposing the colonial laws placed on the island, got hold of the full bible, studied and would read that the revelatory verse that the Messiah’s hair was like wool and feet like burned brass, fed their spirit. Rastafari began to threaten the Catholicism structure and the political operation of the island that many early Rastafari known as Howelites faced major persecution.
The leader of the Howelites, Leonard Howell who successfully built a community and developed their own version of Black Wallstreet from Oklahoma, USA village was burned down by the police through orders of the Jamaican government. Eventually, Leonard Howell was given the judgement of spending time in a mental asylum because of his idea of a black messiah, through the person of Haile Selassie I and was considered a lunatic. Nevertheless, Rastafari began to spread along with the abuse of its people by the orders of the Jamaican government increased.
In 1961, a few brave men from the Jamaican Rastafarian community, Douglas Mack, Mortimo Planno and Philomore Alvaranga, sponsored by the new Jamaican Prime Minister, Norman Manley, made an official visit to Ethiopia. The mission was to inquire about the Rastafarian community repatriating to Ethiopia through the land grant that Haile Selassie I has offered after the successful defeat in 1941 of the Italian occupation in Ethiopia.
On Friday April 21st, Haile Selassie was ecstatic to meet the delegation, that after the formal meeting, the Emperor conducted an informal discussion in English with them. Brother Douglas Mack records in his book, “From Babylon to Rastafari” that Haile Selassie shared that the Jamaicans and Ethiopians are blood brothers, providing confirmation towards their innate identify as being Ethiopian.
After the trip the delegates took a tour to a few Afrikan countries like Nigeria and Ghana. In Enugu, Nigeria Dr. Michael Okpara apologized to the delegation for his ancestors of the Ibo people who used to sell their brothers in slavery to the west and mentioned that in Ibo law, if anyone traces their lineage back to the tribe, would be received and pray that all is forgiven. In Ghana, Nii Amoo Nakwah II, the Obtobulum Mensah, 90 years old at the time, remembered when slaves were leaving Ghana through agreements made between the Ghanaian chiefs, the Portuguese and the Dutch. In 1955 Ghana made provision to issue free land for immigrants and members of the Jamaican Back to Africa delegation with President Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.
As they embarked back to Jamaica, they returned to the harsh reality of the persecution of Rastafarians on the island. After a tragic event where Rastafari people where blamed, the government issued a statement, “BRING IN ALL RASTA DEAD OR ALIVE”. This would spark the event at Coral Gardens known as Bad Friday, which happened on the Christian Holiday, Good Friday, in 1963.
In November of 1964, the Rastafari delegates earnestly returned to Ethiopia for a follow up meeting about repatriating. Haile Selassie I hosted them with an extended stay in Ethiopia to see what life is like in Ethiopia. The delegates asked if HE can visit Jamaica, and with excitement said yes.
In April of 1966, 3 years after the Coral Garden incident, Haile Selassie I came to Jamaica, and was met with a large crowd of people to welcome HIM. He also defended the Rastafarian belief by refusing the Jamaican parliament offer to correct their belief, he instead offered Jamaica the opportunity to be part of the OAU (Organization of African Unity) but unfortunately could not be part of it. His visit was known as the day of Groundation, a Rastafarian Holiday, which wouldn’t have been possible if not for the Rastafari Sages, known as Douglas Mack, Mortimo Planno, Philmore Alvaranga and Brother Samuel Clayton due diligence in requesting the Emperors presence.
Since the visit, Rastafari has grown a million plus strong ushering a strong appreciation for the Afrikan identity, that even Rastafari communities have been developed from the span of Ghana, South Africa up to Ethiopia. There are even Rastafari adehrents in Europe, Mexico, South America, North America and Asia. Through the works of the Rastafari Sages and the world renown musician Bob Marley, Groundation is observed every year on April 21st.
-Ras Shamou Oladiipo
Alafia, Greetings and Peace in the name of the Ivine King of kings, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie the First and His chosen Queen Empress Menen Asfaw. I also greet you in the true spirit of our creator who is known by many names and is the inspiration of great testimony.
I, Ras Shamou Oladiípo will like to share with you a testimony of mines and maybe it can help you if need be. The title of this letter is a work in progress for many reasons, but lets start at my beginning in the this age of HIM (His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie). Before I decided to bow before His Majesty, I grew up as a youth who was sent to church to develop a connection to the creator. The name that I learned the creator name through was Jesus. Everything that I did, when I gave thanks was to that name and that name alone. Even though in my earlier years, I was not as interested in church, disliked how much time it took up on Sundays 10 – 3pm (time of church, I used to attend), I couldn’t understand or relate to what was being taught and developed a level of anxiety and fear whenever someone caught the Holy Spirit and began shaking uncontrollably. There was still a beauty in it. For example, I remember when I made a vow to stop lying and I made that vow in that particular church, when I was in the 3rd grade. Also in that very same church, I played Jesus in a church play and sung on the choir. All these things I enjoyed and appreciated, for it was the beauty of my time at that church.
My love for Jesus Christ grew extremely well through out the years since I was 8. My perception of spirituality was based off of my divine inheritance as a human being along with my adolescent characteristic of imagination and magic, and it grew with a progressive level of confidence. From what I remember, I was too scared to even question God and felt protected that there is a something greater than what I can physically see or behold and is watching over us. I remember staring out my window, focusing on the street light, which was the only light that illuminated the portion of the dark street my building was on and talking to God through it. It was also from these talks that I grew in my connection with the creator.
It wasn’t until I graduated college that my conviction to return to God was needed. I had some fun in college, that other believers have taught me that God would not have approved of. I knew that what I was doing wrong but I wanted to live my life and have fun. I didn’t get too wild, for my love for God was stronger than my will to fulfill my sin. It was extremely strong, that when I walked down the altar to give my life to Christ, I cried in shame for running from HIM for so long. At this time in my life, I am in a different state and church from when I was 8. I was a student of the bible and read, read, and read. Then something happened, I began to see the failure in man but even more the failure in man that wear the cloth. The people who are preachers and servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I began to see the shaming and traits of cult like behavior that Pastors were doing to people and I was victim to this. Some families were already struggling financially and were torn between paying rent and tithing because it was embedded in them, how can a man rob God? I saw people giving their last to fit the description of a good and faithful servant but was being mislead by the Shepherd, the speaker of the house. It was a crazy time, where people feared God more than they loved him and because of what I was witnessing, I began to back off from church because I began to see a common trend between the many churches that I attended or was a member of. The thing they had in common was dogma that brainwashed you into practicing faith but not in real-time, in others words living in imagination instead of reality.
Caption says, “Women who don’t need nobody but Jesus” Big form of Romanticism
I won’t delve so much into detail of what I mean but people are so wrapped up in the name that they miss the trick that is being done on them. Under its spell, I discriminated on people who didn’t accept Christ or didnt practice Christianity, even if it was family and used the scripture to affirm why I should. In my situation, the more people who were in Christ the more tithes the speaker of the house took to satisfy his sin.
I began to think of my ancestors, which I have done since a child and read more and more history books and saw that at this name as well, many people died. I used to ask this million dollar question, “Why didn’t Jesus save us during the slave trade, and why did he allowed it to go on for 400+ years?” and “When is he gonna punish those that mistreat us?” I realize that my answer would only come in silence, leaving me to think more realistically. The more I changed my mindset, the more stuck I saw people. The trick of laziness, procrastination, bigotry, headiness all played them well while they spoke in tongues and called an imaginary figure their savior. I couldn’t find the right words to tell them to wake up and say, “he aint coming!!” or that, “Jesus isn’t physically gonna save you, and that you have to work and apply yourself” but because they were so under its spell, I couldn’t reach them. I began to dislike this name more and more. Then I learned something, my issue isn’t with the name Jesus but with the interpretation that I and so many others were given. For in actuality, I love Jesus, for the Jesus in the bible was a revolutionary and an awesome role model for anyone who wants to follow righteousness can learn from. For one, his own Father did not save him from death, and ideally we do what our parents taught us, so why would he save us from public humiliation and a crucifixion. God will remain silent on these matters, we ask for strength on how to solve our own issues, realizing that God is not going to come out the sky and beat every devil that did us wrong.
Things like this used to fuel my anger but in actuality they need the Great Physician
The Jesus that was given to us from certain Pastors who should not be leading a flock, these workers of evil, brainwash their congregation, molest and do all manners of wrong to them. These figures hold us back and they have too much control on the masses. Some of these Pastors deliver such an unrealistic opinion to a matter that is very much real, causing you to make the wrong decision can bring major consequences. The instilling of such a false sense of hope, that people filled with desperation and vulnerability have no other resource to give but their value in this hope, can be gold in the eyes of wolf. I pray that those who, like me, were taken advantage of. Our lack of knowledge of self to build our healthy self-esteem which leads us to the creator within, was preyed upon.
There is a God, for the power that allowed me to see will allow someone else to see as well, and if they recieve it, they too will be transformed by the renewing of their mind.
And because of this revelation, I’m not mad at Jesus anymore
RasTafari love!
We are all little Christ’s, always helping others, while others try to destroy us
KNOW THYSELF!!!
