"Blessed is the name of the Lord God Jah Ras Tafari, and blessed is he who comes in the name of Jah, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I and let the name of His glory be blessed." Rasta Wisdom
Ethiopian & Rastafari by Aster Sellassie, Millennium Ed.
"Rastafari: Roots and Ideology (Utopianism and Communitarianism)" Barry Chevannes; Paperback; $13.97
"Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader" Nathaniel Samuel Murrell; Paperback; $22.37
"Rastafari: For the Healing of the Nation" Dennis, Dr. Forsythe; Paperback; $18.95
Rastafari: Roots and Ideology (Utopianism and Communitarianism)
According to social anthropologist Chevannes, understanding the Jamaican-born movement that takes its name after the prince, or ras, named Tafari Makonnen who was crowned in 1930 as Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie requires looking not so much at dreadlocks or reggae but at the worldview of the Jamaican peasantry who replaced rural with urban poverty as they migrated to Kingston in the early 1930s. Drawing on his 1974 dissertation fieldwork, Chevannes traces Rastafari to forms of cultural reconstruction, including idealization of Africa, and to the belief system and ethics of what he calls Revivalism. Revivalist beliefs, which helped the peasants cope with oppression, turned on a hope of undoing European colonization and domination. Chevannes's writing style is stilted and his view is not comprehensive, yet there is little literature on the subject that would allow placing his work in context. For collections on Jamaica, the African diaspora, or millenarian movements.
My parents Dear Adam,
This is Esther, Anatoly's wife. I don't know if you are aware but our web pages do have a family tree one that is stricktly the off-springs of Emperor Haile-Sellassie. However, to answer your question about where I am in this web of names, I am the daughter of the late Princess Edjigayehu who was the first born of HIH Asfa-Wossen (who passed away in early 1997). My father is Dejazmach Fikre-Sellassie who has also passed away. I am most interested in the tree you are working on. Could you forward that via e-mail?
Among other places we did live in Virginia in mid-late 80's. We moved up here for career purposes. There is quite a bit on our travels on the web page. Thank you for your interest and please keep in touch.
Sincerely, Esther Sellassie Antohin
-----Original Message-----
From: Adam F. Felleman
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 1998 6:22 AM
Subject: Thanks
Anatoly, Thanx for linking my page i'll check out the banners today. I wasn't sure exactly can you tell me your wife's parents and grandparents names. I'm trying to figure out what son or daughter of haile selassie she is decended through. i really wanted to have a family tree on my homepage, but the one I have as reference(which was provided by Haile selassie to an author) is hard to follow because it has the different kings from the different peoples oromo etc. There's several large portraits of the king and queen with many sons daughters and grand daughters. i'd like to make a family tree using these portraits to attach a face to the names. I originally thought your address was arkansas, now i know it's alaska. wow that's far from virginia!! none of my business, but just curious how you guys ended up way up there? anyway thanks for the reply, adam
Visit Ras Adam's Rasta Homepage at http://web.syr.edu/~affellem
H.I.M.
June 5, 1998
Greetings;
I would ask you to plead with me because I have alot of questions to ask you,and if some questions hurt you I am very sorry about that as it was not my aim, but as you are HIS grandchild you are the one I think you will have much answers to much unanswered questions I have.
As a grandchild of His Imperial Majesty how do you feel when your
GRANDFATHER is said to be The Almighty God, do you believe this? As the grandchild did you ever hear of the things that HIM did that may cause you to associate HIM with the Mighty God? Could you please explain to me of HIS last days? Did HIM die?If he died, as the member of the family, were you shown the corpse?
My Sister, I have many questions and I am sure that I will remember some of the questions I have after I have sent this mail to you. But please, I am sure the above questions give you light as to how much I would like to know about HIM, so when you are answering me I wuld ask you to give me some more knowledge that is relevant to the ones I asked.
One more question, I am sure you read the Bible and hear the Scriptures that many people quote from the Bible that prophesised about HIM, do you associate HIM with these Scriptures? How was HIM personally as compared to other people? Did HIM show any Super Features than MAN?
Bear with me, Sister, I am a Youth who needs light and knowledge.
I am hoping to hear from you soon.
Thank You very much
Sidima Ntsangani (South Africa)
June 6, 1998 He was a religious man and an Orthodox Christian. He didn't think of himself as god. He was a king. I post another grafment from the book HIM my husband works on --"The Triple Task of Adam" -- to illustrate the Orthodox understanding of what man's qualities and abilities are. Before we arrive to our divine horizon, we must fulfill our human potentials. The theological debates between Orthodox and Catholic understand of nature of Christ have several centuries long history -- we should remember that this issue is about our HUMAN nature. I believe that Rastafarians, with their notion that we live in the world after the End, brought a new dimension into this debate where Human and Divine differ and where the two are the same. It was a complicated concept before and it's not less mystirious one today.
Haile Selassie has different appeals to different people. We have another chat room on COLOR LINE page! And for the Ethiopians in the cyber space there is a message board on Country Site page!
Looks like this page turned out to be about Reggae only!
See more Reggae links/products:
Bob Marley & Friends (old)
Rastafari Centennial: Live in Paris - Elysee Montmartre [LIVE]
CD
Calling Rastafari
"'Calling Rastafari' is an anthology of Rastafarian roots reggae recorded primarily during a three-day period in early February '81.
The frail little visitor, in full military regalia and a Sam Browne belt, stepped majestically into the waiting Bentley in Trinidad-Tobago's capital of Port-of-Spain. Thousands of cheering Negroes lined the streets, and one man gallantly pulled off his shirt and laid it in the path of the visitor's car. Later, 1,100 schoolchildren put on a dance extravaganza. Then, seated on a throne beneath a purple canopy in a makeshift church on Port-of-Spain's outskirts, the visitor watched impassively as incense-swinging priests murmured prayers and the high priest read a long eulogy. Thus last week did Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, Lion of Judah, King of Kings and Elect of God, begin a week's visit to the three tiny Negro countries of Trinidad-Tobago, Jamaica and Haiti.
A Chance to Bask. What in heaven's name was the Elect of God doing in the Caribbean, 7,500 miles from his own kingdom? Family ties, of a sort. The people of the three countries, most of whose ancestors came from Africa, share a sense of brotherhood and a deep feeling for African rulers, especially for an African king such as Selassie. They also share a similar history of colonialism, mixed populations and economic problems. Since they gained their independence in 1962, both Trinidad-Tobago and Jamaica have seen their economies slow down and unemployment rise. As for Haiti, its economy has always been a mess, and only gets worse every year.
Selassie's visit, marked by pomp and circumstance from beginning to end, helped take the minds of the people off such problems for a few days, gave their leaders a chance to bask in Selassie's reflected glory. Trinidad-Tobago's Prime Minister Eric Williams, who extended the original invitation to Selassie two years ago, kept his visitor visible and on the go, attending receptions, laying wreaths and setting cornerstones. In the small, ornate parliametary chamber of the country's "Red House," Selassie pleased everyone by calling for closer ties between "the two great peoples" of Ethiopia and Trinida-Tobago.
Eaten & Trampled. 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."
During his stay, Selassie met with the ailing Bustamante, who is almost blind from cataracts, received an LL.D. degree from Kingston's University of the West Indies and visited Montego Bay. In an address to the Jamaican Parliament in Gordon House, he vague held out the hint of aid. "We must expand material and other cooperation he said. "We must remember that many states today representing major parts of the world were once weak, but through a process of assimilation and combination have become strong."
Dubious Honor. From one of the hemisphere's newest countries, Selassie was scheduled to proceed to one of oldest-Haiti. There, conditions are bleak under Dictator Francois ("Papa Doc") Duvalier that the country is hardly in better shape than when it won independence from France in 1804. Determined to give Selassie a proper reception, the government scraped deep into its depleted treasury for $l00,00 used it to plant flagpoles along the two-mile length of road from the airport to the capital of Port-au-Prince, place festive flags all over the city and pour fresh concrete along part of the route so that the Lion of Judah would not be overcome by dust. The high point of Selassie's crowded, one-day visit was the naming of the just-completed airport road "Boulevard Haile Selassie." Such are conditions in Haiti, however, that road dedications can be dubious honors. As he drives toward Port-au-Prince, Selassie can get a good look at Harry Truman Boulevard along the waterfront. It is now six inches deep in mud and completely impassable.
Yes Rasta
With a penchant for adventure, is it no wonder photographer Patrick Cariou--whose first book, Surfers, drew tidal waves of praise--journeyed to Jamaica, a land that he calls "pure madness, and one of the most dangerous places on earth that is not at war." There he entered the secluded world of the Rastafarians, a world, culture, and religion closed to outsiders. Cariou slowly gained their trust, and they began to let him take their picture. With bold black-and-white portraits and landscapes, Cariou indelibly captured the strict, separatist, jungle-dwelling, fruit-of-the-land lifestyle--popularized by reggae legends Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, and Burning Spear-in never-before--seen images, until now. In Yes Rasta--the phrase spoken by true Rastafari when greeting each other-Cariou's direct, classical photographs reveal men whose style and attitude are as distinctive as their dreadlocks. Men who have left the modern world of Babylon in pursuit of their own independence. Men whose lives are intertwined with the tropical landscape, and whose rituals, symbols, philosophies, religion, medicine, agriculture, family structure, and remarkable strength make the definitive statement of self-reliance.
(c)2004 HIM contents (summary of the HS web-biography) *
Liberty is always unfinished business. --anonymous
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