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The god of the rastas - Haile Selassie was born in 1892 in Ethiopia. His was christened “Tafari Makonnen”. At the age of 19, he married into the Ethiopian royal family, by wedding Emperor’s Menelik II’s daughter Wayzaro Menen. In 1917, he was made regent (in this case, a sort of acting Emperor) and successor to the Ethiopian throne. He could not assume full sovereign powers until Empress Zauditu died in 1930. During most of his regency, however, Selassie traveled extensively, becoming the first Ethiopian Emperor to do so. He traveled to the major cities of Europe, including Rome, the Italian capital. These travels would have a great impact on his later life.
When Empress Zauditu died, he was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie. His official title was “Conquering lion of the Tribe of Judah, Elect of God and King of Kings of Ethiopia”. Rastafarians have always referred to Selassie as “King of Kings” to imply that he is the king of all kings worldwide and not “King of Kings of Ethiopia” which implies that he was the ruler of a kingdom that still had black slaves.
Even while he served as regent and during his reign, Selassie tried to move Ethiopia into what he saw as the modern age. Some improvements were made in social services, such as the building of schools, hospitals, the introduction of a national currency, the first in Ethiopia’s long history, the creation of a central bank and the expansion of basic public utilities, like electricity and communications. Most rastas revered him; it seems, as a god because he initiated these changes in Ethiopia, being the first black leader to do so. It cannot be denied that he initiated much needed improvements in Ethiopia. However, these seem to have been natural development that would have come to Ethiopia even if Selassie was not around.
Certainly, not all of his improvements were done with the primary reason being to give what the Ethiopians rightfully deserved. In 1919, while he was regent, Ethiopia applied for membership in the League of Nations (the United Nations at the time). Ethiopia’s application was rejected, not because it was a black nation (as some Rastas would want us to think), but because slavery was still a very much-established institution in the country. The League found it repugnant that, in the 20th century, a country could still be officially sanctioning slavery and the slave trade. In order to please the League, but not the black Ethiopian slaves, Selassie had to free his slaves to join the club. By 1923, working with the Empress, the slave trade and slavery were abolished in Ethiopia.
His establishment of the many schools and other public institutions, while it benefited the Ethiopians, also benefited him. In order to stamp his grip on the country, many of these new institutions were named after him. In 1931, just a few years after assuming full sovereign powers, Selassie gave Ethiopia a new constitution. What made this constitution “from god” (as the rastas claim) so ridiculous is its treatment of Selassie itself. Under the 1931 constitution, Selassie was declared as “the person of the Emperor is sacred, his dignity inviolable, and his power indisputable”. It is hard to see why Rastas think that Selassie is god just because a constitution, drawn up by a power-hungry megalomaniac, says that the same megalomaniac is so. This constitution did not have the recently freed slaves in mind - its sole purpose was to strengthen Selassie’s despotic grip on the country - by making him into some sort of divine figure.
Rastafarians consider Benito Mussolini, the late Italian dictator, as the worst Anti-Christ (or is it “Anti-Selassie?”) of all time. One reason why he freed the slaves in Ethiopia so that he could join the League of Nations was because Selassie thought that through the League, Ethiopia’s independence could be guaranteed. In other words, the “omnipotent” god of the Rastas had to turn to “Babylon” for protection. This did not save his country however. Mussolini was seeking to create a new “Roman Empire” and he was looking for new colonies. Ethiopia was an obvious target as it already shared borders with Italian Somaliland and Eritrea (another Italian colony). In 1935, Mussolini ordered the invasion of Ethiopia. The Ethiopian armies fought well and were very determined to save their country from the Italian invaders. However, spears,
antique guns and arrows were no match for tanks, planes and poison gas. Selassie (unable to use the supernatural powers that he is supposed to have, as claimed by the Rastas) had to flee the country in 1936, much to the disappointment of many Ethiopians who were accustomed to a warrior King, not to one whom they thought was a coward. He eventually spent his exile in Britain.
While he was trying to get help from the other great powers of the day, most notably Great Britain and France (the superpowers then) he addressed the League of Nations itself. This was a well though out speech. He warned that if the great powers refused to stop this aggression, dark days were ahead - “it is us today, it will be you tomorrow”. The great powers, however, had no interest in helping Selassie, and as a result, Italy was allowed to take control of Ethiopia. Italy’s control of Ethiopia did not last however. There was always resistance to Italian rule. Britain finally offered some real help to Selassie only when Italy had declared war against the Allies. In 1941, with South African, British, African and Ethiopian soldiers, Selassie (actually, it was the British) re-took Addis-Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The “Conquering Lion
of the tribe of Judah” was not leading the liberation struggle, as some Rastas would want us to believe. He had to take instructions from the British. In other words, the “God of Gods” had become a British puppet.
After the war, Selassie again tried to stamp his grip on the country through the guise of fostering development. In 1955, he granted the country another constitution. While it appeared to grant the Ethiopians the basic right of freedom and liberty, in reality, this was not so. Like the one he granted in 1931, it declared his divine right to Kingship. Imagine, as late as the 1950s, we have a country that has a monarch that was still officially claiming a divine right to rule! The Rastas clearly see no problem with this affront on human dignity and 20th century civilization.
Conditions continued to be very bad for the people of Ethiopia (the Blackman’s paradise) - the black Ethiopians that the black god, Selassie, is supposed to care for. The Ethiopians stared to demand reforms and the “Rasta God”, Selassie promised to initiate some. However, the promised reforms did not materialize. In 1960, while he was on an overseas trip, an attempt was made to oust him. It failed, but it showed just how unpopular the “Rasta God” had become. After the failed coup, Selassie tried to calm the people, but failed. In the 1960s, for instance, when his unpopularity at home was reaching new heights, he had to dig deep into the national treasury to maintain order. He had to placate his security apparatus. Ethiopia had thirty million (30,000,000) farmers and one hundred thousand (100,000) police officers and soldiers. Yet, he
was spending 1% of all state revenues on his starving farmers and 40% on his soldiers and police officers! Rastafarians don’t want to admit it, but it took money to maintain his despotic hold on power, not god-magic and certainly not loyalty.
There was widespread corruption in Ethiopia during Selassie’s final days. His mismanagement of the country cost the lives of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Ethiopians. Famine had become well established under his reign. It was particularly bad in the north of the country, where people were dying like flies and the Imperial government at first tried to hide the catastrophe from the rest of the world. Of course, Selassie could hardly have cared less for his starving subjects. While his people were starving to death, he continued to live a life of luxury. His imperial palace was in stark contrast to the grinding poverty that was Ethiopia. He was also a crook. While his people were living in abject squalor, he was busy enriching himself. It has been estimated, for instance, that around eight billion dollars ($8,000,000,000)
that was supposed to have been used to relieve the suffering that the Ethiopians were being decimated with were not used for their benefit. The money instead found its way into Selassie’s personal Swiss bank accounts! It seems that as he got older, he got greedier. It is little wonder that he was ousted in 1974. Before then, the Ethiopians were purposely kept in a starving state and ignorance so that they could not rebel. By the time Selassie was kicked out of power in 1974 90% of Ethiopians were illiterate. This is the “Rasta Paradise” that he has bequeathed to the starving, grass-eating, half-naked Ethiopians.
With all of these facts on Selassie, why on Earth do Rastafarians continue to worship the twerp as god? In researching Selassie’s life, I could not help but be reminded of North Korea’s “Great Leader” Kim Ill Sung, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein or even Germany’s Adolf Hitler. It seems clear that the early Rastafarians consider Selassie to be a god not because they know him, but because they did not know him. Like most religions, Rastafari is being sustained by ignorance, deep ignorance in this case (and ganja smoke, which seemed to have smoked out the Rasta’s capacity to think).
It is also clear that Rastafari was started by very weak-minded and intellectually deprived persons. Even when Selassie chased away the Rastas who came to his palace to worship him, when he denied his divinity in a CBS interview and when he begged the Jamaican Rastas to stop worshiping him, the Rastas continue to do so. According to some Rastas, Selassie is god, he just doesn’t know it, others say that Selassie is not Selassie at all, just god impersonating Selassie. What utter ganja-induced rubbish!
We black people already are being looked down by the rest of mankind as some sort of intellectually retarded, penis overactive primates. We are not such a people. However, the very strange beliefs of the Rastafarians are being used as a means by the rest of mankind to make us look like prehistoric apes. The community of mankind must understand that the Rasta is not the best representative of the black race. The majority of us are (or should be) a progressive people - we don’t have time for such silly superstitions as Rastafari and it’s Hitler-like god. I still cannot see why Rastafarians hate Mussolini so much but love Selassie when Selassie was clearly much worse. After all, Mussolini may have killed his enemies, but Selassie killed his own people. Selassie should not be remembered as some benevolent Emperor, but as the tyrant that he was, and no amount of Rasta propaganda can change that fact.
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