Opinion on Rastafarianism
- Thread starter Mrl HiGrnd
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- biggup jah rastafari
No...Marcus GARVEY did not deify or prophesy about Selassie's coming.
Liberty Hall was a location Marcus Garvey's UNIA own and operated where preachers, poets, artist and essayists etc where welcome and given a soap box to speak on various issue relevant to the black communities.
One preacher and author by the name of James Morris Webb actually made the prophecy about a "Negro Universal King Coming to Rule the World" at or in one of UNIA Liberty Halls. Ten yrs later Ras now Negus Tafari was Crowned King of Ethiopia.
http://paramountshome.org/articles/Spotlight/rev webb2.pdf
Larry Lobster
/-_-\
I see, i asked because on that video posted in this thread there's a rasta in the audience who doesn't see Selassie as a god. I agree with most rastafari ideologies but never understood why they consider a former president a deity.
Why do you say the always felt some way about their Sub Saharan subjects...
What way?
What Sub Saharan Subjects?
LETS GO BACK TO 1920'S
No Selassie was an undeniable African and King of an undeniable African country...While Jesus was known through scripture to be black but always pictured as white to a people just coming out of slavery pictures was more important than words, since most Africans in Jamaica were illiterate. Jesus was the God of the slave master and in church it was obvious to all he was white. At every function Jesus white image stood behind the white man - had his back, Justifying the white man's every evil deed with his holy word from the bible as pronounced and enunciated by the white man.
A Black African King Haile Selassie that all (universal) the ruling royalties of Europe bow the head and bend the knee to MUST BE GOD....that is and was the relevancy of Selassie.
thanks
AV Dicey
All Star
No shade, rastas got their heart in the right place but saying Selassie was a 'black African king' is like saying Abdel Nasser was a 'black African leader'. They may be African but they aint black 'sub-saharan emerging from the Congo rainforest' African, theres levels to this shyt. Jesus wasnt black, he was middle eastern, 'black Africans' were not about that monotheism, they were/are all about ancestral worship, which Jesus never advocated, he barely respected his father, which is most unAfrican.
Ethiopia is a multi-cultural nation, it doesnt only comprise of those semitic Somali looking folk you generally associate with them. Those naked Africans with big ol plates in their mouths are also Ethiopians and they were oppressed by the monarchy.
Rastas being a pro-black movement is cool, but deifying a semitic monarchy that was more christian-centric than the damn romans is kinda out there. Its not like the movement wasnt founded by Garvey a 'black' African.
Bowing to royalties is simply custom, they were also bowing to the Nabongo's and Kabaka's, who were essentially village chiefs/war lords, it didnt mean much in the grand scheme of things, ask Nyerere, Kaunda, Kenyatta, Nkurumah and uncle Bob.
Isaiah Bradley
Banned
I recall seeing an episode of Religious Hardtalk when they had on Mutabaruka, and he reasoned very logically, clearly and concisely about Selassie being incorrectly categorized in a worshiping role by rastas from christian backgorunds
He said that Selassie was not a god, but a reference point and a direct access to the blood lines of past monarchies for which black folks could get a glimpse into their rich history
That video has since been deleted unfortunately
He said that Selassie was not a god, but a reference point and a direct access to the blood lines of past monarchies for which black folks could get a glimpse into their rich history
That video has since been deleted unfortunately
In the Jamaica of 1920's and in the US of those years, Selassie would fit the the definition of Black African....Not all Africans are sub Saharan.
Eritrean and Somali's are African regardless of if they had what is commonly thought of as Arab or European features.
You got to understand that in the 1920 USA Irish Poles Jews and Italians were not consider white.....the definition of race changes to suit the needs of the ruling elite of those specific country from era to era.
In a time and place like Jamaica when a black man could be punished with death for looking the white man in the eye....The mere ritual of white man bowing to a black man was revolutionary in the minds of people just out of slavery.
It is obvious you do not understand the importance of symbols and symbolic gestures. Burning the cross was a symbol use to instill fear in all blacks across the length and breathe of America. Lynching Blacks and displaying the dead body in books cards and newspaper is sending a loud and clear message that the fear is real.
A white King bowing to a Black King is a symbolic message that says to all Blacks at a time when most Blacks in the West, did not know there was such a thing as a Black King existed. If we have a Black King then we also most Have a Black Kingdom.....If Blacks have a King and a Kingdom like the white man then we are more alike than we were led to believe. That is why black history was not taught for yrs in the West. You having grown in a time when some black history is in the public domain can see nations and tribes in Africa ....to most blacks just out of slavery. Blackness was their mark of affinity, if you are black you are African "no matter where you come from"
Ethiopians whorship the messiah before Jesus was born long before Roman came into being. Ancient Jews or the people you are referring to as Semitic people were African.
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posterchild336
Superstar
some of what they feel is good, some is fukry..just like with pretty much all beliefs and religions
JahFocus CS
Get It How You Get It
So are you refuting that Garvey said something along the lines of, "Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black king?"
Yes.....I grew being taught Garvey said those words by I have read many of Garvey's writing and Speeches but can't recall every seeing them.
Now it is very likely I never read all his writings and speeches so he could have said but i do not have such evidence.
The Historian Tony Martin who is the foremost authority on Garvey seem to all so think he said it in Kingston Jamaica in 1916.
Show me the evidence in one of his speeches or writings and I will change my opinion instantly
Goddamn shyt like this is fukkin stupid. Nasser and Selassie is a terrible comparison mainly because Ethiopians of respectability would never claim Arab anything since they are our natural rivals.
Those "levels" to Blackness you speak of played no role at all when a European nation decided to invade us, twice. Those levels didn't matter when the British and French were plotting against each other in order to take over Ethiopia. The Ethiopians looked to a Haitian man to defend them diplomatically when these Europeans were coming for us. Mandela and other South Africans took training and refuge in Ethiopia. Selassie advocated for many of the African Independence movements. Breh, do you even understand why it was so difficult to end slavery in Ethiopia to begin with? Or are you just going to assume that the light skinneds were just #inherently and nothing else?
I'd look more into why Ethiopia was the type of country it was by the time Selassie took it over. You'll find that Europeans froze out the Ethiopians from the industrial technology that made Japan a capitalist power because it was a sovereign Black nation. You'll also find that the Ethiopian monarchs starting with Menelik II wanted to hire Africans of the Diaspora to positions of influence when the modernization of the country began only to be dissuaded and ultimately coerced by whites to do otherwise. Let me make it clear to you, Ethiopia and its monarchy were never some lowly worshipers of the European. We were raised to look down upon them as weak and undeserving of their influence. But good leaders also know how to be pragmatic and they did what they had to do under the circumstances given.
At this point, watching yall discuss the very complex dynamics of race/class within Ethiopian society is akin to watching kids in The Booth speculate over Tupac/Biggie shyt that happened 20+ years ago. I can suggest some books for yall to read so yall don't sound so basic all the time.