In Bahirdar market Padma and me spotted an Ethiopian man who looked very different. He sported very long hair and was definitely a different Ethiopian. He was quiet and had a piercing look and was humming a different song altogether. Quite an attractive young man.
"Look Anil!!!” Padma exclaimed, “What a look! His hair is all knotted and matty. I have seen Ethiopian women sporting long hair. But this is the first time I am seeing an Ethiopian man having such a lengthy hair”.
She was bang-on target. Ethiopian women have European features and are said to have 40% Caucasian blood in them. But their bete-noir!! (favourite bug bear or enemy number one) was their stiff and curly hair. Ethiopian women spend lot of money, time and effort in straightening their hair so that they could have lush, long and attractive mane.
Ethiopian men on the other side love having short hair and this young man was having extremely long and matted hair! He was looking like a sadhu – albeit a very African looking sadhu! He was wearing a cap which was jauntily pushed well back on his head. The cap had two words - Bob Marley and had the figure of Haile Selassie, the last emperor of Ethiopia.
I was consumed by curiosity. The next day I asked our Dean of FBE (Faculty of Business and Economics). He was a very jovial person. He fished out something from his desk - a picture of a man. He showed it to me and asked, “Who is this?”
Being an avid quizzer, the answer came out in jiffy “Bob Marley, the Jamaican Reggae singer. But what is the connection between Bob Marley and the young man I saw in the market?” Our Dean answered “Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer and song writer who became world famous as a musical and a cultural icon. He effortlessly mixed Reggae, Ska and Rocksteady in his compositions”.
“Bob Marley was a Rastafarian and believed in a religion called Rastafarianism. Rastafarians believe that Haile Selassie the last emperor of Ethiopia was their god and that Ethiopia is their promised land. The Rastafarians sport long hair that they neither cut, trim or shave. As the African hair is curly and extremely difficult to maintain, it becomes matted. So the young man whom you saw in the market was an Ethiopian but an Ethiopian Rastafarian”
Research on google threw up interesting facts. Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement; whose culture was a key element in the development of Reggae. Bob Marley was an ardent proponent of Rastafarianism. Excerpts from an Interview:
Bob Marley once gave the following response, which was typical, to a question put to him during a recorded interview:
Interviewer: "Can you tell the people what it means being a Rastafarian?"
Marley: "I would say to the people, be still, and know that his imperial majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the Almighty. Now, the Bible says so, Babylon newspaper says so, and I and the children say so. Yunno? So I don't see how much more reveal our people want. What do they want? a white god, well God come black. True true." (from Davis, Stephen (July 28, 1983). Bob Marley: the biography. Littlehampton Book Services Ltd. ISBN 978-0213168599).
Rastafari, sometimes termed Rastafarianism, is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is seen both as a new religious movement and as a social movement. There is no centralized authority in control of the movement and much heterogeneity exists among practitioners, who are known as Rastafari, Rastafarians, or Rastas.
Rastafari refer to their beliefs, which are based on a specific interpretation of the Bible, as "Rastalogy". Central is a monotheistic belief in a single God - referred to as Jah - who partially resides within each individual. The former emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, is given central importance. Many Rastas regard him as an incarnation of Jah on Earth and as the Second Coming of Christ.
Others regard him as a human prophet who fully recognized the inner divinity within every individual. Rastafari is Afrocentric and focuses its attention on the African diaspora, which it believes is oppressed within Western society referred to as "Babylon". Many Rastas call for the resettlement of the African diaspora in either Ethiopia or Africa more widely, referring to this continent as the Promised Land of "Zion".
Rastafari movement’s locks (or matted hair) are symbolic of the Lion of Judah which is sometimes featured on the Ethiopian flag. Their dreadlocks were inspired by the Nazarites of the Bible.The cultivation of dreadlocks in the Rastafari movement established a closer connection between the movement and the ideology. It also gave the appearance of greater authority.
When reggae music gained popularity and mainstream acceptance due to Bob Marley's music and cultural influence, the locks (often called "dreads") became a notable fashion statement worldwide.
I was thunderstruck. Where was Jamaica and where was Ethiopia? It is said that Emperor Haile Selassie never really accepted nor encouraged the view that he was god or Jah but benevolently allowed Rastafarians to come and settle in Addis Ababa. Twelve did come and settle in what they believed to be a promised land. The Rastafarians also believed that Jesus was black and that he wore dreads or locks just like them!
Estimates of the number of Rastafarians in Ethiopia range from hundreds to 1,000 and they reside mostly in the capital Addis Ababa or in Shashamane, a town 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital. Adherents of the religion mostly migrated from the Caribbean in the 1950s, after Ethiopia’s former emperor Haile Selassie - who was seen as a messiah by Rastafarians - gave them hectares of land.
Ethiopia’s government in 2017 had announced that it will issue identity cards to members of the Rastafarian community, a religious group that has long been stateless. Rastafarians would get residency and most legal rights in the country, but will still not be full citizens.
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