A group of Rastafarians
marched in a circle across the street from
the United Nations on August 8, carrying
red, green and yellow Ethiopian flags and
signs asking for the restoration of a constitutional
monarchy in Ethiopia.
The
group of about 20 men marched in the scorching mid-day
heat, shouting slogans such as "No king, no identity," through
a megaphone and carrying signs that read "Without
a king, Ethiopia is like a ship without a rudder."
"They say we are crazy people," said
Christopher Graham, 38, a member of the Imperial
Ethiopian World Federation, Inc., a group associated
with the Church of Haile Selassie in Brooklyn. "But
we are seeking a voice."
"We have come to the UN to let the world
know we are discriminated against," said
Graham.
Although Rastafarianism is recognized as a religion
in Jamaica, and therefore has no representation
in Parliament, although it considers itself a
socio-political movement as well. Many Ethiopians
who follow the Christian Orthodox Church look
down on Rastafarians and do not consider their
own homeland Zion as the Rastafarians do, nor
do they consider Emperor Selassie, who was assassinated
by Marxists in 1974, a god.
Emperor Selassie
was a pioneer of modern black rule in Africa
and tried to foster a "Back
to Africa" movement with western leaders
in the early thirties by encouraging black people
to return to Africa. The movement found popularity
in the west and became Rastafarianism, a movement
which took its name from Selassie's original
name, Ras (Prince) Tafari and is loosely based
on Christianity. Some Rastafarians moved from
Jamaica to Shashemene, Ethiopia, where Selassie
set aside his own land for repatriation in 1955.
But now, these
protestors say, they cannot return to Africa
without a constitutional monarchy,
and want Prince Zera Yacob to replace Ethiopia's
current Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. Graham
said if the monarchy was reinstated, he would
leave Brooklyn, his home of 19 years, and move
to Ethiopia "in a second."
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