Photographer:miriam | Alex Renia and  Sandrine Somme Photographer:miriam | blessed family
05 Nov / 2011Program by:
Language: English

Holly Mount Zion

For sister Sandrine and bredren Alex moving to Ethiopia was a matter of faith. For one to repatriate have to emancipate oneself from the mental slavery, from lust and vanity, … Holly Mount Zion is the reality – Ethiopia, and Shashamene the spot given from his majesty Haile Selasie to expatriots as a token of appreciation. Although it might look at the first glance that community is divided – still no matter what is their mansion, they’re singing the same song, they’re all rastafari and they all believe in the Dvinity of negus Haile Selasie.

In 1948 Emperor Haile Selassie I donated 500 acres (2.0 km2) of his private land to allow members of the Rastafari movement, Ethiopian World Federation (EWF) officers and members and other settlers from Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean to go to Africa. The return would be under the auspices of the EWF, founded in 1937 by the Emperor’s special emissary to Black America, Melaku E. Bayen[2]. The official letter confirming the “land grant” of 1948 was submitted to the members and executives of the Ethiopian World Federation in 1955 [3]. Following up on this, the first West Indian family and Federation members from Montserrat were Mr. James Piper and his wife Helen who arrived that same year as the first land grant administrators, returning to make a permanent settlement in 1955 on behalf of the Federation.[4]
In 1961, the Jamaican government sent a delegation composed of both Rastafari and non-Rastafarian leaders to Ethiopia to discuss the matter of repatriation, among other issues, with the Emperor. He reportedly told the Rastafarian delegation, “Tell the Brethren to be not dismayed, I personally will give my assistance in the matter of repatriation” [5]. The first actual Rastafarian brother and fellow settler, Gladstone Robinson, who was also an official delegate of the EWF, was sent to Shashemene on behalf of the organization in June, 1964, followed by Papa Noel Dyer, who hitchhiked and thus found his way to Ethiopia from England, eventually arriving in September, 1965. Mr. Robinson, however, would later be duly appointed as the land grant administrator by the Federation executive council in 1967 thus replacing Mr. Piper and his wife in Ethiopia [6].

On his 1966 visit to Jamaica, Haile Selassie reportedly encouraged Rastafarian leaders to repatriate to Shashemene, but stressed that there was still important work to do in liberating Jamaica. It was within a couple of years that a moderate trickle of Rastafarian immigrants began, with the population swelling past 2000 at one point. In fact, it was recently reported that their numbers have dwindled from more than 2,000 to fewer than 300 according to a recent CNN Interview with Dr. Robinson and other Rastafarian settlers in Ethiopia [7].
source – Wikipedia

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