Watch video from Haile Selaisse I's visit to Jamaica Emperor Halie Selassie I's 1966 arrival in Jamaica and his visit's subsequent impact upon the island has been well documented by Jamaican historians and reggaephiles, referenced in Rastafarian reggae songs and reflected upon in artist's biographies. In her book No Woman No Cry, Rita Marley recalls being among the more than 200,000 Jamaicans who greeted His Imperial Majesty as his plane touched down at Kingston's Pallisadoes (now Norman Manley) Airport on April 12 of that year. Rita glimpsed a black stigmata on His Majesty's palm which she perceived as a sign of his divinity and duly embraced the Rastafarian way of life.
The 225th descendant of the Ethiopian Solomonic Dynasty, the oldest in recorded history, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned emperor of Ethiopia on November 2, 1930 and given the name Haile Selassie I (meaning power of the holy trinity in the Ethiopian language of Amharic) and the titles King of Kings, Lords of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah were bestowed upon him. Selassie's crowning was a fulfillment of the teachings of Jamaican national Hero Marcus Garvey who is said to have prophesized in 1916: "Look to Africa where a Black King shall be crowned, he will be the redeemer."
Selassie's trip to Jamaica came about through an invitation extended by the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Dr. Eric Williams. Williams had visited Ethiopia in the summer of 1965 and invited Selassie to visit the twin island Caribbean republic. When prominent Rastafarian elders as well as members of Jamaican-African Nationalist organizations were informed of his Majesty's plans to visit the region, they sent telegrams requesting that he also incorporate Jamaica into his Caribbean itinerary, which also included a concluding visit to Haiti.
On April 18, 1966, political dignitaries and a few thousand Trinidadians, including a contingent from Trinidad's Ethiopian Orthodox Church (of which Selassie was the titular head) welcomed His Majesty upon his arrival on an Ethiopian Airlines jet at Trinidad's Piarco Airport. The Emperor received a 21 gun salute as the first reigning African Monarch to visit the small Caribbean country where calypso music was born. As part of the welcoming ceremony, several of the island's steel bands performed African and Caribbean selections and calypso style songs were sung; tree branches snapped from their supporting trunks as masses of people climbed them for a better view of the elaborate greeting ceremonies. Yet, this enthusiastic reception seems almost apathetic compared to the religious fervor that surrounded Selassie's arrival in Kingston: billowing marijuana smoke clouds filled the air as thousands of Rastafarians chanted "Jah Rastafari" and waved banners which proclaimed him as "The Anointed" as they broke down police barriers and army cordons to view the living God.
"There weren't a lot of Rastas in Trinidad in 1966 but Selassie's visit caused people here to have an interest in Rastafari," says Dr. Hollis Liverpool, known to calypso fans as Chalkdust. Chalkdust has won Trinidad Carnival's prestigious Calypso Monarch title seven times with compositions characterized by witty, insightful lyrics. "The Rastafarian movement we had in Trinidad was not linked to Halie Selassie but after his visit here, people saw the connection. I was in college at the time of his visit and we discussed the fact that Ethiopia was a country of poverty and he used to spend his money lavishly, giving his dogs the best meat to eat. We felt that if his people were starving why leave Ethiopia to come to this country? But his visit was nonetheless very significant to many people here."
Reggae is the music most closely associated with Rastafari but the movement has also impacted upon other indigenous Caribbean artforms including calypso, which is often dismissed as lighthearted party music. However, the calypsonian is a Caribbean descendant of West African griot (traditional story teller), a master of ribaldry and double entendre but also a representative of a proud lineage of outspoken political commentators, folklorists and social analysts. A few prominent Trinidadian calypsonians embraced Rastafari after His Majesty's visit.
"The name Haile Selassie was always significant in the life of African people, we look upon him as much more than a political figure" explains Brother Valentino. Born Emrold Phillips in the island of Grenada but based in Trinidad for more than 50 years, Valentino is perhaps the most revolutionary of all Rastafarian calypsonians and his songs "Life is A Stage" and "Stay Up Zimbabwe,"-the latter aligned with the 1979 freedom struggle in the former British colony of Rhodesia-are Rastafarian-calypso classics.
"Selassie's visit was important to me because that was the year I started to sing calypso professionally," Valentino continues. "When you are starting your career as a calypsonian you look for an image. In those days it was the norm to sing about women and suggestive topics but I always knew calypso could be something of substance. It is only when artists like myself and a few others who stood for this thing and projected it in a positive manner that they have no choice but to accept Rastafari in Trindad and Tobago."
Trinidad's Black Stalin (born Leroy Calliste), a major figure in calypso since 1959 and a five time Calypso Monarch winner is also a revered Rasta elder, particularly among people in Trinidad and Tobago and the eastern Caribbean where calypso and carnival are a vital part of their cultural heritage. Many of Stalin's songs including the classic "Caribbean Man" proudly celebrate African identity which is a major tenant of Rastafari. "I was always aware of the whole Rastafari movement," Stalin explained, "but a great awakening came in the early 1970s. Halie Selassie's visit here played a great part but it goes back further than that. A whole lot of people in Trinidad still have their ticket to the Black Star Line. I lived in a house where that certificate was proudly displayed on the wall. My father purchased it for three dollars and planned to make the trip."
The Black Star Line is the shipping company founded by Marcus Garvey in 1919 with the intent of repatriating Africans in the Caribbean and America back to their homeland. Because Garvey was eventually put in jail in the United States on phony charges of attempting to defraud Black Star Line investors, the repatriation never took place. But it remains a significant concept in Rastafari today, as in both an actual physical return to Africa and as a means of present day empowerment through increased knowledge of the Africans' profound historical accomplishments and royal ancestry. Halie Selassie's visit to the Caribbean was a significant source of pride to the region's predominantly African population, whose ancestors had been disseminated through the shackles of slavery and colonial conquests, forced to endure sub-human conditions and then bombarded with icons and ideals of a foreign culture that further devalued their identity.
The tenant of repatriation is what Black Stalin refers to as recovering "the sense of self." "In the Caribbean you are looking at people who come off a boat under terrible conditions with everything taken away from them," he explains. "It has always been there, that mood in Trinidad and whether it is an African or American struggle or the black struggle in the Caribbean, Rasta has been a serious fight back and. Selassie's visit gave us all an enormous sense of pride."
Part II will look at Halie Selassie's visit to culturally rich but economically impoverished Haiti.