The Sunday Mail
Ibo Foroma Rastafarian Perspectives
INTERNATIONALLY, the month of August is as a time of celebrating and commemorating emancipation from slavery by many countries.
In Zimbabwe, August is the month when we celebrate Defence Forces and Heroes days. It is the month of heroes and heroines; past, present and future.
“In times like these” is a song by Queen Ifrica (Africa) and she wishes if our heroes were here. Heroes’ shape and form history.
They are the key ingredient of legends, fairy-tales, mythologies and religions.
Rastafarians consider Ras Tafari to be a hero beyond compare and the greatest of all. This is natural and does not compromise the status of any other hero/heroine.
As expressed in Bob Marley’s Music, the Movement of Jah People is an exodus from bondage to freedom. Along with President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Robert Nesta Marley was present and participated in the stripping away of the British colonial flag, and replacing it with the Zimbabwean national flag.
The tri-colour combination of red, yellow and green, affectionately known as Rasta colours, on the Zimbabwean national flag is directly derived from the heroic attributes Emperor Haile Selassie I and Ethiopia contributed in assisting the liberation of not only Zimbabwe but a host of nations that carry the same tri-colour combination.
Born on August 17, 1887 in St Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Marcus Mosiah Garvey founded the Universal Negroes Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities (Imperial) League (ACL).
Though founded in “the belly of the beast” white supremacist America and Jamaica accordingly, these Afro-centric liberation movements sort to improve the lives of black men and women “at home and abroad”.
Marcus Garvey and Pan-Africanists viewed Africa as the cradle of mankind and going back to Africa was at the heart of their endeavors. Prominent amongst them is Professor William Leo Hansberry who taught two future African presidents, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Nnamdi Azikiwe of Nigeria.
They believed in “Ethiopian-ism”.
In the Bible, Ethiopia refers to all of Africa and the proclamation, “Ethiopia shall stretch forth her arms unto Jah/God” spiritually influenced Earthi-opians achieve great deeds.
The UNIA and ACL were represented by the Ethiopian flag’s red, yellow and green and the red, black and green colours as their emblems. Garveyites sang the Ethiopian anthem and recited the Ethiopian creed, the same Nyabinghi and all Rastafarians chant and recite to this day, including both flags with the Lion of Judah symbol and Star of David.
The Ethiopian anthem composed by Marcus Garvey begins, “Ethiopia, the land where the gods love to be.” Throughout history, Ethiopia was never colonised and this inspired a lot of Africans in different states of colonisation and bondage into realizing life outside “the dungeons of Babylon System,” as Rastafarians would say.
Again, Ethiopian kings and queens from the beginning of time to this date have been so great and heroic as to be deified.
The Ethiopian lineage is the longest and oldest known lineage in recorded history.
The Ethiopian Emperor’s titles; Conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah and King of Kings of Ethiopia are consistent with the Biblical book of Revelation’s prophecy.
Marcus Garvey is famous for saying “Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black King.
This King shall redeem the whole world from different forms of captivity, the Lion of Judah shall break every chain”.
Rastafarians take Ethiopia to mean the whole Earth, or Earthiopia.
The following are countries and territories that use one or both sets of Pan-African colours in their official flags: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
From the Caribbean we have Grenada, Jamaica and Saint Kitts and Nevis. From South America we have French Guiana (unofficial), Guyana and Suriname.
The colours appear most prominently on the 1798 flag of Ethiopia, with the green at the bottom; however, they were accidentally flown upside-down on a state ceremony and the tradition was adopted by the Ethiopian government and by several African states, as well as Pan-Africanist organizations around the world.
“It is now common to see these flags with green on top (or in front) of gold, and red at the bottom (or at the trailing edge) of the flag.
Except for a brief period of occupation by Italy under the Fascist, Ethiopia remained outside European control during the colonial era, and was therefore admired by many newly-independent African states.
“The adoption of the Ethiopian national colours was a consequence of this. The first African state to adopt a red, gold and green flag upon independence was Ghana in 1957.”
The country of Ghana named its shipping line the Black Star Line and the national soccer team the Black Stars, in honour of Marcus Garvey. The Zimbabwe bird originates from Nubia, ancient Ethiopia.
“Incidentally it might be mentioned en passant that although the X-Group civilisation is a much higher one than the Zimbabwean (which is to be expected if the degree of fertilisation of a civilisation is related to closeness to centres of higher culture) there are certain features in common.
“For instance, the hawk-headed bird god symbol is to be found in Nubia on many of the articles discovered. In the case of a crown which consists of a circlet discovered in Nubia, the rim has on it the figures of a hawk-headed god Horus, much in the same way as the Zimbabwe bird was sited on the walls.” (R Gayre, “The Origin of the Zimbabwean Civilisation)
In times like these we need to reflect on the founding fathers of Zimbabwe and Africa so that we know which way to go.
The message in Bob Marley’s music is simple and straight forward for instance “Zimbabwe”, “Exodus”, “Redemption Song” and “Africa Unite!”
One love, peace and harmony.
