Descripción de puestos y perfil de cargos

Introduction

This line of topic is plotted during the course of the fieldwork as I witness that the Rastafari community in Ethiopia not merely faces problems to resolve but also that their lives are full of ironies and paradoxes of belonging (ness). This necessitated the deconstruction of the ironies and paradoxes of the Rastafari in Ethiopia. It is worth noting that not all ironies are paradoxes and not all paradoxes are ironic. However, there is a crossover that paradoxes could be ironic. This research perseveres at the later.

This chapter provides experiential accounts with reflexivity and introspectively apprehended evidences. In addition, it elucidates the empirical assessment that led to the subject matter, deconstruction of ironies and paradoxes. The unfolding of the paradoxes is presented content- wise by dividing anecdotal evidences including the contradictory attitude of the Ethiopian government. Finally, it presents the concluding remarks.

Manifestation of the Ironies and Paradoxes

Lack of legal capacity has been the most instrumental tool used against the Rastafari community by the regional administration in order to deprive them of access to land, capital, and, above all, the basic human rights. After allowing them to suffer for decades, in July 2017, the Ethiopian government announced to grant a national ID to the returnees (www.ena.gov.et, 28 July 2017). It is sarcastical because, in reality, most of the community members do not fulfill one of the mandatory requirements, which is to have a valid passport. Their situation is a catch 22 because even if they want to renew their passport, most of Caribbean embassies are neither represented in Ethiopia nor in the neighboring countries and they cannot travel due to lack of legal documents (see Chapter 6). This chapter discusses anecdotal incidents that manifest the paradoxical situation.

When home doesn’t feel like at home, … it is still home

The very nature of the Rastafari relationship with Ethiopia and Ethiopians offers a contradiction, considering that their Fifty years stay in the country encompasses notions of ‘otherness and belongingness’ (Bonacci, 2015: 36) at the same time. For a group of Rastafarians in the Caribbean in the 1930s, particularly in Jamaica, living in the midst of economic and social quandary, Ethiopia was seen as the Promised Land and Ethiopianness was becoming the newly adopted identity. Garvey’s “Back-to-Africa Movement”, the coronation of a black (God) King from Africa, His Majesty Haile Selassie I in 1930, coupled with his later invitation to all black people in the West to come and live in Ethiopia (Bonacci, 2015),

and Robert Nesta Marley’s ‘Exodus Psalms’ (Campbell, 1987: p.144) all together inspired and restored the hope and pride and fueled the Rastafari movement. In addition, it enhanced their repatriation mainly to Ethiopia and other parts of Africa such as Ghana, South Africa and Malawi. Currently, Ethiopia is ‘home’ to less than 1,000 Rastafarians located in Shashemene, Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar. Shashemene remains the heart of the repatriation.

Nevertheless, the challenges of the Rastafari are multi-faceted ones, and mind boggling- making one think the ‘promised land’ has turned into a ‘cursed land.’ The biggest challenges are legal issues, land ownership (of the land grant), freedom of cultural expressions such as religious practice, and ganja ritual. Moreover, amongst the daily hardships, they experience severe challenges such as language, corruption, theft, and misperception by the local peoples. These have led their lives to be full of contradictions.

I was fortunate to take part in the first All Africa Rastafari Gathering in Shashemene, 1-7 November 2017, under the theme of “Intra-trade between the Rastafari in Africa.” Although initially, the organizers wanted to limit it to Africa, the conference got crashed by the Rastafari community from outside Africa mainly from the U.K, U.S.A., and as far as from Brazil. 13 African countries were represented in the meeting. Taking part in the conference was two for one. On othe ne hand, the convention gave me opportunity to learn about the Rastafari current line of thinking and the theme of the conference. At the same time, the gathering offered the opportunity to properly discover the global Rastafari community and the commonalities of their adversities (see Chapter 5). With the assistance of Adam, I organized a group discussion with the Rasta youth from Shashemene; Isaac 19, IhoJah 13 and Zion 12 and Adam himself who was 13. Isaac’s family, originally from Jamaica, repatriated from England to Ethiopia when he was two years old and all the others were born and raised in Shashemene. Except Adam who has an Ethiopian mother, the rest have Caribbean parents. Regarding the way they are perceived by the local community, Isaac emotionally speaks:

For me, I don’t like to be treated as a foreigner. Because in England, I was a foreigner, over here I’m a foreigner, in America I was a foreigner. So, where are my people? Where will I be one? If the English are not my people, if Africans are not my people, if Americans are not my people, then where am I? God created me with people. I have to answer this. Over here, they don’t read their history. If they want to read their history, they will understand that. Ok I may have come from foreign place, but I am not a foreigner! Over here, they teach foreign history, so they won’t learn their own history. If they don’t teach their own history, they will never be able to move forward. You will always stay where you stay. Stuck where they are.73

The Rastafari movement started as cultural resistance to their slave masters in the Caribbean. In the process, they found the collective African identity which they grabbed from all parts of Africa (Campbell, 1987) in order to connect to their ancestors back home. Reality did not meet

their expectation- they were called foreigners in the supposedly home. When I asked Isaac where home is for him, he undoubtedly answers that Ethiopia is always home for him. Even though he is called a foreigner, he strongly maintains his belongingness to Ethiopia.

“They become the Babylon they ran away from74_”

The first striking ironical situation is that the Rastafari in Ethiopia ran away from ‘Babylon’ [oppressor- usually referred to the west] and come to ‘home’. But they have become part of the Babylon they ran away from, as they are looked at as foreigners and their repatriation lacks integration. To begin with, those who repatriated from the Caribbean and the west assumed that they were going back to their distant relatives, their ancestors back home, and that they would be embraced and be one with their brothers and sisters. The reality, however, is that once they got on the ground they were treated as foreigners. They become the Babylon that they are running from. To understand this easily I turn to a Rastafari sister’s explanation. One of the biggest ironies for the Rastafari community members is being addressed as

Jamaicans or “faranji” in Ethiopia, as Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia.75

Desta Meghoo , originally from Jamaica but lived and worked as a Jurist doctor in the United

States, came to Ethiopia in 2005 during the 60th _{birthday of Bob Marley on the mandate of}

celebrating his birthday at Africa level in collaboration with the African Union working with Rita Marley, the wife of the late Bob Marley and her family. Ever since then, she lives in Ethiopia and is part of the Rastafari community in Addis Ababa. Dr. Desta asserts that due to the post-traumatic experience (i.e. referring to slavery, discrimination against their ideology and appearance), the Rastafari in the Caribbean practice a separate sphere from the ‘Babylon system’ when it comes to social life. She added that when they come to Zion [Ethiopia], they buy a plot of land and continue to experience the same type of segregated life: the local people perceive them as oppressor. She softly affirms:

“If you [the Rastafari] come home and build this beautiful house on 2000m2 _{and if I [I} refers to the native] am told, who has lived here,…my ancestors, I can only have 300 m2 _{and I cannot afford to feed my babies everyday. I’m gonna hate you! You know, it}

is just out of poverty, because I’m gonna feel in my heart, every night I put my baby to bed, next door this beautiful mansion and this person wouldn’t even think of me as a neighbor. They don’t ask if my baby is eating tonight. That is painful [pause] because it is our space. Jah and history shall record your judgment. How do you wanna be recorded? What is your legacy? What did you do?76

Adam’s experience validates Dr. Desta’s reasoning. He pointed out that even though his mom is Ethiopian which made his experience easier to cope with neighbors, the integration is not

74 _{This quote is from Erin Macleod (2014), Visions of Zion: Ethiopians and Rastafari in the Search for the} Promised Land.

75 _{Interview with Mama Ijahnya, Shashemene, 19}th _{January 2018.} 76 _{Interview with Mama Desta, Addis Ababa, December 2107.}

complete as “the neighbors are jealous of us. They say to me ‘this is not your country, you should not have this big yard and we have a small yard because you got money to buy a big yard.”77

Another illustrative example is the Twelve Tribes of Israel mansion’s elimination of Ethiopian Rastas from membership. Ras Kesh who was an Ethiopian Rastafari who returned to Ethiopia after living in Europe for many years was rejected by this sect78_{. Bonacci’s (2015, p.331)} decipherment of the case suits my reasoning of the Rastafari in Ethiopia. A participant in Bonacci’s research recalls the Twelve Tribes was a minority in the whole Rastafari movement in the beginning and now they are replicating that on the Ethiopian Rastas by pushing them to the margin (ibid).

(New) African identity

The new building of African identity by Rastas is ironic. This identity is not new, but it is what was and still practiced by Africans. This identity, though African ironically, has become a springboard for creating “them and us” dichotomy between the Rastafari repatriates in Ethiopia and the locals, lack of freedom of cultural expressions including their appearance and spiritual practice such as the ganga smoking (see Chapter Four).

The irony is the cultural expressions of the returnees are identities built from different parts of Africa including Ethiopia. For instance, their dietary practices are taken from Ethiopian Tewahido [Orthodox] Church; vegan dietary, their dreadlock relates to the bahtawi (hermit) of Ethiopia and the sangomas in South Africa. Albeit, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church does not acknowledge that ganja is speculated that the monks use it in the monastery and in the church

mixed with incense (www.mereja.com February 2014).

The amalgamation of the African experiences that the Rastafari try to rip and build their identity is sarcastically “off-putting to some [including Africans] because they don’t understand

it79_{.” During slavery, there was a prohibition of return to the motherland, separation of the}

slaves [Africans] by language and tribe, and interdiction of marriage so that there is no social structure and no reading. Thus, they cannot connect with the past. As a result, the Africans built this ingenuity in clothing, language, changing words and phrases of English. This is all due to the desire of the people to redefine themselves, recognize this heritage. Unintendedly, however, this African identity building becomes a new ironic identity.

The other striking contradiction is that none of the prominent figures of the Rastafari movement in whom the adherents live by their example are non-Rastafari, non-dreadlocks, non-smokers of marijuana. For instance, Emperor Haile Selassie I, though depicted as the messiah, himself was a believer of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He had no dreadlocks. Other examples are Marcus Garvey, Leonard Howell, and Prophet Gad of the Twelve Tribes of

77 _{Interview with Adam Ras Kawintseb, 5}th _{November 2017.} 78 _{Interview with Ras Kesh Kassaye in October 2017, Addis Ababa} 79 _{Interview with Dr. Desta Meghoo December 2017, Addis Ababa}

Israel. They may have been believers in the deity or mystic figure of Haile Selassie, but none of them had dreadlocks.

Flawed ideology: The Paradox of Rastafari movement

Some call the Rastafari movement contending it disengages itself from existing social and political reality but do not try to change it (Kebede et al, 2000, p.320). In this research, many of the participants expressing “Rasta has no business in politics,” affirms that the Rastafari Movement was, and still is, not a political movement. Part of the reasing is that it lacks appropriate organization and strong leaders in the forefront of the movement. In contrast, Kebede and Knottnerus (1998, p.xx) call the movement a political-religious movement. Kebede et al. (2000, p. 322 & 327) elucidate the reason behind with the adherents continued allegiance despite the movement’s failure to bring alternative to the political system that they blame for the impoverished socio-economic status of its adherents. This is the movement’s compelling ability to provide alternative culture to reinforce collective identity so that they stay within the confines. Perhaps, the Rastafari find it hard to admit it is a political movement,

but they believe they can lead their adherents independent of a government system.80

Furthermore, spiritually, the movement has a paradoxical approach to Christianity. It is dependent and so hostile to Christianity (1998, Murrell et al, p.2). There are contradictory spiritual practices. As an analogy, Priest Emmanuel Charles is regarded the reincarnate of Black Christ in a priestly state without mother and father. A close friend and a sistren from the Rastafari community told me that the high priest of the Bobo Shanti camp in Shashemene was

actually one of the few people who witnessed the death of Prince Emmanuel in Jamaica81 _(see

Chapter One). These priests refused to bury the dead body and waited for Priest Emmanuel’s incarnation like that of Jesus Christ. However, after three days, they could not stand the smell of the decaying body anymore. Finally, they laid him to rest. “The same priest, who was the spectator of this whole thing, still preaches about the Godliness of Prince Emmanuel. …. I mean how foolish and insanely paradoxical is that?” Sister Makeda [name changed] comments. She believes that the spiritual wing of Rastafari is crammed with contradictions. In search of truth, she revealed that she has been part of the three major mansions, but only found each conflicting with their basic religious ideologies. This eventually made her give up her allegiance to any of them.

Contradictory attitude of the Ethiopian state

The Rastafari community was not recognized by the state officially for about five decades. There appears to be a contradictory attitude of the state since the country grants a silent mercy to the community by not harassing them for legal issues though they have suffered from the consequence of denial of documentation. The unusual resiliency of the state is a a typical example that unravels the contradicting approach towards the Rastafari community.

80 _{Interview with Sister Ijahnya.}

Ever since 1930, Ethiopia has been receiving repatriates of the black people from the West and Caribbean. However, the country’s approach to the repatriates has been in absolute contradiction since 1974. African Americans, not the Rastafari, who first welcomed Dr. Melaku Beyan’s call to come and develop Ethiopia. After the stipulation of the land grant by Emperor Haile Selassie and a group of Rastafari of the EWF representatives of its local in Jamaica visited Ethiopia, the Rastafari started to return to Ethiopia in the 1960s (see chapter One). As mentioned ealier, many repatriates left the country after the communist Dergue regime took over in 1974. However, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) removed the Dergue in 1992, many came back. Currently, the number of the Rastafari community is around 1000. Nonetheless, the two regimes failed to adopt any clear policy towards this community. Thus, they remain undocumented. In contrast, no member of the community has been deported because of legal issues. In July 2017, the Ethiopian government adopted a directive that enables the Rastatari to get a national identification card that provides them rights and privileges granted to the foreign nationals of Ethiopian origin. However, the prerequisites set to acquire the ID make it impossible for the majority of the members. So, the paradocal state approach still continues (see Chapter 6 for details).

Resilience of the State

“In Ethiopia, nothing is as it seems” Mama Ijahnya

I left Shashemene in the middle of an ongoing protest in the Oromia National Region State. For this reason, I was following the news on social media since Shashemene was one of the hotbeds of the protest. In March 6, 2018, one of the community members posted that they are under threat. For clarification I resort to Sister Ijahnya. She explained that the threat came after one community member won a court case over land dispute he had with his local neighbor. As surprising as this is, Sister Ijahnya added that one of the Ethiopian neighbors of the Rastaman told him that she was offered a bribe of 1000 birr (approximately 37 US dollars) to testify against the Rastaman.

The Ethiopian law on land sates in bold that a foreigner cannot own fixed properties like land and house. Therefore, it comes with a surprise when a Rastaman, whom according to the state is categorized as foreigner wins a court case over land dispute. Though such rare cases happened before, there is no Rastafari with a foreign passport getting a valid certificate for a land registration or a house.

One of the academic suicidal committed against the Ethiopian education system is the state’s strategy of depriving its citizens of learning the history of the country, particularly the achievements of the predecessors. EPRDF makes all kinds of efforts to take every credit by demonizing everything of the past regimes. It tries to build a new history under the motto “The New Ethiopia”. I remember, during my primary and junior school, the fundamental foundation of the history subject was praising Marxism, and disgracing the monarchial ruling. EPRDF also has continued to do the same: disgracing the Imperial rule and Dergue regime. In this respect, Haile Selassie has become the enemy of the successive regimes.

As Santa, the Ethiopian Rasta youth said his generation learnt about the emperor, in his word “through the back door,” through reggae music. Reggae musicians like Ras Kawintseb were told by the Ethiopian television, not to use the Ethiopian flag used during the monarchial time