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Haile Selassie

In a historical coronation dating back four milleniums, His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, was coronated on November, 2, 1930. Selassie claimed to be a descendant of King Solomon, David’s father, making him a descendant of Christ himself. Selassie gained international renown and respect from being a fierce and determined defender of the doctrine of independence, Africanism, and the basic tenets of Rastafarianism. He often championed the disenfranchised and globally disadvantaged before the United Nations. Selassie fought two wars against then-fascist Italy in an effort to keep Ethiopia from becoming a colony. While Marcus Mosiah Garvey would come to represent the new prophet of Rastafarianism after Selassie’s death in 1975, Selassie is seen as the Messiah by the Rastafari and remains the spiritual leader who laid the groundwork for the religion and culture.

When we look at Haile Selassie and the Rastafarian religion and culture, we see immediately two pillars of Rastafari ideology that are directly connected to Selassie as the messiah of Rastafari. We also immediately see that these two tenets of Rastafari tare in great conflict with and give challenge to the central tenets of Western theology, i.e., Christianity and Judaism:

No tenet of the sixty-seven-year-old Ras Tafari movement is more enduring or more important than belief in the prestigious lineage and divinity of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I. Allied to this belief, but taking second place to it, is the view that modern Ethiopia is a significant piece of real estate—indeed, the new Zion. The importance of Ethiopia in Rastafarian thought is based on the fact that it is the birthplace of His Imperial Majesty, and also on the belief that it is the present domicile of the Jewish Ark of the Covenant.

These two tenets are central to Haile Selassie and the Rastafari religion and cult...

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Haile Selassie. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 20:24, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1685600.html