HAILE SELASSIE’S TRIUMPHAL ENTRY INTO JAMAICA
BY NZINGA NZINGA
On that joyful reunion with His people on His own Ethiopian soil when He returned from exile on May 5, 1941, His Imperial Majesty told His people that no human lips could express the thankfulness which He felt to the merciful God who had enabled Him to stand in their midst on that day.
Likewise on this occasion in Jamaica, no one could then or can even now do justice in conveying the sense of joyous triumph experienced by the Rastas in seeing their vast multitude, the like unseen before in Jamaica, which turned out for the occasion, clutching the knowledge that today they were a major and intrinsic part of their history in the making. Tomorrow they could return to the stark dread oppression of their daily lives, but today was theirs with which to ‘lively’ up themselves in the name of their Lord, Jah Rastafari. It was Black man’s redemption time! Today was a new day. It was a Rastafari day when positive Rastaman vibrations and nat’ral mystic filled the air and prevailed in Jamdown!
It
was a mixed multitude of Rastafarians combined with those who were not of the
faith. No one on earth can adequately capture in words or on screen the
ecstasy, the raw joy, the quintessence of happiness, the free flow of
exhilaration and excitement, the heights of appreciation, gratitude and
confidence that emanated from the Rastas who exulted in the reality of the
presence of their Lion of Judah, their Lily of the valley and their Bright and Morning Star, Jah
Rastafari! Let Bob Marley express the
Hamitic wonder of Jah Rastafari:
♪♪ Noah had
three sons, Ham, Shem and Japheth
And in Ham is
known to be the prophet.
Glory to Jah
the prophet is come…
Rastafari is
His name. Rastafari is His name. ♪♪
It
was a Holy Day, a new day, a day of rejoicing and thanksgiving for Rastas. Listen to the words of Bob Marley, composed
some years later, which could describe with understanding to a great extent,
the glory of that special holy day of royal advent:
Make way for
the positive day
‘Cause it’s a
new day.
And if it’s a
new feeling
Give us a new
feeling
Give us a new
feeling. It’s a new sign
Oh! What a
new day.
Picking up?
Are you picking up, now?
Jah love! Jah
love! Jah love! Vibration…♪♪
Bob Marley…Rastaman Vibrations.
Some
2000 years ago, while his disciples watched steadfastly, Jesus disappeared from
the scene. He ‘was taken up; and a cloud
received him out of their sight’ (Acts 1:9). It is not a simple thing for a
Rasta man, woman or child, much less a multitude of Rastas of all descriptions
to remain tranquil and watch that big, silver iron bird with that well-known
and well-loved emblem of the Lion of Judah and those three cherished
colours-in-combination, the red, the gold and the green, descending, dropping,
dropping down from out of the sky above.
For some, the words of Acts 1:11 must have stirred in their memory:
…… Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up
from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven. Acts 1:11.
For them the Book was being fulfilled in that their Almighty Jah was returning to them from out of the heavens as promised some 2000 years ago by two men in white apparel, even though he was not returning a lone figure borne by a cloud, but descending out of the clouds in a man-made bird in line with modern science and technology. It is no joke matter to gaze up into heaven with trembling heart quaking with love and adoration, knowing that that descending silver bird bears the precious temporal temple of the Lion of Judah. Is a serious ting!
It
is beyond belief that after years of shouting: “Jah Rastafari! Selassie I!” the
very One-and-Only is about to touch down and dwell among His own beloved
people, close enough and long enough, to behold His glory, these His people,
who, without ever having seen Him in the flesh, loved Him:
…Whom having
not seen, ye loved, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. 1 Peter 1:8.
In
but a little while and He would walk among His people, who, without any orders
or encouragement from the powers-that-be, were moved by faith to adore Him even
without ever having cast eyes on Him:
Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen … Hebrews 11:1.
Some six years before, on January 21, 1960, when His Majesty formally accepted the title, Defender of the Faith, in Ethiopia, He quoted His most wise ancestor thus:
“As Solomon
says, physical distance cannot be a barrier to love. Likewise, the distances among
your respective countries have been abolished by the proximity of your hearts.”
How far from Jamaica is Ethiopia? How far from Ethiopia is Jamaica?
“Behold, what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Behold, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is …” 1
John 3:1-2
♪♪ Haile
Selassie is our God and King
Haile
Selassie is our God and King
Haile
Selassie is our God and King
Oh,
Rastafari, oh! ♪♪
The
volume swells as they who were with Him from the beginning bear testimony to
His divine power:
The Lion of
Judah shall break every chain
The Lion of
Judah shall break every chain
And give us
some victory again and again.
The
Conquering Lion shall break every chain
The
Conquering Lion shall break every chain
The
Conquering Lion shall break every chain
And give us
some victory again and again. ♪♪
The
voices seem to chant the sentiments of Psalm 34:3:
“O, magnify
the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.”
Our
leaders and national guides had taught us to sing with awe, pride and reverence, the
following national anthem of Britain as if it were our own:
♪♪ God save our
gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen.
God save our Queen.
Send her victorious.
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save our Queen. ♪♪
And
now behold, those early years of standing, often under the burning sun, to
mouth those meaningless, fulsome, platitudinous colonial sentiments and lies in
an alien national anthem anent an alien white monarch, were finally and totally
vindicated and erased by the triumphal arrival into Jamaica of our own gracious
and noble black African King, straight out of the Holy Bible, a descendant of
Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, King David, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and
seen by many as Jesus Christ, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I of
Ethiopia, King of Kings, Lords of Lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah,
Elect of God, Defender of the Faith and Light of this World. Not only was this
personage from among our brethren, and no stranger, but our own bona fide African brethren, born and
bred on the continent of Africa and in addition to that, God Almighty Creator
Himself!
Rastafari
Idren and Sistren, children of the Higher Man, let us ‘rejoice with joy unspeakable’ that Jah Rastafari lives! Selassie I.
Selah and Amen.
The End
All the images were taken from
the Internet and I claim no copyright.
No comments:
Post a Comment