Ethiopia Local Custom Tips by SirRichard

What have Rastafarians to do with such as a remote country as this? Haile Selassie (born RAS TAFARI) was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 through the seventies. People who believe that Selassie is divine or of divine nature are called Rastafarians. There are many different sects of Rastas as well as individual believers all over the globe. They all believe different things. There is no unified rasta 'church' or set of beliefs. So there is no set doctrine of what rastas believe.
Some wear uncombed dreadlocks, some trim their hair. Some smoke marijuana, some don't. Some are strict vegetarian, some eat meat, most don't eat pork. Most believe it important to repatriate to Mother Africa (most of them from Jamaica, as Bob Marley).
If you are really interested, there is village near Addis Ababa, named Shashamene, where there is an active community of Rastafarians, and you can feel the "mystic in the air".

Leave a Comment

Marley has always been a leader whose eyes were put more in Africa than in America. Going back to the roots was always one of his goals. He travelled to Ethiopia (a dream for him) several times, participated in a concert in Harare to celebrate Zimbabwe's Independence and has many LPs with the 'Babylonian' theme (Exodus, Bus to Babylonia...).
Babylonia was the land where Judes were kept as prisioners before returning to the promise land. Black slaves were brought to America (their Babylonia) and want to return to their promise land (Ethiopia).
When, in 1930, Haile Selassie (see tip above) was made Emperor of Ethiopia and proclaimed Negusa Negast (King of Kings), Jamaica's slum-dwellers and rural poor, for whom Marcus Garvey had been something of a gallant oracle, regarded this event as the fulfillment of a prophecy of deliverance.
Indeed, Ethiopia had symbolized all of Africa for the slave-descended Jamaicans since as far back as 1784, when American Baptist minister George Liele founded the Ethiopian Baptist Church on the island. Selassie, they knew, claimed to be directly descended from King Solomon, so they reasoned that he must be the long-awaited savior of the planet's far-flung African peoples.

Leave a Comment

The Imperial Flag of Ethiopia is the National Tri-color, Green, Yellow, and Red horizontal stripes of equal size. At the center is a Gold Lion marching east carrying a cross and wearing the Imperial Ethiopian crown. This is the Lion of Judah symbol, which symbolizes the Emperor of Ethiopia. In the aftermath of the revolution of 1974, the Provisional Military Administrative Council(PMAC) or Derg, removed the crown and replace the cross with a spear, calling this emblem the 'Lion of Ethiopia'. With the formal abolishment of the Monarchy a few months later, the lion was completely removed from the flag, and the Derg emblem began to be displayed in the middle of the flag as a government banner. Upon the proclamaiton of the Peoples Republic in 1985, a new official coat of arms was placed at the center of the flag, and upon the fall of the communist regime and the proclamation of the new Federal Republic, yet another coat of arms has replace the Lion at the center of the flag.

Leave a Comment

Ethiopian coffee is world famous and is really good. You can get it in bars, usually black and with a lot of sugar. If you want it without sugar, say it first. If you want it with milk, say "machiato", or "capuccino".
During your stay you will surely have the chance to enjoy a coffee ceremony. The host roasts the coffee, converts it in powder and from that fresh coffee he serves 3 tiny cups to each guest. You must first admire the odour, then taste it and tell the host about the flavour and then take the 3 cups. No milk here usually, sugar included.

Leave a Comment