The Religious Faith and Spiritual Reality of Siphiwe Baleka
Many people have asked me about my religion, and recent events in my life have compelled me to give this testimony.
To put it briefly, I had no religious training until I reached the age of twenty two when I became a devout follower and practioner of the Rastafari faith from 1995 to 2007. During that period, I took a Nazarite vow and did not cut my hair. In 2007 I was initiated further into the Anu Mysteries as taught in ancient Kemet. This allowed me to transcend religion and lead a life of spirituality through direct connection with Divinity and becoming One with God. In that system, I am between (2) The Intelligences, i.e., those who had attained the inner vision, and had received mind or nous and (3) The Creators or Sons of Light, who had become identified with or united with the Light (i.e., true spiritual consciousness). For years I underwent disciplinary intellectual exercises, and bodily asceticism with intervals of tests and ordeals to determine my fitness to proceed to the more serious, solemn and awful processes designed to facilitate the cultivation of the ten virtues.
I am required to manifest the following soul attributes:
(1) Control of thought and
(2) Control of action, the combination of which, may be called Justice (i.e. the unswerving righteousness of thought and action – [Siphiwe note: the object of which, according to Neely Fuller Jr, is that no one is mistreated and those that need the most help get the most help]).
(3) Steadfastness of purpose, which was equivalent to Fortitude.
(4) Identity with spiritual life or the higher ideals, which was equivalent to Temperance, an attribute attained when the individual had gained conquest over the passional nature.
(5) Evidence of having a mission in life [See: Global Afrikan Strategic Reparatory Justice Efforts at the PFPAD, ICJ, and AU - The Board As Seen By Siphiwe Baleka] and
(6) Evidence of a call to spiritual Orders or the Priesthood in the Mysteries: the combination of which was equivalent to Prudence or a deep insight and graveness that befitted the faculty of Seership. [Siphiwe note: I have attained some good measure of this faculty]
(7) Freedom from resentment, when under the experience of persecution and wrong. This was known as courage. [Siphiwe note: I am still learning and growing in this one! }
(8) Confidence in the power of the master (as Teacher), and
(9) Confidence in one’s own ability to learn; both attributes being known as Fidelity.
(10) Readiness or preparedness for initiation. There has always been this principle of the Ancient Mysteries of Egypt: ‘When the student is ready, then the master will appear.’
Now let me explain.
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I was born on April 14, 1971 at 2:37 am in Copley Memorial Hospital in Montgomery, IL. My maternal grandfather was a devout Catholic and raised my mother in the faith. By her effort, I was baptized as an infant at St. Anne’s Catholic church in Oswego, IL. I did not attend church as a child. My parents divorced and I was raised by my father, Jeremiah Nathaniel Blake, who was not a religious person at all.
I have a basic understanding of 1,108 generations of my family dating back to 42,300 BC, with the firtst 970 generations (haplogroup E-V38) originating in the Nile Valley and eventually settling and developing the Nekhen Confederation during the Nilo-Sudanic period. For 38,800 years we were a free people subject to natural law and totemic customs. I have come to understand our original spirituality as that of the Great Belief which centered on the concept of “vital life force energy”. There was no concept or theory of “salvation” or “sin”. The next 10 generations from 3,500 BC to 3,100 BC during the Nekhen Confederation – 400 years - we were a free people subject to natural law and totemic customs and freely associated with members of the Nekhen Confederation.
The next 113 generations from 3,100 BC to 1400 AD during the Migration Period from Nile Valley to Guinea Bissau – 4,500 years - we were a free people subject to natural law and totemic customs During this period, my family resisted various assaults, attacks and raids by various peoples and various states, especially the Mande peoples of the Mali and Kaabu Empires, as well as by Islamic jihads. The next 9 generations from 1400 AD to 1765 AD we lived in Nhacra – 365 years - and we were a free people subject to natural law and Balanta customs According to Balanta oral history and historians, my family recognized no leaders, chiefs, or kings and the head of the family household was the highest unit of sovereignty.
Sometime in the 1760s, B’rassa Nchabra, my great, great, great, great, great grandfather, was captured and taken from his village in Untche in present day Guinea Bissau and became a prisoner of war that was declared by the Papal Bull Dum Diversas in 1452 and conducted by the Military Order of Jesus Christ that was established in 1319, following the suppression of the Kights Templars, with the support of King Denis of Portugal. The order's primary headquarters were in Tomar Castle, which had previously served as the Templars' headquarters.
My family’s oral history in America was given on August 9, 1974 by my great grand uncle Reverend Eustace Blake, the 44th Pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent Black denomination in the United States founded in1794 by Richard Allen:
"Our forefathers were George, Jack, Yancey. Yancey Blake married Melissa Page. Yancey begat nine children by Melissa. Two boys and seven girls. Boys: Yancey Jr and John Addison. During the civil war a group of Federal Soldiers came pass the house of my grandfather (Yancey Blake), Yancey Blake Jr. joined them and was never heard from anymore.”
In 1853 Jack was emancipated. In 1896, his grandson, my great, great grandfather John Addison Blake founded and built the Union Bethel African Methodist Church (AME). Thus, from an early period, my Balanta grandfathers’ religion since their enslavement and captivity in America was always an Africanized version of Christianity since they were prevented from practicing their traditional Balanta spirituality. It was a forced conversion made under duress from the trauma of slavery.
In 1975, at the age of 4, my family took a trip to Charleston, SC. My father, a former high school swimmer and diver (his father, my grandfather was a member of the US Coast Guard), was undoubtedly excited to bring his son to see the Atlantic ocean. However, when I was brought to the water’s edge and touched the water where my great, great, great, great, great grandfather had arrived in America, I freaked out! I was deathly afraid of the water. So bizarre was my reaction that my father immediately resolved that I would start swimming lessons as soon as we returned home.
THAT WAS THE MOMENT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF MY GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT BALANTA GRANDFATHER ENTERED ME or was activated in me.
Around this same time, when I was six years old, I, like millions of Americans watched the television adaptation of Alex Haley’s Roots. One scene, in particular, scarred me forever - Kunte Kinte being whipped to accept his slave name.
In 1989, I enrolled in Yale University but by 1992 suffered an identity crisis provoked by the use of my “slave” name and a year later, in February 1993, I abruptly left in order to “seek the kingdom of God.” From that time to 2007 - chronicled in my books From Yale to Rastafari: Letters to My Mom, 1995-1998 and the five volumes of Come Out of Her, My People! 21st Century Black Prophetic Faith and Pan African Diplomacy - I read the Bible from beginning to end using Bible dictionairies, concordances, and other bible study supplements. I spent my time Learning From The Leaders The Personal Cost of African Liberation: Responsibility, Racial Re-Education, Spiritual Re-Conversion, and Class Suicide for a Holy Order of Commitment. I learned the truth about who invented the gospel of Jesus Christ and why. I learned how there were over 400 European military warships named “Jesus” which trafficked people from Africa into slavery in the American “Babylon”. I learned about the Mental Slavery of Christianity: Its Origin, Development and The Challenge of Cognitive Dissonance to the African Ancestry Movement From the Point of View of Neuroscience and Behavior Change.
“I could no longer recognize or accept ‘Jesus’ as a saviour, but only as a fictional figure that had been deified and used to maintain the Dum Diversas’ “perpetual servitude” and white supremacy! Why else would all depictions of the Christ and Angels be white?????
All of this I learned from people who were known as the Rastafari movement. From them I learned about Ethiopia’s place in the Bible and biblical prophecy and Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of Judah and Elect of God. I didn’t need to go back 2000 years to find a “Jesus” when in my lifetime the King of Kings and Lord of Lords had come, and he came out of ETHIOPIA!!!! Just like there was an Old Testament for Israel, and a New Testament for Gentile Christians, now there was a Final Testament for those who received the Revelation of Rastafari. For me, the word of God was no longer the Bible, it was the 700+pages of the Selected Speeches of HIM Haile Selassie I.
Reading the words of His Imperial Majesty, I FELT the living word of GOD in the 20th Century. I did not need the Bible to see that Haile Selassie was the embodiment, the voice of truth and righteousness in world events. And this is how I became a Selassiite, one who recognizes the Manifiestation of Ausar (aka Christ Consciousness) in the person of the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of Judah, showing what the attainment of Dvinity looks like.
To understand my religious training, faith and spiritual reality, one must therefore undertand the ETHIOPIA TO CHICAGO CONNECTION which is my heritage.
1892: Lij Tafari Makonnen, who later became Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, was born on July 23, 1892. His birthplace was Ejersa Goro, a town in the Hararghe province. He was the son of Ras Makonnen, the Governor of Harar, and Woizero Yeshimabet Ali Abba Jifar.
1893: The "Chicago Congress on Africa" refers to the Congress on Africa held in Chicago during the World's Columbian Exposition. This event brought together individuals of African descent from both the United States and other parts of the world including Alexander Crummell, Bishop Henry Turner and Bishop Alexander Walters of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME) who, seven years later, would chair the London Congress. It combined intellectual, ideological, religious, philosophical, and scientific discussions related to Africa and its diaspora. Out of this event in my hometown was born the modern organized Pan African Movement.
1895: Another Pan-African Repatriation plan was initiated by black businessman William H. Ellis, who backed the efforts of Georgia preacher Henry McNeil Turner. At the end of the year, the Congress on Africa convened in Atlanta Dr. Blyden submitted a paper entitled, "Africa and the Future of the Negro Race" and Bishop Turner gave an address on "The American and His Fatherland."
1896: The Battle of Adwa (Amharic: የዐድዋ ጦርነት; Tigrinya: ውግእ ዓድዋ; ) was the climactic battle of the First Italo-Ethiopian War. The Ethiopian army defeated an invading Italian and Eritrean force led by Oreste Baratieri on March 1, 1896, near the town of Adwa. The victory, aided by vastly superior numbers, decisively thwarted the Kingdom of Italy's attempt to expand its colonial empire in the Horn of Africa. As a result, by the end of the 19th century Ethiopia was the only independent country left in Africa, which had otherwise been carved up by European powers following the Berlin Conference. Adwa became a pre-eminent symbol of PanAfricanism and secured Ethiopian sovereignty until the Second Italo-Ethiopian War forty years later. That same year, my my great, great grandfather John Addison Blake founded and built the Union Bethel African Methodist Church (AME) in Cary, North Carolina formally and spiritually connecting my family to the Pan African events being described.
1897: Benito Sylvan, Haitian born and former secretary of the Haitian legation in London, visits Ethiopia and becomes an aide-de-camp in the Imperial household of Emperor Menelik. Against this backdrop emerged the African Association that was launched in England on September 24, 1897
1903: Benito Sylvain returns to Ethiopia where he introduces William Ellis to Emperor Menelik II and tells the Emperor, "Europe for Europeans and Africa for Africans.”
1909: Robert Daniel Alexander moves from Chicago to Ethiopia. He is the first descendant of people trafficked from Africa and enslaved in the Americas to repatriate to Ethiopia. He provides Emperor Menelik with copies of the black-owned Chicago Defender newspaper.
1917: a Black man named Charles Henry Holmes (pen name Clayton Adams) wrote a book entitled Ethiopia, The Land of Promise: A Book With A Purpose. The book was a novel best described as visionary prophetic fiction. In the book, five Black men had strange dreams which caused them all to meet together on May 5. One of the dreams pictured Black soldiers and a red, gold and green flag. The men began meeting on the fifth of every month and realized that their dream was about forming an organization, the Ethiopian Union, in order to combat and conquer Jim Crowism in America. Amazingly, actual Ethiopian events happened exactly as was described on May 5, 1936 (the day Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I left Ethiopia to go to the League of Nations) and May 5 1941 (the day HIM returned to Ethiopia and regained His throne).
1919: The Ethiopian/Abyssinian Mission to my hometown of Chicago in 1919 fulfilled the propshecy in Isaiah 18:1-7 and that the prophet Zephaniah revealed its meaning. This fulfillment of prophecy inspired the faith of Grover “The Prophet” Redding to start working in my hometown of Chicago. He began to organize “Ethiopians”, my suppliants, even the daughter or my dispersed, an afflicted and poor people, sorrowful, to whom the reproach of it was a burden, to gather them for the solemn assembly, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion. The name of the Prophet Redding’s organization: The Star Order of Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Mission to Abyssinia. Grover Redding burns the American flag and hoists the red, gold and green flag of Ethiopia, pledging his allegiance to the government of Ras Tafari. From them came the Ras Tafari Movement that preached:
Psalm 68:31 — Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.
Genesis 49:10 — The scepter shall not depart from Judah…
Revelation 5:5 — Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah…
Revelation 19:16 — King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Isaiah 9:7 — Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end…
Zephaniah 3:10 — From beyond the rivers of Cush
Psalm 87:4 — This man was born there (Ethiopia).
1922: Reverend James Morris Webb from Chicago publishes the pamphlet "The Black Man Will Be The Coming Universal King" and then lectures to the UNIA. Marcus Garvey then repeats Reverend Webb's call to "Look to Africa for the Crowning of a Black King."
1928 (October 7): Ethiopian Regent and Plenipotentiary Ras Tafari is crowned Negus "King" of Ethiopia.
On November 2, 1930 all the prophecies were fulfilled when Ras Tafari was crowned "Haile Selassie (meaning “Power and Might of the Trinity”) and given the messianic titles King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of Judah and Elect of God. Isaiah 9:6-7New International Version:
6 For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
Revelation 19:16:
"On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." Revelation 19:16
1 Timothy 6:15:
"which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords," 1 Timothy 6:15
Revelation 17:14:
"They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."
Daniel 2:47:
"The king declared to Daniel, “Truly, your God is God of gods and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.”
Subsequent events in history proved the fulfillment of prophesy, as the nations and kings of the earth, Led by the Pope and Italian Fascist Dictator Benito Mussolini, did indeed make war on the King of Kings! 1935 (September 30) Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie signed the general mobilization order for his troops to defend against the Italian invasion. Colonel John C. Robinson from Chicago becomes the Emperor's pilot and trains the Ethiopian air force. Black people all over the world, including 5,000 people in Chicago, volunteer to go to Ethiopia and fight to defend the last sovereign nation in Africa.
Concerning religion, Haile Selassie I said:
"My dynasty has ruled ever since the Queen of Sheba met King Solomon and a son was born of their union."
- HIM Haile Selassie I Ras Tafari interviewed by Oriana Fallaci, Chicago Tribune, 24 June 1973.
Here is the fulfillment of -
1 Chronicles 28:6 - "The LORD hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever."
"Solomon shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever."
- 1 Chronicles 22:9-10
"Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father."
- 1 Chronicles 29:23
"Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the LORD thy God."
- The Queen of Sheba to Solomon, in 2 Chronicles 9:8
"I am the slave of my God and not a free man; I do not serve according to my own will but according to His will. And this speech of mine springeth not from myself, but I give utterance only to what He maketh me to utter."
- King Solomon in the Kebra Nagast, Miguel Brooks Version Chapter 24 / Wallis Budge Version Chapter 26.
Haile Selassie I said many things about Jesus Christ, the Bible, Faith, Religion and Spirituality. As Head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and “Defender of the Faith”, Haile Selassie I was a devout Christian. On June 8, 1954, HIM Haile Selassie came to Chicago and told the congregation of black people gathered at South Park Baptist Church:
"My message to the colored people of the United States is that they continue to press forward with determination their social and intellectual advancement, meeting all obstacles with Christian courage and tolerance, confident in the certainty of the eventual triumph of justice and equality throughout the world. The people of Ethiopia feel the strongest bond of sympathy and understanding with the colored people of the United States. We greatly admire your achievements and your contributions to American life and the tremendous development of this great nation."
Nine years after the Emperor’s visit to Chicago, he returned to New York to give his famous “War” speech at the United Nations. The speech represents the Ultimate Word of God to man on earth in our lifetime. Elder Gabriel (Patrick Mickiel Diaz ), one of the earliest Rastas and Nyabinghi drummers from Jamaica and close friend of Ras Mortimo Planno (Bob Marley’s mentor) went to the United Nations that day and returned with a printed copy of that speech, which he lamenated and kept as his prize possession.
On April 21, 1966 HIM Haile Selassie visited Jamaica. Ras Jahlani Niaah, Head of the Rastafari Studies Unit at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Jamaica, and Co-founder of the School of Sacrament Rastafari University (SOSACRU), addressing the 70th Anniversary of the First State Visit of HIM Emperor Haile Selassie I Ras Tafari to Austria on 28 November 2024, stated,
"My Rastafari teacher [Mortimo Planno] indicates that His Majesty used Jamaica to show the world who He was. So, according to Planno, His Majesty fully well know that the Jamaicans were gonna get out of control. You know, but that's exactly what He want. Because if you were to think of the Conquering Lion as a victorious politician, war general, etc. - He arrives in Jamaica and has to restore order in Jamaica immediately as His first task! The Jamaican state has lost control upon the landing of His plane. It is His Majesty who has to instruct the Chief of Staff to get Mortimo Planno. He can restore order right here. The newspapers described Planno as 'Prime Minister for a day'. So, they completely get it that His Majesty appeared before the people [and] overturns the state. By the ganging of the plane the state just fell. Understand that! Soldiers cannot shoot. Nothing to regain control can happen. So, this is now that extended period of: 'What is gonna happen?!' You know, Jamaica cannot afford for a major fiasco! This is the King of Kings who has landed! We can't fire, and we can't behave how we would behave with our own negro people. You know, we have to find a better approach.' Thankfully, Planno was able to save the day!"
According to Charles Price in Rastafari - The Evolution of a People and Their Identity (page 230)
"The Emperor's visit created the opening for a new status for Rastafari. Emperor Selassie did not denounce the Rastafari as many elites had expected. He greeted a delegation of Rastafari and gifted each of them a gold coin and was rumored to have encouraged the Rastafari to organize and centralize for their future development. Many non-Rastafari re-evaluated their view of the Rastafari after the Emperor's visit, and some themselves became Rastafari, expanding the numbers of the community."
Hector Wynter, then Jamaican Government Minister, in Jeanne Christensen writes in Rastafari Reasoning and the RastaWoman (page 106):
"As we prepared for his welcoming, 33 [note: probably 13] individual Rastafarian leaders one by one at King's House, [Emperor Haile Selassie I], his aide, and I were talking in the room at King's House. I asked him if he would comment on the view that he was the Son of God. His response, through his Aide, was that it was not his habit to interfere with people's beliefs. I agreed with him."
Ancient Ras Filmore Alvaranga in the Roaring Lion Documentary states:
"We met him at King’s House and he said to us: 'How long do the Rastafari movement start in Jamaica?' We said to him: 'Ever since your coronation, Your Majesty – the 2nd of November 1930.' He said to us: 'Your works are purposeful', [and that] we must continue in our endeavour. That mean we nah fi [must not] stop say Rasta! But hear what him go say now: 'You must centralize and organize!'"
Ancient Ras Mortimo Planno when interviewed by Mutabaruka on Cutting Edge, Irie FM said,
“Listen, the 21st ah April 1961 we meet His Majesty in Addis Ababa. And 1966, five years after, the 21st ah April we meet him in Jamaica. The 21st ah April, that is the point I'm making. And if you look now, Rome was born on the 21st ah April. . . . When His Majesty come him tell we, say, anywhere him there him want Rastafarians there. [...] We had to go daily to get instructions from the Ethiopian Ambassador. Everyday His Majesty say what him want and what him don‘t want. What him want is Rastaman fi there everywhere where him there. So them give me a whole bundle of invitations, all me have to do is just write up who we want to go where.”
During this same time, Amilcar Cabral, writing in the 1960’s in reference to the liberation struggle being waged in Guinea Bissau stated,
“it follows that a considerable part of the population notably the urban or peasant 'petty bourgeoisie", assimilates the colonizer's mentality, and regards itself as culturally superior to the people to which it belongs and whose cultural values it ignores or despises. This situation, characteristic of the majority of colonized intellectuals, is crystallized to the extent that the social privileges of the assimilated or alienated group are increased with direct implications for the BEHAVIOR towards the liberation movement by the individuals in this group.
A SPIRITUAL RE-CONVERSION - OF MENTALITIES - is thus seen to be VITAL for their true integration in the liberation movement. Such re-conversion - re-AFRICANIZATION in our case - may take place before the struggle, but is completed only during the course of the struggle.”
After the Emperor’s visit to Jamaica, Ancient Ras Mortimo Planno's 12-Point Position Paper on the State of the Rastafarian Movement, July 1970, as quoted by Yawney, Lions in Babylon, page 380, emphasized,
"Who is a Rastafarian? The question who is a Rastafarian can be answered by everyone who accepts the King of Kings of Ethiopia as the 'Messiah. But who is an Ethiopian? is a far different question and a more unique answer. An Ethiopian cannot change his skin. This is a skin Identification. H.I.M. attribute it to Blood Brothers, not Soul Brothers. . . .The Rastafarian Movement must be credited to maintain under assidious circumstances the purposes of the foundation of the movement which is: 1) To accept the Truth and Logic of the manifestation of the Living God sitting upon the Throne of King David in the Person of H.I.M. Haile Selassie I. 2) The Rastafarian Movement found and built its tenets by the interpretation of the Scriptures. Therefore, classify the Rastafarian Movement to that of a religious movement who advocate Peace and Love, Unity and Reorientation of a lost Race of People through Slavery, Redemption and Repatriation back to our forefathers' land."
Every year there was a big Haile Selassie I celebration in Washington Park in Chicago, which was founded in 1974 by Elder Gabriel (Patrick Mickiel Diaz ), one of the earliest Rastas and Nyabinghi drummers from Jamaica and close friend of Bob Marley’s mentor Ras Mortimo Planno (who would become the only man to receive two Gold Medals from Emperor Haile Selassie), and Tzaddi Wadadah Terrier II a.k.a. Selector T. Elder Gabriel was another of my mentors and I lived in his basement for over a year. I remember him fondly, always bringing out his copy of Haile Selassie’s War speech and telling the story of how he sat in the balcony and watched him give the speech. Often he would go about the house shouting, ‘Until the philosophy, which holds one race superior and another, inferior, is finally, and permanently discredited, and abandoned. . . . Until that day! The dream of lasting peace and world citizenship. . . . And the rule of international morality shall remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued and NEVER ATTAINED.”
At the Haile Selassie festival in 1996 I remember when Mutabaruka said from the stage that Rastas were “talking too much about Africa and not walking enough to get there - Africa is a land, not a state of mind.” That inspired a small group of us to take Repatriation seriously. That same year Ancient Ras Boanerges (aka Bongo Watto), one of the founders of the mystic Nyahbinghi Order, speaking in Elsie's River, Cape Town, Azania South Africa, delcared,
"Each and everyone take up this crown [Dreadlocks] of the Almighty, which [who] is called by His name [Ras Tafari]. If you don't have this [touching his Dreadlocks], no one will call you Rasta. And Rasta is the name of the Almighty, the new name. Rasta is the new name! So that we don't recognize no religion, nor no politics, nor no political life no more, nor no christian life no more. For the I bring us salvation through His name Ras Tafari. Haile I Selassie I King Ras Tafari!"
- Ancient Ras Boanerges / Bongo Watto speaking in Elsie's River, Cape Town, Azania South Africa, in 1996.
After the raid on Nkrumah Washington Community Learning Center where I was working, I shifted from political education and black nationalism and began to prepare to return to Ethiopia.
I started hanging out at the Wild Hare, Frontline and King Solomon’s Mines with Ras Sekou Tafari, Abba Kisi, and Jahsyl and learning about Rastafari. I finally found The Revolution I was seeking. The Rastas were militant. They were spiritual. They were political. They were cultural. They were intellectual. They were openly defiant. They were mystical….. I found my peers here, others who were seeking African liberation, and in particular, Repatriation, and were willing to completely commit and order their lives to it. From Rastafari people I learned,
“Haile Selassie I the First, Conquering Man Lion of Judah came TO ORDER THE PEOPLE. The confused mentality that was fostered by Slavery had burned out and the mind had to be set on a course of HIGH ORDER . . . . When one looks at the first inspiration that came to I&I from His Majesty, it was an INSPIRATION through the establishment of IVINE ORDER. It was not an inspiration to create a mere RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. Neither was it an inspiration to create a mere social movement nor a political movement. The vision was to create an IVINE ORDER OF LIVITY that encompassed ALL aspects of life. . . . Without a Pan-African vision that has as its goal the establishment of Black Nationhood with a restored concept of BLACK ROYALTY AND DIVINITY, the root of the problems that now face Black civilization cannot be rooted out. THE TRUTH MUST BE FACED THAT THE PROBLEMS ARE NOT ONLY ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL, but they are also SPIRITUAL in the sense of having been subjected to unnaturalness for so long that naturalness becomes an unwelcome stranger. TRAPPED, domesticated and tethered for centuries to the stake of unnaturalness the caged and domesticated creature is apt to lose its spiritual equilibrium and forget what is clean from what is unclean, what is right from what is wrong, and what is high from what is low. This is the condition of the ‘ex-slaves’ in this time, sorely in need of something more than a political movement, something that involves the reshaping of character in the similitude of ROYALTY. . . . If one were to put into one sentence THE MAIN GUIDELINE OF THE NYAHBINGHI ORDER upon which the whole of RASTAFARI IS FOUNDED, it is Resurrection of THE BLACK IDEAL FOR THE PURPOSE OF ACHIEVING BLACK LIBERATION. . .”
Black liberation meant finding an escape from the plantation, from the SYSTEM. I didn’t want to become an economic wage slave so I tried to find strategies that could free me from serving the SYSTEM from 9 am to 5 am every day and having to pay rent. Like my Balanta ancestors who resisted Mandinka and Portuguese oppression by relocating to the mangrove swamps, I relocated to the waste spaces in Chicago and started squatting abandoned building which became my “liberated territories”. I would clean them up and do basic rehab and continue as if I owned the place. My first confrontation with Chicago police concerning my liberated territory took place on July 14, 1997 at 1944 S. California Avenue, Chicago, IL.. I was charged with criminal trespass, but the case was eventually dropped.
By the summer of 1998, our small group began to get ready to leave America to repatriate to Ethiopia. A passage in From Yale To Rastafari: Letter to My Mom, 1995-1998 reads,
“Some other Rastafarians and I have decided to join forces. His Majesty Haile Selassie has given us 500 acres in Shashemane, Ethiopia. Currently there are 60 families there, and, JAH willing, We will be the next group to go and settle the remaining 350 acres. There are six of Us right now – Yahnaq, whom I consider a brother, Zakiyyah, who is like a first wife, Nikelda, her son Alejandro, and Jahneri, Yahnaq’s wife. Everyone wears dreadlocks and is called, chosen and faithful to His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of Judah.
We are planning to go forward to Ethiopia at the end of October of this year. We already have half of our gear and plane fare. In order to prepare for our new life, we have been living out of tents in a remote area where we are growing our own food and herbs and learning how to live without modern conveniences like electricity, cooked food, etc. Since our vegetable crops are not ready, we’ve been eating wild foods which I pick everyday – wild lettuce, dandelion leaves, wild carrot, greens, pepper grass, horsetail, blackberries, ground strawberries. We also buy organic fruit (wholesale) as well as hard wheat berries, buckwheat, and nuts, raisins, peanut butter and coconut. We also sprout seeds and legumes. Because everything is fresh, raw and without chemicals, we are getting strong and healthy, . . . .
The air out here is fresh, and I am breathing normally. I can even smell various herbs, flowers, etc. and can tell if someone is cooking miles away! At night we sometimes build a fire and so long as its not raining, we sleep on the ground uncovered and gaze at the celestial bodies moving across the sky.
We have even built huts from saplings, leaves and mud. During the afternoon when it gets hot, we retreat from the fields and take SIESTAS under the huts which are surrounded by forest and a great green canopy. The wind blows gently – a natural air conditioning, the temperature in the huts can be as much as 10 degrees cooler! They also serve as an infirmary and, in addition to cuts and scrapes, I’ve had to treat Zakiyyah for heatstroke. Out here I get to be me – father, brother, architect, doctor, priest, king, entertainer, everything. So, I am very free and happy. It is a great time of preparation for our journey.
I don’t know if I will be coming back to America. It is doubtful. Just thought I’d let you know.”
October came and went and we did not go to Ethiopia. We were not yet ready. We needed another year. At the Haile Selassie Festival in Washington Park in July of 1999, we were were very joyful because we believed we would be going to Ethiopia and escaping “Babylon” in just a few months before the start of the Babylon New Year, January 1, 2000. With Elder Gabriel and all the Rasta people in Chicago, and the conscious black community in Chicago, we camped and celebrated for three nights in Washington Park, singing praises to Haile Selassie and listening to live reggae music. I had become theocratically appointed Ilect of Records for the original Star Order of Ethiopia secret organization that started with Prophet Redding in 1919. Then something curious and disheartening happened. My backpack with some of our important documents, a large sum of cash, and other things disappeared from my tent. Then two weeks later, I was ambushed by the Chicago police. Below is the account contained in my records.
I. Charges
Sometime after midnight in the early morning of Friday, August 6, 1999, I, Ras Nathaniel Afrika Tafari (as I was known then) was ticketed for parking on city property, driving without insurance and failure to produce a drivers’s license. I was also arrested and charged with 839 grams of cannabis sativa, a violation of Illinois Criminal Statue 720550/4 of the Cannabis Control Act.
According to Section 550/3(a) of the Act,
“Cannabis” includes marijuana, hashish and other substances which are identified as including any parts of the plant Cannabis Sativa, whether growing or not; the seeds thereof, the resin extracted from any part of such preparation of such plant, its seeds, or resin, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and all other cannabinol derivatives, including its naturally occurring or synthetically produced ingredients, whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction, or independently by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis; but shall not include the mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination.
Section 550/4(e) states that
“more than 500 grams but not more than 2,000 grams of any substance containing cannabis is guilty of a Class 3 felony.”
At the trial, when I was called to the stand to testify, my hand on the Bible, I was asked, “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” I replied,
“Only if you swear to judge this case in accordance with what it says in this Bible I am swearing on.”
At that moment, it was as if lightning struck and the record had skipped. This was not normal, and my answer threw a monkey wrench into their proceedings. The judge promptly cleared the court and went into his chambers.
While they court tried to figure out what to do, I was ready. I had prepared my opening statements ahead of time:
My Defense
This is no longer about me. What do I care if I win or lose this case? Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, you will see that the future of my generation, especially those we with black faces like me, is nothing.
We are already imprisoned on death row, “some in maximum, the rest in minimum,” as Mumia Abu-Jamal states. The fullness and freedom of life have already been sucked out of most of us. We have no future as long as our hope rests on the policies of the U.S. which have made us last in every major index of health and quality of life, and first in every misfortune. We have no future as long as our hope rests on the pipe dreams of the NBA, the Ivy-League, or Hollywood. We have no future as long as any success means the loss of soul and self-government. What shall it profit a man to gain the riches of the world only so that he must spend it on air filters so one’s children don’t choke on the exhaust of the industrial devilution?; What shall it profit a man to gain the riches of the world only so that he must spend it on air filters, water purifiers, medicine and a first-class space shuttle ticket off this dying Earth? What hope is there that if I succeed, I must spend it all on Security to ward off and beat down my neighbors and the world’s millions upon whose backs were built everything the Elite Few now enjoy? No! what future is there when there is no land to escape to which has not been stained by the blood of so many innocent people? Visit Africa and see a continent full of artificially and technologically mutilated leper colonies. Yeah, in Zaire, Sudan, the Congo are armless and legless humans. Their soccer leagues now have a crippled-only division.
No, this is no longer about me. You can do nothing to me. Imprisonment, death – we are already living that reality, despite the efforts of some to escape it and act as though things are getting better. The only freedom they offer is the freedom to become a freak, a predator, or the living dead.
This case is now my attempt to SAVE THE WORLD. To shout loudly, speak eloquently, present thoroughly my last God-inspired appeal for TRUTH, RIGHT and JUSTICE.
So how does a good, bright, gifted Black kid with a million-dollar education like me end up here? Having been tricked through a process of constructive fraud by Yale University, I was coerced to re-examine my entire life and values. This in turn provoked a leap of faith and by the Grace of God, Almighty JAH RASTAFARI, I landed on the other side of overstanding, on the new heaven and Earth where God’s Supreme Spirit and Wisdom is inscribed in my heart and where righteous self-government rules. It should not surprise you, then, that the dimensions of this struggle are principally spiritual. To best understand this case, ask yourself this question: does the State know better how to live your life than you do? Or better yet, does the state have the authority to take away my God-given rights and gifts? As I perceive it, this case is really about my decision to accept Jah Rastafari as my King and Lord, just like Christians accept Christ. It is my internationally protected human right to do so.
His Majesty implores us to read the Bible with sincerity, with a clean conscious, and the TRUTH, which is the word of God, shall be opened and revealed. In doing so, I found that God gave us every green herb bearing seed of its kind for food and medicine. Cast in this light, the State is attempting to deny me that which God expressly gave each of us – green herb bearing seed of its kind.
Thus, the State is trying to kill me through starvation, deprivation of medicine, and forcing me to abandon my religious faith.
This is consistent with all kinds of cruel U.S. policy since the murder, genocide, and ethnocide of the Native peoples of this land and the Africans they enslaved and brought here, as well as people of foreign lands who are the fodder for finance monopoly capitalism.
President Clinton has asked us to have a national dialogue on race. Well, everyone knows that the U.S. starves people and enforces blockades and embargoes, including medical ones, all over the world, so it should not surprise you that it is happening right here in America. Though its primary targets are racial minorities, paraplegics like Jim Montgomery, grandmothers, kids – no one is spared, least of all the least of this society – poor, non-white (Black) youth who have, since the time of slavery, always been the human fodder to feed this system. Our bodies were forced to build America, clean America, and entertain America.
Today, we are forced to die slowly for America. Once a person internalizes this and then learns the TRUTH about cannabis, is it any wonder that we are here today? Given the choice to die slowly or live fully, contributing to saving the planet by growing cannabis, any right thinking, reborn, emancipated slave would choose freedom and cannabis every time. Only the ignorant, the timid, and the sellout would do otherwise!
My name, like my father’s and grandfather’s is NATHANIEL which means gift from God. I am the firstborn son in the month of April, the first month according to the Zodiac. I am also among the group of people in the last 70 years to receive the Revelation of His Majesty. Like Christ and the Buddha, I have walked this Earth with nothing. My dreadlocks are consecrated to freedom and are a visible sign of a special relationship with God in the same tradition as the biblical Nazarites.
Having beheld Haile Selassie I, the power and might of the Trinity, I have lived under the Overwhelming grace of the Most High. This trial, then, represents the States persecution of the first and last fruit of God’s chosen people. The State is thus in advance doomed to failure because one man with God is more powerful than any army on Earth.
Ladies and Gentleman of the jury, I am not on trial, YOU ARE. You are being tested to see if you can overcome intimidation, overcome propaganda, and overcome the ignorance and fear which has been ingrained in you without your permission. You are being tested to see whether or not you can still recognize RIGHT, and courageously stand up for real JUSTICE by dismissing an unjust law and unjust persecution. You are being tested to decide whether or not ILLEGAL means WRONG. You must decide what is RIGHT. I remind all of you that slavery was once legal, but we all know that that did not make it RIGHT!
The decision you make can either radically break with the death dealing status quo of the system or acquiesce to the system. You must choose Revolution in this very courtroom. If you don’t your kid, or your mother or your grandmother will be next. Even you.”
In 2002, Ras Mortimo Planno’s student Ras Xylon held an educational competition. The first person to answer all 100 quiz questions on the history of Pan Africanism and Rastafari would win a plane ticket to Ethiopia. I won the competition and in December of 2002, I flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where I lived for nearly a year. During that time, I visited Lalibela, and by virtue of my dreadlocks covenant, I was allowed to play the timbrel with the Orthodox Priests inside the famous rock-hewn Church!!!!
As I was a journalist for the Rastafari Speaks newspaper, Ras Xylon took me to the Ministry of Information where I received my press credentials. The Rastafari community living on the Shashemane land granted to the Black people of the West by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie after the war then appointed me its representative to the 1st Extra-Ordinary Summit of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa - the only Afrodescendant in the meeting - starting my career as a Pan African and Afrodescendant diplomat negotiating the Right of Return of 250 million African people living outside of the African continent.
By the end of 2006, I became frustrated and disillusioned with the Rastafari Movemenat’s failure to organize and centralize for the Ethiopian Millennium Repatration Census that was supposed to see an emergency airlift of 10,000 Rastas to Ethiopia to start the Millennium according to the Ethiopian Calendar. Like Ras Mortimo Planno and other brethren, I was concerned about what they called 'lackstafari'. These were delinquent youth who grew locks, identified with the movement, but engaged in petty crime or just spent most of their time smoking ganja and listening to reggae music, neither of which was part of the original Ras Tafarites and the Star Order of Ethiopia. More orthodox brethren argued that they lacked any understanding of the spiritual aspects of the movement. Rastafari had become a kind of relgion, and the deeper I got into the spirtual aspects of it and, more importantly, the words of HIM Haile Selassie I on the Task of African Development: Planning, Implementation and Personal Sacrifice Required, the more I realized that I did not need dreadlocks or ganja to do the work of His Imperial Majesty. In 2007, while organizing the Global Unity Conference in Azania, I was given the name Siphiwe Baleka by a council of Elders. When I returned to the United States that year, I cut my dreadlocks, stopped smoking ganja, and legally changed my name from Ras Nathaniel to Siphiwe Baleka. At that point, a new mentor entered my life that taught me the esoteric Paut Neteru which I then formulated into the Grand Equation which is a map of my understanding of Spirituality today.
I used this understanding on how to re-program the subconscious when I developed my Fitness Trucking program from 2009 to 2016. It eventually became the #1 weightloss program in America.
On September 28, 2010 I received the African Ancestry dna test results showing that my maternal ancestry was Yoruba from Nigeria (which explained her Catholicism) and my paternal ancestry was Balanta from Guinea Bissau (which explained my father’s lack of religion) and his spiritual character.
By 2014, HIH Prince Ermias Sahle Selassie, President of the Imperial Ethiopian Crown Council and Grandson of Emperor Haile Selassie I, said the following during the Coronation Day Message to the Rastafari Community at Fairfield House
"Rastafarians are the mystics of our modern time, they have become the connection between man and God."
And in November 28, 2024, Dr. Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate (a Grand-Nephew of Emperor Haile Selassie I) addressing the 70th Anniversary of Emperor Haile Selassie I visit to Austria at the University of Vienna stated,
"As the protector of the Orthodox Church of Ethiopia, the Emperor cannot say that He is a God. Because this would be the greatest sin as an Ethiopian-Orthodox man that you could commit. But if you, our Rasta Brothers and Sisters, feel that He is, this is your right! But we must protect Him from being, you know, accused of being an Anti-Christ because He started believing in Himself as the Child of God, or as the Messenger of God."
Dr. Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate
“We are not reasoning about who is Moslem, or who is Rasta, who is this tribe or who is that tribe. We are speaking of all black people. One African Liberation. One African people. One African Nationality. That is what we are all about. And our Christianity, and our division, reign, divinity that we speak about, is higher than religion, greater than Christianity. This western world don't know of I n I divinity. It's just now that they are having a little taste of it. But I n I was from the foundation of the world, according to Proverbs, chapter eight."
- Ancient Bongo Time interviewed by 11-90-AM-WIB Radio Station, New York.
HAILE SELASSIE I ON RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY
Haile Selassie I said a lot of things about religion, spirituality, Jesus, Christianity and more (see quotes below). However, for me, the most important thing he said was:
"We respect everyone’s religion without partiality." (Silver Jubilee, 391)
"We do not consider Our religion alone valid and have granted the people the freedom to observe any religion they please." (Interview with Oriana Fallaci, Chicago Tribune, June 24 1973)
"Both Christians and Moslems in Eritrea, without any religious antagonism, have lived side by side in harmony with faith in the words We pronounced, assuring Our people: “The country is for all and religion for the individual,” and this has enhanced Our unity and strengthened Our Government through the spirit of brotherly love." (Selected Speeches, 347)
With those words, I was released from Christianity and its tyranny that unless I accept Jesus Christ as my savior, I will not be “saved” and will be excluded from “heaven” and will burn in an eternal “hell fire”. Such spiritual terrorism!!!!! Now, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of Judah has released everyone to worship god from their own Innerstanding which is valid.
"Now is the time when the sincere belief in man‘s kinship (the state or fact of being of kin; family relationship) to God must be the foundation for all of man‘s efforts for enlightenment and learning - the basis for all understanding, co-operation and peace." - HIM Haile Selassie I Ras Tafari, Selected Speeches, 23.
MAN AS TEMPLE:
"After our blameless Creator was sent to this world by His Father, then the hearts of all believers become The Temple of God." (Interview with Dr. Oswald Hoffman, The Lutheran Hour, December 25, 1968)
SPIRITUALITY:
"Spiritual power is the eternal guide, in this life and the life after, for man ranks supreme among all creatures. Led forward by spiritual power, man can reach the summit destined for him by the Great Creator." (Selected Speeches, 631f)
"Having passed the academic test posed by this College, you now move on to face the more arduous tests posed by life. And the only way to face these tests successfully is to be spiritually prepared for them." (Selected Speeches, 10)
"But times have changed and these spiritual qualities are no longer enough. Today, knowledge and training, as provided largely in the universities of the world, have become essential." (Selected Speeches, 21)
"Nor can we ignore the importance of the spiritual in this academic life. Learning and technical training must be nurtured by faith in God, reverence for the human soul, and respect for the reasoning mind." (Selected Speeches, 22)
"Education is a means of sharpening the mind of man both spiritually and intellectually. It is a two-edged sword that can be used either for the progress of mankind or for its destruction." (Important Utterances, 22)
“Spiritual leaders and laymen have also a sacred duty to coordinate their efforts to advance the cause of mankind.“ (Annual Nation-Wide Address to the Nation, November 3, 1971)
"It is important that spiritual advancement must keep pace with material advancement. When this comes to be realized man's journey toward higher and more lasting values will show more marked progress while the evil in him recedes into the background.
Knowing that material and spiritual progress are essential to man, we must ceaselessly work for the equal attainment of both. Only then shall we be able to acquire that absolute inner calm so necessary to our well-being.
It is only when a people strike an even balance between scientific progress and spiritual and moral advancement that it can be said to possess a wholly perfect and complete personality and not a lopsided one." (Selected Speeches, 663f)
"Our programmes undertaken in the economic field for augmenting the material welfare of Our subjects, has not made Us forget that, according to the words of the Bible, “man does not live by bread alone.” We believe that the spiritual and moral welfare of Our people is as important as their material well-being." (Selected Speeches, 75)
"There is no conflict between serving one’s country materially and serving God spiritually." (Silver Jubilee, 390)
"In the mystic traditions of the different religions we have a remarkable unity of the spirit. Whatever religions they may profess they are spiritual kinsmen. While the different religions in their historic forms bind us to limited groups and militate against the development of loyalty to the world community, the mystics have always stood for the fellowship of humanity." (Quoting Radhakrishnan; Selected Speeches, 132)
"We refer, in addition, to the spiritual conditions in which man lives, for just as a man without means to feed his hunger and to clothe his nakedness can take no pride in his existence as a human being, so, also is one who is reviled and discriminated against because of his race or religion, robbed of his self- respect and human dignity." (Selected Speeches, 178)
"Any monument to be left for Our people, to be permanent, must be erected upon spiritual foundations." (Selected Speeches, 3)
"The strength of the Christian tradition has been of vital significance in Our national history, and as a force for the unification of the Empire of Ethiopia. It is this force which gives us, among the other countries of the Middle East, a profound orientation towards the West. We read the same bible. We speak a common spiritual language." (Selected Speeches, 115)
"We know that man’s physical needs and his intellectual and spiritual strivings can only be satisfied through the medium of education." (Selected Speeches, 363)
"Whenever conflict arises between material and spiritual values the conscience plays an important role." (Selected Speeches, 418)
"Countries where the people and the entire country having lost unity, spiritual or otherwise, have become playgrounds and laughing stocks of outsiders." (Selected Speeches, 426)
"Man, during his lifetime, is usually absorbed with the problems of his existence, in which both the material and spiritual phases complement each other." (Selected Speeches, 546)
"The benefits of modern science and technology shall be lavished upon Our people without any loss of the underlying moral and spiritual values which have contributed so much to our history." (Selected Speeches, 582)
"Since the time when, by God's goodness, We were chosen to ascend the Throne of Ethiopia and while We have been leading Our people to progress in learning and knowledge, We have laboured in every way possible with an eye to their growth in spiritual and material learning and knowledge." (Selected Speeches, 616f)
"Help the destitute both economically and/or spiritually." (Selected Speeches, 621)
"The work of the welfare organization is not merely the distribution of money, but also the giving of personal warmth, of wholehearted service and spiritual encouragement." (Selected Speeches, 621)
"Strengthen the spiritual and cultural bonds between Our people and the peoples of the African continent and of the whole world." (Selected Speeches, 624)
"To meet together, to take council with one another, and to act in mutual co-operation, has proved a most fruitful method both in the secular and spiritual fields." (Selected Speeches, 640)
RELIGION:
"It is only when the human mind is guided by religion and morality that man can acquire the necessary vision to put all his ingenuous inventions and contrivances to really useful and beneficial purposes. The progress of science can be said to be harmful to religion only in so far as it is used for evil aims and not because it claims a priority over religion in its revelation to man." (Selected Speeches, 663)
"To make our wills obedient to good influences and to avoid evil, therefore, is to show the greatest wisdom. In order to follow this aim one must be guided by religion. Progress without religion is just like a life surrounded by unknown perils and can be compared to a body without a soul." (Selected Speeches, 663)
"Leadership developed here should be guided by the fundamental values and the moral power which have for centuries constituted the essence of our religious teachings." (Selected Speeches, 22)
"Religion has long taught to have no grudges against others." (Selected Speeches, 610)
"We emphasized the urgent need in the modern world for religious tolerance, in order that men of all faiths may live together in peace and harmony." (Selected Speeches, 103)
"We respect everyone’s religion without partiality." (Silver Jubilee, 391)
"We do not consider Our religion alone valid and have granted the people the freedom to observe any religion they please." (Interview with Oriana Fallaci, Chicago Tribune, June 24 1973)
"As we guarantee to each the right to worship as he chooses, so we denounce the policy which sets man against man on issues of religion." (Important Utterances, 108)
"Our peoples must temper and reduce the racial, political and religious differences among them; which must bring to them the peace required for the better world which you seek to create." (Selected Speeches, 108)
"With the raising of all men to their rightful dignity and honour as individuals, they will be able to regard their fellows, of whatever nation, of whatever race, of whatever religious, linguistic or historical tradition, as equals, without jealousy, without fear, without undue pride." (Selected Speeches, 128)
"Free the human race from superstition and fear that originate from ignorance; to enable him to transcend the apparent obstacles of race and religion; and to help him recognize the blood-ties of the whole human race." (Selected Speeches, 132f)
"Had Western religion and philosophy not been exposed to the philosophy and religion of the East, how much the poorer would human thought have been!" (Selected Speeches, 133)
"It is my ardent belief that all nations must live in peace and friendship with each other, religion or socio-political structure notwithstanding." (Selected Speeches, 162)
"Men are coming increasingly to be judged by their talents and abilities rather than by the less meaningful and far more superficial standards of race and religion." (Selected Speeches, 178)
"Unity can be and been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insuperable obstacle to the coming together of peoples." (Selected Speeches, 245)
"The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man: abjuration of force in the settlement of disputes between states; the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion; the safeguarding of international peace and security." (Selected Speeches, 368)
"There shall be no discrimination whatsoever amongst racial or religious groups." (Selected Speeches, 404)
"There shall be no interference with the exercise in accordance with the law of the rites of any religion or creed by residents of the Empire." (Selected Speeches, 406)
"We have time and again said with regard to the Moslem Community, that the integrity and religious right of everyone should be protected and respected. As laws are being enacted at all times, We have long ago permitted the drafting of laws suited to their religious practices. However, since religion and work go hand in hand, it should be understood that the laws should be practised in a method not detrimental to the unity of a nation." (Selected Speeches, 420)
"In spite of past and continuing attempts of certain alien enemies to create differences based on tribalism and religion, the Ethiopian people have waged a successful struggle against these forces of evil and thus preserved their national unity." (Selected Speeches, 430)
"Those who, in the light of all these historical ties and evidence of unity, are coming between Us on religious, ethnical and other grounds are doing so not for our benefit but for that of their own." (Selected Speeches, 465)
"Equal rights granted to foreigners and equally to all Ethiopians without any religious or racial discrimination is an outstanding example to prove the compatibility of the Ethiopian policy and administration. Would it be possible for foreign Muslims to migrate into Ethiopia in excessive number and live and assimilate here for three or four generations if the Government practised any religious discrimination against them?" (Selected Speeches, 467)
"Ethiopia, jealous of her freedom, has always had to struggle, both for the sake of her territorial integrity and for the preservation of her religious liberty." (Selected Speeches, 597)
"The catastrophe which was brought about by human hands during the past years can be avoided in the future by religion and hope in God which should be in the heart of the people." (Selected Speeches, 630)
"The Unity of the Church, as Your Holinesses well know it, is the will of God and ought to be an inspiring example to all men. It should always be a help and not a hindrance to the unity of men of different religions." (Selected Speeches, 635)
"We do not believe that the religious and social problems that you members of this conference are going to discuss are less significant than the political and economic problems confronting the governments of Africa." (Selected Speeches, 643)
"The love of God brings a sense of religiousness in a human being, it gives him comfort for the future and assurance that right cause will ultimately prevail." (Interview with Dr. Oswald Hoffman, December 25, 1968)
"God is not to be found in the sky above, or in the stars there or in the waters here. He is to be found in the deepest part of man‘s being. It is that man who is truly religious who is God-intoxicated, who is God-possessed, who has seen into the meaning of existence."
"The man who realizes God is one who sees the Divine in his inmost being."
- Indian Philosopher and former President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, „Living With A Purpose“, page 29.
"Religion is not something which is an aside or parenthesis. It is the deepest part of our being. In all our activities, if we live from the dimension of depth, we are religious. The Infinite or Supreme is the deepest part of our being. We must work not on the surface but from the ultimate depths. Life from depth is authentically a religious life. If you are able to give to your children that kind of outlook, they will not be carried away by the sophistications and the scepticism of the modern world. We will all become really, deeply, authentically, religious in our nature."
- Indian Philosopher and former President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, "Living With A Purpose", page 93f.
"To this generation, so tormented between modern knowledge and ancient faith, your scrupulous studies have pointed the way by which man may be saved from traditional superstition and modern scepticism."
- HIM Haile Selassie I Ras Tafari addressing Indian Philosopher and former President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Selected Speeches 132f.
It is only this understanding from above which allows me to simultaneously pursue the Catholic Church for reparations for 570+ years of war damage to African people and accept marrying a Balanta woman who is Catholic.
The Wisdom of Rastafari
PREFACE
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; we have a strong city; salvation will Jah appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord God Jah Rastafari for ever: for the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.
For he bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lost city, he layeth it low: he layeth it low; even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy. The way of the just is uprightness; thou most upright, dost weigh the path of the just. Yea, in the way of thy judgements, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is thy name, and to the rememberance of thee.
With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early; for when thy judgements are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
LET FAVOUR BE SHOWN TO THE WICKED, YET WILL HE NOT LEARN RIGHTEOUSNESS; IN THE LAND OF UPRIGHTNESS WILL HE DEAL UNJUSTLY, AND WILL IDIOT BEHOLD THE MAJESTY OF THE LORD GOD JAH RASTAFARI.
selah, When thy hand is lifted up, they will not see, but they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people, yea, the fire of thine enemies shall devour them.
Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
O Lord our God Jah Rastafari, other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. They are dead, they shall not live; they are deceased, they shall not rise; therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.
Thou hast increased the nation, O Lord, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast removed it far unto all the ends of the earth.
Jah, in trouble have they visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Like a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord.
WE HAVE BEEN WITH CHILD, WE HAVE BEEN IN PAIN, WE HAVE AS IT WERE BROUGHT FORTH WIND; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the World fallen.
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold the Lord, God Jah Rastafari, cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. ISAIAH 26
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Blessed is the name of the Lord God Jah Ras Tafari, and blessed is he who comes in the name of Jah, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I and let the name of His glory be blessed.
So be it, so be it, so be it blessed.
This is the product of the combined effort of the Ras Tafari Brethren whose undying faith is in the Almighty, Everliving God, Jah Ras Tafari. He has given us the wisdom and understanding of His words that we might publish and manifest them among men.
Special mention goes to: Bro. Bob Blake, Bro. Clive Brooks, Sis Yvonne Brooks, Sis. Shirley Burke.
signed - United Africa
CONTENTS
THE BIBLE
RELIGION
MORALITY
HUMAN RIGHTS
UNITY
GOVERNMENT
LEADERSHIP
EDUCATION
RESPONSIBILITY
PLANNING
WORK
SELF HELP
DEVELOPMENT
LAND POLICY
RESOURCES
AGRICULTURE
FINE ARTS
HEALTH
INTER AFRICA
ETHIOPIA'S POSITION
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
FATE
LIFE
DEATH
MISCELLANEOUS
His Imperial Majesty
HAILE SELASSIE I
Emperor of Ethiopia, says:
WE IN ETHIOPIA HAVE ONE OF THE OLDEST VERSIONS OF THE BIBLE, but
however old the version may be, in whatever language it might be written, the Word remains
one and the same. It transcends all boundaries of empires and all conceptions of race. It is
eternal.
No doubt you all remember reading in the Acts of the Apostles of how Philip baptised the
Ethiopian official. He is the first Ethiopian on record to have followed Christ, and from that
day onwards the Word of God has continued to grow in the hearts of Ethiopians. And I might
say for myself that from early childhood I was taught to appreciate the Bible and my love for it
increases with the passage of time. All through my troubles I have found it a cause of
infinite comfort.
"Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest" who can resist an invitation so full of compassion?
Because of this personal experience in the goodness of the Bible, I was resolved that all my
countrymen should also share its great blessing and that by reading the Bible they should find
truth for themselves. Therefore, I caused a new translation to be made from our ancient
language into the language which the old and the young understood and spoke.
Today man sees all his hopes and aspirations crumbling before him. He is perplexed and knows
not whither he is drifting. But he must realise that the Bible is his refuge, and the rallying
point for all humanity. In it man will find the solution of his present difficulties and
guidance for his future action, and unless he accepts with clear conscience the Bible and its
great Message, he cannot hope for salvation. For my part I glory in the Bible.
RELIGION
We are gratified in particular, to note that the work of this conference has been concerned
purely with religious, spiritual matters free from extraneous political considerations.
This is only fitting and proper, for the church, as a symbol of peace, must follow the path of
peace in all parts of the world. For world peace can only be made abiding by the grace of God,
through the prayers of the Holy Fathers. The truth of this cardinal fact is evident to all
mankind.
Therefore, it has become the noble responsibility of Christians, and peoples of other faiths
and their leaders throughout the world, to pray and to work hard for the preservation of world
peace.
We have always been religious, ever since childhood, ever since the day our father, Ras
Makonnen, taught us the commandment of Our Lord the Creator.
But we don't consider our religion alone valid and have granted the people the freedom to
observe any religion they please.
We believe in the reunification of the churches, which is why we were so happy to meet Pope
Paul VI during our voyage to Italy. We were greatly taken with him, we judged him a man of
superior capacity, especially as regards his intention to work towards church unity.
He received us with great friendliness.
MORALITY
ITS BETTER TO GIVE
Wise men have always known the deep and pervading truth that it is better to give than to
receive, for even as it conflicts with selfish and ambitious desires, it moderates and
controls them.
Giving always demands sacrifice. To overcome the temptation to enjoy mere daily comfort, to
press resolutely and patiently forward on the scheduled way, are true tests of the high degree
of determination that should bind you together. Memories of past injustices should not divert
us from the more pressing business at hand.
We must live in peace with our former colonizers, shunning recrimination and bitterness and
fore-swearing the luxury of vengeance and retaliation, lest the acid of hatred erode our souls
and poison our hearts.
Let us act as befits the dignity which we claim for ourselves as Africans, proud of our own
special qualities, distinctions, and abilities. We must speak out on major issues, courageously,
openly and honestly, and in blunt terms of right and wrong.
If we yield to blandishments or threats, if we compromise when no honourable compromise is
possible, our influence will be sadly diminished and our prestige woefully prejudiced and
weakened.
On this day which men of earth and angels of heaven could neither have foreseen nor known, I
give thanks unutterable by the mouth of man to the living God who has enabled me to be present
among you.
Today is the beginning of a new era in the history of Ethiopia.
Since this is so, do not reward evil for evil, do not commit any act of cruelty like those
which the enemy committed against us. Do not allow the enemy any occasion to foul the good
name of Ethiopia.
We shall take his weapons and make him return by the way he came.
We believe in cooperation and collaboration to promote the cause of international security,
the equality of man and the welfare of mankind.
We believe in the peaceful settlement of all disputes without resorting to force.
And in accordance with the charter of O.A.U. we will strive to eradicate colonialism, racism
and apartheid from the face of the earth, to frustrate the efforts being made by foreign powers
to dictate the destiny of the African continent, and we will continue to stand.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Colonialism and the policy of racism impose soul searching questions of human rights, weighing
equally on the conscience of all men and nations of good-will. History amply shows that the
freedom enjoyed by the many becomes fragile when the denial, even to the few, of basic human
rights is tolerated.
Our efforts as free men must be to establish new relationships, devoid of any resentment and
hostility, restored to our belief and faith in ourselves as individuals, dealing on a basis of
equality with other equally free people.
We believe in cooperation and collaborration to promote the cause of international security, the
equality of man and the welfare of mankind.
We believe in the peaceful settlement of all disputes without resorting to force.
All well ordered and modern states can only base themselves upon Courts of Justice and Conduct
of Laws which are just, correct and geared towards the protection of the rights of individuals.
Justice is a product of education.
Man's ingratitude to man is often manifested in willingness to relegate human beings to the
scrapheaps of life when they enter the twilight of their careers and younger brains and
stronger arms are found to replace them
UNITY
Ethiopia is a nation fully committed to African unity and to the greater guise of world peace
and shall continue to support and strengthen the O.A.U., which was established as an African
instrument for peace and progress.
O.A.U.
The Organization of African Unity, is an organization which the people of our vast continent
have established with a view to performing certain specific tasks.
Briefly speaking, the organization is established for the purpose of protecting in a better
fashion, the independence of African States.
It is also meant to expedite the economic and social progress through cooperation of African
peoples. It also has the important task of assisting in the maintenance of international peace
and security.
We know that unity can be and has been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that
difference of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insurmountable obstacles to
the coming together of peoples.
We stand today on the stage of world affairs, before the audience of world opinion. We have
come together to assert our role in the direction of world affairs and to discharge our duty
to the great continent whose two hundred and fifty million people we lead. Africa is today at
mid-course, in transition from the Africa of Yesterday to the Africa of Tomorrow. Even as we
stand here, we move from the past into the future The task on which we have embarked, the
making of Africa, will not wait we must act, to shape and mould the future and leave our
imprint on events as they pass into history.
We seek, at this meeting, to determine whither we are going and to chart the course of our
destiny. It is no less important that we know whence we came. An awareness of our past is
essential to the establishment our personality and our identity as Africans.
This world was not crested piecemeal. Africa was born no later and no earlier than any other
geographical area on this globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all
human attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults. Thousands of years ago,
civilizations flourished in Africa which suffer not at all by comparison with those of other
continents. In those centuries, Africans were politically free and economically independent.
Their social patterns were their own and their cultures truly indigenous.
The obscurity which enshrouds the centuries which elapsed beteeen those earliest days and the
rediscovery of Africa is being gradually dispersed. What is certain is that during those long
years Africans were born, lived and died. Men on other parts of this earth occupied themselves
with their own concerns and, in their conceit, proclaimed that the world began and ended at
their horizons. All unknown to them, Africa developed in its own pattern, growing in its own
life and, in the Nineteenth Century, finally re-emerged into the world's consciousness.
The events of the past hundred and fifty years require no extended recitation from us. The
period of colonialism into which we were plunged culminated with our continent fettered and
bound; with our once proud and free peoples reduced to humiliation and slavery; with Africans
terrain cross-hatched and checker - boarded by artificial and arbitrary boundaries Many of
us, during those bitter yearn were overwhelmed in battle, and those who escaped conquest did
so at the costs of desperate resistance and bloodshed. Others were sold into bondage as the
price extracted by the colonialists for the 'protection' which they extended and the
possessions of which they disposed. Africa was a physical resource to be exploited and Africans
were chattels to be purchased bodily or, at best, peoples to be reduced to vasselage and
lackeyhood. Africa was the market for the produce of other nations and the source of the raw
materials with which their factories were fed.
Today, Africa has emerged from this dark passage, Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been
reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men. The blood that was shed
and the sufferings that were endured are today Africa's advocates for freedom and unity. Those
men who refused to accept the judgement passed upon them by the colonisers, who held
unswervingly through the darkest hours to a vision of an African emancipated from political,
economic and spiritual domination, will be remembered and revered wherever Africans meet.
Many of them never set foot on this continent. Others were born and died here. What we may
utter today can add little to the heroic struggle of those who, by their example, have shown
us how precious are freedom and human dignity and of how little value is life without them.
Their deeds are witten in history.
Africa's victory, although proclaimed, is not yet total, and areas of resistance still remain.
Today, we name as our first great task the final liberating of those Africans still dominated
by foreign exploitation and control. With the goal in sight and uriqualified triumph within
our grasp, let us not now falter or lag or relax. We must make one final supreme effort now,
when the struggle grows weary, when so much has been lost, that the thrilling sense of
achievement has brought us near satiation. Our liberty is meaningless unless all Africans are
free. our brothers in the Rhodesias, in Mozambique, in Angola, in South Africa cry out in
anguish for our support and assistance. We must urge on their behalf their peaceful accession
to independence. We must align and identify ourselves with all aspects of their liberation and
not fail to back our words with action. To them we say, your pleas shall not go unheeded. The
resources of Africa and all freedom-loving nations are marshalled in your service. Be of good
heart, for your deliverance is at hand.
1.
One important lesson that we have learnt from the experience of the last ten years is that we
cannot leave the further progress of African unity to take its own direction at its own pace
without active guidance from us.
The volume of intra-African trade, which at present, accounts for less than ten percent of our
total foreign trade should be progressively increased, so that by the end of the decade trade
among African countries should occupy a significant place in the exports of each of our
countries.
2. African countries should establish progressive targets for reducing tariffs and other trade
barriers among themselves.
3. Our Ministers charged with the responsibility of economic planning should hold regular
consultations so as to harmonise our development policies and plans and to open up potential
avenues for the expansion of intra-African trade.
Through regular consultations, we should undertake to identify the need for and to establish
industries which may cater to our common needs.
This is important, because the scale on which modern industries can become viable today
necessitates that we should create in Africa wide economic bases to support a balanced
economic state.
GOVERNMENT
When a whole nation accepts and maintains a government in existence, it means that the nation
recognizes that government.
There is always something moving, brewing. There are ambitious people everywhere. Wicked
people.
The only thing to do is to deal with them with courage and decision.
One must beware of uncertainty, weakness or conflicting emotions - they lead to defeat.
It is our opinion that the world has not changed at all. We believe that such changes have
modified nothing. We don't even notice any difference between monarchies and republics: to us,
they appear two substantially similar methods of governing a nation.
Democracy, Republic:
What do these words signify?
What have they changed in the world?
Have men become better, more loyal, kinder?
Are the people happier?
All goes on as before, as always.
Illusions, illusions.
One should consider the interests of a nation before subverting it with words. Democracy is
necessary in some cases and we believe some African peoples might adopt it. But in other cases
it is a handful, a mistake.
We are all adherent, whatever our internal political systems, of the principles of democratic
action. Let us apply these to the unity we seek to create.
Force must be used against force.
We ourselves, by virtue of our descent from the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, ever since we
accepted in trust, in 1916, first the regency of the Ethiopian realm and later, the Imperial
Dignity, right up to the present, we have set out to the best of our ability, to improve,
gradually, internal administration by introducing into the country western modes of civilization
through which our people may attain a higher level.
In explanation of the notion 'gradually': unless it is through coaxing a child and getting it
accustomed, it will not be pleased if one takes from it what it has seized with its hand. When
one gives such a baby any sort of food, it will not wish to eat it, unless one shows it to the
child and lets it taste it. Unless they give it milk or other soft food until it grows teeth, it
will not be able to eat when they place bread or meat before them.
And similarly with people who have lived by custom only, without learning at school, without
absorbing knowledge by the ear or observing and searching with the eye, it is necessary to
accustom them, through educations to abandon habits by which they have for long been living,
to make them accept new ways. yet not by hasty or cruel methods but by patience and study.
gradually and over a prolonged period.
Only a system which tolerates dissent can survive
It gives us great pleasure to appear before this distinguished assemblage and we bring you the
fraternal salutations of the Ethiopian people.
The people of Ethiopia and Trinidad and Tobago are joined in a massive and continuous effort to
create for themselves a new and better way of life. They face many of the same problems.
The hopes and aspirations which they share derive from the same essential beliefs in the nature
and destiny of man. It is thus inevitably true that there should exist between those two great
peoples strong and lasting ties of friendship and understanding
Your role as the representatives of the people is a particularly critical one in the councils of
the twentieth century. The manner in which a representative of the people should properly
discharge his responsibilities has long been a matter for learned discussion among philosophers
and political scientists.
The world of the developing nations is creating new problems for the scholars to ponder as
new societies are emerging to deal with the intricate and explosive questions of national and
institutional development.
Is a representative responsible only to a constituency or to the particular group or interest
which has chosen or appointed him? Certainly this responsibility Must be an element in the
thought and action of such a man, but there are higher values and greater interests and
responsibilities than these.
Obstacles
Sectional, tribal and other divisive factors often pose major obstacles to national
development. In their expanded sense, as narrowly national and ideological interests, they
threaten unity and progress.
No one is today so foolish as to believe thay any one nation constitutes a perfect monolith
of faith and ideology. Nor could anyone wish that there should be such utter vanity of thought
and aspiration.
The systems of Government which have sought to impose uniformity of belief have survived
briefly and then expired, blinded and weakened by obsessive reliance upon their supposed
infallibility. The only system of Government which can survive is one which is prepared to
tolerate dissent and criticism and Which accepts these as useful and in any case, inevitable
aspects of all social and political relations.
The tolerance of dissent and criticism within a Government proceeds from a single essential
premise: that the Government exists to serve the people generally. Government servants, whether
designated as representatives or not, have a trust to work for the general welfare.
The same trust exists among the member states of international organizations. The members of
such organizations must adhere to some tacit or expressed conception of international welfare.
Common Goals
In the case of the Organization of African Unity, it is an African Unity, it is an African
welfare; in the case of the United Nations Organization, it is world welfare.
In one way or another, the member nation must accept in thought, spirit and action the basic
premise of their institutions that men of all races, beliefs and status share some essential
common goals.
From this premise, no great and easy actions follow as corollaries. The representatives of
peoples and nations can only come together with open and objective minds and willing hearts
to engage in dialogue, without rigid dogmas and slogans and without violence.
Working in this way achieves no instant Utopia. It may, however, enable us to achieve together
what it is possible to achieve and to move forward steadily, if not always in great haste, with
some degree of harmony and mutual understanding.
Domestically, we can build strong and happy and resourceful societies. internationally, we can
force the end of oppression of man by man and nation by nation. We can bring about the security
and mutual trust which will open the way to the greater human achievements for which the needs
of mankind now cry out.
(He concluded:)
Permit me to express my heartfelt gratitude for the reception accorded me by the people and
Government of Trinidad and Tobago.
LEADERSHIP
Leadership does not mean domination. The world is always well supplied with people who wish to
rule and dominate others.
The true leader is a different sort; he seeks effective activity which has a truly beneficient
purpose. He inspires others to follow in his wake, and holding aloft the torch of wisdom, leads
the way for society to realize its genuinely great aspirations.
The art of leadership is in the ability to make people want to work for you, while they are
really under no obligation to do so. Leaders are people, who raise the standards by which they
judge themselves and by which they are willing to be judged. The goal chosen, the objective
selected, the requirements imposed, are not mainly for their followers alone.
They develop with consumate energy and devotion, their own skill and knowledge in order to
reach the standard they themselves have set.
This whole-hearted acceptance of the demands imposed by even higher standards is the basis of
all human progress. A love of higher quality, we must remember, is essential in a leader.
The true leader is one who realizes by faith that he is an instrument in the hands of God, and
dedicates himself to be a guide and inspirer of the nobler sentiments and aspirations of the
people.
He who would be a leader must pay the price in self-discipline and moral restraints. This
details the correction and improvement of his personal character, the checking of passions and
desires and an exemplary control of one's bodily needs and desires.
To be first in place, one must be first in merit as well.
He who has not learned to render prompt and willing service to others will find it difficult
to win and keep the goodwill and cooperation of his subordinates.
A leader will kindle interest, teach, aid, correct and inspire. Those whom he leads will
cooperate with him in maintaining discipline for the good of the group. He will instruct his
followed in the goals towards which to strive, and create in them a sense of mutual effort
for attaining the goal.
EDUCATION
A strong nation and a free nation can only base itself upon education.
In order to make life worthwhile it is also necessary to acquire other things that can only
come about after the acquisition of learning. Learning and technical training must be nurtured
by faith in God, reverence for the human soul, and respect for the reasoning mind.
There is no safer anchorage for our learning, our lives and our actions than that provided by
divine teachings coupled with the best in human understanding. The leaders developed here
should
be guided by the fundamental values and the moral power which have for centuries constituted
the essence of our religious teachings.
These are crucial times when nations rise against nations, tensions increase and disaster is
possible at any moment. Distances are shrinking. Peace and life itself are threatened by
misunderstanding and conflict. Now is the time when man's relationship to God must be the
foundation for all his efforts toward enlightenment, and learning the basis for understanding
cooperation and peace.
The existence of a skilled and trained manpower is an absolute necessity for the progress and
development of any country. Therefore, it is the sacred duty and responsibility of students and
parents to see to it that the mistakes of the past are not repeated and that time which should
be devoted to the pursuit of learning is not wasted by students heedlessly, following the
instigation of a few misguided troublemakers who have yet to understand the value and the true
meaning of education.
The salvation of our country Ethiopia, we have repeatedly stated to you, lies primarily in
education. As Ethiopia is one, all Ethiopians are also one and education is the only way to
maintain the condition.
In all countries of the modern world, special competence is required to deal with the
advancement of agriculture, industry, commerce and the civil service. That competence, can be
secured only through the facilities provided in modern universities.
We believe that the universities today stand as the most promising hope for constructive
solutions to the problems that beset the modern world, problems which prevent the peaceful
cooperation of nations and which threaten the world and humanity with death and disaster.
From universities must come men, ideas, knowledge, experience, technical skills and the deep
human understanding vital to fruitful relations among nations. Without these, world order for
which we have so long strived, cannot be established.
A well informed public opinion is essential to the growth of political and social awareness.
Only he who is informed can comment intelligently on his nation's development and only by such
comments can errors be corrected and progress stimulated.
We must draw on what is valuable and meaningful in our history and tradition, merging this
with the best in modern learning.
We expect from you, to whom we have given the opportunity of education in your chosen field
great and productive service to our country.
If women develop in education, they can overcome the natural weakness and serve their country
as men do.
It is our wish to assure the spread of education among all African People as much as among our
own subjects.
A father should bequeath not only wealth but also provide proper education. Education has value
when it is established in individuals of good character with respect to God. We wish that your
destiny shall be embraced in an education firmly based in good character before men and respect
before God.
Any who may wish to profit himself alone from the knowledge given him, rather than serve
others through the knowledge he has gained from learning, is betraying knowledge and rendering
it worthless.
A man's happiness is to make his brother happy, and to serve his country. Thus it is possible
to justify for knowledge its high and deserved place. For knowledge is power. If it is not
applied to its proper purpose, to create, let there be no doubt, it will destroy.
If we have made so many sacrifices for the education of our youth, it is because we are
convinced that only through intellectual progress and education can Ethiopia come into its own
and make it's just contribution to the history of the Middle East.
We believe that from truth alone is born liberty and only an educated people can consider
itself as really free and master of its fate. It is only with an educated people that
representative and democratic organs of government can exercise their influence for national
progress.
RESPONSIBILITY
It is both the duty and responsibility of the world's fortunate few to help fulfil the
legitimate aspirations of the unfortunate many.
As man's faculty attains higher level of development and sophistication, so do his wants in
life.
As generations come and go, those assuming responsibility for the period do not cease to try
and improve on the past in order to meet newly arising demands. In this respect, it is quite
evident that to march with the time members of the coming generation should build on what their
forefathers have bequeathed to them.
It is because the present generation is cherishing and keeping intact what it has received
from the past that it has succeeded in attaining its present stage of development, by making
the necessary changes and improvements called for by conditions now existing. This would
require great foresight and the-work accomplished as far as regards to this task of great
responsibility is no small matter. It has been fulfilled as a result of God's blessing and His
Divine guidance.
It is both the responsibility of the governor as well as elders to create harmony among the
people in initiating them to discuss their common problems and work towards the problems and
the betterment of their standard of living.
It is the duty of teachers to direct the thought and outlook as well as mould the character of
their students. For this reason, the responsibility of teachers in training student-teachers
aimed at the future progress and development of our country and the proper upbringing of
students, could hardly be underestimated.
In the age in which we are living especially when different philosophies of life are competing
against another, the responsibility of teachers has been even more exacting. Those who will be
serving the people in future should follow this same path in endeavouring to develop their
country and maintain her freedom. This is one of the main responsibilities of teachers.
In this age when man, through his knowledge of science, has created dangerous weapons to
destroy himself the responsibility of the great powers for the maintenance of world peace is
well known to everyone. We believe that the exchange of visits by statesmen to talk over
matters on which their points of view will greatly help remove the misunderstandings and
mistrust prevailing among States.
PLANNING
Planning is the basis of the rational and sustained use of capital, manpower and time in the
acceleration of economic development.
The history of planning shows that no pioneer plans were ever executed even partially, much
less wholly.
Planning is indispensable for the rational utilization of both a nation's resources and
foreign aid or loans.
As a basis of, and working procedure for, a national socio-economic policy, a plan is a means
whereby a nation can be developed through the rational utilization of manpower and machinery for
the most important aspects of he country's needs.
The execution of any such plan needs, however, national participation. You must ensure that
in your desire to achieve immediate goals, long term considerations of equal or greater
importance are not ignored or irrevocably prejudiced. Plan your time and use both your
physical and mental powers purposefully and productively. Military planning for the security
of this continent must be undertaken in common within a collective framework.
WORK
Every labourer is a father, his labour is his child. Choose your project carefully and achieve
it worthily.
Once a person has decided upon his life work and is assured that in doing the work for which
he is best endowed and equipped, he is filling a vital need, what he then needs, is faith and
integrity, compiled with courageous spirit so that no longer preferring himself to the
fulfilment of his task, he may address himself to the problems he must solve in order to be
effective.
Rich and poor have always existed and always will.
Why? Because there are those that work and those that don't, those that wish to earn their
living and those that prefer to do nothing.
Those that work, that want to work, are not poor. For it is true that Our Lord the Creator
sends us into the world as equals, but it is also true that when one is born one is neither
rich nor poor. One is naked.
It is later on that one becomes rich or poor, according to one's desserts.
Yes, we too are aware that giving alms serves no useful purpose. For there is only one means
to solve the poverty problem. work.
We have said that whoever doesn't work because he doesn't want to is poor. We have said that
wealth has to be gained through hard work. We have said those who don't work starve. And now
we add that the capacity to earn depends on the individual: Each individual is responsible for
his misfortunes, his fate. It is wrong to expect help to fall from above, as a gift: Wealth has
to be deserved. Work is one of the commandment of Our Lord the Creator!
If each and everyone endeavours to cooperate and work in as much as his capacity permits, our
faith rests upon the Almighty God that he would bless the results for us.
It is not sufficient simply to see and admire the natural beauty and fertility of Ethiopia.
It is our obligation to work upon and benefit from this country whose fertile soil has been
granted us by the Almighty God. We have to gain honour and pride for the country.
Whatever the task may be, man may begin it but he cannot complete it, unless God sustains
and supports him. If he fails to accomplish the task on which he has set out, having worked to
the best of his ability, he is not to be maligned by being called lazy.
SELF HELP
The people themselves must come to realize their own difficulties in the development of their
community and try to solve them by collective participation following an order of priority and
taking their potentiality into account.
It is well known to you all that recognizing one's problems and striving hard to challenge
them is a mark of an attempt at self-sufficiency. Self help in the benefits to be acquired
through education, will save the individual from asking someone's assistance.
DEVELOPMENT
Although the beginnings of civilization of each country vary in time, the fundamental factors
which gave impetus to each country to awaken and embark on the road to progress to reach their
present level of development, are those qualities which are enshrined in the nature of man,
namely desire and fortitude.
The partner who places his own short-range ambitions ahead of the long-range interests of the
partnership has embarked on a course which will ultimately result in the dissolution of the
partnership itself.
It is by the understanding of past difficulties that we can bequeath fundamental guidance
which would be of pride to the coming generations we therefore urge our people to struggle and
to make sacrifices for those things which will enable them to ameliorate their conditions of
life and leave a richer heritage.
Economic Development
Where enterprise and initiative are not lacking, the pace at which the growth of a country's
economy normally proceeds can be quickened or slackened by global developments far or near. In
our effort to raise the living Standard of our beloved people, in our endeavour to bring
prosperity to our country, the feeling of cooperation and understanding has always characterized
our people.
A special case is the recent development in certain provinces where the people are seen
voluntarily raising funds to build schools, clinics, roads and similar other projects.
What can give one more pleasure than to see such a measure of self-help in one's life time,
for the prosperity and progress of his own country? Let every citizen of our empire strive
hard to strengthen this espirit de corps everywhere.
We entrust the spirit of good-will to our people to work diligently and cooperatively in order
to arrive at the realization of this socioeconomic development that has been launched by either
our government or our people. You have a rich land that yields a variety of products, do not
be contented with the satisfaction of your bare needs but instead, cultivate your land among
others with oleogenous plants, the seeds of which you can export for your greater benefit. Use
the forest woods to make furniture and implements and exchange them for money. Your
workmanship will be a monument to your name.
One should realize that thriftiness is the basis for the accumulation of wealth and the
economic growth of a nation. One seldom minimizes the value of money earned by the sweat of
the brow however small it may be, but for the extravagant even a huge amount of money is
worthless.
The co-operative movement has long been known throughout the world, and we Ourself have on
numerous occasions urged Our people to join increasingly in cooperative enterprises.
Co-operatives must, ultimately, play a highly important role in the growth of our economy, and
no time can be lost in availing ourselves of the benefits to be derived from therm During the
past year, we decided upon a programme designed to provide specific encouragement to the
creation of agricultural co-operatives, and a number of Government-sponsored co-operatives,
farms have been established by Our Ministry of National Community Development. We have
provided lands, agricultural machinery and expert assistance to these farms and we entertain
high hopes that their success will spur Our people to embark increasingly upon co-operative
endeavours. Should Our people fail to avail themselves of this opportunity, the consequences
will be regrettable indeed.
Community Development
The fundamental purpose of a community development movement is to teach the rural people of
Our Empire that through cooperative self-help and a united approach to common problems, the
vast potential for their own self-improvement which they themselves represent, can be
translated into effective programmes which can do much to
improve their standard of living.
Social Development
Lasting progress can only be built on deep and enduring foundations. When a solid foundation
is laid, if the mason is able and his materials good, a strong house can be built.
To develop oneself, one has to develop one's own initiative and perseverance - a man has to
strive in order to grow. Let us work out our own programmes in all fields - political, economic,
social and military. Man's contributions which live to influence the life and progress of
posterity, are the most permanent monuments that can ever be created. We must become
increasingly willing to analyze our efforts, to experiment, to admit our failures as we take
pride in our successes.
LAND POLICY
For those of you who possess the land and labour but lack capital, we have made credit
available at low interest. For those of you who have the necessary finance but do not possess
land to work on, we have, in accordance with our 'Proclamation' which entitles every Ethiopian
to ownership of land, established offices in every province through which you may be able to
acquire land. Those who have neither land nor money will be granted land and financial loans
at low interest. For those of you who possess land, who have financial resources and manpower,
we have made experts available to furnish you with the necessary guidance and advice in your
various undertakings.
Land Reform
The essence of land reform is, while fully respecting the principle of private ownership, the
landless people must have the opportunity to possess their own land, that the position of
tenant farmers must be improved, and that the system of taxation applying to land holdings
must be the same for all.
It is our aim that every Ethiopian own his own land, in implementation of this principle. We
have ourselves set the example by ordering that certain lands in Arussi Province heretofore
administered by our Ministry of the Imperial Court be distributed to the tenants working on
them, against payment by each man only of the nominal fees charged for the transfer and the
registration of this property in his own name.
This has been the basic objective of virtually every modern programme of land reform; this
is the ultimate goal of the study now being undertaken by the Committee of Land Reform.
RESOURCES
The ultimate resource of a nation is its people.
Unless this resource is employed for the benefit of the nation, unless the latent good which
it represents is exploited to the maximum for the common good the nation will languish, poor
in spirit, lacking in achievernent.
But no people can make their full contribution to the life of the nation to which they ovve
allegiance unless they possess and enjoy those few fundamental prerequisites indispensable
to rendering their participation in the affairs of their country both possible and
significant.
The growth of a people is complex and inter-related. Man must be educated; he cannot come to
grips with or cope with or understand the modern world unless he has been taught about it. He
must be assured of a minimum economic security; concern himself with matters going beyond
the day-to-day satisfaction of his physical needs. unless he is fed and clothed and sheltered,
nor can he acquire a sufficient degree of social consciousness to be able to support his
own personal interests to the good of the nation and the development of its society.
Freedom, liberty, the rights of manùthese mean little to the ignorant, the hungry, the
ill-clothed, the badly housed.
It is our desire to see a much larger number of our young people benefitting from the
resources we have our own and have received as aid from abroad, and our young people
graduating in the fields of technology and industrial relation.
It is essential that, however great the sacrifice needed to curb economic stagnation may
be, available resources be as judiciously used as possible on a carefully selected list of
priorities.
AGRICULTURE
Since Ethiopia's economy is predominantly agricultural, agriculture must play a large role
in the plans which have been drawn up, at our command, for our empire's development.
It is the duty of all to apply the skill of their minds to the factories, the trading centres
and the roads and communications which are also evidence of Ethiopia's prosperity, of
Ethiopia's strength.
During the past year (1958) the abrupt cessation of rainfall during the growing season
caused considerable damage to Ethiopia's crops. This experience has demonstrated that
the rivers of our country should be devoted to irrigation, so that the food needs of our ever
growing population will no longer be left at the mercy of the whims and caprices of the
elements.
The fruits of the farmer's labour must be enjoyed by him whose toil has produced the crop.
The uses of trees are many and varied. Groves of trees protect our fields and plantations
from being desiccated by the desert winds which blow from neighbouring regions During the
summer months, they provide moisture and shade. If trees are not presently planted to replace
those being cut down from time to time, our constant efforts to conserve and develop the
wealth of our country through the welfare of present and future generations will be rendered
ineffective and futile.
We are greatly grieved to observe the many thousands of gashas of rich forest land being
destroyed every year by reckless timber-cutting, thoughtless forest burning, unregulated
forest grazing and other misuses of our forest wealth, due to popular ignorance and desire
for temporary advantage on the part of our people.
The existence or non-existence of forest wealth in a country is one of the most important
factors influencing its development and progress. The increasing pace of deforestation and
the growing dearth of timber in Ethiopia, caused by unregulated tree-cutting and the failure
to replace these by new plantings, give us occasion for anxiety that a severe economic
problem will confront the coming generation. It is essential that steps be taken here and
now to stop this wastage and check this destruction.
In these days when all nations of the world, in recognition of the tremendous importance of
forest wealth, have launched intensive progranmes for forest conservation and re-forestation,
it behoves our county also to take the appropriate measures to solve this problem.
It is our wish and our desire that each and every citizen of our country follow the example
we set on this Arbour Day in planting this tree, and himself plant as many trees as he can,
for his own benefit as well as for the benefit of future generations.
Without agricultural expansion, industrial growth is impossible. Great strides, it is true,
have been made in introducing industries into Ethiopia in recent years. But in any
less-developed agrarian country possessing only limited possibilities for selling the
products of its factories in world export markets, industry can grow only if there exists
an increasingly prosperous rural consumer population. Industrialisation is not an alternative
to the development of agriculture; rather, the development of agriculture is the essential
pre-condition to the growth of industry.
Measures will shortly be proposed to Parliament for action to be taken to preserve, for
the benefit of present and future generations, the nation's forests which are not only
valuable in themselves as a source of wood, but act as nature's guardian against the forces
of erosion, which, unchecked, can transform fertile areas into barren and sterile desert.
FINE ARTS
A purely materialistic art would be like a tree which is expected to bear fruit without
flowering and to sacrifice grace and beauty for mere utility.
Our admiration for the creator's handiwork should not be limited to those things he has
provided us with for our daily needs, but should include all that is good and beautiful.
It is these tender feelings of deep and silent admiration evoked from our hearts by the
beauties of creation that should find adequate expression in the fine arts.
Music, drama and the other arts are rooted in the ancient history of our empire, and their
development to an even higher peak of perfection will be possible in the atmosphere of a
university. Ethiopia possesses an ancient literature and its study can be fostered here so
thag the Ethiopian youth inspired by this national example, may raise it to yet higher levels
of excellence.
The study of the heroic history of our empire will stimulate the imagination of building
authors and teachers.
HEALTH
There is nothing as precious to man as a sound mind in a sound body and it is essential that
the physical well being of our people merits as much attention as its spiritual welfare.
INTER AFRICA
There is absolutely no doubt that Africans will eventually obtain their freedom and
independence in spite of their present difficulties.
The people of African origin have emigrated to all parts of the world, but wherever they may
be, they have similar historical experience and the problems that await them depend on
sympathy and this can be used by all of us as the basis for the establishment of greater
cooperation, which will be for our mutual benefit.
Haile Selassie to Parliament in Jamaica:
The people of Jamaica, by and large, have originated in Africa. This gives us another basis
upon which we can contract a healthy relation because of the fundamental similarity between
us, that will in the long run contribute to a better maintenance of international peace and
security.
The Organization of African Unity is an organization which the people of our vast continent
have established with a view of performing certain specific tasks. Briefly speaking, the
organization is established for the purpose of protecting in a better fashion, the independence
of African States.
It is also meant to expedite the economic and social progress through cooperation of African
peoples. It also has the important task of assisting in the maintenance of initernational peace
and security. And in accordance with the Charter of O.A.U., we eradicate colonialism and
apartheid.
ETHIOPIA'S WORLD POSITION
Because of her unity and independence, Ethiopia had and still has jealous enemies and
aggressive dissidents.
It is therefore the primary duty of every Ethiopian to safeguard the unity and freedom that
has been fortified since time immemorial by the courage and bravery of our forefathers.
We have to maintain its integrity, to work and benefit from its existence.
Ethiopia is a nation fully committed to African unity and to the greater cause of world peace
and subsequently shall continue to support and strengthen the O.A.U., which was established
as an African instrument for peace and progress.
Ethiopia is, by her own choice, a nonaligned state. Our Policies on the vexatious
international issues of the day have been declared to all, and our adherence to them is
steadfast: the urgent imperative of universal disarmament, the settlement of disputes by
peaceful negotiation, the supremacy of reason and logic over force and irrationality.
We insist that the way to peace among men and nations rests in the even-handed application
and enforcement of the principles of the United Nations and Organization of African Unity:
non-interference in the internal affairs of others, self determination for the remaining
dependent peopies of the world, respect for the territorial integrity of independent states
In the conduct of the international affairs of our nation, we have placed high value upon
personal contacts between peoples and leaders of nations.
Ethiopia is a peace-loving nation. Except for those times when it had to rise up in arms to
fight-off aggression or to advance the cause of collective security; there is not one instance
in history of Ethiopia provoking a conflict by violating territorial integrity or by
interfering in the internal affairs of others, and there will never be any such instance.
However, Ethiopia will never be found wanting in its efforts to strengthen its defence force,
sustained as it is by the traditional valor of its gallant people, to thwart the designs of
those who are bent on violating the freedom and unity of its people and its territorial
integrity.
INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
In matters of foreign policy we have been ever guided by three basic principles.
First is our deep conviction that, where there is no lack of goodwill, all international
disputes can be resolved through negotiations, without recourse to violence. An inevitable
corollary of this belief is our firm conviction that all nations, whatever their political
persuasions, can live together in peace.
Second is our unswerving devotion to the principle of collective security.
Third, flowing from the principle of collective security, is the necessity, in these anxious
days when the major powers are engaged in a frantic arms race, for all countries which have
accepted this principle and assumed a share of the responsibility for ensuring the peace of
the world, to become ever stronger militarily.
As we have stated time and time again, we are firmly persuaded that the path to guaranteeing
the peace of the world lies in supporting the principle of collective security ard the United
Nations Charter, combined with a progressive reduction of the armaments which are being built
up throughout the world. The billions of dollars which are now wasted on this fruitless effort
could with great benefit, be diverted into the constructive channels of aid for the economic
growth of under-developed countries.
Personal Diplomacy
International friendship can be strenthened and deepened by the personal exchange of ideas
between leaders of nations.
What the economically backward countries are looking forward to, however is the application
of the money now dumped on destructive armament to the solution of economic problems.
The Need for Concerted Action
What is called for at this critical time is for the international community to move from mere
rejection and condemnation to taking action. The international community has many options,
but what has been lacking so far is political will.
The world is only now coming to realize what Ethiopia and Africa have long recognized, that
peace, independence and prosperity of mankind can be achieved and assured only by the
collective and united efforts of free men who are prepared to maintain eternal vigilance and
abour unceasingly to protect these most precious of God's gifts.
FATE
Whatever the task may be, man may begin it but he cannot complete it, unless God sustains and
supports him. If he fails to accomplish the task on which he has set out, having worked to the
best of his ability, he is not to be maligned by being called lazy.
Man may, at the onset, control the direction which events take, but once his choice is made,
events soon escape his control and history proceeds by its own force and momentum.
LIFE
What life has taught me on the question of racial discrimination, I like to share with those
who want to learn.
That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and
permanently discredited and abandoned.
That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation;
That until the colour of a man's skin is no more significance than the colour of his eyes:
That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race;
That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of
international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion to be pursued but never attained;
And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique
and in South Africa in sub-human bondage have been toppled and destroyed;
Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self interest have been replaced by
understanding and tolerance and goodwill;
Until all Africans stand and speak as free beings, equal in the eyes of the Almighty;
Until that day, the African continent will not know peace. We Africans will fight, if
necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over
evil.
It will be self deceiving and a waste of time to advocate dialogue with those who are not
ready to listen, because it is obvious that the freedom of millions is not a commodity subject
to bargaining.
It is a fact that young people have always been impatient. This intemational movement is
therefore not surprising. Such move ments sometimes bring useful ideas into the open, but
very often these ideas turn out to be harmful and contrary to ordinary progress.
This impatience and agitation result in larue part from a rnisunderstanding of realities. We
are convinced that young people must learn to use their heads rather than their fists. They
should be heard, but also guided for the common good.
Young people will be young people. You cannot change the uncouth manners of the youth.
Besides there is nothing new in that: there is never anything new under the sun. They can't
know it because they lack experience, they lack wisdom. Examine the past: you'll see that
the disobedience of the young has occurred all through history. The young don't know what
they want.
Life is like the theatre - One mustn't try to understand it all at once and immediately. It is
no longer amusing.
There are good men and wicked. The former should be made use of and the latter punished,
without attempting to understand why the ones are good and the others wicked. We demand
too much of men to be able to respect them ...
That which man dreams of and to Which he aspires, unless fulfilled in his own lifetime, can
produce no actual satisfaction to him. It will be self deceiving and a waste of time to
advocate dialogue with those who are not ready to listen, because it is obvious that the
freedom of millions is not a commodity subject to bargaining. It is better to die free than
to live as slaves.
DEATH
Now, however, it has become your fate to obey the order of the great and merciful Lord, a
lot that befalls each and everyone of us in our turn.
As it were, after you had accomplished what was within your bounds, you have slept, but
although you depart from us physically, yow works and your name will always remain among
us.
On the death of Prince Makonnen:
Mortality is man's inevitable course. We must patiently accept God's resolution in giving us
Makonnen, the one whom he gave us to be the ornament of our life, and recalling him.
Death changes everything, sweeps everything away. Even mistakes.
MISCELLANEOUS
Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of
those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most,
that has made it possible for evil to triumph.
The glorious pages of human history have been written only in those moments when men have
been able to act in concert to prevent impending tragedies. By the actions you take you can
also illuminate the pages of history.
When you make man rich in the honours of this world and appoint him above other creatures,
that it be known that It is not for his merit but only through your benevolence and generosity,
Since no creature created in Your image and to Your pattern gives up hope that everything he
begs of You will be done for him until the day You sever his soul from his body, we beseech
You that Ethiopia should not remain with her freedom extinct and prostrate under an alien
ruler, so that the mouth of her people be silenced for fear of a foreign governor, but rather,
that You will save them by Your deeds of kindness lest they remain with their hearts
oppressed through being deprived of their own Ethiopian ruler who was leading them towards
civilization under a light yoke and with gladness
O Lord, abode of exiles, light of the blind, truth and justice are Your thrones. Receive us
who have been exiled for our freedom's sake, who have had to leave our country on account of
violent assault, In praying to You thus, it is not for our righteousness but for Your great
mercies.
Technical and scientific advances have combined to raise mankind to a level of material
achievement never before realized.
A house built on granite and strong foundations, not even the onslaught of pouring rain,
gushing torrents and strong winds will be able to pull down. Some people have written the
story of my life representing as truth what in fact derives from ignorance, error or envy;
but they cannot shake the truth from its place, even if they attempt to make others believe it.
Sports being the symbol of fraternity and team work there can be no doubt of its utility or
of the sound virtues which it develops.
Unemployment is harmful - it harms and damages the unemployed himself, his nation and his
country. Employers should strive to create more jobs. Workers should attend to their work with
diligence and vigour. These twin attributes are the cornerstones for progress.
I know of the love which the Jamaican people entertain for the people of Ethiopia and the
welcome which you have given me this day is evidence of it.
I know that the Jamaican people were very sympathetic when Ethiopia was occupied during the
fascist regime. During that time, Jamaicans as well as others who had African blood supported
the Ethiopian Liberation Movement.
And now that we are free we must assume the responsibility to work for the greater unity of all
peoples of African origin.
It is quite true that a country can achieve material progress alone. However, we know from the
experiences of the past that internaltional cooperation tends to quicken the pace for progress of
individual countries.
This is again another area for us to think about and see in what way we can further expand the
relations of the people of Jamaica and Ethiopia.
From another fundamental point of view, this is precisely why the O.A.U. has been
established. It is because the African continent, which comprises more than 250 million people,
if it were to remain divided among more than 30 states, their individual voices would not carry
weight. It is precisely why, since there is an identity of interest, we have attempted to include
Jamaica.
Also, so that we can carry this weight in the councils of nations, and also through the
process of cooperation and expanded economic relations we might be in a position to quicken
the pace of development of the individual member countries of the O A U.
