Haile Selassie's coronation and the birth of Rastafari
Ras Tafari Makonnen is crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I; in Jamaica, some read the news as the fulfilment of prophecy and a new faith is born.
- Haile Selassie I — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia — Giulia Bonacci, University of the West Indies Press (2015)
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
Tafari Makonnen, son of Menelik’s cousin and general Ras Makonnen, became regent and heir in 1916 and was crowned emperor on 2 November 1930, taking the name Haile Selassie, “Power of the Trinity”. Foreign dignitaries attended a lavish ceremony. In 1931 he gave Ethiopia its first written constitution, which strengthened the emperor’s power over the nobles.
- Haile Selassie I — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
In Jamaica, followers of Marcus Garvey’s message of African redemption read reports of the coronation, with its biblical titles “King of Kings” and “Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah”, as a sign that a Black messiah had come. Preachers such as Leonard Howell began teaching that Ras Tafari was God incarnate, and the Rastafari movement was born.
- Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia — Giulia Bonacci, University of the West Indies Press (2015)
At home, Haile Selassie’s long reign, interrupted by the Italian occupation, centralised power in the capital. He opened schools and a university, built an educated civil service and army, and in 1963 hosted the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union, in Addis Ababa. But he tolerated no rival, and a coup attempt in 1960 by his own Imperial Guard was a warning that younger Ethiopians wanted faster change.
- Haile Selassie I — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
When Haile Selassie visited Jamaica on 21 April 1966, huge crowds met him at the airport. He granted land at Shashamane in southern Ethiopia to people of African descent who wished to “return”, and a small Rastafari community still lives there. Bob Marley’s music carried the emperor’s words, and Ethiopia’s colours, around the world.
- Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia — Giulia Bonacci, University of the West Indies Press (2015)
- Haile Selassie I — Encyclopaedia Britannica
A wise statesman who centralised and modernised the state, stood up to Mussolini, put Ethiopia on the world stage and helped found the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa.
- Haile Selassie I — Encyclopaedia Britannica
- A History of Ethiopia — Harold G. Marcus, University of California Press (2002)
An absolute monarch who blocked land reform, crushed dissent and left the peasantry in poverty; his government's cover-up of the 1972–74 Wollo famine helped bring the monarchy down.
- A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
- The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)
Why it matters today
Haile Selassie remains a towering, divisive figure: a symbol of independence and dignity abroad, a moderniser who founded schools and the national university, but also an autocrat whose rule ended in famine and revolution. Rastafari's love for Ethiopia brought a small community of Jamaican and other settlers to Shashamane, and Ethiopians often find the global reverence for their emperor both flattering and puzzling.