Ethiopian Reggae Ambassadors, Rastafari, and the Promotion of Transatlantic Pan-African Solidarity

ABSTRACT

Reggae music, a genre that was created in Jamaica in the late 1960s, has become popular across the globe for promoting positive representations of Ethiopia and Africa due to reggae’s connections with the Rastafari movement. Ethiopian reggae musicians, through their interactions with Rastafari, have served as cultural ambassadors for a type of pan-Africanism that incorporates elements of Rastafari beliefs and promotes transatlantic solidarity. Some Ethiopians who emigrated have encountered Rastafari and reggae music while living outside of Ethiopia. Some Rastafari have left the Western world behind to repatriate to Ethiopia, believing it to be their homeland and Promised Land, leading to opportunities for cultural exchanges within Ethiopia. Ethiopian musicians work across cultural and linguistic barriers to engage with Rastafari and pan-Africanism through their social interactions and approaches to reggae performance conventions while navigating differences in worldviews. Based on ethnographic research with reggae musicians in Ethiopia, I argue that Ethiopian musicians use different composition and performance techniques to narrate and build on the historical connections between Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Rastafari in ways that articulate and promote a type of transatlantic solidarity informed by pan-African discourse.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethiopia
• reggae
• music
• pan-Africanism
• Rastafari

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 These reggae ambassadors included Chelina, Haile Roots, Henok Mehari, Jonny Ragga, Ras Jany, Sami Dan, Tsedi, and Yohana.

2 I use the terms “Rastafari” and “Ethiopian” for the sake of clarity while recognizing that these categories are not mutually exclusive. Some Rastafari who have repatriated to Ethiopia identify as Ethiopian and some Ethiopian-born citizens identify as Rastafari.

3 Ethiopianism encompasses centuries of sociopolitical and religious ideologies that are rooted in the symbolism of Ethiopia as a source of African strength, redemption, and pride. For more information on how Ethiopianism grew in Jamaica, see Price (2003).

4 Africa Unite was a massive spectacle that was spearheaded by Rita Marley and the Bob Marley Foundation. Members of the Marley family went to Ethiopia to put on a large free concert in Meskel Square in Addis Ababa with Ethiopian and repatriate musicians. For a detailed analysis of this event, see the chapter “Africa Unite, Bob Marley, Media, and Backlash” in MacLeod (2014).

5 I also heard Rastafari repatriates speak about the bahatawi as a possible source of inspiration for dreadlocks. Other possible sources of inspiration include the Kenyan Mau Mau fighters and the Sadhus in India.

6 I am grateful to Hewan Girma for her assistance in translating these lyrics from Amharic:

አፍሪካን ለአፍሪካ እንዳልው ማርከስ ጋርቪ ፣ ማርከስ ጋርቪ

ወደ ምስራቅ ተራሮች እዩና አቅኑ ወደ ሻሼ ፣ ሻሸመኔ

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Faculty First Grant (University of North Carolina at Greensboro); Fritz and Boeing International Dissertation Research Fellowship (University of Washington, Seattle).