Rastafari and West Indian Reinvention
The 1930 coronation of Ras Tafari Mekonnen as His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I was, in part, a cinematic display of pride celebrating a new era in Ethiopian life. 12,500 kilometers away in the Caribbean, poor Black Jamaicans ruled by the British Monarchy watched newsreel footage of the spectacle. For the first time they saw a Black king. ...