Rastafarian's Zion Vs Babylon

A tall man with a cap that held the locks on his hair bemused me with his convinced knowledge about Rastafarianism. He claimed that he is an Ethiopian Orthodox and a Rastafarian. He challenged my faint knowledge about them with his pharisaic question to investigate my disposition towards them. I knew what exactly he was trying to extract from me. We spoke about lot of things, particularly about Catholicism in which he was baptised as an infant but unfortunately he found his way into a radical movement of the Ethiopian Orthodoxy. He was absolutely convinced that Haile Selassie I the emperor of Ethiopia (1930-74) is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ or the Trinity in the world. He expanded this by several bible quotes as usual particularly from the Book of Revelations, "And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel" (7:4). Jesus would return and inscribe his name on chosen ones' foreheads and Haile Selassie is on of them; a second coming of Christ or the coming of the holy spirit. He also tried to enlighten me about the Ethiopian Orthodoxy.

The Ethiopian Orthodoxy believes in two concepts Zion which is a good place and that is Ethiopia and Babylon which is the West which is evil kingdom. Their basis for the argument that Jesus is a black goes right back to the Old Testament where King Solomon has the queen from Sheba or Ethiopia. All the descendants from there have come from Ethiopia so did Jesus. Zion is promised land which is good thus they reject the Western world naming it Babylon which is corrupt. 

Rastafarian is movement began in Jamaica around the same year as the Emperor of Ethiopia came to power in 1930. Most Rastafarian would say that this not a religion rather its a way of life. This movement began from the Jamaican black slave culture. I was trying to figure out why do they reject the Western World. The only palpable reason I can think of for this is, Jamaican black slaves were under the oppression of British rule. They were taken slaves and treated with utmost inhuman way. This must have been a solid reason why they reject the Western World and proclaim as corrupt under the rubric of "Babylon". This is my opinion and not necessarily right. I am just proposing a premise which can be debated. Rejection of the Western world by the black community as corrupt is the apparent consequence of the long painful oppression by the powerful western domination. This can be the reason why even today black community has a certain enmity towards the white and this normal. I am sure it is far better than it used to be but as the years go by it will heal and one day the whole world sees each other brothers and sister. This is my dream too. 

There is awful lot of things that we can know about Rastafarians and the Ethiopian Orthodoxy. I just wanted to share my little knowledge about them in my blog. Oh by the way, the Rastafarian who challenged me as aforementioned became good friend of me later. They are lovely people if at all we have time to listen to them. They want to be listened and cared for as every one of us does. Can we just include them in our minds as brothers and sisters belonging to the family of human beings.