Grounation Day

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Grounation Day (April 21) is an important Rastafari holy day, and second after Coronation Day (November 2). It is celebrated in honor of Haile Selassie's 1966 visit to Jamaica.

[edit] Visit of Selassie I to Jamaica

Haile Selassie I had already met with several Rasta elders in Addis Ababa, and had allowed Rastafari and other people of African descent to settle on his personal land in Shashamane.

Haile Selassie visited Jamaica on Thursday, 21 April 1966. Somewhere around 100,000 Rastafari from all over Jamaica descended on Palisadoes Airport in Kingston,[1] having heard that the man whom they considered to be God was coming to visit them. They waited at the airport smoking lots of ganja,[1] and playing drums.

When Haile Selassie's Ethiopian Airlines flight landed at the airport at 1:30 PM, the crowd surrounded his plane on the tarmac. The day had been overcast and stormy, but just as the plane's wheels touched down, four large white clouds appeared and sunlight burst through, causing nearly everyone to kneel. After about half an hour, the door swung open and the emperor appeared at the top of the mobile steps. A deafening tumult was heard from the crowd, who beat calabash drums, lit firecrackers, waved signs, and sounded Abeng horns of the Maroons. All protocol was dropped as the crowd pressed past the security forces and onto the red carpet that had been laid out for the reception. Selassie waved from the top of the steps and began to shed tears, although interpretations of this gesture varied. He then returned into the plane, disappearing for several more minutes. Finally Jamaican authorities were obliged to request Ras Mortimer Planno, a well-known Rasta leader, to climb the steps, enter the plane, and negotiate the Emperor's descent.[2] When Planno reemerged, he announced to the crowd: "The Emperor has instructed me to tell you to be calm. Step back and let the Emperor land".[3] After Planno escorted the African monarch down the steps, journalists were puzzled by Selassie's refusal to walk on the red carpet on the way to his limousine. He was then driven to the King's House, the residence of Governor-General Clifford Campbell.[4] From then on, the visit was a success.[5]

As a result of Planno's actions, the Jamaican authorities were asked to ensure that Rastafarian representatives were present all state functions attended by His Majesty,[6][7] and Rastafarian elders also obtained a private audience with the Emperor,[8] where he reportedly told them that they should not emigrate to Ethiopia until they had first liberated the people of Jamaica. This dictum came to be known as "liberation before repatriation". At a dinner held at the King's House, Rastas claimed that acting Jamaican Prime Minister Donald Sangster had stamped his foot at Lulu, Haile Selassie's pet chihuahua, who, they swore, had responded with the roar of a lion.[9]


Defying expectations of the Jamaican authorities,[10] Selassie never rebuked the Rastafari for their belief in him as the Messiah. Instead, he presented the movement's faithful elders with gold medallions bearing the Ethiopian seal – the only recipients of such an honour on this visit.[11][12] Meanwhile, he presented some of the Jamaican politicians, including Sangster, with miniature coffin-shaped cigarette boxes.[13]

[edit] Impact

Rita Marley, Bob Marley's wife, converted to the Rastafari faith after seeing Haile Selassie in his motorcade en route to the King's House. She claimed, in interviews and in her book No Woman No Cry, that she had seen a stigma on Haile Selassie's hand as he waved to the crowd, and was instantly convinced of his divinity.[14]

For years afterward, Planno, who became a spiritual guru of Bob Marley, would give out enlarged photographs of himself with the Emperor on the steps of the airplane.[15]

The great significance of this event in the development of the Rastafari religion should not be underestimated. Having been outcasts in society, they gained a measure of respectability for the first time.[16][17][18] By making Rasta more acceptable, it opened the way for the commercialisation of reggae, leading in turn to the further global spread of Rastafari.

Because of Haile Selassie's visit, April 21 is celebrated as Grounation Day.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Dread, The Rastafarians of Jamaica, by Joseph Owens ISBN
  2. ^ Catch a Fire: The Life of Bob Marley by Timothy White p. 15, 210, 211.
  3. ^ Black Heretics, Black Prophets: Radical Political Intellectuals p. 189 by Anthony Bogues
  4. ^ White, p. 211.
  5. ^ The State Visit of Emperor Haile Selassie I
  6. ^ Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers Page 86 by Ennis Barrington Edmonds
  7. ^ Verbal Riddim: The Politics and Aesthetics of African-Caribbean Dub Poetry, page 83 by Christian Habekost
  8. ^ Edmonds, p. 86
  9. ^ White, p. 211
  10. ^ Reggae Routes: The Story of Jamaican Music by Kevin O'Brien, p. 243.
  11. ^ "African Crossroads - Spiritual Kinsmen" Dr. Ikael Tafari, The Daily Nation, Dec.
  12. ^ White, p. 211
  13. ^ White, p. 211.
  14. ^ No Woman, No Cry, Rita Marley, p. 43.
  15. ^ Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley - Page 145 by Christopher John Farley
  16. ^ This Is Reggae Music: The Story of Jamaica's Music - Page 193 by Lloyd Bradley
  17. ^ Edmonds, p. 86.
  18. ^ Habekost, p. 83.
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