The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Based on a March 25 Tribune article on Bobo Ashanti members of the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress (EABIC), I am inclined to believe that these Nassau-based Rastas were unhappy about the visit of the Dutch and Duchess of Cambridge to The Bahamas. It was either on the 26 or 27 of March when Prince William posted on Twitter a moving tribute about the resilience of Abaconians some two-and-a-half years removed from Hurricane Dorian.

In all likelihood, the Duke of Cambridge might have been aware of the negative response of the Rastafari community concerning his visit. That he would take the high road on Twitter in the face of hostility is a testament of his maturity. The EABIC was established in Jamaica in 1958 by Prince Emmanuel Charles Edwards, around the time of the Rastafarian Universal Convention in Back-O-Wall, Kingston. Back-O-Wall was once an unsightly slum that was flattened by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) government of Alexander Bustamante under the auspices of Edward Seaga, and transformed into Tivoli Gardens during the 1960s. Tivoli Gardens became a JLP stronghold.

After the destruction of Back-O-Wall, Prince Emmanuel and his EABIC devotees would move their base of operations to Bull Bay near Kingston. Prince Emmanuel’s meteoric rise in the Rastafari sect can be described as serendipitous, considering that the colonial administration had destroyed Leonard P. Howell’s Rasta camp, Pinnacle, in 1954, after evicting its residents for the second time in 13 years. For what it’s worth, Prince Emmanuel represented stability, at a time when the state had been largely successful in discrediting Howell and Rev Claudius Henry of the African Reform Church of God in Christ.

For Bobo Ashanti members, Prince Emmanuel is considered divine, notwithstanding his death in 1994, which must have rattled the faith of many within the sect, as the untimely deaths of Bob Marley and Jacob Miller had done to the cultists in the early 1980s. Next to Emperor Haile Selassie I and perhaps Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Prince Emmanuel is the most important individual in the EABIC branch of Rastafari.

The bone of contention EABIC members have with the Dutch and Duchess of Cambridge seems to be the transatlantic slave trade and the thorny subject of reparation. The Rastafari community in The Bahamas seems to be unwilling to forgive the British royal family for its massive role in the enslavement of our African ancestors, despite the heartfelt apology of Prince William. The tirade of EABIC members in The Tribune is similar to the rant against King George V by GG Maragh in The Promised Key. Gangunguru Maragh was a Hindu pseudonym of Howell, perhaps due to his extensive plagiarism of Fitz Balintine Petersburg’s Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy in his volume. Bahamian EABIC members appeared to also be annoyed with their Jamaican religious counterparts for their warm reception of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

I suspect that Jamaican Rastas, at least those who met Prince William and Kate Middleton, are far more informed than their Bahamian counterparts, about Haile Selassie’s cordial relationship with the British royal family. It would be this relationship that would restore the so-called Solomonic Dynasty of Ras Tafari in May 1941, after the Negus Negusti fled Ethiopia in May 1936 due to the Fascist Italians’ invasion of Addis Ababa. The Solomonic Dynasty would face an earlier disruption in the 10th century by Queen Gudit, who destroyed the Aksumite Kingdom. It would be restored in 1270 by the Abyssinian Prince Yekuno Amlak. As a highly educated monarch, Haile Selassie was familiar with his nation’s storied past. The basis of the Solomonic legend is The Kebra Nagast, which reads more like an Apocryphal document.

Had it not been for the British, it is unlikely Rastafari would’ve survived. The Ethiopians were no match for the armed forces of Bernito Mussolini and the Axis powers. Truth be told, the Bahamian members of the EABIC owe the Dutch and Duchess of Cambridge and Winston Churchill a debt of gratitude.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport, Grand Bahama.

April 4, 2022.