Reflections and challenges to 90 years of the Coronation

The balance on the throne of Ethiopia

By Sista Iniris Mae*

The 2 November 1930 the Coronation of Tafari Makonnen and Menen Asfaw takes place assuming the position of Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia. It is a global event, since Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that was never colonized, it has the oldest and most genuine Christian tradition in the world and its lineage makes the Ethiopian throne the longest-lasting in history. Tafari and Menen are its last regents, They are the ones who ratify the continuity of this African cornerstone until these contemporary times..

His Coronation has historical and symbolic relevance to African culture, for the Rastafari faith of life and for all humanity in its breadth, since we have been mired in the legacies of colonialist bosses for the last centuries and this event is a portal that causes a break, strengthening resistance to such patterns.

Since the Rastafarian movement, we conceive that the Coronation unveils a mystical revelation, since there was a prophecy that emerged from the black African people that indicated that an ancestral reign of justice would rise for liberation.

Those oppressed by the colonialist system, descendants of the enslaved, Africans in the diaspora because of the invasion and usurpation of human dignity, they are the ones who understand that their autonomy and legitimacy have been mutilated, physically and culturally violated by the imposition that was established with the model of racist domination, and that this yoke would end when the presence of Almighty Jah/the Principle of Creation was revealed on Earth.

This manifestation of the divine on the human plane is fulfilled when the prophetic Coronation takes place and the oppressed Africans manage to assume themselves as subjects capable of redeeming and liberating themselves., as descendants of such a great territory, assuming in turn divinity in One/One Himself/Self.

This appreciation of being African in its magnificence, certainly, It is not allowed by the colonialist system and mentality, so revealing it means unleashing the truth, counteract the supremacist imbalance established by slavery and try to compensate for the human disaster that it entails. This balance that is raised at a symbolic level in the Coronation is extremely relevant to understand the Rastafari faith of life and explains the legacy that we defend as a spirituality in resistance against colonialism and all its manifestations at a sociocultural level..

Besides, the Coronation proposes the balance between man and woman, since both -Tafari and Menen- they are crowned the same day, marking a difference with the tradition as it was carried up to that moment. In the Rastafari faith of life this is key, since it demonstrates the dual character of that mystical revelation that the oppressed Africans in the diaspora could have understood and points out that the divine is sacred in equity.

At the time of the Coronation, Ras Tafari takes the name of Haile Selassie I, whose meaning is the Power of the Trinity, and opening this portal together with the woman, we can understand that this Power arises from that balance. Enamel Snap, the African woman who embodies the feminine force on the throne of Ethiopia was, further, carrying one of her children, under his royal garments his human fruit grew and this determines our awareness of the elemental power of life that makes our human nature sacred, conceiving ourselves as portals of eternal power. The Power of the Trinity manifested in the faculty of conceiving(we) as Creators.

Likewise, the foundation, also recognized in the biblical message, that Jah is the Alpha and the Omega, is consolidated with the Coronation of Haile Selassie I and Emaye Menen, and requires us to deconstruct the one-dimensional image that colonialism has imposed on us through its false religion, of a God who is presented as male and white. This claim, certainly, it is not allowed by the patriarchal colonialist mentality. Both, Tafari and Menen on the throne of Ethiopia, they untie the seals to demonstrate a truth to humanity and demonstrate with their actions throughout their lives what this balance implies to establish a reign of justice on Earth, a call that happens again in the middle of the twentieth century, between wars, modernities and capitalism.

The space of resistance that we raise from our families, with our Livity or way of life, is closely related to this example and our spirituality materializes in the need to carry out liberating practices, that imply restoring women to their sacred and prophetic position. recovering this balance, Afro-centering our ancestral lineage and acknowledging the equity of Jah's manifestation on Earth, we break abruptly with the oppressive ideology of Babylon that has tamed us to accept supremacies and submit to them.

*Member of the Empress Menen Asfaw Chile Foundation.