Abstract
The Irresistible Ascent of Rās Tafari in the Black Imagination This paper demonstrates that the heir to the throne of Ethiopia was already known by black communities in the Americas before the 1930 coronation and the official birth of the Rastafari movement. Three elements at least have contributed to prepare symbolically the accession to the throne of Tafari, and to weave the network of references through which his coronation would be interpreted : the diffusion of Ethiopianism in the Americas, the aura of Emperor Menelik and of Rās Makwannen, Tafari’s father, and the invitations of Tafari towards Black people in the Americas. Proof of the attachment of Rastafari to Rās Tafari is visible in one of their early manifests, published in 1935. Hence the ascent of Tafari was made as well on the stage of the black imagination circulating between the Americas and the Caribbean.
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