Greetings and blessed love to all Rastafari as well as all Africans at home and abroad.
Through the powers of H.I.M. Haile Selassie !st and Empress Menen, we have endured 57 years since the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established on May 25th 1963. At that juncture in world history, the Governments of Nations especially located in mainland Africa and the Caribbean were endeavoring to release the shackles of colonialism. This movement towards a so- called status of political independence saw the introduction of prime ministers and administrators of African ancestry, I must say however that even though this stride towards unification on the continent of Africa was a step in the right direction, the dependence on European mores of religion, education and economics, to mention a few, proved a barrier towards relevant progress as our nation states advanced to the 21st century. The much anticipated liberation of our minds and way of doing things did not materialize as the decades rolled on.
We are now 20 years into the new century with yet great dependency on the financial entrapment of the institutions that evolved to some Western countries from the gains of the trans- Atlantic slave trade. As the off-spring of humanity from the continent of Africa and the indigenous people of this Caribbean region, our mind-set is lingering too long on religious indoctrination clothed in Caucasian and Arab influence and diatribe. Our African-centered organizations are still not taken seriously or considered as essential even at this time of tribulation. Case in point, the current covid-19 environment which suggests that the use of specific herbs medicinally has been proven to control and even remove the threats of this and other dangerous viruses. It shows us that main-stream thinking is yet to take anything of African origin seriously unless it is such that it can be extracted and re-branded in Europe as well as nowadays China to empower any other destination but our continent.
So the question that we can now ask is, how should we as Africans, at home and abroad, bring ourselves into the same unified space, spiritually, culturally, socially, commercially etc . so that we can overcome these great challenges still confronting our people and nations?
Fortunately, last year, around this same time in Accra, Ghana, the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation (CRO) and the Rastafari Continental Council (RCC) of Africa , signed a working relationship document which committed the members of both organisations to combining our efforts of unification in the areas of trade, education, reparatory justice and I dare say, any other sectors which would endorse and promote a positive and beneficial collaboration with our Rastafari and African brothers /sisters throughout the cosmos.
So at this time of remembering the initial gathering in 1963 of liberating our African family from colonial manipulation, let us make a joyful noise to the Most High Jah Rastafari and sound our trumpet in Mt Zion. Let us also not forget the works and representation of CRO and the global Rastafari community by Sister Empress Ijahnya Christian who recently traveled on to be with the ancestors and continue to guide InI in these perilous times. Let the words of I mouth and the mediation of I heart be acceptable to the Almighty I Haile Selassie I and Empress Menen I
Ras Iral Jabari -Co-Chair – Caribbean Rastafari Organisation
24th May 2020