Research Catalog

Title

Exodus! : heirs and pioneers, Rastafari return to Ethiopia / Giulia Bonacci ; translated by Antoinette Tidjani Alou ; foreword by Elikia M'Bokolo.

Author

Bonacci, Giulia

Publication

Kingston : The University of the West Indies Press, 2015.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Tidjani Alou, Antoinette
• M'Bokolo, Elikia, 1944-

Description

XXII, 482 pages : illustrations; 26 cm.

Summary

"In 1977, Bob Marley composed Exodus, a reggae masterpiece that evokes the return of Rastafari to Africa. Over the past fifty years, Rastafari have made the journey to Ethiopia, settling in the country as "repatriates". This little-known history is told in Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia. Giulia Bonacci recounts, with sharpness and rigour, this amazing journey of Rastafari who left the Caribbean, the United States and the United Kingdom. Exiting from the Babylon of the West and entering the Zion that is Ethiopia, the exodus has a pan-African dimension that is significant to the present day. Despite facing complex challenges in their relations with the Ethiopian state and its people, mystical and determined Rastafari keep arriving to Shashemene, their Promised Land. Revealing personal trajectories, Giulia Bonacci shows that Rastafari were not the first black settlers in Ethiopia. She tracks the history of return over the decades, demonstrating that the utopian idea of return is also a reality. Exodus! is based on in-depth archival and print research, as well as on a wide range of oral histories collected in Ethiopia, Jamaica, Ghana and the United States. Originally published in French in 2010 by Editions L'Harmattan, this translation is the first time Bonacci's valuable work has been made widely available to an English-speaking audience." -- Publisher's description

Alternative Title

• Exodus! : L'histoire du retour des Rastarfariens en Ethiopie
• Exodus : heirs and pioneers, Rastafari return to Ethiopia

Subject

• Rastafarians > Ethiopia > Shashemenē > History
• Rastafari movement > Ethiopia > History

Genre/Form

History

Note

• "First published in 2010 as 'Exodus! L'histoire du retour des Rastarfariens en Ethiopie'. - This edition has been translated and published under licence from Editions L'Harmattan" (colophon).

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibiographical references (pages 443-465) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The ideological and social roots of the return to Ethiopia. Sailing against the tide : going back to Africa -- Sources and contours of Ethiopianism -- First steps of the return to Shashemene -- The Rastafari movement and the return to Ethiopia. Jamaica : the political and religious stakes of the return to Ethiopia -- Organizing and centralizing the Ethiopian nation -- The internationalization and diversity of the arrivals in Shashemene -- The "true" Ethiopians in Shashemene. In the heart of the Ethiopian empire -- Revolution and reforms in Shashemene -- Shashemene at the age of "development' -- Appendix 1 : versions of the Ethiopian prayer -- Appendix 2 : versions of the "Universal Ethiopian anthem" -- Appendix 3 : Tsegaye Guebre Medhin, "Home coming son."

ISBN

• 9789766405038 (paperback)
• 9766405034 (paperback)

OCLC

• 912283664
• SCSB-12883416

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library