Pubdate: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: 901 Mission St., San Francisco CA 94103 Feedback: http://www.sfgate.com/select.feedback.html Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/ Page: A12 Africa RASTA HOMELAND Sect Members Tolerate Ethiopia's Poverty To Be `Close To God' The voluminous plumes of marijuana smoke that stream from Isaiah Kelly's mouth obscure the creases and wrinkles of a face aged prematurely by hardship. Two years ago, the 69-year-old furniture maker fulfilled a lifetime dream and doctrine of his Rastafarian faith -- to leave the modern culture sect members call "Babylon" and return to Ethiopia, or the "Holy Land." "In my mind, I have lived my (previous) life like a refugee in a foreign land," he said while unleashing dreadlocks that tumbled well below his waist. "But now, as my death approaches, I have come home." There are growing signs, however, that the enthusiasm of a "Back to Africa" movement that enticed Kelly to leave his Jamaica home for a town of 250,000 called Shashemene is waning. Two years ago, 200 Rastafarians were in Shashemene, which is located 150 miles south of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Today, fewer than 40 remain. The expatriates are struggling to make a livelihood in one of the world's poorest nations. Few Rastafarians have meaningful work, and most depend on money transfers from relatives abroad and on food that they grow on small plots of land. Shashemene has no drainage system, most residents drink contaminated water, and human and animal feces are spread over the landscape. In this landlocked nation of 62 million, almost half the children are malnourished, and its citizens earn an average of only $106 a year. Its per capita gross domestic product is one of the world's lowest. "I won't pretend that life here is easy," Kelly said. "But show me a place anywhere in the world where life is easy. We choose to live here because here we are close to God." Rastafarians are members of a Christian Orthodox sect that considers former Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie to be a black Messiah. Selassie, who was a Christian, ruled from 1930 to 1974. When he visited Jamaica in 1966, he was said to be puzzled by Rastafarians who tried to worship him. He died in 1975 at age 83 while under house arrest following the military coup that ushered in the repressive rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam. Shashemene's Rastafarians live simply, spending their days farming their plots, attending daily church services and smoking considerable amounts of marijuana. Rastafarians consider "herb" to be holy. According to Kelly, God commands them to smoke as a way to achieve closeness to him. "If you are meditating and doing good, the herb will develop that goodness within you. It will help you develop your relationship with God," he said. Although marijuana smoking is associated with criminality throughout Ethiopia, many town residents are used to Rasta culture and are uncritical of the foreigners. "We Ethiopians don't believe that Haile Selassie was a God," said Sammy Tadesse, "but we are proud that black people in the West look at Ethiopia as an important country." The community's history goes back to 1955, when Selassie granted a group of Rastafarians a small area of fertile land in southern Ethiopia. At the same time, another group set out on a mission to Africa with the assistance of the government of Jamaica. There are no records of how many actually came to Ethiopia, but no great migration followed. In fact, most Rastafarians today say they are more interested in African spirituality than in actually living in Africa. Kelly, however, says poverty and red tape are the major reasons Rastafarians have not migrated en masse to Ethiopia. "We were taken from Africa without money, passports or visas," he said as he took a deep drag from an enormous joint that clung to his bottom lip. "Why should we need these things to come back again?" Jamaican Adolphus Sewell, Kelly's neighbor, lives in a small two-room shack that is painted red, yellow and green. Wandering around his perfectly kept garden scored by neat rows of budding fruits and vegetables, Sewell, or "Dread" as he is known locally, came to Shashemene for a short holiday three years ago and never left. "As a black man, this is the only place that I have ever felt free," he said. "That is what drew me to this place. That is why I stayed." Sewell, 59, concedes that life in this desperately poor country has not lived up to his expectations. Since moving to Ethiopia, he has been robbed six times, and he readily concedes that he has considered returning to London, where he worked for 22 years as a carpenter and baker. But he is also eager to show visitors that he is happy to be in Ethiopia. He supplements his meager income by baking buns and selling them in the local market. "I was taught in school that we are not European and that we are not Jamaican -- that we were slaves from Africa. That is why I came back," he said. Another who came back is an African American in his late 20s who gave his name only as Tree. A recent arrival, the young American is looking to buy land. "America makes no sense to me," said Tree, who is a native of Washington, D. C., and previously worked in a supermarket. "The only thing it has to offer is luxury, and that offers nothing for the spirit." But Tree is facing the difficult question of how to earn a living now that he has made the move. Although he is optimistic, he admits that he did not find the town all that he had hoped. "I didn't expect there would be so much poverty here," he said. "The promised land? Let's wait and see." ~~~ Sidebar: ~~~ RELIGIOUS ROOTS Rastafarians are members of a religious and political movement that began on the Caribbean island of Jamaica in the late 1920s. Followers are sometimes called Rastas or Dreads.They are perhaps best known as the originators of reggae music; for their use of "ganja," or marijuana, as a sacred rite; and for wearing their hair in ropelike braids called dreadlocks. Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born U.S. civil rights leader, first voiced in Jamaica the ideas that grew into the Rastafarian movement. In the early 1920s, Garvey helped build a "Back to Africa" movement among black Jamaicans. Garvey spoke of the redemption of his people coming from a future black African king, and his followers seized on the 1930 coronation of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie as the fulfillment of that prophecy. They proclaimed Selassie as "Jah," or God, and Ethiopia as the "Holy Land." The name Rastafarian comes from Ras Tafari, a title held by Selassie, who ruled Ethiopia until 1974. Today, Rastafarianism has split into several factions, but the deification of Selassie remains central to the religion. It is a worldwide religious movement, whose worshipers mainly live on Caribbean islands, Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia and some African nations. The membership of what has been called the most dynamic religious movement in Jamaica may be as large as 100,000.