Rastafari readings of Ethiopian sacred history and end-time return

Record summary

Rastafari communities connected with Shashamane interpreted Ethiopia, Haile Selassie, Zion, Babylon, repatriation, and liberation through a distinctive scriptural and prophetic framework. During 1990–2009, settlement, pilgrimage, music, oral teaching, and transnational debate made Shashamane a concrete setting for studying an eschatological journey understood socially and politically rather than as a single supernatural episode. The Kebra Nagast and biblical texts often entered these interpretations. Community positions differ, and Ethiopian state policy, land disputes, and diaspora identity complicate any simple account.