Description
Book SynopsisIn 1977, Bob Marley composed Exodus, a reggae masterpiece that evokes the return of Rastafari to Africa. Over the past 50 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 rigor, this amazing journey of Rastafari who left the Caribbean, the United States of America 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 USA. Previously unseen photographs illustrate the book.
Trade ReviewGold winner in the 18th annual Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Book of the Year Awards.“The strength of this text is its multifaceted focus on the political, cultural, spiritual, and intellectual dimensions of Ethiopianism and pan-Africanism. The author includes detailed reference to one of the striking outcomes, the establishment of a pan-Africanist home at Shashemene, 250 miles from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Bonacci (Institute of Research for Development, France) also provides valuable information on the wide range of Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Caribbean, and African American returnees to Africa before the 20th century … This text benefited from archival resources and interviews in Jamaica, the UK, the US, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ethiopia, and the remarkable translation expertise of Antoinette Tidjani Alou of the University of Abdou Moumouni, Niger.” - CHOICE connect
