A cross-section of the Anguillian community heard a lecture which encouraged the repatriation of descendants of persons who were forcibly removed from their ancestral African homeland and taken into slavery to the western hemisphere.
The lecture, in observance of Black History Month, was delivered by Anguillian national, Ijahnya Christian, at the Teachers Resource Centre on Monday, February 4. The former educator at the Albena Lake-Hodge Comprehensive School, and former Executive Director of the National Trust, now lives in Ethiopia, having said that she was responding to a desire and call to return to her African homeland.
In Addis Ababa, Ms Christian represents the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation as Liaison to the African Union, and is also the Rastafari representative on the executive committee of the Caribbean Pan-African Network.
The lecture focussed on initiatives of the Rastafari Movement, in three African countries, to assert an African cultural identity by a physical return to the continent of their ancestors, with particular reference to the Shashemene Land Grant in Ethiopia.
Ms Christian took the opportunity to comment on her settlement in Ethiopia where she has secured land, is building her house, which manifests all the cultural traditions of construction there, and is learning one of the African languages. She also reflected on the lives, skills and contributions of other repatriated persons who migrated to the African continent from such Caribbean islands like Jamaica.
“There are a number of enterprising middle-aged Rastafari women [from the Caribbean] who are there,” she continued. “One live in Shashemene, a rapidly-growing town and we occupy a section of it more than other sections. She owns two stores. In South Africa, there is a woman just about my age group who has a store and recently bought another house. She is living among the indigenous Rastafari population, leaving her son to run her business in a community called Marcus Garvey. These two women also have shops in Jamaica that they supply with African goods. Then there is the most well known of us…Bob Marley’s widow – who is making a sterling contribution to several community initiatives in Ghana. There is another sister… who moves from village to village providing healing services.
“So we are there in these capacities, bolstered by our faith which took us to Africa with whatever skills we have to work with. Some of us are members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; some are members of the Ethiopian World Federation; some of us are part of the Nyabinghi Order; some of us are members of the Twelve Tribes of Israel…I live in Nyabinghi House which is the Foundation Order of Rastafari and so we have lots and lots of visitors… and I show people the house and tell the story from an Ethiopian perspective. Some of us are buying shares in the Ethiopia Millennium Dam – the biggest project of all – and some of us are recognising…that we will continue to make our mark…There were a couple of us who got Ethiopian citizenship so a precedence has been set from the African Union perspective…”
The lecture was followed by an active question and answer period and, though sometimes a challenge for the audience, it was generally well received.
Ms Christian’s well researched and documented presentation was originally made at the 13th General Assembly of the Council for the development of Social Science research in Africa, in Morocco. It was dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Dame Bernice Lake, champion of human rights.
The annual Caribbean lecture series raises funds to support the work of the Athlyi Rogers Pan-African Youth Centre in Ethiopia with which Ms Christian is associated, having started such an initiative in Anguilla.
