Reggae as Productive Mechanism for Repatriated Rastafari in Ethiopia David Aarons A

223 Pages·2017·4.58 MB·English

Chanting up Zion: Reggae as Productive Mechanism for Repatriated Rastafari in

Ethiopia

David Aarons

A dissertation
submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

University of Washington
2017

Reading Committee:
Shannon Dudley, Chair
Giulia Bonacci
Katell Morand
Christina Sunardi

Program Authorized to Offer Degree:
Music

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@Copyright 2017
David Aarons

ii
University of Washington

Abstract

Chanting up Zion: Reggae as Productive Mechanism for Repatriated Rastafari in

Ethiopia

David Aarons

Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Shannon Dudley

Ethnomusicology

Since the 1960s, Rastafari from Jamaica and other countries have been “returning” to
Ethiopia in the belief that it is their Promised Land, Zion. Based on extensive ethnographic
research in Ethiopia between 2015 and 2017, this project examines the ways in which repatriated
Rastafari use music to transform their Promised Land into a reality amidst various challenges.
Since they are denied legal citizenship, Rastafari deploy reggae in creative and strategic ways to
gain cultural citizenship and recognition in Ethiopia. This research examines how reggae music
operates as a productive mechanism, that is, how human actors use music to produce social and
tangible phenomena in the world. Combining theories on music’s productive capabilities with
Rastafari ideologies on word-sound, this research further seeks to provide deeper insight into the
ways Rastafari effect change through performative arts.
I examine how Rastafari mobilize particular discourses that both challenge and reproduce
hegemonic systems, creating space for themselves in Ethiopia through music. Rastafari use
reggae in strategic ways to insert themselves into the contested national narratives of Ethiopia,
and participate in the practice of space-making in Addis Ababa and Shashemene through sound
projects. I argue that music activities form the basis of social interaction for the repatriated
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Rastafari community and in turn produce and reproduce this community. I also discuss the work
of Ethiopian reggae musicians who engage in reggae production for different reasons, but whose
actions shape the returnees’ realities as well. Reggae in Ethiopia therefore serves as a productive
mechanism by facilitating the creation of social relationships, spaces that lead to visibility,
ideologies that connect Rastafari with Ethiopia, income for returnees, and opportunities for
development—important factors that make the Promised Land habitable.

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Acknowledgements

There are many people and institutions without whom I would not have been able to
complete this dissertation. I would like to thank the organizations at the University of
Washington (UW) that provided funding for my research in Ethiopia. These include the Fritz and
Boeing International Dissertation Research Fellowship and the Ottenberg Winnans Fellowship
for Research in Africa. The UW School of Music also for provided funding through course work
and the writing process. Thanks to the Institute for Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University
and the Centre français des études éthiopiennes for assisting with my Ethiopian visa.
Many thanks to my reading committee who provided unwavering support and helpful
feedback: Shannon Dudley, Giulia Bonacci, Katell Morand, and Christina Sunardi. To my
graduate cohort at the UW School of Music who pushed me to think more critically and provided
freshly-baked cookies in times of need, I thank you.
I spent much time reasoning with Rastafari, musicians, and scholars whose thoughts
significantly impacted my ideas and to whom I am most grateful. Some of these include Kofi
Ababio, Kenneth Bilby, Patricia Campbell, Louis Chude-Sokei, Ray Hitchins, Jahnoch, Mark
Joseph, Barbara Lalla, Morgan Luker, Erin Macleod, Girum Mezmur, Mette Petersen, and
Mathew Tembo. I also would like to acknowledge Christine Smith-Stone for hosting me in
Addis Ababa upon my arrival and Tariqwa for making sure I was comfortable in Shashemene.
“Give thanks” to the Rastafari and non-Rastafari musicians in Ethiopia with whom I
performed. Nuff respek to all ah yuh for welcoming me into your music spaces and allowing me
to perform with and learn from you—especially Sydney Salmon and the Imperial Majestic Band
and Ras Kawintseb and the Aetiofrika Band. Finally, thanks to Elsie and John Aarons for
decades of support and encouragement.
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
Rastafari ...................................................................................................................................... 3
Return to Ethiopia ....................................................................................................................... 5
The Power and Practice of Rastafari Word-Sound: Framing the Study ..................................... 14
Rastafari Music .......................................................................................................................... 20
Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 27
Interpreting Data ....................................................................................................................... 28
Returnee Bands with whom I performed ................................................................................... 29
Positionality ............................................................................................................................... 31
Chapter Outline ......................................................................................................................... 32
Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................................... 34
Songs about Zion: Reggae as Discourse and Discourses on Reggae ...................................... 34
Black Nationalism, Pan-Africanism, and Music ........................................................................ 36
Reggae Music as Discourse on Africa/Ethiopia, and Repatriation .............................................. 39
Desires for Elsewhere ................................................................................................................. 41
Repertoire Analysis .................................................................................................................... 43
Discourse on the Songs ............................................................................................................... 63
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 68
Chapter 2 ..................................................................................................................................... 70
Adapting to and Shaping New Realities: Repatriated Musicians and Sonic Strategies of
Belonging ..................................................................................................................................... 70
Strictly Roots! Whose Roots? ..................................................................................................... 74
New Songs in Zion and Sonic Essences of Ethiopianness ............................................................ 79
Ethiopianness ........................................................................................................................... 80
Amharic .................................................................................................................................. 82
Scales ...................................................................................................................................... 83
Singing New Songs ..................................................................................................................... 87
Promoting the Teachings of Haile Selassie ................................................................................. 89
The Everyday: Living in the Promised Land, Life in the Promised Land ...................................... 93
Senses of Belonging/ Narratives of Inclusion ............................................................................. 95
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 99
Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................................... 101
Musical Sites of Contact and Inscription in Shashemene and Addis Ababa ...................... 101
Placing Rastafari and Reggae in Ethiopia ................................................................................ 103
Shashemene Soundscapes: Creating Spaces and Senses of Place in Shashemene ...................... 107
Reggae Spaces in Addis Ababa ................................................................................................. 116
Creating Reggae and Rastafari Spaces in Addis Ababa ............................................................. 123
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One-Time Spaces ................................................................................................................... 128
Virtual Spaces .......................................................................................................................... 130
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 133
Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................................... 135
Ethiopian Musicians Negotiating Proximity and Creating Pathways for Returnees ......... 135
Ethiopian Popular Music ......................................................................................................... 137
Towards an Ethio-reggae Style? Creating Reggae while Remaining Ethiopian. ....................... 139
Connecting Ethiopia with Reggae ............................................................................................ 152
Mobilizing the Connection to Rastafari and the Promised Land .............................................. 158
Bob Marley ............................................................................................................................ 161
Haile Selassie ........................................................................................................................ 164
Ethiopian Promised Land? ...................................................................................................... 168
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 172
Chapter 5 ................................................................................................................................... 174
Musical Collaborations and Development in the Promised Land ........................................ 174
Musical Collaborations In Ethiopia .......................................................................................... 176
Processes of Fusion .................................................................................................................. 186
Challenges ............................................................................................................................. 190
Music and Development Projects ............................................................................................. 194
Tourism and Music Festivals .................................................................................................. 197
Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 200
Interviews Conducted ............................................................................................................... 204
Songs and Albums Cited .......................................................................................................... 205
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 207
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Introduction
A few months before he passed away, or transitioned to the ancestors, Ras Mweya
Masimba enthusiastically showed me his drawings and paintings that he planned to exhibit at his
home-turned-museum in Shashemene. Born in the UK, Ras Mweya grew up in Jamaica, lived in
Zimbabwe, and “returned” to Ethiopia, Shashemene, to live in 1996. He was a multi-talented
artist who used his art to make a living, promote the teachings of Rastafari, strengthen the
repatriated Rastafari community in Shashemene, and connect with Ethiopians, and with the
world. He painted images of Haile Selassie and published comic books that depicted major
aspects of Haile Selassie’s life, which he sold on site to visitors. He also made crafts such as
belts, bags, and shoes that he sold in his shop.
Although he worked mainly in visual media, he was also known for the powerful voice
with which he led the chanting at the main Nyabinghi tabernacle in Shashemene. Well versed in
the Nyabinghi repertoire, he sometimes composed, taught, and led his own songs at these
gatherings. He was particularly committed to the Rastafari philosophy that words and sounds
have the ability to alter the physical and spiritual environment in which we live. He explained
that “every sound resonates. It has a vibration. Every sound is translated into a movement and the
movement causes an action” (Personal Interview 2016). It was through reggae, for instance, that
he first heard about Haile Selassie, setting in motion his plans to repatriate to Ethiopia.
I spoke with him on numerous occasions in Shashemene where he and other repatriated
Rastafari settled, believing Ethiopia to be their Promised Land, Zion. On one occasion, after
describing some of the social and economic challenges associated with repatriating to and living
in Ethiopia, he said, “You have to come and create your utopia. I’m in my utopia” (Personal
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conversation 2016). Through visual art and music, Ras Mweya created an environment for
himself and his community in which he felt content and fulfilled to live out the rest of his days. I
begin with a eulogy of sorts to Ras Mweya, even though he does not feature prominently
throughout this dissertation, because his belief in the power of art and specifically of word-sound
to create one’s reality—a belief held by many Rastafari—is central to my study.
Based on extensive ethnographic research with repatriated Rastafari in Ethiopia between
2015 and 2017, this project examines the ways in which Rastafari use music to transform their
homeland and Promised Land into a reality amidst various challenges. In the introduction to an
edited collection on “homecomings”, Anders Stefansson notes that diasporic peoples’ desires to
return to their homeland initiates new social projects that “lead them on unsettling, but also
potentially relieving paths of return” (Stefansson 2004: 3). This dissertation takes as its point of
departure that processes of return are “characterized by considerable complexity and
ambivalence that provide rich examples of cultural creativity and inventiveness” (ibid: 4). The
field of creativity with which I am particularly concerned is reggae music. Reggae is a major
cultural asset of Rastafari, which they deploy in creative and strategic ways to gain “cultural
citizenship” (MacLeod 2014) in their Promised Land since they are denied legal citizenship. This
research examines how music operates as a productive mechanism, i.e. how human actors,
through music, produce social and tangible phenomena in the world. Combining theories on
music’s productive capabilities with Rastafari ideologies on word-sound, this research further
seeks to provide deeper insight into the ways Rastafari effect change in the world through
performative arts.
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Rastafari
The Rastafari movement that emerged in Jamaica in the 1930s has gained worldwide
attention for its pan-Africanist orientation, commitment to equal rights, and focus on repatriation
to Africa. Because its adherents maintain that words and sounds have immense power, I am ever
conscious that describing this movement with words requires great thought and care. Nathaniel
Murrell states that Rastafari is a “modern Afro-Caribbean cultural phenomenon” that combines
“elements of Africanist ideologies and the ‘Caribbean experience’ with Judeo-Christian thought
into a new sociopolitical religious worldview” (1998: 4). Most Rastafari who I have spoken to
describe Rastafari as a livity (way of life) or a movement.
The Rastafari movement is heterogeneous in scope, reflecting different ways of
understanding the person of Haile Selassie and the mission and lifestyle of Rastafari. The
different groups of Rastafari are sometimes called mansions because in some biblical
translations, John 14:2 reads “In my father’s house there are many mansions” and Rastafari have
applied this to account for their diversity. The most prominent of these mansions include the
Nyabinghi, Twelve Tribes of Israel, and the Bobo Shanti mansions. Lawrence Bamikole notes
that because Rastafari do not have identifiable commonalities that define them as a group,
identifying a worldview of the Rastafari is particularly difficult. The author uses Wittgenstein’s
notion of “family resemblance” (1988) to address this problem by arguing that the Rastafari is
“made up of groups with related and similar beliefs and practices, but none of these beliefs and
practices can serve as identifying criteria that characterize a Rastafari, to the extent that if any of
the groups does not possess them, then the group will not be regarded as genuine” (Bamikole
2012:130). Each group or mansion is therefore part of the wider Rastafari family even though
they each maintain specific identities that distinguish them from each other.
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