AHC: Create a Rastafari state

The main possibility here would be drastically raising the popularity of Rastafari in Jamaica, to the point where Rastas are a majority. Does anyone have an idea of how to do this?
 
One of my favorite things ever was reading just how confused and uncomfortable Rastafarianism/ Rastafarians made Emperor Selassie.

"You're worshiping what now?"
 
One of my favorite things ever was reading just how confused and uncomfortable Rastafarianism/ Rastafarians made Emperor Selassie.

"You're worshiping what now?"
Rastafaris: [exist]

Haile Selassie:

whyre_the_way_you_are.png
 
Triple bonus if it's not in Ethiopia or Jamaica

What about expanding “Ethiopia” to mean all of Africa early (IIRC it’s a common stance among the modern Mansions (sects) and making decolonization even more chaotic, so radical militant Rastas do some neo-filibustering and set up a small state in some part of Africa.
 
What about expanding “Ethiopia” to mean all of Africa early (IIRC it’s a common stance among the modern Mansions (sects) and making decolonization even more chaotic, so radical militant Rastas do some neo-filibustering and set up a small state in some part of Africa.
Or how about this - what if Ethiopia, centralizing and expanding to radical heights under Amda Tseyon or Zara Yaqob, manages to annex/dominate most of East Africa and South Arabia to the point where tales of Prester John's Imperium ends up butterflying an earlier Rastafari movement into coming along. TTL's Rastafari movement ends up emigrating to Ethiopia where they join the Ethiopian armies in sufficient enough numbers on campaigns to gain their own state somewhere in East Africa (maybe southern Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, etc.) and eventually become independent. Sounds a bit ASB but still interesting.

If you want to go with your scenario, I recommend having Garvey successfully secure land in Liberia for his Back-to-Africa movement in the 1920s and eventually have the Rastafari faith spread into West Africa where notions of an independent Rastafari state begin to emerge. If Ethiopia manages to modernize enough or avoid Italy's invasion/occupation, that might reinforce its prominence in the region.
 
Or how about this - what if Ethiopia, centralizing and expanding to radical heights under Amda Tseyon or Zara Yaqob, manages to annex/dominate most of East Africa and South Arabia to the point where tales of Prester John's Imperium ends up butterflying an earlier Rastafari movement into coming along. TTL's Rastafari movement ends up emigrating to Ethiopia where they join the Ethiopian armies in sufficient enough numbers on campaigns to gain their own state somewhere in East Africa (maybe southern Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, etc.) and eventually become independent. Sounds a bit ASB but still interesting.

If you want to go with your scenario, I recommend having Garvey successfully secure land in Liberia for his Back-to-Africa movement in the 1920s and eventually have the Rastafari faith spread into West Africa where notions of an independent Rastafari state begin to emerge. If Ethiopia manages to modernize enough or avoid Italy's invasion/occupation, that might reinforce its prominence in the region.

I don't think that a stronger Ethiopia would really boost the Rastafari movement all that much--Rastafari first emerged when Ethiopia was in the news, due to it's invasion by Italy. And I feel butterflies would prevent that from really being comparable to a true Rastafari movement. Perhaps you could have Haile Selassie come to power early (say, 1914, when he was 23) and get significantly and glorious involved in WW1 on the Allies side (perhaps through Russia, since they were close--Ethiopian officers trained in Russian military schools), enough for Rastafari to emerge early. A few thousand Rastas move to Ethiopia in time for an alt-Second Italio-Ethiopian War where they serve with distinction. Some of them later come back to Jamaica--and then, with their military experience and comradeship become the leaders of the Jamaican independence movement. Somehow break apart the British Empire (alt-WW2 between the British Empire and the US, perhaps) and have a radical anticolonial US ally with Rasta-led militant independence fighters in Jamaica and maybe you can get a Rasta majority in Jamaica.
 
I don't think that a stronger Ethiopia would really boost the Rastafari movement all that much--Rastafari first emerged when Ethiopia was in the news, due to it's invasion by Italy. And I feel butterflies would prevent that from really being comparable to a true Rastafari movement. Perhaps you could have Haile Selassie come to power early (say, 1914, when he was 23) and get significantly and glorious involved in WW1 on the Allies side (perhaps through Russia, since they were close--Ethiopian officers trained in Russian military schools), enough for Rastafari to emerge early. A few thousand Rastas move to Ethiopia in time for an alt-Second Italio-Ethiopian War where they serve with distinction. Some of them later come back to Jamaica--and then, with their military experience and comradeship become the leaders of the Jamaican independence movement. Somehow break apart the British Empire (alt-WW2 between the British Empire and the US, perhaps) and have a radical anticolonial US ally with Rasta-led militant independence fighters in Jamaica and maybe you can get a Rasta majority in Jamaica.
This is great! Sounds like it'd be great material for a timeline.
 
This is great! Sounds like it'd be great material for a timeline.

The issue is that although you could probably find a POD that would both get Haile Selassie into power in 1914 and get Ethiopia into WW1, I'm not sure you could butterly that into radical self-determenationist USA vs British Empire.
 
The issue is that although you could probably find a POD that would both get Haile Selassie into power in 1914 and get Ethiopia into WW1, I'm not sure you could butterly that into radical self-determenationist USA vs British Empire.
With Haile Selassie, that's fairly easy - have him become more involved in the affairs of the Imperial Court and meet Menelik, the latter being impressed by the bright reformist and deciding to replace Iyasu with Tafari as a result of Iyasu's . . . immaturity. When Menelik dies in 1913, Tafari takes up the mantle of Emperor and becomes HS. Then German attempts to mess around with Ethiopia's Muslim ethnic groups piss off the Ethiopian government enough to get HS to go to war with the Central Powers.

I have no idea how to get a radical self-determinationist USA vs Great Britain.
 
Rastafaris even immigrated to Ethiopia , the emperor didn´t like the ideas of them whorshipping him. They were settled in rural settings, where they lived in poverty. There are even today descendents of this Jamaican immigrants.
 
With Haile Selassie, that's fairly easy - have him become more involved in the affairs of the Imperial Court and meet Menelik, the latter being impressed by the bright reformist and deciding to replace Iyasu with Tafari as a result of Iyasu's . . . immaturity. When Menelik dies in 1913, Tafari takes up the mantle of Emperor and becomes HS. Then German attempts to mess around with Ethiopia's Muslim ethnic groups piss off the Ethiopian government enough to get HS to go to war with the Central Powers.

I have no idea how to get a radical self-determinationist USA vs Great Britain.

Perhaps the US would develop an ideology of that type if it ended up being opposed to the European Empires through some geopolitical machinations?
 
Rastafaris even immigrated to Ethiopia , the emperor didn´t like the ideas of them whorshipping him. They were settled in rural settings, where they lived in poverty. There are even today descendents of this Jamaican immigrants.
I imagine that if the emperor actually cared about the rastafari and tried to make it an official religion then perhaps its reputation will be tarnished. Instead of being the religion about smoking weed and reggae its seen as just another personality cult like kim worship in north korea.
 
Rastafarians in Jamaica go to Cuba for medical training and return to their homeland a few years before the Ebola crisis. One of them opens up a Rastafarian medical college, based off Cuban and American models, and leads to a huge amount of Rastafarians becoming doctors and nurses. They serve valiantly in West Africa after the Ebola crisis begins, often being some of the few to enter the most affected areas. Their sacrifice inspires many in West Africa to become Rastafarians, and soon, the countries hit hardest by the crisis, like Nigeria, have a huge amount of Rastafarians in them. Eventually, more Rastafarian colleges pop out throughout the Caribbean, and in 2018, one is founded in Liberia. They act as beacons of hope in a dark time, and help west Africa recover from their crisis with generosity. In 2020, the Rastafarian church announced it had a whopping 20 million members in West Africa, mostly in Liberia and Nigeria. This becomes helps begin the Great Awakening, a time of modernization in Liberia.

TLDR Liberia and Nigeria become centers of the Rastafarian faith after the Ebola Crisis. Not too accurate, but I think it is interesting.
 
How about the POD that Menelik II lives three healthy years longer:

Ras Tafari becomes the governor or Harar in 1910, as OTL, and skilfully administrates the region, instituting some successful reforms. However, due to Menelik II being longer-lived, subsequent rumours of talks between the British and the Ethiopians, and Ethiopia being somewhat more threatening to the Germans leads them to attempt to raise the Harar people to revolt for religious reasons. This attempt is led secretly by Leo Frobenius, a personal friend of the Kaiser (this is OTL), but he is stopped and arrested by Tafari. Menelik II, after negotiations with the Germans break down and Menelik actually gets British support orders Frobenius executed for enticing revolt (Ethiopia is tense around it's Muslim minorities). The Kaiser is extremely angered by this, as he is a personal friend of Frobenius, and orders Ethiopia to be treated as if it was hostile. Menelik officially declares war over this, and, in exchange for British promises of diplomatic support against Italy's desire for more of Ethiopia, decides to send an expeditionary force of a few thousand men, equipped by the British.

With Ras Tafari being essentially the face of Ethiopia to the British, having been their main negotiating partner and having a good relationship with them, Tafari heads off to help guard the Suez with this force. Agitating for actual combat, Tafari convinces the British to let him take his forces to fight, and turns his knowledge of court politics to raising Ethiopia's image abroad, inviting journalists to his headquarters, speaking to them in English and generally being a propaganda device. Somewhere in here Menelik decides to name him as the heir. The Ethiopians gain a reputation for aggressiveness, hand-to-hand fighting and hard, fast marches against the Ottomans, and have a love affair with every black reporter talking about the war.

With Menelik's health failing by mid-1916, Tafari convinces the British to allow him to take his now British-equipped small army back to Ethiopia to secure his succession, with a new cohort of Ethiopians arriving to replace them. The British see 3000 Lee-Enfields, a few artillery guns and some shipping tonnage a fair price for a friendly Ethiopia. Tafari successfully crushes competition from Ethiopian feudal lords, because he has things like artillery guns, thanks to the British.

On his way home from his travels, the Afro-Caribbean missionary Marcus Garvey met in OTL (who had spent time in Basutoland and taken a Basuto wife, but traveled via the Suez here where he met Tafari and his expeditionary force) he met tells him of Tafari and Menelik, which reinforces his admiration of the last free African state. Garvey's UNIA is a bit more successful and embraces Ethiopianism a bit more, so, in 1917 he decides to travel to both Ethiopia. Garvey is also more tolerated by the British due to his support of Tafari and the Ethiopians fighting in the Middle East.

Ras Tafari is crowned in 1916 as Haile Selassie, at the age of 21, not having to act as regent as in OTL. He invites journalists and foreign dignitaries to Ethiopia, sends gifts to various world leaders and helps put Ethiopia and his expeditionary force into the papers in the west. He also starts speaking out against colonialism, worried of becoming a British protectorate with the end of the war, so he echoes Wilson's self-determination sentiments.

Rastafarianism appears early, seeing Selassie as the savoir of the African race. Rastafari expands in Jamaica, bolstered by the greater prominence of Haile Selassie being a great reformer and conscious of the utility of public opinion (Newspaper images of the old darling of the media from the war freeing the last slaves in Ethiopia will really be excellent for the Rastas popularity).

Selassie manages to put through a marriage between one of his relatives and a relative of the Emperor of Japan, as was discussed in OTL. Ethiopian coffee becomes a status good in certain circles in Japan.

Fast forward to the second Italio-Ethiopian war, and Mussolini's forces do even worse, with Ethiopia possessing a far more modern military, and Selassie makes the Italian use of gas into an even greater issue by putting journalists right in front of it. Marcus Garvey spearheads a movement to find volunteers and resources to send to Ethiopia in it's struggle, but manages to involve even white, upper-class anti-imperialists, as well as the Afro-Carribian movement. Ethiopia is not fully subjugated by the time WW2 starts, with large guerilla forces under Selassie's command-in-exile, extracting serious tolls on Italy. For this reason, Italy doesn't run it's own invasion of France until the French are almost fully defeated, and the Japanese Imperial Family actually criticizes the Italians for attacking what they see as their friend. Tensions in the tripartite pact rise.

The forces still fighting in Ethiopia up until WWII's start include Rastas and other African Liberationists, who are armed and trained by the allies. Haile Selassie starts to be viewed as a savoir, even by the Ethiopian soldiers, due to both their interaction with Rasta volunteers, and his constant fight, although they don't see him as the second coming of Jesus. By the end of WWII, the Rasta fighters are brought back to Jamaica by Garvey's Black Star Line, which also smuggles their arms back to the country, although no violence occurs yet. As India moves towards independence, several ANC leaders mention Jamaica in the context of international struggle against colonialism.

Fearful of the numbers of armed Rastas agitating in the country, Jamaican independence comes in 1955, with the Rasta community being a part of the new government. Marijuana is quietly legalized for religious purposes on the island. The WWII Rasta fighters or their children join Jamaica's new military, making it almost 70% Rasta. The religion keeps growing, and at the height of the Civil Rights movement in the US, it crosses into the US. The Black Star Line is now the national shipping company of Jamaica. In the 1967 election, a privately Rasta president is elected to be the PM of Jamaica, and runs a pair of referendums to remove the Queen as the Head of State and replace her with Haile Selassie. The first referendum succeeds, but the second fails, so the Rasta PM becoming the President of Jamaica. A military coup plot against the President is foiled when Rasta soldiers learn of it, and the offending Generals are imprisoned, boosting the President's popularity by making the opposition appear anti-democratic.
 
One of my favorite things ever was reading just how confused and uncomfortable Rastafarianism/ Rastafarians made Emperor Selassie.

"You're worshiping what now?"
But he didn't tell them that he is actually not the Son of God. Why didn't he denied their myths about him more clearly? Is it because he viewed them as possible allies/lobby-makers for Ethiopia?
 
But he didn't tell them that he is actually not the Son of God. Why didn't he denied their myths about him more clearly? Is it because he viewed them as possible allies/lobby-makers for Ethiopia?

He probably just didn’t want to really piss anyone off. When there’s a religious movement having a little crisis, it’s possible it could rise to a diplomatic incident.
 
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