Millennium proclamation from the Ancient Council of the Nyabinghi Order of Rastafari

Glory to InI father and mother of Iration H.I.M. Emperor Haile Sellasie I and Empress Woizero Menen I for InI stepping up into the Millennium.

Please review the draft of the Rastafari Millennium Proclamation below and state the Is concern and make positive input to this document by Oct. 14, 2007.

The ones input must reflect issues affecting the ones in ones regions. This proclamation will be read at the the opening at the Rastafari Exhibit at Smithsonian Institute Washington, D.C. on Nov. 2, 2007 by the delegation from Jamaica. Also, all governments globally will receive a copy.

Kindly, work on this document for it is InI stand for the Millennium and pass it on to the family global. The document was prepared several Rastafari brothers and sister with the advise from the ancient Rastafari en Jamaica.

Perfect Ises, Sela.

1. Whereas the Rastafarian movement since its inception in the early 1930,s has undergone tremendous persecution on the part of the state.
2. Whereas our Elder Patriarchs and Matriarchs suffered severe brutality and imprisonment for practicing their spiritual beliefs.
3. Whereas, all there communities from Back o, Wall, Trench Town, Seaforth, Pinnacle etc: have been destroyed by the State without justification or compensation.
4. Whereas, the Rastafari Movement suffered severe hardship due to the discriminatory attitude and policies of the State that did nothing to stop the discrimination against the Rastafarians in the marketplace, schools and communities.
5. Whereas, such discrimination caused the separation and suffering of many families,
6. Whereas, such discrimination against the Rastafarian children in schools has caused many to be disillusioned, demoralized for many years.
7. Whereas, the law against ganja which is part and parcel of the Rastafari sacred practice has caused many families to suffer the loss of parent due to imprisonment and caused many Rastafarians to suffer humiliation, loss of personal freedom, liberty and self esteem to be wrongfully stigmatized as criminals with criminal records.
8. Whereas, many parents lost their children to the State because they refused the request of the police to give three (3) cheers to the Queen of England and to use the words me and you instead of I’n’I .
9. Whereas the injuries inflicted upon our Elders during the coral Garden incident, the 1958 attack on the convention in Kingston formerly Victoria park now St. Williams Grant, the attack on the Nyahbinghi at Willowfield St. Thomas in 1977 among many others too numerous to mention, has become the basis for the financial responsibility of the State to care for and compensate these victims.
10. Whereas many individuals have been dismissed from their jobs and schools for exercising their Constitutional rights in changing their religious conviction by becoming Rastafarians and growing their locks.
11. Whereas. many Rastafarians suffered the brutal cutting of their locks in jails and on the street by the State without any remorse
12. Whereas, many Rastafarians ended up in mental institutions due to savage and inhumane blows by police batons.
13. Whereas, the Government Fact Finding Mission of 1961 proved successful in regard to the Rastafarian quest for Repatriation, yet to date nothing as been done by the Government to facilitate such a process.
14. Whereas, the findings of the National Ganja Commission overwhelmingly supported the decriminalization of ganja for personal and religious use, Rastafarians continue to suffer Court fines and imprisonment.
15. Whereas many other Government have been supporting Rastafarian causes, as in the St. Vincent Government’s agitation and successful no visa requirements for its citizens to Ethiopia, a process that saw the Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonzales traveling with Rastafarians as an official delegation to Ethiopia and also donating acres of land for the development of Rastafarians Cultural Centers in St. Vincent.
16. Whereas, in recognition of Rastafarians in Guyana, they were given five hundred acres of land for development.
17. Whereas the Barbados Government has established a Pan African commission with its present Chairperson, a Rastafarian.
18. Whereas, the Government of Panama has sponsored and sent for representation of Rastafarians in Jamaica to a Rastafari Hispanic Conference in Panama, donated fifteen acres of land for the development of a Rastafari ecological village and organic farm on land reverted from the Panama Canal, and also appointed a Rastafarian the post of National Director of the Prevention and Eradication of violence among the Youths.
19. Whereas, the Chilean Government has made exemption for Rastafarians for their sacramental use and growing of Ganja for their personal use.
20. Whereas Jamaica, who can boast of having given birth to this Indigenous culture that has influenced a global community, has not to date done anything of positive significance worthy to mention in regard to Rastafari progress, recognition and development.
21. Whereas all the above injustices and discrepancies has continued to affect the progress of the Rastafarian Movement.

We the Vanguards of the Movement hereby demand the following;

1. That full recognition of the Rastafari Movement be Constitutionally enshrined.
2. That in recognizing the Rastafari Movement an exemption under the Law, be granted in respect to our possession and use including smoking of Ganja, our Sacrament.
3. That a formal apology by both Government and the Opposition be given to the Rastafarian Movement for injustices meted out to the Rastafari Movement since its inception.
4. That financial and other assistance be granted to the Movement for the establishment of centers and welfare institutions to assist the many victims of police brutalities.
5. That discrimination against the Rastafari Movement in the workplace and educational institutions be a thing of the past and deemed unlawful, punishable by fines and or imprisonment.
6. That all rights and privileges accorded to all established churches and religions be given to Rastafarians
7. That in recognition of the Rastafarian goal of Repatriation that dialogue between the Jamaican Government and Governments of Africa, through the African Union be established in this regard.
8. That the demand for Reparation for the inhumane institution of slavery inflicted upon the Jamaican people by its former colonizer, Britain, be a responsibility of the Jamaican Government.
9. That in unison with the Barbadian Government a Pan African Commission be established in fostering closer links with the Continent of Africa.
10. That April 21st (Anniversary of the visit of H.I.M. Haile Sellassie I the First to Jamaica), November 2nd (H.I.M. Emperor Haile Sellassie I the First Coronation Anniversary) and September 11th ( Ethiopia New Year now recognized as Africa New Year) be dates for Rastafarian children to attend their traditional ceremonies, thus exempting them from schools.

Nyahbinghi Order Ancient Council
September 2007

Ras  Sela