Lenord Howell, the Adam of the Rastafarians

Dr. Leonard Howell was “The First Rasta” who challenged the Anglican Church’s motto
that said, "The British is an empire in which the sun never sets." In the 1930s in
Jamaica, he watched the sunset of the Anglican Church in Jamaica Island. Before he
saw this sunset, was living in Harlem, New York, where he spent the productive ten
years of his youth. When he arrived Harlem, in the early 1920s, Ethiopian-ism, the
spiritual discourse was the order of the day at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. Outside
this church, in the secular world, there was the New Negro Movement, which later
named the Harlem Renaissance was on the rise in the literature, poem, song, music,
and art.

The shakers and movers of this new movement, mostly were African Caribbean, who
moved to Harlem way before Howell. In their inner circle, they were passing the de
facto leader of Ethiopia, Regent Ras Tafari Makonnen’s message. These were the on
going movement in Harlem in the 1920s.

Ten years later, after the coronation Regent Ras Tafari took place in Addis Ababa,
Howell returned to Jamaica to preach a new gospel, Rastafari, as a replacement for
European Christianity.

Howell with the new gospel in Jamaica beat the Anglican preachers, while carrying
Ras Tafari’s coronation picture in one hand and the Ethiopian Bible, a copy of which he
had obtained from the Abyssinian Baptist Church, in the other.

As it has been said, in order to control the destiny of people, one has to control the
concept of God. In this endeavor, Howell reviewed and renovated the concept, the
image, and the character of God. Like Moses did run away from the Pharaoh's house
to announce the God of Israel, so did Howell from the Anglican Church to introduce the
God of Rastafarians. He succeeded in shattering the lofty glass barrier of mental
slavery. He relocated the home address of God from heaven to Ethiopia. He became
the fourth after Homer, Ben Burrell, and Rabbi Ford who stated Ethiopia as ‘the
favorite place of God’. Homer in the 8th century BC, on Aethiopia(Ethiopia), wrote that
the god and gods were absent in Europe because they were visiting “The blameless
Aethiopia”. In the 1920s, Ben Burrell, and Rabbi Ford, the first Afro-Diaspora, in their
“Universal Ethiopian Anthem,” wrote “Ethiopia, where the gods loved to be”.

This article is not to write about the life history of Howell but to sketch where his vision,
Ras Tafari Makonnen, Emperor Haile Selassie, the God of Rastafarians, was possibly
envisioned. Knowing the sociopolitical dynamic of Harlem in the 1920s was to know
where the vision of Howell esteemed from.

The vision of Rastafari was not began on November 2, 1930, at the time when Ras
Tafari was crowned. The thinking process had begun in the 1920s, which official
declared on the 1930s.

To unravel Howell's vision is to study the on going movements, which helped him to
think different. Harlem as it was the birth place of Ethiopian- ism and The New Negro
Movement, and it was also a place where the message of the Regent was welcomed
with wide arms.

Probably this message inspired Howell to think about Africa. The Regent’s message
was not new. It had been circulated since 1910 at the time when the Regent was
called Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen. It came in 1910 by way of the white adventurers,
merchants, gunrunners, and missioners who had a chance to meet Dejazmach Tafari
in Harar. They described him as an 18 year-old governor who wanted to employee
black men in his new administration. Honnas Topkeyan was the first person who put
the Dejazmach’s message on the black newspapers in New York and Chicago. He was
an Armenian tycoon who had a businesses in Istanbul (Turkiye), New York and
Chicago.

Although the Dejazmach was the first to have his name in the newspapers, Emperor
Tewodros and Ras Makonen, respectively, were the firsts pioneers motivated about the
exodus of black people to Ethiopia.

Unlike the duet, the Dejazmach’s pan-Africanism was from Joseph Vitaline, the first
Diaspora in Harar with a medical doctorate degree. The black surgeon in his part time
was the Dejazmach’s childhood mentor. When the Dejazmach moved from Harar to
Addis Ababa to be the Regent under Queen Zewditu Menelik reign, sent his official
delegate to New York and Chicago.

This delegate was led by Dejazmach Nadwe, the future Ras, was a nephew of
Empress Zewditu. The delegate’s mission had two folds: for the State Department,
was to renew the 1904 treaty between the two countries, but to African Americans was
to look for help for Regent Ras Tafari Makonnen’s the tree-old new administration.

Nobody would miss this delegate in New York and Chicago. Aside from their mission,
the way they dressed disproved the stereotype about Africa. They gave the impression
that the New York and Chicago fashion industry had not yet upheld their standards.
They combined traditional clothing with European style. It was the first time African
Americans saw the black delegate led by white officers. When they appeared at the
Abyssinian Baptist Church, they welcomed with standing ovation.

Unlike the Eddie Murphy “Coming to America”, they came to find “Friends of Ethiopia”
to help Regent Ras Tafari who envisioned Ethiopia as the last destiny for the sons and
daughters of enslaved Africa. Among the members of the delegate who stole the show
were, Belate Geta Heruy and Kenteba Gebru, the gods of intellectuals. They were
greeted by many African Caribbean, including Rabbi Arnold Ford, A.J. Rogers, and
Marcus Garvey. The Rabbi after his meeting, was inspired to write the “Universal
Ethiopian Anthem,” with Ben Burrell, and later repatriated to Ethiopia. Rogers, the
pioneer journalist and authors, wrote the story of Belate Geta Heruy, in “100 Amazing
Facts About The Negro”. Garvey, another Jamaican and the de facto leader of the
Diaspora, made the following statement, "From what we have heard and what we do
know, Ras Tafari is ready and willing to extend the hand of invitation to any Negro who
desires to settle in his kingdom."

Before this speech, Garvey invited the delegate to attend his historic impending UNIA
convention. However, his messenger Rabbi Ford, was advised to write to Queen
Zewdetu Menelik so the Queen would send another delegate. Garvey wrote to the
Queen but his letter was returned 12 months later unopened.

This letter was banned by the surrounding colonial powers. Italy, France, and Britain,
the gate keepers of the seas and oceans of Africa, were controlled what would go in
and out of Ethiopia. Like they prevented this letter, they sabotaged The Japan Imperial
not to have a relationship with the Regent. Despite the letter issue, upon hearing that
Ras Tafari Maknonnen ended slavery and established a school for newly freed slaves
in Addis Ababa, Garvey made his famous phrase, “Wake Up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!
Let us work towards the one glorious end of a free, redeemed and mighty nation.”
The Regent’s message was a thought provocation for many including Garvey and
Lungston Hughes.

In the 1920s, living in Harlem was like living in two revolutionary periods. Ethiopian-ism
and Harlem Renaissance were the unique revolutions which took place during slavery
and Jim Crow Laws, respectively.

Ethiopian-ism was the brain child of slaves. The term was coined after the Abyssinian
Baptist Church was inagurated, which helped by the Ethiopian sailors who came vie
the Red Sea.

When Ethiopians anchored their merchant vessel at the Hudson River in 1806,
Thomas Jefferson, the owner of 200 slaves, was the third president of the US. Ever
since, this church has become an unofficial legation of Ethiopia, ten years before
Emperor Tewodros, the founding father of modern Ethiopia, was born in Qura, Gondar.
The church became where the God of Ethiopia was worshiping.

Walter Bagehot, a social Darwinist in quatrain depicted the God of Ethiopia:

"The Ethiopian gods have Ethiopian lips."

Bronze cheeks and woolly hair.
The Grecian gods are like the Greeks.
As keen-eyed, cold, and fair."

In the history of the Ethiopians’

contribution to the black race, no one has been as consequential as these sailors, who
revolutionized the mindset of the Harlem slaves. These slaves to honors the Ethiopian
sailors and Bakos, the first envoy of the Ethiopian Queen Hendeke(Candace), who
was baptized in Jerusalem by Apostle Phillip in the first AD, named this church the
Abyssinian Baptist. (Ethiopia was once known as Abyssinia, and the term “Abyssinian”
refers to the people.)

William Steen, a famous lawyer and dear friend of Dr. Malaku Bayen, who translated
the 1931 first Ethiopian constitution from French to English, in praising the Ethiopian
contribution to Harlem: "The Abyssinian Baptist Church is self-explanatory for the
presence of Ethiopians. They were the first to declare the ‘Emancipation Proclamation’
50 years before the supposed proclamation of Abraham Lincoln. The members of this
church were also the first self-emancipated Abyssinians”.
When Howell arrived Harlem, this church had just celebrated its 112 year anniversary.
For Howell, it was enlightening witnessing to see black people worshiping a
non-European deity.

To his curiosity, the pioneers of African Caribbean quenched his desire about Ethiopia
and Ethiopian-ism. Right after the victory of Adwa, Ethiopia was described by
Europeans as non-Africa. Even Menelik, the proven war genius and the very
dark-skinned emperor, was depicted as “Caucasian- Cush”.
To counter this propaganda, the Harlem intellectuals had to rewrite the history of
Ethiopia. They described it as an Island of freedom, a home of black queens and
kings, waving the nation flag, while surrounded by colonial powers. It was here Howell
came to know the history of Ethiopia.

Claude Mackay, a native Jamaican, one of the jewels on the crown of the Harlem
Renaissance, revealed how black people identified themselves: "A religious sense of
Ethiopia is far more real to Afro-Americans than the West African land…Ethiopia to
them is the wonderful Ethiopia of the Bible”. Out of this, Howell, ten years later, when a
light bulb of Rastafari went off his head, would announce his vision as a new spiritual
movement to say farewell to the European Christianity.

"We learn from history what we did not learn from history." THE END