Every year the Haile Selassie I Birthday Celebration offers rolling reggae rhythms and spicy Caribbean food beneath fluttering red, gold, and green Ethiopian flags. This year, after 17 years as one of the biggest reggae festivals in the midwest, the two-day celebration is attempting to return to its spiritual foundation.
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“We want to have it more cultural this year,” says Isiah Ferguson, a founder and organizer of the event. “Sometimes, when we try to teach the history, it goes in one ear and out the other, so we’re putting [Rastafarian history] with the music.”
“A rasta is one that deal with love and righteousness,” says Diaz, who participated in the early days of the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica in the 40s. Selassie’s coronation in 1930 and his claim of direct lineage from the Bible’s King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba prompted his followers to declare the sovereign, also known as Ras Tafari, the messiah returned. “I read the Bible and understand about Jesus and Selassie, ’cause it’s the same person,” says Diaz.
