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Haile Selassie forms the center of the Rastafarian movement. "Haile Selassie is regarded by the Rastafarians as a messianic figure. A direct descendant of the Judeo-Christian tradition, he claims his ancestry from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. At the same time, fundamental to his spiritual make-up is the Coptic Christian belief of Monophysitism, or the indwelling existence of Christ in each of us. In this sense, Ras Tafari is God, a proclamation often taken literally by many Rastafarians, who refer to their Messiah as Jah [surely derived from Yahweh or Jah-weh, the name of the Jewish God]." (Jacobs, 2) According to many Rastafarians, Haile Selassie is a manifestation of God sent to be the black man's messiah.
Looking for someone or something which would take them out of oppression, Jamaicans began to accept Rasta ideas of a very communal economic system and of the importance of a positive black identity; all of these which were being taught by Jamaican activists such as Leonard Howell, Robert Hinds, Joseph Hibbert and Archibald Dunkled (Lewis, 2). Their message was that Haile Selassie was the living God for the black race. This message was in harsh contrast to the ideas of good work ethic and capitalist cooperation that Jamaica's upper class was trying to instill on the lower-class mind-set. The black Jamaicans showed their rejection of these ideas in the way they dressed, wore their hair, and spoke. Despite the fact that the modernizing of the economic system in Jamaica promised the lower-class the hope of progress and prosperity, the early Rastas rejected labor unions and political parties, clinging to a life style based on Africanized culture. In this respect the Rasta movement differed from Garvey's teachings and pushed for black capitalism. These movements were similar, but looked to accomplish very different ends. The main goal of the Rastas was to get back to their African peasant traditions/roots while Garvey wanted to incorporate the black community into modern economic development.
