07/23/2023
A message from PAFM North America youth coordinator Sam P.K. Collins on the 131st earth strong of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I Speeches & Quotes.
The farther I go along on my trod, the more I am able to overstand and appreci-love His Majesty's significance.
Two years ago, His Majesty's birthday, and the month of July, also known as Judah month, inspired the reading of the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament. That book included many scriptures about the fight against Babylon and the ascent of a Black king that would further legitimize and energize a repatriation movement.
In the months leading up to His Majesty's 131st earth strong, I gained further insight on his role in the formation of the Organization of African Unity. Of course, it wasn't done in a way that satisfied the desires of Osegyfo Kwame Nkrumah, but a United African States, like what Nkrumah intended, is the mantle for the next generation of Rastafari, and Pan Africanists as a whole, to take on at this juncture in the ongoing fight for sovereignty.
The beauty of Rastafari lies in the practical application and the literal fulfillment of the scriptures I at one point in my life had come to reject. Of course, I cannot ignore the teachings of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey, for that's what inculcated the Race First philosophy that inspired and fed my nationalist fervor. However, Emperor Haile Selassie helped me rise beyond the confines of race so that I can establish a nobility rooted in Africanity.
The time for a new type of nationalism is upon us in which all women and men are able to coexist in the world. That doesn't disregard the need for African Unity and I-ni-versal African sovereignty. As a matter of fact, it necessitates it.
Without global African sovereignty, no one is free. International governing bodies such as the United Nations and the African Union, a shell of what the OAU was, must be taken to task for what they haven't done in Africa's best interests and what they've allowed to impede Africa's progress. Without centralized power coming from the grassroots, it's impossible to shape a government that represents the people.
As the world turns toward Africa, it's time to look deep in ourselves to fulfill our potential. That begins with a change in self then a collective effort to break the chains of neocolonialism. The ball is in our court, but, believe it or not, we have much to work with what His Majesty left us.