@article{1355577,
      recid = {1355577},
      title = {The emperor's birthday [electronic resource] /},
      publisher = {Filmakers Library,},
      address = {New York, NY :},
      pages = {1 online resource (52 min.).},
      year = {1997},
      note = {Originally released as DVD.},
      abstract = {When Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was overthrown in  August, 1975, by Colonel Mengistu, sixty of his cabinet  members were executed and he was never seen again. Yet  there remained the belief among many Rastafarians that he  was still alive. They continued to worship him as the Lion  of Judah and considered him the Black Christ. The Emperor s  Birthday, using old footage and interviews, sifts through  the sequence of events that led to a Rastafarian movement  in Ethiopia, England and the Caribbean. It shows that the  movement was both political and spiritual. Curiously, the  Emperor was mostly indifferent to them. In 1935, Mussolini  invaded Ethiopia. Haile Selassie appealed unsuccessfully to  the League of Nations for help. In reaction to this  abandonment, there was an outpouring of support for him  from people of African descent in the West. Marcus Garvey  from Jamaica declared Africa for Africans and urged  repatriation. Jazz in Harlem echoed with a longing for  Africa. The film traces the preparations being made for the  celebration of the Emperor s one hundredth birthday. We  meet Rastas who had made arduous journeys from all over the  world, and learn of the struggle with poverty faced by the  ones who have settled in Ethiopia. This is probably as  close a look as outsiders will get at a gentle, spiritual  people who are closely identified with the African soul and  whose ways have always aroused suspicion.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/1355577},
}