The Jamaican Rastafarian community in Shashamane, Ethiopia, will commemorate Rastafari Month with a special tribute event on April 10th at the Lily and Vernon Leach Lounge. This gathering serves dual purposes: honoring reggae icon Bunny Wailer, who passed in March 2021, and paying respects to Donald “Flippins” Leach, a foundational Jamaican figure in Ethiopia’s Rasta movement who died in 2012.
The event will feature performances by Sydney Salmon, chairman of the Jamaican Rastafarian Development Community (JRDC), alongside artists including Orthodox Issachar, Teddy Dan, Iron Gad, Pat Joseph, and the Melody Sisters. Salmon, an East Kingston native who relocated to Ethiopia in 2001, has released several musical works including songs ‘Oh Lord,’ ‘Trees,’ and ‘Give To You,’ with his third album ‘Andromeda: Sign of The Times’ launched in November.
In exclusive comments, Salmon revealed ambitious preparations for the 60th anniversary celebration of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I’s historic state visit to Jamaica. “I learned of his significance through Rastafarian elders while growing up,” Salmon reflected on the 1966 visit that occurred when he was two years old.
The JRDC records indicate approximately 600 Jamaicans and their families currently residing in Ethiopia, many in Shashamane where Emperor Selassie I granted 500 acres of land in 1948 to members of the African Diaspora. This humanitarian gesture acknowledged international support during Ethiopia’s conflict with Mussolini’s fascist forces.
Many Jamaican settlers belong to the Twelve Tribes of Israel organization, established by Vernon “Gad” Carrington in Kingston’s Trench Town in 1968. Salmon himself, a former banker who lived in New York for 15 years before moving to East Africa, represents this ongoing cultural exchange between Jamaica and Ethiopia that continues to thrive decades after Emperor Selassie’s death in 1975.