Garvey's prophecy for an African King was the
seed for Jamaican Rastafari. Garvey, who had been born in St. Ann in 1887 and founded the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), spoke to an audience at Madison Square Garden in New York of "Ethiopia, land of our fathers," and proclaimed that 'negroes' believed in "the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God." Most significantly, he is often cited as the first to announce "Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black King; He shall be the Redeemer." (Later there was some debate about this: was it Garvey who said these words? An associate of his, the Reverend James Morris Webb, the author of A Black Man will be the Coming Universal King, Provey by Biblical History, had spoken to the same effect at a meeting in 1924.) The "Look to Africa . . ." statement is customarily cited as the spark that galvanized Garveyites into founding the sect that came to be known as Rastafarianism (so called because "Ras Tafari" was Selassie's given name.)
See also "A Rebellious Spirit"
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