Rastafarian elder Ras Michael declares 'Selassie is not God!'

In 1976, Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus OD recorded a song that would define him. “A New Name Jah Have” was a Rastafari anthem, a thunderous declaration of faith.

“How excellent is thy name. Thou have set thy glory above the heavens,” the lyrics proclaim. “Heathen no like Jah name.”

More than four decades later, in a revealing interview, Ras Michael told me something many fellow Rastafarians would find difficult to accept: Haile Selassie I is not God.

Ras Michael’s declaration echoed the Emperor’s own words in a historic 1967 interview with Canadian journalist Bill McNeil. Unlike earlier private denials, Selassie’s statement was captured on audio and broadcast globally. It created an unmistakable public record that left little room for misinterpretation or claims of mistranslation.

Ras Michael, the Jamaican-born reggae singer and Nyahbinghi drummer who is now in his 80s, first embraced Rastafari in the late 1950s, when the faith was still taking shape in Jamaica. As a teenager, he moved with his Christian mother and siblings to Waterhouse in Kingston, where he met Rasta brethren, among them Mortimo St. George “Kumi” Planno, who convinced him of the virtues of joining the movement.

The faith he joined grew out of the philosophy of Jamaica’s National Hero Marcus Garvey, who taught of the coming of a Black king. When Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia, many saw that prophecy fulfilled and took it as proof of his divinity.

Ras Michael & The Sons of Negus rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of the African, Rasta and reggae movement that emerged in Jamaica. He became the first Rastafarian to host a radio program on JBC Radio, titled “Lion of Judah Time.” He went on to work with Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Roberta Flack and Stevie Wonder.

He also performed at the 1978 One Love Peace Concert, where Bob Marley brought together PNP and JLP political leaders — then Prime Minister Michael Manley and Opposition Leader Edward Seaga. Ras Michael still speaks of Planno as the man who showed him how a Rastafarian should carry himself.

“You have to deal with understanding and moderation,” Ras Michael said. “That is what Planno does.”

The Emperor Arrives

On April 21, 1966, Haile Selassie made his maiden trip to Jamaica. Thousands of Rastafarians gathered at Palisadoes Airport in Kingston to greet the man they believed to be the living God, and Ras Michael was among them.

He remembers a scene of celebration and chaos, with the crowd surrounding the plane. When the Emperor did not emerge, Planno was called aboard. He returned and told the crowd to make way for Selassie. Ras Michael could not get close to the Emperor at the National Stadium.

“We no get to see him there,” he said. “The stadium pack.” He later met Emperor Haile Selassie at Vale Royal in Kingston.

For many, the visit was transcendent. Rita Marley told Washington Post journalist Timothy White, “When Selassie's motorcade passed by me in 1966, and he waved, I saw the nail prints in his hands -- just like Christ's.”

Ras Michael acknowledges that His Majesty treated the Rastafarians he met with respect. But he said the Emperor made something plain to them: he was not God.

"During a pre baptismal meeting with archbishop Abuna Ayesha he told us Rastafarians that we could not be baptize us in the name of Rastafari and that we could only be baptized in the name of Eyesus Christos ,Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior and some man started to cuss saying, “fire bun”! and stormed out the meeting , Michael recalled.

A Crisis of Understanding

For a movement built on the Emperor’s divinity, the words landed like a stone. Some erupted in anger. Others took them in.

"Some listened to come to a better understanding," Ras Michael said. "Even myself started to question whether Emperor Haile Selassie was God. I could not comprehend."

His Imperial Majesty Emperor Selassie I was a Christian king who followed Christ and did not adhere to all Rastafarian teachings, Ras Michael said, noting that the Emperor had said so himself. Ras Michael contrasted this with the example of Jesus.

"Christ however has always acknowledged who he is," he said.

His reasoning is rooted in scripture. Everything God made was good, he told me, and then God made man.

"Man could never be God," he said.

Ras Michael does not describe his change of heart as a rejection of Selassie. He speaks of the Emperor with reverence. What he cannot accept is the leap from honor to worship.

"We Rastafarians wanted to give him what he was due," Ras Michael shared. "However, worshiping him as God could not be."

He calls his outlook a “Rasta Christian” belief, one that runs counter to the movement’s early days, when belief in Selassie’s divinity was widely held.

A Full-Circle Moment in Harlem

Last Sunday, that long journey brought Ras Michael to a pew in Harlem. He was a special guest of Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie, the Emperor’s grandson and president of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, at a service at Abyssinian Baptist Church. The visit coincided with Meskel, an Ethiopian celebration.

Ras Michael serves as an evangelist of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The setting carried historical significance. The church traces its roots to 1808 and the name Abyssinia. In 1954, Selassie visited and presented the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. with an Ethiopian Orthodox processional cross.

"It was a beautiful and spiritual occasion," Ras Michael said. "To be acknowledged for my contributions as a Rastafarian Evangelist...and to be recognized by the Ethiopian Crown...I am humbled." He added that it was a pleasure to meet Adam Clayton Powell III and "to see His Majesty's legacy continue."

Michael’s daughter, Empress Niomie, said she was moved by the welcome.

"It warms my heart to see how much love and respect they have for Pops," she said. "He's one of those living, surviving Rastafarian elders and they gave him his flowers."

Sixty years after he stood in a Kingston crowd waiting for the Emperor, Michael was welcomed by the Emperor’s family. He is still singing about Jah. He has simply come to know who he believes Jah to be.