Members of the Ethiopian Africa Black International Congress believe Rastafarians aren’t getting the respect they deserve in Jamaica and want to repatriate to Ethiopia. (The Star)
A Jamaican Rastafarian is supportive of American President Donald Trump’s deportation policy since he believes it helps the case for Black repatriation.
Priest Prince, a member of the Ethiopian Africa Black International Congress, gathered with more than a dozen other Rastas outside the Kingston, Jamaica, offices of a local newspaper to promote Jamaicans’ return to Africa.
Prince backs Trump’s new provisions that would make almost all undocumented immigrants targets for deportation, dismantling the Barack Obama administration’s directives that focused on convicted criminals’ extradition. He told The Star newspaper that he hopes Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness would work with Trump to aid Black Americans’ and Jamaicans’ move to the motherland.
“My word to the prime minister, mi woulda love him get to Donald Trump and mek him know is a good work Donald Trump doing by stepping up the repatriation program,” Prince said. “Him must work with Donald Trump to help get the people from Jamaica to Africa through the repatriation process.
“I see him taking the Black people and sending them to Jamaica,” he added. “But he should just send them to Africa and done because sending them to Jamaica is going to stir up more rioting and war because many will come hungry, no money. If him coulda send dem to Africa, it would be more preferable for everyone.”
The E.A.B.I.C members believe their right to claim Jamaican nationality under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will continue to be violated the longer they live on the island. Christopher Morant, another priest in the group, says the Rastas wish to return to Africa because of the infringement.
“We are not Jamaicans,” Morant said. “We are Ethiopians because where we come from, we still hold that roots and we need to go home.”
Priest Earl blamed the failure of Jamaican governments to grant repatriation to Rastafarians for the outbreak of crime in the country and said, “The people would come forward to their Black self if they were able to return to Africa.
“They would eat Black, talk Black and have a Black understanding, and you would love the God inna yuh and love the God in your sister, also,” Earl said.
