This article was sourced from a Rasta brethren:
Sept 3, 1937: EWF Presents Its Charter & Early Rastafari Leaders
Law firm of Delaney, Lewis and Williams presents the Charter of the Ethiopian World Federation, Incorporated at the regular Friday meeting of the Ethiopian World Federation, 36 West 135th Street.
In presenting the Charter, Attorney Delaney said,
“I never dreamed that I would be called upon to serve His Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie. Dr. Bayen has come to this country and has felt out its pulse and was able to accomplish his purpose. He knew what he wanted in the charter; he knew what you wanted — an organ that would encompass the whole world wherever Black People live, and he got it. You have a right, a charter, but without the work of each one of you, it will be useless. With this right, there is a responsibility and a duty. It gives me great pleasure to present the Charter.”
Attorney Lewis emphasized the oneness of the Black race everywhere, saying:
“The destiny of the Black man in Ethiopia is just as important to me as the destiny of the Black man in Harlem. A Black man from Jamaica or Trinidad or Georgia is the same. The white man has been trying to divide us on that issue for a long time. I believe in the omnipotence above and in the Bible. I believe that princes shall come out of Ethiopia. I believe that the destiny of the Black man is in the stars and soon will come to the realization of his destiny here on this earth. The difference between Black Americans and West Indians is that on the way from Africa, some of our foreparents dropped off in Jamaica and others came on to the United States.”
Mr Mathew E. Gardner, EWF Chairman said:
“We will profit by the mistakes of the past. In spite of past defeats, the work must go on until freedom is assured. The Ethiopian World Federation is THE ORGANIZATION, not merely an organization. Unity of all Black people in the United States, Africa and elsewhere is our goal. Soon the white man, our oppressor, will realize that the Black man is united.”
In that same year, EWF Local #17 was established in Jamaica with L.F.C. Mantle as President and Paul Erlington as vice-president. Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert, Archibald Dunkley and other early Rastafari leaders were EWF foundational members. On December 31, 1938, Leonard P. Howell wrote to the EWF newspaper, the Voice of Ethiopia (see news article). By 1939, the EWF had nineteen (19) locals (including Jamaica — see article) and hosted its first international convention in New York City, July 19-23. It was the EWF under the Red, Gold and Green banner that first united the early Rastafari leaders with the Government of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie.
In 1939, Leonard Howell was the first to break away from the EWF by establishing the the Ethiopian Salvation Society. A year later, after Malaku E. Bayen’s death, Howell established the Pinnacle settlement. On July 25, 1941, EWF Local #17 member Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert established a branch of the Ethiopian Mystic Masons. Six years later, Bredda Arthur, Phillip Panhandle, Kurukong and others founded the Youth Black Faith in Trench Town, West Kingston, Jamaica. From this emerged the Nyahbinghi Order as it is known today.
It was in 1958 that EWF member Charles Edwards (aka Prince Emmanuel) established the Ethiopia Africa Black International Congress and Church of Salvation at 54 B Spanish Town Road.
Also, it was EWF Local #15 member Vernon Carrington (aka Prophet Gad) who established the Twelve Tribes of Israel in Kingston.
It was directly out of the EWF that came so many of the Houses of Rastafari
This is a great website from the creator because we must come together. We must stop this division among black people and become world leaders as we were during the ancient world. We let names, countries, cultures, divide us. We are the most high true origin, and we must get back to our roots, shalom, salaam, hotep, axe, peace to all. Yes we came from the stars.
We must raise the black women back to our true self, because without her we are nothing.
@Thomas.I agree with you.We Afrikans must understand that our Black Women are our own EQUAL HALVES. We must cease the abuse of our Black Queens and reveling in degeneracy via capitalist outlets of “entertainment “
Leonard P Howell was arrested for sedition and declaring his majesty the returned messiah, approximately 5 years, before the 1st EWF was established…
Some of Howell’s early involvements as a Rastafari:
Howell returned to Jamaica in 1932 and by April 1933 he began preaching – on record are his famous street meetings in Trinity Ville, St Thomas, where he unleashed on Jamaica a new thinking that irritated the planters, the church and the colonial authorities. He began to preach that Haile Selassie, King of Kings, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah and Light of the World, returned to earth as the messiah. By the end of 1933 he was the most sought-after political dissenter in Jamaica by the colonial authorities. He was arrested for a speech that was presented in Seaforth, St Thomas, in December 1933, and was tried in March 1934 by a chief justice who was the presiding judge in the John Chilembwe trials in Southern Nyasaland. In the famous 1934 trial, Robert Hinds told the judge that Howell was the first to preach the divinity of Haile Selassie in Jamaica. The idea and movement played a role in transforming Jamaica and gave to the world a new religious idea. It is time for Howell to get the recognition and respect that he deserves.
The Ethiopian World Federation, established date:(the Gong was a Rastaman before
the first Federation Office or Branch was established. In fact he went in with his vision
and left when he realised that hope and the way for us, was not in the meditation of those early members. FACT)
The Ethiopian World Federation, Incorporated [2], was originally a not-for-profit membership organization, incorporated in the State of New York, United States of America [3]. Later it was also registered by the Internal Revenue Services as a 501 (C) 4 (civic- league, social welfare) thus making the organization and her legal subsidiary locals, tax exempt.
This organization originally came into being on August 25, 1937 in New York City, through the efforts of African (Black) Americans who, in 1936, sent a delegation consisting of three prominent Harlem figures, all leaders of the black organization known as the United Aid for Ethiopia. Reverend William Lloyd Imes, Pastor of the prestigious St. James Presbyterian Church, Philip M. Savory of the Victory Insurance Company and co-owner of the New York Amsterdam News, and Mr. Cyril M Philp, secretary of the United Aid, sailed to England in the summer of 1936 to speak with H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I concerning financial matters [4].
In response, the Emperor empowered his personal physician Dr. Malaku E. Bayen (also spelt Melaku E. Bayen) as his special emissary in order to officially establish the Ethiopian World Federation, Incorporated in 1936/37
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/Howell-man-of-heroic-proportions_8059664#ixzz20vog0JRR
Facts can be used as propaganda, but only righteously and without biasness. Never to cunningly push for an idea, which in itself has failed. The E.W.F is not the place or institution that gave birth to Rastafari. The Rastafari movement is a synergy of many experience of us, Kashta(Kushite), stolen, illegally and then humiliated and left on this Island in the Carry-Beyond (Caribbean) to work, in slavery for ever. This strange, never heard of reality to be faced by ANY NATION, encouraged I-n-I through the desire to live in peace and raspectfully as any other life-form on this planet, with abuse, was what led us to rebel, more frequently than any other place on earth, against these evil beings(Europeans). This desire to be free, which led to many uprising, was carried through the wombs, of all subsequent mothers and loins of all subsequent fathers, into the early 20th century when it was manifested with a light-Qadamawi Hayle Sellassie-guiding I and I way. The Gang as a result of all this heritage, along with his intellectual abilities and personal experiences, was able to fuse it all together into The Ethiopian Salvation Society/Ethiopian Benevolent Society and onward to Pinnacle, where the last authentic practice of Rastafari was experienced. What happened since then, his posturing and folly to see who have the right to inherit the throne. But there in NO ONE to inherit this throne, because ALL OF US ARE IT’S HEIRS, SO WE HAVE TO RE-ESTABLISH THE THOUGHTS AND PRACTICE(DAILY PRACTICE) OF PINNACLE BEFORE SEE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OUR LIFETIME, THE WAY THAT THE GANG WANTED US TO MOVE. BECAUSE AT THE MOMENT I AND I ARE FAR OFF COURSE.
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