Bonacci, Giulia. "From Pan-Africanism to Rastafari: African American and Caribbean 'Returns' to Ethiopia". In Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia: Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi, edited by Gérard Prunier and Éloi Ficquet, 147-157, London: Hurst and Company, 2015.

Bonacci, Giulia. "From Pan-Africanism to Rastafari: African American and Caribbean 'Returns' to Ethiopia". In Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia: Monarchy, Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi, edited by Gérard Prunier and Éloi Ficquet, 147-157, London: Hurst and Company, 2015.

• Since the late 1800s, a number of blacks from the Americas and Caribbean have travelled to Ethiopia and attempted to integrate themselves into its cultural life. They reflect a pan-African ideology in which Ethiopia is constructed as a nexus of black racial pride and the antithesis of the discrimination experienced by the African diaspora abroad (148).
• Benito Sylvain, a Haitian, made four trips to Ethiopia and represented Emperor Menelik II at the London Pan-African Conference of 1900. Other Caribbean blacks also came, serving as prominent physicians and tutors in the imperial court (149).
• Major campaigns to 'return' to Africa were led by Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican printer, who founded the Universal Negro Improvement Fund in Kingston in 1914. After moving to New York, he developed a following of millions in multiple continents. He Ethiopia as an exemplar of Africa, and as a representation for the African diaspora; using the term 'Ethiopia' to refer to blacks how 'Israel' is used by Christianity to refer to all Christians (149).
• The King James Bible of 1611 translated all terms referring to blacks as 'Ethiopians' in accordance with a popular Greek translation. The references to Ethiopia and its connection to the story of Exodus placed it in the black consciousness, simultaneously instilling the real Ethiopia with an new significance as the promised land of American blacks (148-149).
• Ethiopia became the focus of pan-African activities during the 1930s and 1940s, as international efforts were focused on resisting its conquest by fascist Italy. Pan-Africanists organized financial, military, and diplomatic support for Ethiopia during this time. After its liberation, many black nationalists moved to Ethiopia to participate in its reconstruction (150).
• The Ethiopian government took advantage of its positive reputation among American blacks, encouraging black immigration. Emperor Haile Selassie even gave an American patriotic organization, the Ethiopian World Federation, 200 hectares in southern Ethiopia for settlement by Caribbean and American blacks (151).
• The dominant view of Ethiopia as a promised land began to die out among American blacks during the 1950s, as nationalist movement in the colonies became more strongly associated with the struggle for civil rights than the Ethiopian government, which began to be widely seen as reactionary and autocratic (151).
• Rastafarianism began to emerge as a major movement among the Jamaican poor in the 1950s, around the same time as elite urban leaders of previous black nationalist movements lost interest in Ethiopia. Rastafarianism was borne in the 1930s, when upon his coronation, groups in Jamaica declared Emperor Haile Selassie a messiah, as demonstrated by his Christian orthodoxy and calls for Caribbean blacks to settle in Ethiopia (151-152).
• Jamaican Rastafarians believed that Emperor Haile Selassie promised a liberation of all black people, backed up by the divine authority given to him by the Ethiopian Church. Rastafarians rejected the colonial standards of dress and beauty, adopting dreadlocks and wearing African patterns. They were initially suppressed by colonial authorities (152-153).
• 'Returning' to Ethiopia was a central pillar of the Rastafarian faith, however the first successful mission was only achieved in 1968 following a visit by Emperor Haile Selassie. A good number of Rastafarians ended up moving to Ethiopia, receiving land granted to the Ethiopian World Federation (153-154).
• Immigrants to Ethiopia, especially the Rastafarians, did not fare well during the 1974 coup. They were deeply associated by the imperial regime, and their land and housing was nationalized in 1975. Many fled abroad, but others stayed and some Rastafarians even continued to immigrant during the Derg regime (154).
• Both the leaders of the Derg junta and Ethiopian peasants were confused by the Rastafarians who came to Ethiopia, wondering why foreigners would move to a country that so many others were fleeing. Some in the Derg regime liked them, and granted the group additional land in 1986 for their expanding numbers (154-155).
• With the fall of the Derg regime in 1991, immigration into Ethiopia massively increased, with hundreds of Rastafarians immigrating to Ethiopia during the 1990s and early decades of the 21st Century. These immigrants are overwhelmingly concentrated in the South, often in unregistered housing (155).
• Rastafarians play a unique role in the representation of Ethiopia in world politics, spreading certain aspects of its language and culture, and advocating for nationalist issues, but for reasons mystifying to most Ethiopians. Rastafarians are accepted as a boon for Ethiopia, but they are not well integrated and locals often still refers to see them as Ethiopian (155).