Influential Rasta women honoured

THE 127th anniversary of the birthday Empress Menen, wife of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, was marked by the honouring of 13 Rastafari empresses on March 28 at the Ashanti Restaurant, Hope Gardens. Behind this celebration was a group of current generation Rastafari faithful called the Rastafari Youth Initiative Council, which for the second year, marked the occasion by honouring the works of elder “sistrens”.

At the grand old age of 91, empress Gertrude Campbell headed the list of honourees for the Empress Menen meritorious award with the elevation to Queen Mother. She was an aide to Lenoard Percival Howell, the visionary who first proclaimed Rastafari at Pinnacle on the outskirts of Spanish Town, St Catherine.

Completing the distinguished list of honourees were 78-year-old Empress Adassa Narine and Empress Elaine Walters (Asade Miriam, guardian of the Holy Virgin Mary), who faithfully served the Women Guild Society of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Also on the list of honourees were well-known journalist/filmmaker Empress Barbara Blake Hannah, who received the Ethiopian name Makeda in 1984 when she was baptised in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Another awardee, Empress Pauline Petinaud, had attended The Queen’s School before migrating to the United States as a teenager, receiving a bachelor’s degree in business administration from California State University. She got involved with the civil rights movement and, for her work with the taxicab union there, was awarded a scholarship to Cornell University’s black studies department.

Also recognised was Empress Minnion Phillips, vegetarian restauranteur, who regularly staged a variety of cultural events and who helped arrange for the 1997 reburial of the remains of four slaves found on the Sevile Estate in St Ann.

Added to the list was Empress Nana Farika Berhane — writer of Rastafari Voice, a grass roots publication of the Rastafari Movement Association — who has remained active working in the interest of Rastafari particularly for its women and children.

Other matriarchs recognised for their years of service to the Rastafari community were Empress Charlena McKenzie, Empress Hyacinth Chambers, Empress Joan Wright, Empress Dorett Townsend, Empress Christine Mundy and Empress Monica Harris.