Lion of Juda

Animal emblematic of the Ethiopian royalty (animalist emblem of the davidic and salomonic dynasty), the lion is without any doubt the symbol generally associated with the identity rastafarienne.

As of the first steps of the Rastafari movement, the first preachers confront the titles inherited by Haïlé Sélassié Ier (born under the sign of the lion…) at the time of its imperial sacring in November 1930 (“Lord of the lords, Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Juda, elected official of God and Defender of the faith”) with several passages of the Bible. Just like the lamb, the lion is one of the figures of Christ (“Juda is a young lion” (Genesis: 9)).

Very quickly, Négus is exalté like new the Messie conquering and victorious liberator of the black people such this lion mentioned in the first songs rastas: “The Lion off Juda shall station-wagon every chain and give custom the victory again and again…”

In the biblical Bestiary, the lion is distinguished, by the nobility of its qualities, other animals (ass, snake, goat, ram…), and is opposed, by its uprightness, with the teratological troop of the dragon S, Baal, Bélial and other démoniaques monstrosities. Animal quasi-totemic, the lion incarnates with the eyes of the rastas more human high-qualities: those of courage, dignity, nobility, sovereignty, and resistance… This anthropomorphic vision of the lion is translated in their expression: “Lion-Man”. The rastas operate a parallel between their Dreadlocks and the mane leonine. The intellectual rastafarien, Dennis Forsythe wishes to make evolve/move the movement rastafari in the way of this “lionism”.

Imperial figure, the lion is reproduced on many Ethiopian paintings recalling the history of the kingdom Abyssin. Falling under this same pictorial filiation, art rasta often represents it in the middle of a shield of David, equipped with a crown, royal sceptre or of an Ethiopian cross copte. In theology rasta, the King of the Kings appears under the features of two animalist metaphors complementary: the lion (conqueror) and the lamb (wisdom). The reference to the “lion of the tribe of Juda” intervenes each time a rasta tries to explain its belief in Jah Rastafari: “And I cried much of what nobody was found worthy to open the Book nor to look at it. And one of the old men says to me: Do not cry; here the lion of the tribe of Juda, the kid of David, it has the capacity to open the book and its seven seals. ” Of aucuns will be ironical about the carnivorous inclinations of the king of the animals, not very compatible with I-tal dietetics preached by the rastas. Objection quickly drawn aside by the latter which quote the Holy Writings once more: “The lion as ox will eat straw”