Rasta Paradise - Completing Circle of Understanding

Addis Fortune (Addis Ababa)

NEWS
8 May 2007
Posted to the web 8 May 2007

By Brian Burrell
Addis Ababa

Rasta's Paradise, a documentary film by Parine Jaddo, premiered at City Hall on Saturday, May 5, 2007. The film aims to connect the historical and spiritual Rastafari movement to its local context in Ethiopia. Combining musical performances, interviews and shots of the scenic Ethiopian landscape, Jaddo explicates the movement as it exists here and now in Ethiopia as a living embodiment of its philosophy.

The 50 minute film documents the grievances leading to the "exodus" of Diaspora Africans and movement from the Western world to return to their native land, resisting "neo-colonial" systems. As one of the few film makers to receive access to detail Bob Marley's 60th birthday celebration in Ethiopia during February 2005, Jaddo delivers a unique perspective on the mind and soul of the Rasta movement.

The exclusive access and close connections Jaddo has to the movement gave her the opportunity for interviews shown in the film with Rastafari elders such as Bongo Rocky, Congo Rupert and Mama Baby I; artist and musician Teddy Dan; and activists Ras Tagassa King and Dr Desta Meghoo. Professor Abiyi Ford of Addis Abeba University (AAU) puts the current state of affairs into historical perspective as the film takes the viewer through rural Ethiopia, Wondo Genet and the "Promised Land" of Shashemane.

The Africa Unite event in 2005 served as both a catalyst and inspiration for the filmmaker who interviews Rastas in Shashemane to apply the Rastafari philosophy to contemporary world and local events. Through this effort, Jaddo believes that the film can dispel many of the misconceptions people in Ethiopia and around the world have about Rastas.

"Many view them as dope smoking good for nothings who just hang around," Jaddo said. "But the majority that I have met are deeply philosophical and spiritual."

Interviews with Dr Desta, managing director of the Bob Marley Foundation; Shaft, owner of the Rift Valley Hotel; and Rasta teachers at the Jamaica Rastafari Development Community School in Shashemane attempt to show the practical applications of the philosophy to development projects.

After Emperor Haile Selassie donated land to Diaspora Africans, much change in both the perception and physical attributes of the land. Jaddo's film connects the movement to the physical realities on the ground.

"The pan-African movement helped to put Ethiopia on the map on a worldwide scale," Jaddo said. She believes her film, budgeted at over 10,000 dollars, will help to dispel misconceptions and show the positive face of the Rastafari movement.

Jaddo, the wife of the World Bank's (WB) representative in Ethiopia, Isaac Diwan, hails from a working class intellectual and artistic family in Iraq that was displaced due to political turmoil in the Middle East. Part of the inspiration for the film comes from Jaddo's embracement of the Rastafarian messages of peace and justice, ideas that she wishes to spread not just in Ethiopia, but to reach her homeland where so many problems currently face citizens.

She completed her Masters in Film at Howard University with Abiyi Ford and Haile Gerima who mentored and influenced her. It was here where Jaddo was introduced to the ideas of Marcus Garvey, a prominent proponent of the pan-Africa and back to Africa movements.

Some of Parine's other films include Tayh (2003), 28 minutes; Aisha (2000) 32 minutes; and "Atash" (1995), 10 minutes. She has also worked on Sankofa, a film about the transatlantic slave trade, with award winning Ethiopian film maker Haile Gerima.