Enter the Lion: The 1966 State Visit of Emperor Haile Selassie I to the Caribbean

On April 21, 1966, tens of thousands of Jamaicans exuberantly greeted Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie I in Kingston, Jamaica. The emperor came to express gratitude for the peoples' support during the Italo-Ethiopian War and bolster the ongoing struggle for liberation in Rhodesia. This state visit repositioned Rastafari in Jamaican society and ignited widespread cultural, social, and political transformations across the Caribbean. Enter the Lion assembles a vital archive of this landmark event, gathering British colonial records, newspaper reportage from the Caribbean and Ethiopia, the official records of the Ethiopian Ministry of Information, and oral history. The authors paint an illuminating picture of the diverse political interests at play, exploring how the visit reshaped the Rastafari movement, Jamaican society, the wider Caribbean, and their Pan-African connections.

Author: John P. Homiak,Giulia Bonacci,Jahlani A. Niaah
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 09/15/2026
Pages: 390
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.87d
ISBN13: 9781478039112
ISBN10: 1478039116
BISAC Categories:
- History | World | General
- Social Science | Black Studies (Global)
- Social Science | Cultural & Ethnic Studies | Caribbean & Latin American Studi

About the Author
John P. Homiak is Research Associate of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History.

Giulia Bonacci is a historian and researcher at the Institute of Research for Sustainable Development.

Jahlani A. Niaah is Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies at the Institute of Caribbean Studies in the University of the West Indies.