Rastafarians of Ethiopia lost in their own land

Shashamane, Ethiopia

THEY came from across the world to Ethiopia in search of their "promised land", but for many Rastafarians, struggling to win even basic rights, the dream never materialised.

"How did we survive so far? I wonder," said Reuben Kush, the grey-bearded president of the Ethiopian World Federation, a branch of Rastafarianism.

Mr Kush left his home in Birmingham in Britain a decade ago to join a Rastafarian community based in the southern Ethiopian town of Shashamane, 250 kilometres south of Addis Ababa.

But in decades of existence, the settlement's around 500 members have failed to win legal rights to property, education or work.

Celebrating the 85th anniversary this month of the 1930 crowning of their messiah, Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, the dreadlocked group sway in a circle chantin…