Early Manifestation of Nyahbinghi

Just prior to the outbreak of the Italo-Ethiopian war in 1935, a photograph of the young Ethiopian Emperor in an Amhara warrior's head dress was circulated in the shanty towns of West Kingston together with an article in the Jamaica Times on December 7. According to the report, originally penned by an agent of the Italian Fascists. Emperor Haile Selassie was the head of the Nyahbinghi Order. This was purported to be an international African secret society dedicated to the overthrow of white colonial domination through racial violence. The name Nyahbinghi was said to mean death to the whites or death to the Europeans.

In Jamaica, early adherents of the Rastafari faith took the article quite literally, and sought to spiritually align themselves with Emperor Selassie by enlisting in the Nyahbinghi Order. The word Nyahbinghi was quickly adopted into the Rastafarian vocabulary of racial protest, and came to mean Death to downpressors.

Taken from Jahug Vol. 2. Edition 2. Repatriations Productions 1992(p. 6)