When Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was overthrown in August, 1975, by Colonel Mengistu, sixty of his cabinet members were executed and he was never seen again. Yet there remained the belief among many Rastafarians that he was still alive. They continued to worship him as the Lion of Judah and considered him the Black Christ.

The Emperor's Birthday, using old footage and interviews, sifts through the sequence of events that led to a Rastafarian movement in Ethiopia, England and the Caribbean. It shows that the movement was both political and spiritual. Curiously, the Emperor was mostly indifferent to them.

In 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. Haile Selassie appealed unsuccessfully to the League of Nations for help. In reaction to this abandonment, there was an outpouring of support for him from people of African descent in the West. Marcus Garvey from Jamaica declared Africa for Africans and urged repatriation. Jazz in Harlem echoed with a longing for Africa.

The film traces the preparations being made for the celebration of the Emperor's one hundredth birthday. We meet Rastas who had made arduous journeys from all over the world, and learn of the struggle with poverty faced by the ones who have settled in Ethiopia. This is probably as close a look as outsiders will get at a gentle, spiritual people who are closely identified with the African soul and whose ways have always aroused suspicion.

"A welcome addition to visual materials on the Rastafari...The recent centenary pilimmage to Ethiopia is of enormous symbolic importance to these sons and daughters of Africa." American Anthropologist
"All of these vignettes provide us with insight into the religion and its cultural practices. I am pleased to recommend The Emperor's Birthday as suitable viewing for courses focused on the anthropology of religion" Anthropology Review Database