According to Ray Kurzweil this man will one day become a very large transcendent super-being with dreadlocks who will never die. Very good news for the fast food industry.

DV, you have a point. I should've stuck with my first choice of a comment, "There's late word that several actual black people will be attending, very possibly."

Still wish I'd worked the word JAHnormous in somewhere, though.

Regarding his shirt....is that the star of David across the colors of Africa? What does it meeannn?

@Reymont: It's a common Rastafari symbol.

The colors are reminiscent of the Ethiopian flag. Haile Selassie, king of Ethiopia in the early twentieth century is variously worshiped/respected by Rastafarians as either the second coming of Jesus, a version of God on Earth, or some variant thereof.

The star of David comes from Afrocentric biblical interpretation. Rastafarians (at least, real ones in Africa and Jamaica- probably not the guy above) see themselves as descendants of Israel. As in, the guy also known as "Jacob" in the Old Testament. Everyone else (that's us) is variously known as "Babylon." When you hear Bob Marley crooning about Babylon and how much it sucks, he's not talking about ancient Mesopotamia. He's going on about how the West is a stand in for biblical bad dudes.

So, yeah. I guess this means that African religions can be just as silly and chauvinistic as Western religions, and you now have another reason to not like reggae.

The More You Know!

Thanks, Joe!

Some more info to add to Joe's, cropped from a couple of online sources:

In Medieval Jewish, Christian and Islamic legends, the Seal of Solomon was a magical signet ring said to have been possessed by King Solomon, which variously gave him the power to command demons, genies (or jinni), or to speak with animals. It bore the symbol commonly known in the West as the Star of David.

In an Ethiopian account (Kebra Nagast) it is maintained that the Queen of Sheba had sexual relations with King Solomon (of which the Biblical and Quranic accounts give no hint) and gave birth by the Mai Bella stream in the province of Hamasien, Eritrea. The Ethiopian tradition has a detailed account of the affair.

The child was a son who went on to become Menelik I, King of Axum, and founded a dynasty that would reign what became the Christian Empire of Ethiopia for 2900+ years (less one usurpation episode and interval of ca. 133 years until a "legitimate" male heir regained the crown) until Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974. Menelik was said to be a practicing Jew, had been gifted with a replica Ark of the Covenant by King Solomon, but moreover, the original was switched and went to Axum with him and his mother, and is still there, guarded by a single priest charged with caring for the artifact as his life's task.

The claim of such a lineage and of possession of the Ark has been an important source of legitimacy and prestige for the Ethiopian monarchy throughout the many centuries of its existence, and had important and lasting effects on Ethiopian culture as a whole. The Ethiopian government and church deny all requests to view the alleged ark.

The kings of Ethiopia, claiming direct descent from Solomon, instated a Knightly Order of the Seal of Solomon in 1874.

Well, you did ask!