THE RAS Tafari Global Reasoning 2003 conference being held on the Mona Campus has welcomed several Rastafarians from around the globe, including some Jamaicans who reside abroad.
One such individual is Ras Seymour McLean.
Ras McLean who was born in the district of Beckford Kraal, Clarendon, left Jamaica in 1966 for Britain and since then has become a consultant in African affairs, specialising in the Ancient History of Ethiopia and its Culture and is the chief executive of Ras Tafari International Consultants Limited.
He has done years of extensive research, which includes a bibliography of over 2,500 books and even more documents.
Over the past decade Ras Seymour has been spearheading a campaign to return to Ethiopia priceless relics and several books and manuscripts of Ethiopian history, which were stolen from the Ethiopian church during the British invasion of the African nation in 1868.
His struggle was chronicled in a 1991 television movie, "The Book Liberator" which was based on his trial after he had stolen several of the manuscripts from the British museum including the Kebra Nagast (Prayer of the Virgin Mary) from the Pankhursts' museum - an offence for which he spent nine months in prison. He sees the British act committed in 1868 as sacrilegious, one which if committed today would see a quicker response.
"The Ethiopic Manuscripts are part of the core collection of the British library," Ras Seymour said reading an official document in his possession.
"I feel that it is important that we make the first billion to show that what we are doing, as in attempting to regain stolen property, is practical. But it is not private money that I am fighting for, but public money." This money, he says, will be earned from the educational uses of the information.
McLean over the years has written several letters to members of the political heirachy in Britain, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Prime Minister John Major. He has even written letters to the Queen, whose representatives have cited an inability or unwillingness to respond to his request that these artefacts be returned to Ethiopia.
"The Ethiopian people must recover their property; they're asking the Jamaican people for help, and Jamaican school children must have access to these things as of they're next school lesson," said the researcher.
Ras Seymour McLean was scheduled to speak yesterday at the Rastafari conference on the topic 'Protection of Ras Tafari Movement including I&I Intellectual Property/Ras Tafari Music, Arts and Culture'.
