Shashamane Land Grant - Dedicated to Papa Noel Dyer

Director: Audley Davy Music Producer: Don Luch aka Michael Bayley Shashamane (or Shashemene, Oromo) is a town and a separate woreda in West Arsi Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia. The town lies on the Trans-African Highway 4 Cairo-Cape Town, about 150 miles (240 km) from the capital of Addis Ababa. It has a latitude of 7° 12’ North and a longitude of 38° 36’ East. In 1948 Emperor Haile Selassie I donated 500 acres (2.0 km2) of his private land to allow members of the Rastafari movement, Ethiopian World Federation (EWF) officers and members and other settlers from Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean to go to Africa. The return would be under the auspices of the EWF, founded in 1937 by the emperor’s special emissary to Black America, Melaku E. Bayen. The official letter confirming the “land grant“ of 1948 was submitted to the members and executives of the Ethiopian World Federation in 1955. Following up on this, the first West Indian family and Federation members from Montserrat wer