Rastafarians around the world see Ethiopia as their spiritual home. Many of them believe the country’s last king, Haile Selassie, was a descendent of King Solomon andย the messiah.
The Rastafarians say they smoke marijuana because it is their sacrament – the equivalent of bread and wine given during Christian communions.
The nearly 800 Rastafarians who live in the area say they are fulfilling a prophecy that descendants of slaves will return to Africa.
ย However, they also face considerable challenges, having left their lives in countries including the UK, the US and Jamaica. They have few legal rights, their passports having expired a long time ago.
They have no Ethiopian IDs, which means they cannot work legally. Local development has shrunk the land they currently live on to an area of around 5 square hectares.
Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford reports from Shashamane.
