The Voice of Humanity
On October 4, 1963, Emperor Haile Selassie I delivered a speech before the Eighteenth Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York — a profound warning and a plea for the soul of mankind that would echo across generations. (Read the full speech transcript →)
📸 Emperor Haile Selassie I at the League of Nations, 1936.
📸 His Imperial Majesty addressing the United Nations, October 4, 1963.
Twenty‑seven years earlier, as Fascist Italy invaded his nation, Selassie had spoken before the League of Nations in Geneva. His words then went unheeded, and the world descended into a catastrophic war. Now, standing before the new world body, he reminded the assembly of its noblest aspirations: the renunciation of force, the assurance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion, and the safeguarding of international peace and security.
The Emperor declared that the preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms require courage and eternal vigilance — courage to speak and act, and if necessary, to suffer and die for truth and justice. He stressed that these lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and warned:
Selassie acknowledged the United Nations' successes but insisted that what had been accomplished was not enough. He pointed to the dangers of nuclear arms, the persistence of colonialism, and the tragic reality that the world's most urgent problems arose among its own member states. Yet, amid the rising tensions of the Cold War, he offered a vision: that the subordination of local and national interests to the larger interests of mankind was not merely desirable but essential for survival.
“Until...”
On the question of racial discrimination, the Emperor gave voice to a truth that has never lost its urgency. It was this passage that would later inspire Bob Marley to write his iconic song "War" for the 1976 album Rastaman Vibration — Marley's only top‑10 album in the United States. (Listen to Bob Marley's "War" on YouTube →)
Selassie declared:
“That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first‑class and second‑class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained.”
He continued, condemning the oppressive regimes that held African peoples in bondage in Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa, and declared:
“We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil.”
📸 Bob Marley — deep in reasoning, the prophet's voice in song.
📸 Bob Marley performing “War” — Selassie’s words set to music.
Bob Marley: The Prophet's Voice in Song
Bob Marley, a devout Rastafarian, revered Haile Selassie I as the Lion of Judah, Jah, and the living God incarnate. He saw Selassie not only as one of the most prominent African leaders of his time but also as the return of God to earth as "King of Kings, Lord of Lords."
In "War," Marley did not merely borrow the Emperor's words — he made them a militant, aching anthem. The lyrics are almost entirely derived from the 1963 UN speech, transformed by Marley's unmistakable melody and the Wailers' one‑drop rhythm.
Where Selassie had spoken of a dream deferred until mankind abandons the philosophy of racial superiority, Marley added his own stark refrain: "Until that day, everywhere is war." The song became an urgent call for equality, justice, and the defeat of "the ignoble and unhappy regimes that hold our brothers in sub‑human bondage."
In doing so, Marley sealed Selassie's message into the heart of global popular culture, ensuring that the Emperor's warning — that "until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes" — would be sung in every corner of the earth.
In his 1963 address, Selassie proclaimed: "As I stand here today, how faint, how remote are the memories of 1936. How different in 1963 are the attitudes of men. We then existed in an atmosphere of suffocating pessimism. Today, cautious yet buoyant optimism is the prevailing spirit."
Sixty years later, as we gather for SelassieFest, his words remain a compass for our time. Until humanity truly heeds this call, the vision of lasting peace will remain a fleeting illusion. But we gather to keep that vision alive — in music, in community, in the defiant hope that good will prevail over evil.