– Empress Marina Blake to Rastafari and Africans
Empress Marina M Blake, President of the Haile Selassie Foundation for Law and Society is challenging Rastafari and all Africans to concentrate on building stable, functional families in our quest to build a strong nation.
She said this in her keynote address at the 6th National Rastafari Conference held on the 2nd of March 2021 at the Commonwealth Hall conference theatre, University of Ghana, under the theme: “Rastafari Welfare; A New Faculty of Understanding”
Narrowing the first part of her delivery on children, she discussed in detail, the phenomenon of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the effects they have on children while imploring parents to be constantly present at all the stages of the development of their wards.
“Studies have shown that experiencing two or more of these ACEs can have a devastating effect on a child’s ability to learn as well as their overall life chances” she revealed, furthering that destructive behaviour is connected to the kind of upbringing, family structure interaction and other factors.
Empress Blake, on the broader aspects of the new faculty of understanding called on Rastafari to accommodate the evolving thoughts of its members in order to make the culture sufficiently responsive to their needs.
Key among the resolutions passed at conference were: the decision to organise periodic seminars on building stable Rastafari families and establishing an insurance scheme for the Rastafari community.
The conference was attended by about 130 representatives of Rastafari oriented organizations across the country under the strict observance of COVID 19 protocols.
