10th Annual Adwa X Salt River Victory Parade 2025
Adwa Victory Parade is celebrated on March 1 & 2 globally, the victory at the Battle of Adwa in 1896 when the colonisation of Africa was disrupted and the western powers defeated by an African empire.
The 10th annual Adwa Victory parade will take place on 1st March 2025 in CT CBD. On this occasion, grassroots cultural workers of The RasTafari movement with the pan-African civil society is organizing a parade – Global Adwa x Salt River Victory. Over the past 9 years, the parade has evolved from a one-day demonstration to an informative programme that commemorates the scramble for Africa – Berlin conference – and celebrates the decolonial struggle and Africa’s anti-colonial victories at Adwa and Salt River.
The RasTafari Nation Adwa Movement – Cape Town, South Africa, was formed in 2016 through a coalition of RasTafari organisations, communities and platforms: RUF, UMR, Marcus Garvey community, HIM Society, VOWP, NNC, One Love and others. The formation of Adwa movement was born from an uprising against police brutality taking place in RasTafari communities and against RasTafari people in public spaces. A series of raids and arrests lead to a collective effort to address the police repression of RasTafari in CT.
The Adwa victory has always been a worldwide RasTafari calendar date, on the 120th anniversary of the Battle of Adwa in 2016, Adwa victory celebrations became a significant gathering of multiple RasTafari communities spread out throughout SA in general and CT in particular. Creating an African-centred perspective retrieves and engages the memory of the Battle of Salt River, an event largely forgotten, for it to be restored in narratives about South African and CT anti-colonial histories and cultural heritage discourse. It is important to inspire and educate the youth and to guide the warriors. Decolonial world making requires us to reclaim a past written out of Eurocentric history.
Over the past 9 years it has evolved from a one-day demonstration to a four-day programme. While still concerned with RasTafari rights, the focus on the cultural heritage of Adwa and Salt River victories as a tool for producing consciousness is foundational to worldwide RasTafari discourse. The first Adwa victory ilabration took place on 1 March 2016 in the form of a protest march to the SA parliament in CT. In 2020 the screening of the documentary: Adwa an African victory with a discussion panel became part of the annual programme. Adwa celebrations means the pilgrimage to the battlefield, a reminder that war ina Babylon is not over.
Revering historical dates serve the function of conscientising of society at large. For the worldwide RasTafari movement, celebrating Adwa is on the same level of importance as marking Ethiopian New Year, Marcus Garvey’s birthday and the coronation of His and Her Imperial Majesties Haile Selassie and Asfaw Menen. Sacramentalising these “holy” days makes them a source of collective consciousness for RasTafari.
RasTafari is known for introducing critical discourse to the public imagination and effectively raising awareness and producing consciousness on social justice issues and pertinent public affairs.
The causes of repatriation, reparation and restitution make-up core aims of the Rastafari mission. Therefore, preserving the cultural heritage is an important aspect of RasTafari works. Embracing an Ethiopian worldview is at the heart of the Rastafari identity.
Adwa x Salt River represent African pride and sovereignty and due to the fact that both victories took place on 1 March 386 years apart, in Africa they are celebrated as one reality.
The 1884 -1885 Berlin conference – Scramble for Africa – commemoration takes place 2 days before 1 March. “Berlin” is the biggest land dispossession project in history. The cause of restitution demands the return of land stolen through European colonisation of Africa.
Initiating a weeklong programme that synthesises the teachings and conversations about Berlin, Salt River and Adwa into a singular narrative is RasTafari-led critical praxis: Jah works.
The decolonisation process birthed by the historical entanglements of the battles of Salt River and Adwa, and the Berlin conference centres RasTafari as site and substance of cultural and intellectual production
