NOTE: I started writing this post the week of Memorial Day weekend, before the senseless and unjustified lynching of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. But for whatever reason and maybe the right reasons could not finish this blog post as intended. Since taking time to reflect and as I continue to reflect, I have found new meaning in this novel.
The Marvellous Equations of the Dreads, A Novel in Bass Riddim is a magical realism novel that weaves together the history of the Rastafarian religion. This novel will leave an impact on you.
The novel recounts many aspects of the life of Bob Marley who returns to Jamaica after his death in the body of Riva Man, a fall down angel who once guarded kings during lovemaking. Bob Marley upon his entrance to Zion realizes that he no longer has his ring; the ring he believes was once King Solomon’s, gifted to Marley by Haile Salaisse, the emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974, but is instead a replica of the real ring. Haile Salaisse (otherwise known as His Imperial Majesty (HIM)) believed to the Messiah returned in human form in the Rastafarian religion is, in fact, a god-like figure in Zion once Marley arrives there. And so HIM grants Marley 7 days to return to Jamaica in search of his ring.