Malawi rastas celebrate New Year on Thursday

Malawi’s Rastafarians on Thursday joined their fellow Rastas the world over to celebrate their New Year which falls on September 11, APA has learnt here.

According to the local leader of Rastafarians faith here, Ras Shadreck Nampinga, the event is the manifestation of the original calendar which was given to them by their forefathers in faith whose origins are in Ethiopia.

In Malawi, he said, the commemoration will be held at Mulanje Mountain, the country\’s peak, where “sacrifice and prayers will be made to ask for God’s mercy upon us.”

The Rastafarian faith in Malawi claims to have over one million followers, most of whom are young men and women of less than 40 years old.

The religion sect was most popularised by Jamaicans, among whom the notables was one Robert Nesta Marley, of Bob Marley and The Wailers reggae group. The sect adopted the late Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Rastafari Selassie, as its Supreme Being on earth, and thus began using his middle name as the designation of its identity.