Haile Selassie was named King of Ethiopia and upon his coronation he left his name Ras Tafara and became His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie King of Kings the conquering lion of the Tribe of Judah. His name implies divinity to begin. Also, Marcus Mosiah Garvey said look to Africa for the crowning of a King and you will know the deliverance is near (I'm paraphrasing). The reason this has any importance is because despite no one wanting to acknowledge it, Germans, Italians and British all came and colonized Africa. They saw the customs and culture and saw it as primitive and savage because as nomads they were seen to have no structure. This gave a great opportunity to those white settlers to manipulate, abuse and enslave these people. They attempted to convert them to Christianity and slowly replaced their cultural teachings of agriculture with European methods. This seemed like help right? No. Generations later all methods of harvest and survival from the original culture had vanished. And when a drought season came, famine broke out. These indigenous people were seen as second class citizens. Eugenics is the science that came about during this colonization. It is the belief and the study that the purification of a blood line poses the most opportunity for that lineage to continue on. Well some scientists realized that African genes have a dominant pheno and genotype. This struck fear into them knowing that if these people went on to procreate with their white community that the white race could be eliminated. Scientific racism became the excuse to treat these people like animals and property. The reason this prophecy means more than just any other claim is that the idea of a king in Africa was a fantasy. Africa was ruled by a throne located across the ocean. A white King and Queen ruled Africa. So when Haile Selassie I the most I became king of Ethiopia, it was a flare in the sky that a step towards the independence of these oppressed people was in motion. Now for the "religious" reason he was the messiah is first due to the story of the pearl. It is a story told by an angel to King Solomon shortly before his death. The pearl is the light and salvation. It actually lives in the Davidic or more commonly referred Solomonic blood line. The angel tells Solomon that despite having many children the pearl left the land of Judah with his son of Queen Sheba (ruler of Ethiopia and rasied Menelik I), Menelik I. Menelik I stole zion (the ten commandments and arons rod and a few other holy physical items) from Solomon before he returned to the homeland of his mother. Solomon knew his son would leave him and return to Ethiopia but didn't know the salvation of Judah now became the salvation of Ethiopia forever naming them the chosen people of God because the pearl and the salvation of man was now in Ethiopia. Since Solomon knew he could not convince his son to stay in Judah, Solomon sent 12 first borns of nobels of Israel to inhabit the land of his son so that his reach would extend not only in Israel but in Ethiopia as well. With the bloodline of the pearl now a black bloodline for lack of a better term, historically by the bibles reference, the second coming of christ or the messiah must be a person of color. Ras Tafara is said to be a descendent of the pearl and the salvation of man. The Kebra Nagast has all of this laid out and sourced and is a good easy read. He basically was a really great orator and leader when that country and continent really needed one. He showed integrity and compassion and wanted to ensure that the color of a mans skin is no more important than the color of his eyes. He was a hero. There is a lot of speculation and some evidence that he was kinda of a shady character but many will renounce this as false. So if you are a non believer you may see that there is no one reason why he was the messiah. He came to Jamaica where Rastafari was born and showed support to their struggle. This truly endowed him to those people and its actually a Rasta holiday. And even though I am a student of rasta I am no rastamon I love Jah but cannot say I and I are rasta its my favorite holiday Groundation Day. Many rasta get together for reasoning and feast. But I use it as a retreat. I don't go to work, I flee from babylon meaning no television, no cellphone apps, no radio. Just reading music, eating 100% Ital and spending time with my friends. You wake up the next day and you realize how many distractions are put in front of you. Regardless of what degree of divinity this man is believed to hold, some rasta do not see him as divine but never the less he was a great leader and example of the compassion and courage that lacks in this world.