"King Alpha and Queen Omega"


In Rastafarian terms, the title 'King Alpha' refers to Emperor
Haile Selassie I (identified with the Almighty God Jah Rastafari), and is often used in conjunction with the name 'Queen Omega' referring to the Emperor's consort Empress Woizero Menen Asfaw.

See for example the following songs:
'Alpha and Omega' (Dennis Alcapone)
'Blackman Land' (Prince Far I)
'Rivers Of Babylon' (Melodians)

In a live recording (Boston, 1976) of 'Rastaman Chant' and 'Lion of Judah', Bob Marley concludes with the extended refrain:
The Lion of Judah shall break every chain
Give us the victory again and again
In Mount Zion
With King Alpha and Queen Omega
Father and Mother of Creation
Alleluia!

King and Queen, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End, Father and Mother - these two royal figures represent the balancing and complementary aspects of Creation, a sort of Rastafarian equivalent of the yin and yang.

The names are derived from the Bible, particularly from the Book of Revelation, in which Jesus Christ states, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, ... which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty ... the first and the last.(Revelation 1:8, and 22:13).

Alpha and Omega are famously the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet (the equivalent of A and Z in the Roman alphabet), and so have come to mean the Beginning and the End.


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