Under a blazing Ethiopian sky, crowds thronged the square for a free concert where Ethiopia's former Marxist leadership once paraded its military might as hundreds of heavily armed soldiers, some on horseback, and police stood by.

Amid the pounding and chanting of the red- and green-clad Burundi Drummers, who kicked off the "Africa Unite" festivities, dreadlocked special guests and sunburnt tourists mingled in a VIP area in front of a giant stage.

In the stands at the far end of the square, the hoi polloi teemed and overwhelmed a metal barricade intended to keep them off the tarmac but met no resistance as artists extolled the virtues of peace and love.

Rastafarians, who venerate Ethiopia's former emperior Haile Selassie as a living god, rejoiced in the wisdom of holiding this year's annual celebration in Ethiopia -- the promised land -- for the first time outside Marley's native Jamaica.

"The fact that we are in Addis Ababa, in Meskel Square today, celebrating 'Africa Unite' shows that the anniversary of Bob Marley is proof that mental slavery is fading away," said Mother Jah Evejah, a Rastafarian priestess from the west African nation of Benin.

Evejah, whose business card identifies her as the charge d'affairs for repatriation at the Cultural Embassy of the Diaspora and Jah People, said the Bob Marley celebration proved the wisdom of Haile Selassie and the truth of Rastafarian principles.

Yet many Ethiopians are befuddled by Rastafarians who have deified their one-time emperor, by many accounts a short, imperious man, and embraced their nation as Zion.

"Emperior Haile Selassie was a small, frail man with a handsome bearded face who, soon after his coronation, in a parallel life, became to be regarded as a living god," Ethiopian newspaper columnist Yonas Kebede wrote on Sunday.

Regardless of their opinion of Haile Selassie, the Ethiopians in the square were clearly enjoying the show. They listened happily to the music, although at some appeared a bit embarrassed by the Rastafarians' devotion,

"Sometimes I feel that if we Ethiopians loved our country the way they do with a passion and historical pride, we would be better citizens," said 57-year-old Abdel Mohammoued, who brought his wife and three children to the show.

Two years before his death from cancer at age 36 in 1981, Bob Marley visited Ethiopia, whose late emperor is regarded as the spiritual leader of the Rastafarian movement that Marley espoused.

As such, Addis Ababa was seen as the natural venue for the currenct 60th birthday "Africa Unite" celebrations.

Some of the proceeds from sales of CDs and DVDs from the gala concert and other events are to go toward assisting Somali victims of last month's deadly tsunami.

Other proceeds will go to help construct a museum dedicated to Haile Selassie (born Ras Tafari).