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Rastafarians

Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley, was heard to say that in his view the Rastafarians were the only group of Jamaicans who could not be said to have an identity problem. Certainly, the Rastafarians have over the years become a very important factor in Jamaica, within this newly independent country's struggle to make life better for its citizens and against the background of basic contradictions which are the legacy of slavery and racism.

Rastafarianism, a Jamaican-born religion with around one million adherents in the world, is a cultural, religious movement. Adherents are known as Rastafarians or Rastas. Rastafarians often use herbs for medicinal purposes to strengthen and heal the body. Rastafarians disapprove of smoking cigarettes due to the serious health concerns associated with their use.

The true Rastafarian is deeply religious, essentially humble and sad. His philosophy is a striving towards a people's identity. His aspiration - the return to Africa from exile in "Babylon" (a deliberate echo of the exile and lost tribes of Israel) - is enbodied in a religious and peaceful discipline. He believes it is as legitimate to smoke cannabis as to drink alcohol - and less likely to lead to unruly behavior; but the true Rastafarian accepts the law of the land.

The Rastafarian brethren have not developed a theology in the western sense of that term, namely a systematic conceptualisation of religious beliefs. However, through long hours of reasoning among themselves they have developed a rich and sophisticated world-view based on their own religious convictions and practices; and this world view can be presented systematically in a theological form.

The great Jamaican leader and motivator of masses, Marcus Garvey, told the African people of the world to unite and to return to Africa, the homeland. Garvey, Jamaica’s first National Hero was born in St. Ann’s Bay, St. Ann, on August 17, 1887. In 1914 he started the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), in Jamaica. The UNIA, which grew into an international organisation, encouraged self-government for black people worldwide; self-help economic projects and protest against racial discrimination. In 1916, Garvey went to the USA where he preached his doctrine of freedom to the oppressed blacks throughout the country. However, USA officials disapproved of his activities and he was imprisoned, then deported. Back in Jamaica in 1927, he continued his political activity, forming the People’s Political Party in 1929.

Garvey’s vision was for the Blacks to overcome their feelings of inferiority and build upon their own unique and evolving culture, and ultimately return to Africa to redeem their homeland and to build a future. Garvey told his followers, “Look towards Africa for the crowning of a black king - he shall be the redeemer”. Garvey often used many biblical terms in his teaching to free his movement from the oppression of the “White Man”, whether he meant them to be taken literally is unclear, but what is clear is that many Jamaicans took them literally. The only state left in Africa that was not under the domination of one or other of the Great Powers is the ancient Christian Empire of Ethiopia, commonly called Abyssinia, whose sovereigns claim descent from the biblical Queen of Sheba. In November 1930, Ras Tafari was crowned as the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie I, King of Kings, Lord of Lords and the conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. To some Jamaican people this meant that Garvey’s prophecy had been fulfilled. The crowning of Haile Selassie was noted by some followers of Marcus Garvey, who concluded that Haile Selassie was tahe incarnation of the living God.

Although ras tafari is often misinterpreted as “king of kings”, in Ethiopian Amharic, ras means duke and tafari means trinity or three powers. Ras Tafari may thus be more accurately translated as Duke of the Trinity.

Rastafarians believe Haile Selassie is divine and that he will return to Africa members of the black community who are living in exile as the result of colonisation. This view was developed independently by H. Archibald Dukley, who founded the King of Kings Missionar Movement, Joseph Hibbert, who formed the Ethiopian Coptic Faith, and Leonard Howell [the most successful of the three], who founded the Ethiopian Salvation Society. This led to a gradual but significant increase in the numbers of “dreadlocks men” in and around Kingston. During this period when Rastafarian beliefs were spreading, a number of less formal groups were established, including: the United Ethiopian Body, the United Afro-West Indian Brotherhood, the Ethiopian Youth Cosmic Faith, the African Cultural League, and the Brotherhood Solidarity of United Ethiopians.

A moral life must also conform to the laws of nature and must be a life of “natural naturality”. For the brethren, nature is a powerful force and man must live in close cooperation with nature and thus come to know its ways. The primary manifestation of nature is the planet earth, a loving mother (sometimes identified with God); and the Rastafarians try to stay close to the earth. Unafraid of dirt and grime, they invite others to “sit in the dust with them”. They long to cultivate a piece of land; and they believe that it is wrong to treat land as a commodity, by selling it, or to displace people, leaving them landless.

The brethren strive to “follow nature” in growing locks, in smoking “ganja” (marijuana), and in preparing and eating food. Beards and locks, the fullest expression of nature, are a sign of consecration of Jah and of the covenant with Him. The brethren recall the biblical “vow of the Nazarite by which one is pledged to Jehovah” and of which the Bible says “as long as he is bound by his vow, no razor shall touch his head; until the time of his consecration to Jahweh is completed, he remains under vow and shall not let his hair grow free” (Numbers 6:5). Locks are a form of natural life, and are seen to resemble the lion's mane and the hair of the African warrior, and to symbolise the way of Christ and the Prophets.

The use of “ganja” is a second form of natural living and is important to both life and religious practice. Its various uses and qualities are indicated by the variety of names it has: “wisdom weed", “the healing of the nations”, “holy herb”, “the chalice” and “the cup" (referring to the cow-horn pipe in which it is most often smoked). Some Rastafarians allow their children to use ganja because they see it as beneficial even for children. Though not all the brethren smoke ganja, for those who do it is like a sacrament, comparible to the chalice or communion cup in Christian worship. Remembering Genesis (1:29), where Gud gave man “every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth”, and Revelation (22:2), which says that “the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations", Rastafarians see ganja as bringing wisdom, assisting meditation and prayer, bringing about greater communion with the brethren, and possessing medicinal qualities.

Alongside this moral concept of nature, the Rastafarians have developed a thoroughgoing critique of western capitalist/imperialist civilization. The brethren think of themselves as a people in exile. Taken from their proper homeland as slaves by the white, man, black people were brought into captivity in the west - the biblical equivalent of Egypt or Babylon. “Babylon" is an image, taken from both the Old and New Testaments, referring to both state and Church 6tructures of the west, and the most frequent call is to “burn” them. However, the word is used in a symbolic and biblical sense, for the Rastafarians are aware that the Book of Revelation in the New Testament included an attack on the Roman Empire of the day, made in the image of Babylon. In their eyes this same Babylonian/Roman Empire is reincarnated in our day in the form of the British/American Empires which continue to oppress and dominate the peoples of the earth.

The preservation of the sovereign integrity of the country of Ethiopia is of supreme importance to the Rastafarians; and the restoration of Africa is dependent upon it. If Ethiopia were to be overcome it would mean that the enemies of God had usurped the throne and a period of evil would begin. God works through history, and though He controls all, He waits for the maturing of His events. Thus the Rastafarians are essentially a patient people who wait for God's time to come. It is this patience that underlies the long hours of meditating and reasoning that characterise their lives. At the same time they quietly prepare themselves for the time when they will return to Africa and become part of the process of developing that continent according to the ways of nature.

In March 1958, a convention of Rastafari brethren was held at Kingston which attracted 3,000. people. In 1960, at the request of some prominent members of the Rastafari brethren who were concerned at the growing antagonism between the movement and the authorities, three members of the Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University College of the West Indies met for two weeks with representatives of the Rastafarians and produced a report, "The Rastafari Movement in Kingston, Jamaica", which pointed out that the majority of Rastafarians were peaceful citizens.

About this time, it was reported that the Emperor Haile Selassie had put aside 500 acres in Ethiopia for blacks in the West who wished to repatriate. The story had some credibility, given that as early as 1937 the Emperor had himself provided for the establishment of the Ethiopian World Federation, dedicated to the unity and solidarity of black peoples of the world and to the defence of the sovereignty of Ethopia. The first local was established in New York and eventually several locals were organised in Jamaica. Later, in 1966, Haile Selassie visited Jamaica. Countless thousands turned up at the airport to welcome him - a demonstration the likes of which Jamaica had not seen before.

Jamaican posses, who take their name from western films popular in Jamaica, were among the most violent criminal gangs to confront American law enforcement in the 1980s. Most of the gang members are illegal aliens, although authorities believe the upper echelons of the gang are legal residents who have been in the United States for many years. Once engaged only in marijuana trafficking, the posses have discovered the lucrative “crack” cocaine market. Crack is a highly addictive form of cocaine which is suitable for smoking. By converting cocaine to crack and controlling its distribution the posses are able to increase their profits significantly. As a result, the posses have amassed immense wealth within a short period of time.

The posses are often confused with a Jamaican religious group known as Rastafarians, who smoke marijuana as a religious practice. The Rastafarians are followers of the late Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, and have been well known in the Caribbean for about 50 years. Since 1971, law enforcement authorities identified the Rastafarians as being involved in violent crime, some of it related to control of the importation and sale of marijuana. While a number of Rastafarians are posse members, law enforcement officials do not believe that the posses are controlled by the religious group. However, authorities note that the method of operation of both the posses and the Rastafarians - particularly in marijuana trafficking - is seemingly identical.

Of reggae, Dick Hebdige has written: “Reggae is the hymnal, the hard ery of the Kingston Rude Boy, the nativised national anthem of the new Jamaican government. The music is all these things and more - a mosaic which incorporates all the strands that make up black Jamaican culture; the call and response patterns of the Pentecostal Church, the devious scansion of Jamaican street talk, the sex and the cool of US Rock and Blues, the insistent percussion of the ‘Locks men's jam sessions, all find representation in Reggae.”