Ras Tafari is a unique and distinctive community and culture comprising mainly Africans and descendants of the African Diaspora. Its formation was inspired by the coronation, on November 2, 1930, of a black African named Ras Tafari Makonnen as Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia'. His followers, known as Rastafarians, believe that, according to Christian biblical prophecy the Emperor was the manifestation of God or "Jah" on earth.

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The Ras Tafari community seeks to preserve its African ancestry and the traditions it has inherited and sustained in the face of slavery and colonialism. The community has always strongly affirmed its desire for repatriation to Africa, the physical and spiritual homeland of its ancestors, millions of whom were forcibly displaced during the 400-year transatlantic slave trade.

 

Although a relatively young community, Ras Tafari culture has a broad reach, permeating popular culture globally. This is in large part due to its influence on reggae music and the success of musicians like Bob Marley, whose work has spread Ras Tafari philosophy far and wide. Migration has also expanded the culture's reach with communities established most notably in Africa, the Caribbean, the United States, the United Kingdom and other European countries, as well as in countries of Central and South America. The Ras Tafari community is trans-boundary, physically rooted in Jamaica, but spiritually rooted in Africa generally and Ethiopia in particular.

 

Although considered indigenous to Jamaica, in the non-legal sense, the Ras Tafari community does not qualify as an indigenous community under prevailing international norms, because it did not exist prior to colonization. The Ras Tafari community emerged against a backdrop of poverty and oppression and identifies its members as descendants of indigenous Africans forcibly displaced to Jamaica by slavery and colonialism.

 

The Ras Tafari culture is a unique fusion of African cultural traditions and Caribbean cultural influences. Having adopted the red, gold and green colors of Africa, Rastafarians can be easily identified by their traditional hand-knitted tams ("crowns"), scarves and other adornments, as well as by the traditional dreadlocks worn by many.

 

With the broad appeal of the Ras Tafari worldview and the global standing of reggae music, traditional Ras Tafari symbols and imagery have been popularized and used extensively in commercial products ranging from T-shirts, jewelry, arts and crafts items, smoking paraphernalia, hats, clothes, bags and shoes. Very few of these products are made by Rastafarians, and none of the monies accrued from their sale benefits the Ras Tafari community.

 

The Ras Tafari community is most often associated with creating and popularizing reggae. At the root of this distinctive music are the ora testimonies relating the Ras Tafari's struggle to preserve their religious and cultural identity in Jamaica. Originally inspired by their experience as marginalized Africans in Jamaica, reggae music evolved from traditional as Tafari drumming patterns and the community's spiritual ideology.

 

Although much has been written about the Ras Tafari over the past 80 years, to date it has largely come from secondary sources. Little has been based on anthropological research involving firsthand interviews of community members. This has often led to the Ras Tafari being misunderstood and misrepresented, in turn fuelling prejudice and discrimination against the community. Empowering the Ras Tafari to tell their own history and define their identity themselves can help to overcome such misrepresentation, misappropriation, and discrimination, thereby safeguarding the interests of the community. With a diminishing number of community elders, there is a growing urgency to document their testimony as a legacy for future generations.