Rastafari is a spiritual movement that arose in Jamaica in the 1940s. Today they are are few parts of the world that have not been influenced by the philosophy, spirituality, politics, visual imagery, music, diet, language and style of Rastafari. It is one of the most important popular movements of the modern age and it has influenced Jamaican culture, changed other cultures and helped define Jamaica's image abroad. It has impacted almost everybody's lives in one way or another.

 

Jamaica is the major creator and storehouse of historic and cultural material relating to Rastafari. However there has been little collecting of artefacts, memories, documents and memorabilia relating to the history and people of Rastafari. This is partly because of the steadfast focus of the Rastafari on Africa and the desire for repatriation but, looking forward, it is important for Jamaican Rastafari to maintain material and oral histories of this fascinating movement.

​

 

"Tell the people to come home. Here their race originated and here it can be lifted to its highest plane of usefulness and honor. Assure them of the cordiality with which I Invite them back to the homeland particularly those qualified to help solve our big problem." [HIH Ras Tafari, 1922].

​

 

Rastafari is the latest back to Africa movement that have emerged in Jamaica. From its birth, in the early 1930s, the Movement has demonstrated a capacity to attract and engage the minds of the marginalized, males in particular, around the leadership of the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie

 

Out of this leadership has come the mandate within the Rastafari as a community to apply itself to advancing the African condition, developing to become a new religion and worldview with growing influence across race and socio-economic boundaries. Rastafari today is a global community of adherents who acknowledge the leadership brought by Emperor Haile Selassie I. They are driven to act and advocate towards the advancement of the African situation. Within this context Rastafari can be seen as a Pan-African movement focusing on restoring the enslaved Africans their royal state of existence in their original homeland Ethiopia. Rastafari is an African liberation movement with a global range.

 

Rastafari locates Ethiopia as the cradle of civilization. Within this understanding, the name Ethiopia is often used to refer to Africa in general. In the earliest accounts of the continents, Africa's descriptive names range from Ethiopia-'land of sun burnt faces' (so-called by the Greeks as a description of the black skin colour) to Nubia, Egypt, Libya, and Abyssinia.

 

Of all the continents Africa provides the longest, deepest record of the human past. According to Rastafari outlook and interpretation, the Earth was Africa, and 'Man' was African. All humans are therefore anthropologically linked to Africa. It is this ancient and undeniable origin that Rastafari has sought to represent and preserve.

 

According to Reggae artist Peter Tosh, Rastafari represents the ancient man living in the present walking into the future. Sociologically, Rastafari is often described as a nativist and utopian religion that has aspirations of reverting to a time of simplicity and natural living. Others observe the Rastafari faith as one driven by millenarian expectations that foresee a shift in the global balance of power with the re-emergence of Africans holding greater moral and political authority. Rastafari envisions Africa and Africans as integral parts of the establishment of the new era of peace and well-being after the two thousand year reign of Satan ends.

 

​

​1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

 2. And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven,   prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 

3. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God (Revelations 21:1-3).

 

The earliest ideology expressed by the Rastafari was of returning to the homeland and so the Movement was labelled a "Back -to-Africa" movement. Within the social and political objectives of the Rastafari is an embrace of Africa and a desire to repatriate; to re-establish the scale of balance of resources in Africa, and to assist Africans in attaining their full potential. Rastafari have been identified as principal Pan-African teachers and champions of the oppressed, much of this expressed through the medium of culture. The foremost element within this is the 'word'; the true word that bears evidence as power or as Rastafari state it, "word-sound-power".

 

Word-sound-power, Rastafari argue, is the very core of creation, it is also a way of channeling positive productive forces and energies, seen as a central requirement for an uplifting life and a demonstration of the Almighty Father-Creator's presence among man; "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1), Rastafari can be described as 'carriers of the Word' in this time, of God's return on the throne of David. This thinking is used to interpret the significance of the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie (Amharic for Power of the Holy Trinity), taken as the African King, Messiah Redeemer and the incarnation of the Godhead. The Christ-Spirit/Irit of His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie I, is therefore invoked in thunderous cries of JAH Ras Tafari during Nyahbinghi Celebrations/Ises and other Rastafari gatherings.

 

In addition to the broad objective of the Rastafari to return to Africa there is also a desire to teach the society in which the Movement finds itself in the west, to affirm and assert African identity and heritage. Their vision is of a new and more discerning society, one that is not only capable of existing outside of the system of corruption and oppression, but one which is life-giving and life preserving because of its human centered ideals and its genuine capacity for human love and kindness. From its inception, the guiding principles articulated by the Rastafari brethren were elaborated in a mantra known as The Rastafari Creed. The creed expresses the ethos, duties and mandate of Rastafari as follows:

 

"That the Hungry be fed, the naked clothed, the sick nourished, the aged protected and the infant cared for" 

 

Many Rastafari assert that Rastafari is a "livity*or way of life and not a religion like Christianity or Islam, In practice this means that instruction and teaching. worship, and Rastafari rituals, all advocatea cultural approach to social living where communit. self employment as well as self sustalnability are key. There are no central meeting houses and no one administrator or leader, and even very little consensus around important texts such as the bide Despite this however, Rastafari is still a cohesive worldview connecting members who have in common an all natural, pro-life worldview that is counter hegemonic. The membership approach to life is therefore critical of state control in many respects, promoting self employment, valuing nature. decrying/resisting/protesting the illegality of Cannabis sativa as a superior and sacred herb and abandoning state guidelines promoting birth conte as methods of disempowering the African.

 

Among non-African people, Rastafari is often denned as a political identity in protest of Western hegemony Based on the amalgamation of national and international traditions within Rastafari livity: many non-African people have gravitated towards the Movement having recognized various political, spiritual and cultural influences that speak to their own identity. Some of the historical traditions that have been synthesized within the Movement are Christianity, Back to Africa sentiments, postmodern anti-colonial ideas, as well as Eastern wellness philosophies. This particular Pan-African phenomenon may be summed up in the words of Bankie Banx in his message to the Caribbean Rastafari Organisation gathering on Anguilla in May 2002.

 

"Divine revelation cannot be contained. An uncontainable rejection of the culture of injustice established in the name of a painted God is a testimony of the power of JAH to reveal in our souls everything we need to free ourselves - things we had from birth, environment that supplies all, power of thought, motivation, action and reaction" (Banx 2002).

​

Written By Jahlani Niaah & Ijahnya Christian

​

​

​