Rastafarianism
Introduction
Rastafarianism
began in Jamaica in 1930 with the coronation of Haile Selassie (Ras Tafari) in
Ethiopia. Many black Jamaicans saw
this event as the fulfillment of Marcus
GarveyÕs prophecy
that one day a black king would be crowned in Africa, and that this event would
signal the resurgence of the African peoples. All of the earliest proponents of Rastafarianism were
familiar with the Pan-Africanist movements in the United States and abroad, and
preachers such as Leonard Howell were Òconcerned over the social conditions
in Jamaica, were discussing the possibility of social reform in the island and
of repatriation to Africa as an alternative for Black JamaicansÓ (Bisnauth
185). The coronation of Haile
Selassie provided just such an opportunity for social reform and repatriation.
In the beginning, the
belief in the divinity of Haile Selassie led to the complex theology known as
Rastafarianism. Basic principles
that drove the creation of Rastafarianism were this belief in Haile SelassieÕs
divinity, the belief that the entire African race shared in his divinity, and
that one day there will be a mystic return to the African homeland. This return to the African homeland is
a form of cultural recovery that unites the black victims of Diaspora with
their spiritual home. However, for
all of its emphasis on Africa, Rastafarianism is ultimately a hybridized and
radicalized form of Christianity that relies upon a rereading of the Old
Testament wherein the displaced Africans are figured as the reincarnation of
the Israelites and Ethiopia figures as Israel itself. Patrick Taylor, for example sees Rastafarianism as the
ultimate hybrid, Òrooted in radical Afro-Christian, Jamaican tradition, Rastas
have forged a new religion and culture out of African, European, and even
Indian rootsÓ (75). Thus, the
Rastafarians were making an attempt at neutralizing the canon of traditional
authority through the lens of the Kebra
Negast,1 which combines the mystical history and
the allegory of the relationship between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, and by
dismissing traditional rules of Biblical interpretation and translation which
have distorted the words of ÒJahÓ (Yahweh) through the work of white men and
black traitors, and asserting that Rastafarians, being the reincarnation of
Israel, know truth instinctually because of their covenant with God.
Beliefs and Practices
Based upon the radical
reinterpretation of the Old Testament, the ideas of Marcus Garvey, the
Pan-Africanist movement, and the sociopolitical climate in Jamaica at the time
of the coronation of Haile Selassie, the people were ripe for a new form of
worship that gave them agency and privilege over the white and the
wealthy. Leonard Howell,
therefore, established the six basic tenets of Rastafarianism:
á
¤
The rejection
of the corrupting principles of the white race
¤
The belief in
the moral and religious superiority of the black race
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Commitment to
exacting revenge from whites for their wickedness and mistreatment of blacks
throughout history
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The rejection
of the government and legal authorities of Jamaica as accomplices of white
oppression
¤
Preparations
for a return to Africa
¤
Acknowledgement
of Haile SelassieÕs position as supreme being and only true ruler of blacks in
Africa and across the Diaspora.
These six tenets provide
a foundation for the complex rituals and theology of the Rastafarian
culture. Rastafarianism is a
religion that emphasizes both community and the devotion of the individual. One of the most important communal
ceremonies is the ÒgrounationÓ where men and women participate in a grounding
in the spiritÓ (Bisnauth 192). The
men and women wear African robes, eat a meal, and smoke marijuana as a part of
these elaborate rituals. The
ÒgrounationÓ emphasizes the importance of a sense of community, of relaxing,
and of sharing ideas. At these
grounations there are often (sermon-like) speeches and song, which operate on a
sort of call-and-answer system similar to those found in black churches. George Simpson2,
in his extensive, if outdated and problematic, study of the religions in the
Caribbean, cites an example of a song that would often be used to open a
meeting:
Man
is an Angel and God is Our King
Babel
is raging
Man
is angel and God is our King.
Kingdoms
are falling,
Read
Revelation.
The
Negus is leading
The
Armageddon.
We
are appealing to every nation
Who
are oppressing
The true sons of God.
Man
violating
What
God has spoken
The
root of King David
Brings
Empress Menen.
Be
not a traitor,
Get
understanding,
Love
one another
And
honor your king. (Simpson 210)
From this example, it
is possible to see the emphasis on the spiritual homeland of Africa, freedom
from oppression, and the sense of community. After the persecution of Leonard Howell because of the
Rastafarian faith, leadership and meetings became decentralized, and so these
meetings usually occur at a Rasta House, which is presided over by various
Assemblies of Elders.
In
contrast to the ceremonial Ògrounation,Ó Rastafarians often meet for informal
Òreasonings,Ó where the brethren sit in a circle, pass a pipe of marijuana and
share in a Òlofty discussion.Ó It
is often at these ÒreasoningsÓ that new ways of reinterpreting scripture and
thinking about the faith originate.
Furthermore, Rastafarianism is associated with a specific type of
communal speech known as ÒI-talk.Ó
This speech is a unifying element amongst Rastafarians based on the
notion that one only comes to know him or herself in relationship to others;
Òthe ÔI-and-IÕ stands for the plurality, for Ôwe,Õ represents the most
elementary connection to the deity—Rastafar-I, Selassie-I, the unifying
oneÉI-and-I stands or an understanding that God is in all men and that the bond
of Rastafari is the bond of God and manÓ (Fernandez-Omos, Paravisini-Gerbert
165).
In
order to supplement the communal aspects, Rastafarians also take on several
personal devotions to God. The
dreadlocks, for example, are symbolic of difference and of Haile Selassie, the
Lion of Judah. Because the
religion is often associated with a connection to nature and the land,
Rastafarians adhere to a strict dietary code known as ital that bears great similarity to the Old
Testament Levitical laws. This
diet shuns the ingestion of alcohol and tobacco, as well as the consumption of
meat, shellfish, scaleless fish, snails, and predatory and scavenger species of
marine lie, all of which are not ital (pure and clean).
The emphasis on an ital diet
is political and practical as well as devotional. Since medical care in Jamaica was virtually non-existent for
lower class citizens, it was assumed that the emphasis on a clean diet would
lead to fewer incidences of illness and less reliance on the Obeah man, as well
as provide an agriculturally sustainable diet to lower class Jamaicans.
Politics of the Movement
Since
Rastafarianism began as a sociopolitical movement as well as a religious one
that relied on a return to the African homeland and the divinity of Haile
Selassie, it most certainly faced a crisis upon his death in 1975. Rastafarians, however, have overcome
this obstacle by imbuing him with a sense of immortality that overcomes
physical death and by moving the emigration to Africa to spiritual level with
an emphasis on community and cultural recovery. In the beginning, the radicalized form of Rastafarianism
gained quite a lot of negative attention, but after an initial middle class
backlash, its ideas have been incorporated into other political and nationalist
movements because of RastafarianismÕs emphasis on black cultural recovery and
community. This mainstream
acceptance, however, is problematic for ÒtrueÓ Rastafarians because Òas the not
so underprivileged and the discontented sons of the privileged joined the movement,
they exaggerated and idealized a poverty which they, in fact, did not shareÓ
(Bisnauth 190)3.
The
appropriation of a movement that began as a resistance to the dominant culture
by the dominant culture is of course very problematic for the practitioners of
Rastafarianism. Bisnauth sums up
this appropriation: Òsome factors
that may bring about this incorporation are the overt sympathy shown to
Rastafarians by church men, the acquisition of wealth by some of them made
possible by their creative genius, a growing sense of their political power
engendered by the fact that politicians recognize and seek to exploit their
power of the vote, the leveling of social inequalities which the movement
itself engendered and which makes the Rastafarian less unacceptable than he was
a decade ago, and the acceptance with which the Rastafarian style of dress and
language receives in the larger societyÓ (Bisnauth 191). This appropriation was aided by the
popularity of reggae4 artists such as Bob
Marley, Junior Byles, Max Romeo and Peter Tosh
in the 60s and 70s. As Patrick
Taylor has asserted, ÒRasta ingenuity helped to awaken first in Jamaicans and
then in other peoples of African descent a new sense of themselves as Africans
in a struggle for social and political change. At the same time, its universal appeal, popularized by
reggae, thrust it into the global arena, attracting people of different races
and creeds, including both Jews and ChristiansÓ (75). Reggae music spoke to the young people of many countries,
including the United States, the new colonialist power, and the use of reggae
and the Rastafarian culture has caused some practitioners to become even more
radical in their rejection of mainstream society, but Òit is often hard to
ascertain to what extent these Houses are truly involved in the theology of the
movement as opposed to its compelling lifestyle of sustainable approaches to
the plot-structure of agriculture, vegetarianism, and relative isolation from
the more intrusive aspects of modern media and technologyÓ (Fernandez-Omos,
Paravisini-Gerbert 169).
The
Rasta House is an open structure that allows for a great deal of democracy
because there are no hierarchies of race, age, ability, income, or function, as
evidenced by the communal, conversational nature of the Òreasonings,Ó but
Fernandez-Omos and Paravisini-Gerbert assert that though Rasta women are
referred to as Òqueens,Ó there is a hierarchy of gender, as women have little
to no role in rituals and must keep their dreadlocks covered, a patriarchy that
is based upon the oldest Jewish traditions. Many female scholars resist identification with
Rastafarianism because of the postcolonial theory that surrounds the Òdouble
colonizationÓ of women who are colonized both by the white oppressor and by the
men of their own race, but other critics such as Loretta Collins argue that
great advancements have been made by Rasta queens through artists such as Sister Carol, and that no critical study really seeks to
understand the complex sexual and gender politics of the Rastafarian
movement. She looks to artistic
works, especially reggae, for evidence of shifts in Rastafarian attitudes
towards women, and she points out that the problem with western feminist
scholarship is that it hegemonizes the Rastafarian movement, and that female
scholars must endeavor Òto document the multiplicity of ways in which women in
particular local secular and religious segments mediate material resources,
conceptualize their experiences, and create alliances to exert control over the
contingencies of everyday life and counteract objectionable local actions or
national systemic/institutional policies,Ó arguing that though they are often
victims of social and religions mores, they are also social catalysts
(231). She ultimately argues that
western viewpoint that looks at the Rastawoman neglects the positive social
aspects of the movement for women, concluding that ÒRastafarian women in
Jamaica, North America, Britain, and Canada, and elsewhere, Ômake history,Õ
banning together to form sisterhoods for social change and self-help,Ó calling
for a significant postcolonial/feminist revision of postcolonial scholarship on
women in the Rastafarian movement.
It is at the juncture of gender and Rastafarianism that critics must
resist the urge to hegemonize the diverse, hybrid nature of the movement and
instead explore its rich sociopolitical implications in the historical context
of Jamaican and African diasporic history.