An overview of Rastafarianism.

1. Rastafarianism
An Overview

2. Jamaica
 British colony until
1962
 A history of Rebellion
 Possessed a Maroon
community who
retained many
African practices.

3. Ethiopia
 Only African country not
to be thoroughly
colonised by Europeans.
 Possessed a Royal line
that pre-dated Christ.
 Jamaican Ethiopian
Christians had always
taken the notion of
Ethiopia to be more
actual than spiritual.

4. Ethiopian Churches
 However, it was culturally that the Ethiopian
churches really made a difference, as once a
slave was able to subscribe to the ideas of
biblical Ethiopia he or she immediately
became capable of plugging-in to black
history as an important chapter in the birth of
mankind.
 As the twentieth century dawned, a world-
wide black political platform began to
institute itself. Ehtiopianism was morphing
into something called Pan-Africanism…

5. Marcus Garvey (1887-1940)
 Established Pan African
sensibility.
 “Africa is for Africans, Black
Africans”
 He’d given the black nation its
own national anthem-
Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our
Fathers, and devised its red,
black and green flag (‘red for
the blood that will be spilled
in the struggle, black for the
colour of our skin and green
for the land that shall be
ours’)
 Garvey foretold of a king
emerging from Africa.

6. Haile Selassie
 In 2 November 1930, Ras Takari was crowned Emperor
Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia.
 Named Lij Makonnen- Ras and Tafari were titles
translated from Amharic to mean, respectively, ‘prince’
or ‘nobleman’ and ‘creator’. … that declared itself a
line of direct descent form the union of King Solomon
and Queen Makeba of Sheba.

7. The Birth
 the crowning of this new emperor was accepted as
divine realization of writings contained within the Book
of Revelation and Jeremiah, As told by three radical and
highly influential preachers.
 Leonard P. Howell, Archibald Dunkley and Joseph
Hibbert.
 Black pride, separatism, self-help and repatriation,
Haile S. as the Messiah.

8. Some Philosophies
 No absolute doctrine constantly shifting and adapting
religion.
 Rastafari was so called in identification with the person
whom Haile Selassie was before he took the throne.
 Everyone has the potential for divinity.
 ‘Jah’ means God believe to be a corruption of Hebrew
Yahweh.

9. More Philosophies
 Foundation of Rastafari is oneself as the
focus of life on earth.
 Haile Selassie I 1st
person pronoun.
 No expression of we or you its ‘I and I’
 Most doctrine is extracted from Old
testament as Rastas see themselves as true
Israelites.
 Shun traditional politics.
 Embrace African drumming techniques. Burru
and Kumina.

10. Visual signifiers
and practices
 Rooted in working-class.
 Grow dreadlocks. (Started in 1950s Inspired
by the anti-colonialist Mau Mau in Kenya).
 Done to evoke fear in Babylon thus ‘Dread’ +
‘Lock’.
 Eat ‘Ital’ or vegetarian derived from Vital.
 Thoroughly anti-gay.
 Smoke marijuana as means of connecting
body and soul. (Aid to meditation and
contemplation)
 Have reasoning sessions. (Music and weed)

11. Some Structures
 Mansions of Rastafari or branches of the movement.

12. Bobo Ashanti
 Bobo Ashanti -. Bobos are
most notable for their wearing
of turbans and robes and the
brooms they carry with them,
which signify cleanliness.
 Bobos believe in black
supremacy, they also consider
women and children
subordinate to men. Women
must cover their legs and
arms; and a woman may serve
food to a guest, but never to a
Bobo male.
 Sizzla, Capleton, Turbulence,
Anthony B.

13. Nyahbinghi
 An often misrepresented mansion seen as supporting
violence for promoting "Death to black-and-white
downpressors,"
 The Nyahbinghi are actually pacifists who believe that
the rule of the black race is simply a matter of destiny
and not a cause for war (and they would prefer to
eliminate such superficial colour lines)

14. Summary
 An important religious movement within
Reggae music.
 For the first time in the nation’s history one
of the few surviving African-based artforms-a
true articulation of black Jamaicaness- had
become involved with a commercially viable
mainstream expression. It was a bond
between Rastafari and the Jamaican music
business that is still in place to this day, with
each side doing as much for the other-while
reggae gives Rasta access to the world stage,
Rasta’s depth of spirituality means reggae will
always have something to say. Bass Culture,
Bradley, L.

15. Sources
 Bradley, Lloyd. Bass culture : when reggae was king.
London, Viking 2000.
 Barrett, L. E. The Rastafarians : the dreadlocks of
Jamaica. Kingston, Jamaica, Sangster's Book Stores
(1977).
 Hebidge, D. Cut 'n' mix : culture, identity, and
Caribbean music. London; New York, Methuen, 1987
 Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyabinghi