AFRICAN DIASPORA AND RASTAFARIAN MOVEMENT

It is indisputable that the Rastafarian movement has gained support and gained impact on people all over the world. The Rasta name and culture, which originated in Africa, Jamaica, American, and European cultures, have spread among various races and nations as a result of the rapidly evolving contemporary technology. Regrettably, during the past few decades of Rastafarianism’s worldwide expansion due to commercialization, it has created a false image founded on misunderstanding and ignorance. Therefore, the movement is typically associated with false ideals like the worship of a particular deity, marijuana use, and—most importantly—reggae music. The events have taken center-stage without the knowledge of the first functions, figures, and principles that characterize the true meaning of the movement. The objective of this paper is to assess the evolution through analyzing its definition, beliefs, history, practices and most importantly the organization and demographics.

Definition and History

Rastafarianism is a faith with profound radical opinions and begun in the slums of Jamaica in the 1920s and 30s. African spiritual traditions have played a very instrumental role in influencing the culture of Rastafarianism as well as the biblical themes that have profoundly affected the religion. The most prominent Rastafarian is certainly Bob Marley whose reggae music gained the Jamaican movement the worldwide acknowledgment. The movement is also thought to be a social and spiritual movement based on a history of complete hardship, oppression and universal strives for social identity in the black community past the emancipation of Jamaica. It is undoubtedly a direct product of African captivity and enslavement in Jamaica from Africa by the European countries. The cultural traditions, religious beliefs, and ideologies of the movement are immediate ramifications of their slavery and oppression throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The actual history behind the development of the Rastafarian movement can be traced back to the era of the slave. After the discovery and colonization of the new world, just like the Europeans did to Americans, enslaved and transported thousands of Africans to the islands of Jamaica to be used as a workforce for the empires of British and Spanish. The two countries abducted, traded and transported these African people and in turn attempted to destroy their African cultures and identities to have a complete control of these people. Europeans mostly used the tactics of brainwashing, extreme degradation, and dehumanization to suppress this race. The slave owners from Europe often stressed the idea that African was less civilized and barbaric lot of the modern age and were by no chance equal to the white man. They refused to let the Africans practice and maintain their religious and cultural customs and continuously tried to replace Africanism with the reality of their enslavement and subjugation. The slaves were forced to practice Christianity and had most cases had their religious identity deprived of them as well. The slave owners justified their slave business by pointing out that African enslavement was due to lack of spiritual significance to God and attempted by all means to detach them from having any hope in life. With this move, the Europeans were capable of creating a group of people that had no knowledge or roots and truly believed in isolation from God and His pure creation.

With time, most Africans began to strive for literacy and in turn helped bridge the gap of equality that was created by the Europeans. The slaves were given access to one book which is the Bible and turned out to be the explanation and guidance of their fate. The Africans slowly began to see the fallacy behind the propaganda that they were fed for centuries and began to find what they were searching for. They found several black presences in many areas and stories of the Bible and after their emancipation in 1838, and they now had the freedom to search further and define their religious identity.

In the 1940s and 1950s, a more confrontational brand of the Rastafarian movement arose and was called the House of Youth Black Faith whose associates were primarily based in West Kingston. The backlash to counter the Rasta begun in 1957 after they were suspected to have killed a woman. Afterwards, Universal Convention was held in Kingston in 1958, and the event fuelled the movement to try and seize the city of Kingston in the name of Haile Selassie. The group also attempted to obtain Spanish Town later that year without success. The increasing militancy in the team ensued in the rising alarm about the belief in the Jamaican culture. In 1959, the self-declared diviner and the initiator of African Reform Church, Claudius Henry decided to sell thousands of Jamaicans together with many Rastas a ticket for a ship that he claimed could take them back to Africa.

Unfortunately, the ship never arrived and Henry was indicted with swindle. Henry was penalized to six years in prison after he was charged with attempt to overthrow the government. His son was later convicted and executed as he was accused of being part of the militant group that was affiliated to the Rastas. The turning point of the Rastafarian movement came in August of 1966 when Haile Selassie went to Jamaica for the first time. Many Rastas assembled at the airport to meet him and the 1960s the movement begun to be more appealing to privileged groups in the society such as students and musicians.

Beliefs

Blacks had found their religious identity in the Christian faith but slowly deviated from the full submission to the faith. They found fault with the dominant European basis of Christianity and saw the religion of having too much white influence. Jamaican people slowly began to discover their African roots and assisted in revitalizing their African heritage. Due to their newfound Biblical presence, they began to search for an idea of their original home in the Bible as well. The only images and ideas of their homeland that the people could come across were the ones they found about the Egyptians and Ethiopian civilizations in the Bible. They firmly believed that this had answered their question concerning their roots and logically proved Ethiopia to be the origin of their existence. It consequently elicited the growth of the belief that Ethiopia was the holy land and would one point stretch forth its hands. Ethiopia will stretch its hands just like it deed in the era of Jesus Christ when Simon of Cyrene an Ethiopian assisted Christ to carry the cross before the crucifixion.

Ethiopianism spread quickly providing a sense of hope to people who were still undergoing immense hardship and poverty even in the twentieth century. The ideology began to take a more radical shape as it spread. Marcus Garvey who was the founder of Back-to-Africa movement was a crucial figure in the establishment of black identity and the beliefs that would later define the Rastafarian movement. Garvey was a radical thinker and saw the importance of Africa particularly Ethiopia. His ideas appealed to the impoverished people of Jamaica as they offered hope of freedom from poverty, tyranny, and inequality that had plagued the Western world. Garvey was also the leading figure in the movements of black pride, black separatism as well as pan-Africanism. Relying on the religious ideologies that created Ethiopianism, Garvey preached the ideas of black superiority and their relationship with God and helped to support the theory that Ethiopia was their modern-day Zion. Garvey gave black people a sense of spiritual importance to God and created a strong ethos among the black race. Garvey ideologies became to be known as Garveyism and were adopted as the foundation of the religious and cultural organization of the Rastafarian.

Garvey decided to leave Jamaica for the United States in 1916 and realized that his large following was now in need of a reliable figure to lead their spiritual movement. They found the right character in 1930 when Ras Tafari, a descendant of King Selassie of Shoa was crowned King of Ethiopia. He adopted the name Haile Selassie and placed him in the line of King Solomon from biblical times. Coronation of Selassie was seen as the fulfillment of the biblical prophecy of Garvey and Jamaica saw Selassie as the Messiah of the African race.

Practices and Culture

Marijuana Smoking

One of the most facets of Rastafarian that come to attention of individuals when they hear of Rastafarian is their use of marijuana. Smoking of marijuana is a unique experience for a Rasta. They believe that the use of ganja helps inform their thoughts so they can properly reason the customs of the creation. The ganja is constantly smoked ritually in that before smoking the Rasta will say a wish to Jah (God) or Haile Selassie. The Rasta use Ganja for Nyabinghi then they call them reasoning gatherings. A Nyabinghi session is not the same from the casual marijuana smoking gathering that western people participate in. Individuals in the world of the west smoke marijuana for entertainment and can have a silly time of laugh and horseplay. However, this varies significantly with what happens during a Nyabinghi. A Nyabinghi is taken very earnestly and acting stupid would be considered discourteous to a Rasta. Unluckily for the Rasta, the smoking of the ganja has become one of the major tussles of the Rasta. It is because marijuana is illegal in almost all countries in the world. Rasta people are always at court all over the globe from South Africa to Jamaica in an attempt to legalize ganja for religion. The use of ganja can be traced back to the commencement of Rastafarian in Jamaica in 1941. One of the educators of Rastafari called Leonard Howell established a Rasta society of sixteen hundred Rastas and named it Pinnacle. Howell grew marijuana as cash crop at Pinnacle, and it was in the course of this time that the Rasta’s found some properties of ganja that assisted them in the thinking process. Rasta then turned to Bible and found admiration to the holy plant and henceforth Ganja as born to the philosophy of Rastafarians.

Dreadlocks

It is another well-recognized portion of Rastafarians, and its starting point traces back to antique Africa specifically the eastern Africa. The hairstyle was worn by combatants from Kenya, but in Jamaica after slavery, the hairstyle was believed to be dreadful. Wearing of the dread also resembled the main of a lion, and this was another reason that led to the dreadlocks among the Rasta. The lion is important because it is valued in the animal kingdom and it is modest as well. The Rasta believes that the two traits are celestial and vital to the black man. Wearing of dreadlocks also appeared in the Rasta community called the Pinnacle. Howell’s firm was regularly raided by the police and was forced to employ guards to protect his farm. The guards wore dreads like the African Ancient warriors and became to be known as locksmen. Just like smoking of marijuana, the hairdo of the Rasta has contributed to several problems. Early days of Rastafarian saw the brutality by the police extended to them for no reason. Many Rasta were therefore pushed into the bushes of Jamaica so that they could live peacefully without police harassment. Things have still not gotten better for the dreadlock people since children who have dreads are in Jamaica, and other countries are not allowed to attend schools.

Rasta Dialect

The language of a Rastafarian reveals on their views in several ways. They take their communication very earnestly, and they would frequently try to make their statement sound very grateful and powerful. Their discourse echoes on how they literary think and their speech mostly demonstrates their objection in contradiction of coercion as well as their dispute against authorities. An analysis of an expression by a Rasta will always turn out that they are still trying to reason positively. The rhetoric of the Rastafarian changes the English language in a manner that aids them make more logic of the world as well as objecting to what the Rasta man believes to be unfair. They will often do adjustment of a word from adverse to a more positive sense. For instance, the altering the word of understanding to overstand is an excellent illustration of this. Overstand indicates to have a grip of given idea entirely. The Rasta in this instance reasons that something that is under is inferior than something that is over hence changing under to above. A Rasta will never use a destructive word and will instead substitute it with something positive. It is an excellent consideration of how a Rasta always perceives things positively.

Symbols

Despite the reason, that language, dress code, dreaded hair among other traits pull a perfect borderline between non-Rastas and Rastas. The tam crown is worn by the majority of the Rastas is colored green, black, red and yellow to symbolize loyalty to the Ethiopian people. The red, black and green were the colors used to epitomize the continent of Africa by Marcus Garvey. It is important to note that the Ethiopian flag has a diverse connotation for different affiliates of the Rastafarians though the appropriate arrangement of the flag goes from the bottom to top as red, gold and green. Many associates of the group sometimes use it sometimes in conflicting alignment. The red color is said to represent the blood of the martyrs like Marcus Garvey, and green signifies the vegetation and beauty of the Ethiopian land while gold denotes the prosperity of the continent of Africa.

Demographics and Organization

The influence of Rastafarians in a broader humanity has been significant than its arithmetical scope. There were about 70,000 associates and sympathizers of the crusade in Jamaica. The bulk of this people were male, working class and former Christians that were aged between 18 and 40. The movement has also extended to some parts of Africa like Botswana, DR Congo, and South Africa. South Africa has the leading and most projecting Rastafarians, and a Nyabinghi Groundation is regularly held in the country. There is a Rastafarian public in Malawi as well, and they have had inspirations in the music industry where reggae remains a favorite genre of music. The Black Missionaries in Malawi carry on proliferating the philosophy of Rastafari in Malawi. In the Western world, Canada hosts a huge number of Rastafarians and has established the Sanctuary of the Rastafarian Order Ministry. In the United States, they started arriving in great numbers in the 1960s and 1970s typically from Jamaica.

In England, Rastafarians have presented statistically small but dominant constituent of black people in the English. The mainstreams are from black working-class families that trained Pentecostalism even though there is a little number from the white families. In 1986, close to 5000 Rastas were living in the United Kingdom, but after the death of Bob Marley, the number declined rapidly, and some reverted to Pentecostalism and other practices of faith. Some of the ex-Rastas from the United Kingdom cited cynicism when the societal alteration that was guaranteed by the Rastafarian movement botched. Others felt that Rastafarian was suitable for agrarian communities in Africa but not in the industrialized societies that were present in the United Kingdom. Some also experienced disenchantment after creating the perception that Haile Selassie had been tyrannical to the people of Ethiopia. Asia was also not left behind as a small but enthusiastic Rasta community designed in Japan in the late 1970s and 1980s. Rasta workshops that were selling reggae recordings, natural foods and other relevant Rasta stuffs sprang up in Tokyo, Osaka and other cities around Japan. For numerous years, open performances were held in different places around Japan.

Conclusion

It is clear that Rastafarian movement has had a significant influence in different societies around the world despite their unique and unwanted culture by various governments. The impact has been propagated by the art of reggae music that has always strived to relay a positive message to the oppressed people in the society. Despite various Rastafarians around the world such as those from Britain leaving the movement due to disillusionment, the movement has continued to grow in popularity especially in Africa. The people of Africa feel that the Rastafarians are their brothers and sisters that were taken away as a result of slave trade hence the active connection. Comprehending what it means to be a Rastafarian requires one to understand the centuries of hardship and slavery that these people went through. However, it is unfortunate that the modern day Rastafarians have always misinterpreted the whole idea embracing false characterization. Regardless of these missteps in the Rastafarian movement, it has undoubtedly played a very crucial role in the history of the African diaspora.

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