Rastafari movement

Rasta, or the Rastafari movement of Jah people, is a religious movement that reveres Haile Selassie I, the former emperor of Ethiopia, as King of Kings, Lord of Lords and the Lion of Judah. The name Rastafari comes from Ras Täfäri, the pre-coronation name of Haile Selassie I, who Rastas of many mansions say is the earthly aspect of Jah (short for Jehova or the Rastafari name for God) and part of the Holy Trinity. The movement emerged in Jamaica among working-class and peasant black people in the early 1930s, arising from an interpretation of Biblical prophecy, black social and political aspirations, and the teachings of their prophet, Jamaican black publicist and organiser Marcus Garvey, whose political and cultural vision helped inspire a new world view. The movement is sometimes called "Rastafarianism"; however, this is considered improper and offensive by the Rastas themselves.

Doctrines

Rastafari developed amongst very poor people, who felt society had nothing to offer them except more suffering. Rastafarians see themselves as conforming to a vision of how Africans should live, reclaiming what they see as a culture stolen from them when they were brought on slave ships to Jamaica, birthplace of the movement.

Related Topics:
Africans - Slave - Jamaica

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The doctrines of Rastafari depart radically from the norms of the modern western mind, something encouraged deliberately by the Rastas themselves. Unlike most religious and Christian groups that tend to stress conformity towards the powers-that-be, Rastafari instead stresses loyalty to their concept of "Zion", and rejection of modern society ("Babylon"). "Babylon" in this case is considered to be rebelling against "Earth's Rightful Ruler" (JAH) ever since the days of Nimrod.

Related Topics:
Doctrines - Mind - Christian - Zion - Nimrod

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This "way of life" is not merely to be given intellectual assent, or "belief" as the term is often used; it is about knowing or finding one's true identity. To follow and worship JAH Rastafari is to find, spread and "trod" the path with which one was rightfully born.

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The religion is difficult to categorise, because Rastafari is not a centralised organisation. Individual Rastafari work out the truth for themselves, resulting in a wide variety of beliefs entering beneath the general umbrella of Rastafari.

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Afrocentrism

Socially, Rastafari is a response to racist negation of black people as it was experienced in Jamaica, where in the 1930s, black people were at the bottom of the social order, while white people and their (predominantly Christian) religion were at the top. Marcus Garvey's encouragement of black people to take pride in themselves and their African-ness inspired the Rastas to embrace all things African. They teach that they were brainwashed while in captivity to negate all things black and African. They turned the racists' image of them as primitive and straight out of the jungle into a defiant embrace of these concepts as a part of the African culture they see as having been stolen from them when they were taken from Africa on the slave ships. To be close to nature and to the African savannah and its lions, in spirit if not in the flesh, is central to their idea of African culture.

Related Topics:
Marcus Garvey - Lions

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Living close to and as a part of nature is seen as African. This African approach to "naturality" is seen in the dreadlocks (a custom not common anywhere in Africa, itself), ganja, ital food, and in all aspects of Rasta life. They disdain the modern approach (or, as they see it, non-approach) to life for being unnatural and excessively objective and rejecting subjectivity. Rastas say that scientists try to discover how the world is by looking from the outside in, whereas the Rasta approach is to see life from the inside, looking out. The individual is given tremendous importance in Rastafari, and every Rasta has to figure out the truth for himself or herself.

Related Topics:
Dreadlocks - Ganja - Ital food - Objective - Subjectivity

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Haile Selassie and the Bible

One belief that unites many Rastafari is that Ras (an Amharic title of nobility corresponding to Duke; also having the meaning "Head") Tafari Makonnen, who was crowned Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia on November 2nd 1930, is the living God incarnate, called Jah, who is the black Messiah who will lead the world's peoples of African origin into a promised land of full emancipation and divine justice. (Though some mansions do not take this literally.) This is partly because of his titles King of Kings, Lord of Lords and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah. These titles match those of the Messiah mentioned in Revelation. However, these were traditionally accorded to all Ethiopian emperors, even before Revelation was written. Haile Selassie was, according to Ethiopian tradition, the 225th in an unbroken line of Ethiopian monarchs descended from the Biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Psalm 87:4-6 is also interpreted as predicting the coronation of Haile Selassie I.

Related Topics:
Amharic - Haile Selassie I - Ethiopia - November 2nd - 1930 - God - Incarnate - Jah - Black - Messiah - Africa - Emancipation - Divine - Justice - Mansions - Revelation - Biblical - Solomon - Queen of Sheba - Psalm

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In the 10th century BC, The Solomonic Dynasty of Ethiopia was founded by Menelik I, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who had visited Solomon in Israel. 1 Kings 10:13 claims "And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants." On the basis of the Kebra Negast, Rastas interpret this as meaning she conceived his child, and from this, they concluded that the black people are the true children of Israel, or Jews. Beta Israel black Jews have lived in Ethiopia for centuries, disconnected from the rest of Judaism; their existence gave some credence and impetus to early Rastafarians, validating their belief that Ethiopia was Zion.

Related Topics:
10th century BC - Ethiopia - Menelik I - Solomon - Queen of Sheba - 1 Kings - Kebra Negast - Beta Israel - Zion

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Some Rastafari choose to classify their religion as Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, Protestant Christianity, or Judaism. Of those, the ties to the Ethiopian Church are the most widespread, although this is controversial to many Ethiopian clergy. Rastafari believe that standard translations of the Bible incorporate changes created by the racist white power structure. They also revere the Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast.

Related Topics:
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity - Protestant Christianity - Judaism - Kebra Negast

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For Rastafari, Selassie I remains their king as well as their God: an African Haile Selassie, with great pomp and dignity in front of the world's press and representatives of many of the world's powerful nations. From the beginning the Rastas decided to treat themselves in effect as Ethiopian citizens, loyal to its leader and devoted to its flag.

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Most Rastafari believe that Selassie is in some way a reincarnation of Jesus and that the Rastafari are the true Israelites.

Related Topics:
Reincarnation - Jesus - Israelites

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Rastas call Selassie Jah, or Jah Rastafari, and believe there is great power in these names. They call themselves Rastafari (pronounced Rasta-FAR-I) to express the personal relationship each Rasta has with Selassie I. Rastas like to use the ordinal with the name Haile Selassie I, with the dynastic Roman numeral one signifying "the First" deliberately pronounced as the letter I - again as a means of expressing a personal relationship with God. They also like to call him H.I.M. (pronounced him), for His Imperial Majesty.

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When Haile Selassie I died in 1975, his death was not accepted by Rastafari who could not accept that God could die. They said it was a lie. A few Rastas today consider this a partial fulfillment of prophecy found in the apocalyptic 2 Esdras 7:28.

Related Topics:
1975 - 2 Esdras

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Rastafari is a strongly syncretic Abrahamic religion that draws extensively from the Bible. They particularly like the New Testament Book of Revelation, as this (5:5) is where they find the prophecies about the divinity of Haile Selassie. Rastas believe that they, and the rest of the black race, are descendants of the ancient twelve tribes of Israel, cast into captivity outside Africa as a result of the slave trade.

Related Topics:
Syncretic - Abrahamic religion - Bible - New Testament - Book of Revelation - Israel - Africa - Slave trade

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Some believe that only half of the Bible has been written, and that the other half, stolen from them along with their culture, is written in a man's heart. This concept also embraced the idea that even the illiterate can be Rastas by reading God's Word in their hearts. Rastas also see the lost half of the bible, and the whole of their lost culture to be found in the Ark of the Covenant, a repository of African wisdom.

Related Topics:
Illiterate - Culture - Ark of the Covenant

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Rastafari are criticised, particularly by Christian groups, for taking biblical quotes out of context, for picking and choosing what they want from the Bible, and for bringing elements into Rastafari that do not appear in the Bible. They are also criticised for using the English language (and particularly the King James version) of the Bible, as many have no interest in Hebrew or Greek scholarship. However, in recent years a greater interest in the Amharic Orthodox version, authorized by Haile Selassie I in the 1950s, has arisen among Rastas.

Related Topics:
Christian - King James version - Hebrew - Greek - Scholarship

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Repatriation and Race

The Rasta dream is that Haile Selassie will call the day of judgment, when the righteous shall return home to Mount Zion, identified with Africa, to live forever in peace, love and harmony. In the meantime the Rastas call to be repatriated to Africa. Repatriation, the desire to return to Africa after 400 years of slavery, is central to Rastafari doctrine. The first Rastas, stuck on a tiny Caribbean island, dreamed of the possibilities of Africa.

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Many early Rastas for a time believed in black supremacy. Widespread advocacy of this doctrine was shortlived, however; at least partly because of Selassie's explicit condemnation of racism in a speech before the United Nations. Most Rastafarians now espouse a belief that racial animosities must be set aside, with world peace and harmony being common themes. One of the three major modern sects, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, has specifically condemned all types of racism, and declared that the teachings of the Bible are the route to spiritual liberation for people of any racial or ethnic background.

Related Topics:
Black supremacy - Racism - United Nations

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Some early elements of Rastafari were closely related to indigenous religions of the Caribbean and Africa, and to the Maroons, though these syncretic elements were largely purged by the Nyahbinghi warriors - dreadlocked Rastas who fought the corrupting power of some leaders who sought to add them to the Rastafarian doctrines.

Related Topics:
Maroons - Dreadlocked

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Middle-class people, white people, Asians, and Native Americans also comprise minorities within the movement.

Related Topics:
Middle-class - White people - Asian - Native Americans

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Church and The Holy Trinity

To further confuse the issue of classifying Rasta practices, one type of religious gathering (grounation) is similar in many ways to Jewish services, and may have descended from African-American slaves who converted to Judaism -- some Jews in the southern USA owned slaves -- and escaped to Jamaica. Rastas believe that their own body is the true church or temple of God, and so see no need to make temples or churches out of physical buildings.

Related Topics:
Church - Temple

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Rastas believe that Haile Selassie is both God the Father and God the Son of the holy Trinity, while it is themselves, and potentially all human beings, who embody the Holy Spirit. Thus, the human being is a church that contains the Holy Ghost. Rastas see Haile Selassie as the head, and themselves as the body, as another way of expressing this doctrine. Some see Melchizedek in addition to Jesus as having been former incarnations of Haile Selassie. The reason Rastas have the doctrine of the Holy Trinity is because Haile Selassie is Power of the Trinity in Ethiopic.

Related Topics:
God the Father - God the Son - Trinity - Holy Spirit - Melchizedek - Jesus

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Physical Immortality

Rastas are physical immortalists who believe the chosen few will continue to live forever in their current bodies. This idea of everliving (rather than everlasting) life is very strong and important.

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A good expression of this doctrine is in Lincoln Thompson's song Thanksgiving. After asking "What's destroying life?" he says, "Tell I if you know." Paraphrasing the Bible, he continues, "There are too many dead bodies lying around me...in a true reality, down in the grave there is no life. In silence there you'll be, with no-one to hear nor see, and no matter what you saw, when you are dead you cannot praise Jah." In Walk in Jah Light Thompson sings about "Living under the 6 feet of sorrow" and asks, "Who's going to live to glorify the gift of Jah eternally?"

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Perhaps the most well known example of this is Bob Marley's refusal to write a will despite suffering from the final stages of an advanced metastasized cancer (and the resulting controversy surrounding the distribution of his estate after his death) on the grounds that writing a will would mean he was giving in to death and forgoing his chance at everliving life.

Related Topics:
Bob Marley's - Metastasized cancer

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Homosexuality

Homosexuality is seen as sinful and decadent, though in this attitude Rastafari is far from unique, and some Rastas are indifferent to homosexuality or accept it. Some claim that extra attention may be paid to homophobia in Rastafari, however, because persecution of homosexuals is common in Jamaica among Rastas and non-Rastas alike.

Related Topics:
Homosexuality - Homophobia

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Reggae Music Expressing Rasta Doctrine

Early Rasta reggae musicians (besides Marley) whose music expresses Rastafari doctrine well are Peter Tosh, Bunny Wailer (in Blackheart Man), Prince Far I, Lincoln Thompson, Ijahman Levi (especially the first 4 albums), Misty-in-Roots (Live), The Congos (Heart of the Congos), The Rastafarians, Culture, and Ras Michael And The Sons Of Negus. The Jamaican jazz percussionist Count Ossie, who had played on a number of ska and reggae recordings, recorded albums with themes relating to Rasta history, doctrine, and culture.

Related Topics:
Peter Tosh - Bunny Wailer - Prince Far I - Lincoln Thompson - Ijahman Levi - Misty-in-Roots - The Congos - The Rastafarians - Jazz - Percussionist - Count Ossie

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Rasta doctrine as developed in the '80s was further expressed musically by a number of other prominent artists, such as Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, Third World, Black Uhuru, Aswad, and Israel Vibration.

Related Topics:
Burning Spear - Steel Pulse - Third World - Black Uhuru - Aswad - Israel Vibration

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