INTRODUCTION

Rastafari is a movement of Black people who know Africa as the birthplace of Mankind and the throne of Emperor Haile Selassie I, a 20th Century Manifestation of God who has lighted our pathway towards righteousness, and is therefore worthy of reverence. Rastafari recognizes Africa as the central origin of religious history, culture, science and technology, as well as the modern-day repository of the world's wealth -- gold, diamonds, oil, industrial metals.

Africa awaits its creators, and Rastafari see I&Iselves as warriors in the battle for redemption and reconstruction of our Mother Continent. This book attempts to present a true picture of the Rastafari way of life and thought.

ALL THANKS and PRAISE TO EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I who has guided I&I to the light of JAH RASTAFARI !!!

CHAPTER ONE

The Rastafari movement grew out of the darkest depression that the descendants of African slaves in Jamaica have ever lived in -- the stink and crumbling shacks of zinc and cardboard that the tattered remnants of humanity built on the rotting garbage of the dreadful Dungle on Kingston's waterfront. Out of this filth and slime arose a sentiment so pure, so without anger, so full of love, the Philosophy of the Rastafari faith.

It was a flower in a pigsty, watered by the nourishment of the Prophet Marcus Garvey, swayed by the wind of local political change, and cherished by the Black man's long-withheld desire to hold his head upright.

Freedom of Spirit, Freedom from Slavery and Freedom of Africa, was its cry.
HAIL! JAH RASTAFARI!

CHAPTER TWO - ELDER DREAD FUZZY

He is considered an Elder Dread, I-a Fuzzy, a tall thin wiry man with wisps of gray locks like a fuzzy halo around his balding head. He has few teeth, and always a pleasurable smile of happiness on his face, his eyes wrinkling up almost completely when he laughs.

He lives in a one-room wooden house in a small community perched on a barren, stony macca-tree hillside, overlooking a beautiful blue crescent of seaside called Subway Beach at Eleven Miles in St. Thomas.

Inside Fuzzy's house are memories of his strictly Rastafari life -- white suits braided in red, gold and green, elegant ceremonial hats, an assortment of rods, portraits of the Emperor, and photographs of Garvey and other Pan-Africanists. Fuzzy is one of those who captured Old Kings House many years ago.

CHAPTER THREE - MARCUS GARVEY

The African consciousness of Rastafari was first and best expressed by Marcus Mosiah Garvey, an idealistic Jamaican boy who envisioned a free and respected Negro race, and who dedicated his entire life to the realization of this vision.

He was reviled, maligned, persecuted and scorned, but he held fast to his divine work with a strength, courage and resoluteness which enabled him to rise continually from whatever misfortunes he suffered. Today, over 50 years after his death, Marcus Garvey lives more powerfully than ever, revered as a visionary by Black people all over the African Diaspora.

Garvey's aim was to create a Government for Africa and Africans, those at home and abroad. The Black man, he felt, had been poorly paid for his contribution to the world. Why should he not be free to establish his own society? The time was opportune, Garvey felt, for the Black man to press for recognition of his Birthright.

CHAPTER FIVE - EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I - LION OF JUDAH

The worship of Selassie I as God and the returned Messiah is held as a basic tenet of Rastafari faith. Though information about Selassie's life shows that he was also a man with human emotions and actions, it is not unrealistic to perceive HIM as Christ reborn, especially because of how racially liberating it has been for Black people to focus on a Black Christ-figure.

For Rastafari to regard H.I.M. as God, places Emperor Haile Selassie I in the same category of other men who have been deified – Jesus of Nazareth, Mohammed, and the Dhali Lama – to name a few avatars whose followers consider them true Gods walking among men.

When Emperor Selassie I is placed alongside the Prophet of Black Liberation - Marcus Garvey - the importance of the Emperor’s life and the logic of the Children of Africa in Jamaica recognizing the spiritual connections between HIM and themselves becomes clear.

THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

The Ark of the Covenant -- considered the most holy of Christian artifacts -- has been located in Ethiopia, after having disappeared in the reign of Biblical King Solomon more than 3,000 years ago. According to the Kebre Negast, the Ethiopian Bible, it was taken to Ethiopia by Menelik 1, the son of Solomon’s union with the legendary Queen Makeda of Ethiopia (better known as the Queen of Sheba) and has been in Ethiopia ever since. However, this location has been disputed in modern times, and many individuals and countries have tried to find the Ark.

According to an article in Canada’s “Sunday Sun” newspaper, a three-year search has positively located “the most important archaeological, historical and religious object in man’s history” buried in the bowels of the Ethiopian Orthodox St. Mary of Zion Church in Aksum, a holy city 623 km. North of Addis Ababa.

Rastafari has spread island and world-wide mainly because of reggae music, its chief cultural expression. Some say that the Number One music in the world is reggae music, especially the reggae music played by the world-famous Bob Marley. It is the music of Jamaica's roots, and all roots people are captured by its vibration.

But although Marley is seen only as a superstar, it is well to remember that he is only a descendant of the same Rastafari that walked Kingston's streets in the 50's shouting "Fire, Brimstone and Thunder", scorned and spat upon, sharing whatever little he earned with his brethren in the ghetto of Dungle. If one remembers this fact, then one will see the very long road Rastafari has traveled from those days of being scorned by society, to today where Rastafari is represented by a reggae superstar.

BOB MARLEY - JUST A FRIEND I USED TO KNOW

Bob Marley was a remarkable Black man, the kind that occurs unfortunately too infrequently in the history of the African Diaspora. Speaking as a Black Woman, there are so few who represent the free Black man -- not slave -- that when we meet one we must pause to reflect on just how truly great a Black man can be.

Bob attracted by being a warrior for the cause of Justice and the rights of the still-poor children of slaves. This gave him an aura more powerful than that which is based on popular fame or sensuality, for it created Perfect Love between Bob and the millions in tune with his Divine Vibrations.

CHAPTER SEVEN - THE HOLY HERB

Rastafari are leaders on the spiritual plane of consciousness, who care more for spiritual well-being than material. Rastafari would prefer to know that he has lived one day as perfectly as possible in a Godly way, than that there is a television set to go home to. Today, socially there is wide acceptance of Rastafari, but I&I are still considered outsiders because of smoking the Holy Herb.

This in itself is another of the problems of Rastafari. Rastafari has arrived at the spiritual plane of consciousness by smoking the herb, and by continuing to smoke it I&I can bring I-self back to that special place where I&I can find peace, spiritual silence and insight into I&I Christ Consciousness.

Just as perfectly as a man, her mind has accepted the Divinity of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie. Just as perfectly as a man, she understands her Black history and culture. Just as perfectly as a man, she wishes to be re-united with her Mother Continent, Africa – both spiritually and physically. She has studied the history of the Ethiopian and African Queens who preceeded her and set the precedent for her royal behaviour.

Rastafari today is very much in the forefront of Jamaican and international consciousness. The influences of Rastafari have seeped into the society, mainly because of the messages in spiritual reggae music, and today Rastafari is respected and acknowledged by the majority of the population, especially those under the age of 30.

Rastafari's dreadlocks hairstyle is fashionable among today's youth of both sexes, while Rastafarian philosophy, speech and Afrocentric political ideology is common throughout the entire society. There are Rastafarians in all sectors of Jamaican business life, and it is not uncommon today to see Rastafarians driving expensive cars, dressed in fashionable clothes and Living in upper-middle class residential areas, while still maintaining their beliefs and practices.

CHAPTER TEN - RASTAFARI UNITY

The most pressing problem among Rastafari at the moment, is that the movement is lacking in Unity and a set of clearly defined steps towards achieving the common goals. There are many groups, sects and organizations within Rastafari, some of which do not even agree with each other on basic principles and practices. The issue of Baptism is a controversial one, though emphasized by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

At the same time Rastafari assert that the Church is within I&I, the Holy Temple which each person carries in the flesh form, within which dwells the Spirit of the Most High, rather than in a once-a-week visit to a building. Nevertheless the need for a place in which people can gather to give praise and thanks to JAH is apparent to all Rastafari, and in the absence of such buildings, Rastafari gather in Nyabinghi and at musical events for this purpose.

CHAPTER ELEVEN - THE BIBLE - HOLY WRIT OR PROPAGANDA

One of the contradictions of Rastafari, is that while the movement directs one to close study and practice of the Bible’s teachings, there is also the view expressed by most Rastafari that the Bible is not to be taken literally -- if at all -- because it is merely a ‘version’ of original truth re-written by the European Christian to suit his own purposes.

Such Rastafari say that the original writings were by Black Africans and that the Roman churches, seeing the power of Christ, incorporated Christian philosophy into their own version of those original truths and in the process adapted and distorted the meanings of important Biblical passages. This is partly true.

CHAPTER TWELVE - REPATRIATION & REPARATIONS

The issue of Repatriation -- the financially assisted return to Africa and the establishment of a nation for the Western descendants of slavery -- is a genuinely-held desire of every true-hearted Rastafarian and the core and foundation principle of the Rastafari movement and the desire of Rastafarians to be returned to live once again in Africa, to restore the Continent and its cultural and economic glories.

The call for Reparations was the earliest mission statement of the Rastafari movement from its beginnings in the mid-1930s in Jamaica. Their inspiration to demand compensation for slavery's injustice was the Maroons -- runaway Africans whose determination to escape the shackles of slavery caused them to fight the British, win their freedom, and gain land for settlement as reparations.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - Blueprint for the NEW AFRICAN ZION

The Government of a nation to established with Reparations for the repatriation of descendants of enslaved Africans, would quite possibly be a Theocratic one with a Constitution based on Biblical laws, and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie and the Prophet Marcus Garvey.

The system of organization would be communal, with common ownership and sharing of the land as the basis of wealth production. Collective work would form a large part of each individual’s life in order to enrich the nation and engender a feeling among citizens of participation, brotherliness and equality. 

CHAPTER 14 - WHITE RASTAS

“White Rastas” – the term would have been both unthinkable and improbable at the start of the Rastafari religion -- founded in Afrocentricity, guided by race philosopher Marcus Garvey, inspired by Ethiopian Emperor, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I, and committed to the restoration of the greatness of African history, culture and territory.

Today Rastafari includes members who are European, Japanese, Aboriginee, Indian, Scandinavian, Latin American – in fact, there are Rastafari in every culture and country. Why and how did this anomaly arise? Not surprisisngly, it is the overwhelming power of the Rastafari message of ONE LOVE that is the magnet that has drawn them, and continues to hold them in the controversial faith.

SELASSIE & GARVEY ON CHRIST

"No doubt you will remember reading in the Acts of the Apostles how Phillip baptized the Ethiopian official. He is the first Ethiopian on record to have followed Christ and from that day onwards the word of God has continued to grow in the hearts of Ethiopians. And I may say for myself that from early childhood I was taught to appreciate the Bible and my love for it increases with the passage of time."EMPEROR HAILE SELASSIE I.

"We shall never succeed in taking the Spirit of Christ out of the world, because in some of us, still, there is that spark of love, charity and mercy that links us to our God." MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY.