'Movement of Jah People' - What can we learn from the origins of Rastafari?
The inception of religion is a fascinating field of
study. It is wondrous how the writings
of an often anonymous few, can create a complex social and moral order, which generations
of people will live and die by. The
specifics of the formation of religions such as Judaism or Hinduism is lost in
the mists of time, it is impossible to determine whether the revelation upon
Mount Sinai was a historical event or a mere metaphor. However, Rastafari, an unconventional
Christian sect established in Jamaica during the 1930s, provides a valuable
insight into this arena of study as the influences that shaped the ‘Movement of
Jah’s people’ are both extremely current and overt.
In the 1930s, Jamaica was flooded with a new breed of
religious street preachers. They were
vehement in their condemnation of Jamaica’s ailing colonial government and prejudiced
society. They proclaimed that Christ had
returned in the person of the newly crowned emperor of Abyssinia, Halie
Selassie I, formerly Ras Tafari, who they claimed would end the subjugation of
black people around the world.
| Emperor Halie Selassie - 'God incarnate' |
The early Rastas reached this conclusion by combining
several religious, cultural and intellectual streams of thought. The local religious
stream was the historic resistance of British hegemony over worship and its
belief in Biblical messianism, leading to an expectation of a future liberator
who would bring an end to the marginalisation of blacks. Another stream is the
diaspora identification with independent Ethiopia as a symbol of black
identity. This stream is called
Ethiopianism, which emerged among blacks in Africa and the diaspora during the
18th and 19th centuries.
Through the discovery of grand African civilisations, practioners of
Ethiopianism sought to end the pseudo-concept of Africa as the ‘dark continent’
where nothing but barbarism had existed, until it was colonised and ‘civilised’
by allegedly superior Europeans. By
recalling the neglected historical achievements of Africans, it sustained the
hope of a glorious future, where emancipated Africans would finally break the
bonds of white domination. The focus on Ethiopia by Rastafari, and subsequently
the veneration of Selassie as God incarnate is a legacy of Ethiopianism.
However, the most powerful stream is the Garvey movement of
the 1910s and 1920s, which rallied support for Ethiopianism and Pan-Africanism
in black communities throughout the world.
Marcus Garvey’s emphases on black nationalism, repatriation (moving back
to Africa) and self-reliance are all cornerstones of Rastafari. His purported prophecy of the crowning of an
African king as an icon for black liberation is a significant factor in why
Halie Selassie is identified as the Messiah.
Garvey is accordingly revered as a prophet in Rastafari. Another stream, interlinked with Garvey’s
movement was a rise in black consciousness and activism throughout the Americas
after WWI. Rastafari is part of the same
cultural wave that produced the ‘Harlem Renaissance’.
 |
| Marcus Garvey |
Thus, while Rastafari undoubtedly marks a new stage in
Jamaican religion and struggle for self-determination, it falls within a
history of resistance to the hegemonic British Empire. Subsequently, when Selassie ascended to the
throne of Abyssinia, many Jamaicans of African ancestry with a history of resistance
to white dominance, and influenced by black consciousness currents of the early
20th century were disposed to find racial and religious significance
in the coronation of Selassie.
The powerful political and ethnic factors in the galvanisation
of Rastafari suggest that similar influences acted on the development of religions
worldwide. For example, the Roman
festival of Saturnalia, shifted the birth of Jesus to the 25th of December,
despite experts suggesting he was in fact born in Spring. Emperor Constantine’s conversion to
Christianity and its subsequent adoption by all subjects of the Empire is the
reason for the geographical spread of Christendom. The motives for this were unlikely to have
been divine, despite the legends surrounding the Battle of Malvinan Bridge, but
political, as the Emperor sought to unite the warring factions of his empire beneath
a single God.
 |
| Renaissance painting spiritualising the Battle of Malvinan Bridge |
Bibliography
‘Rastafari: A very
short introduction’ – Ennis Edmonds
‘The Fortunes of
Africa’ – Martin Meredith
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