April 21st marks the golden jubilee of Groundation Day, marking 50 since His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie I landed in Jamaica as part of his Caribbean tour that also took in Barbados, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago. The event marked a watershed in the international profile of the livity known as Rastafari.
Now a global phenomenon, Rastafari has its roots in 1930s Jamaica around a confluence of Garveyite Ethiopianism. Those regarded as the main founding fathers of the movement – Leonard Percival Howell (aka Gong-g’un Guru Maragh – Bro. Gong), Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert, Henry Archibald Dunkley and Robert Hinds, as well as Paul Erlington, Altamont Reid, Vernon Davis and Ferdinand Rickets (1) – were either members of or associated with Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s UNIA-ACL. (2)
This Garveyism, combined with a pre-existing Ethiopianism in Jamaica can be traced to the late 18th century. (3) This trajectory was crystalized by some key “proto-Rastafari” texts such as The Holy Piby (1924) by Robert Athlyi Rogers and The Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy (1926) by Fitz Balintine Pettersburg. Rogers saw his Afro Athlican Constructive Church as a corollary the UNIA-ACL founded by Marcus Garvey, whom he regarded as an apostle of the creator. (4) For his part Pettersburg penned a searing indictment of European/Anglo-Saxon civilization, while advocating Afrikan self determination:
“All the African is to do now, Build a New. Get out a New Dictionary & a New Bible & a New Board of Education, & a New Money Mint. AND THE NEW OUTFIT SHALL BE CALLED BLACK SUPREMACY.” (5)
As hinted at by the likes of Shepherd Athlyi, prophetic qualities began to be attributed to Marcus Garvey as the 1920s advanced. Indeed, for many Rastas this status was confirmed when his “look to Afrika where a Black King shall be crowned for the day of our Deliverance is near,” came to pass on November 2nd 1930. For that was the date of the joint coronation of Ras Tafari Makonnen (who took the title Haile Selassie I – the power of the trinity) and Menen Asfaw Wolete Giyorgis as Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia, of the lineage of King David. (6)
Leonard Percival Howell, who is the closest to what can be regarded as a founder of the Rastafari Movement, used texts like Pettersburg’s inspiration for his The Promised Key (c.1935) – a testament of faith. Two years earlier he advanced six principles of Rastafari: 1) Hatred for the White race; 2) The complete superiority of the Black race; 3) Revenge on Whites for their wickedness; 4) The negation, persecution, and humiliation of the government and legal bodies of Jamaica; 5) Preparation to go back to Africa and 7) Acknowledging Emperor Haile Selassie as the Supreme Being and only ruler of Black people. (7)
Such teachings along with preaching the divinity of Emperor Haile Selassie I put him on collision course with the Jamaican authorities leading to his jailing for two years in 1934 on charges of sedition and blasphemy. Other founders like Joseph Hibbert through the Ethiopian Coptic Church (and later Ethiopian World Federation, Local 17 as a founding member) and Archibald Dunkley through the King Of Kings Missionary Movement, suffered similar fates at the hands of the colonial administration in succeeding decades.
Undeterred and as a demonstration of self-determination, Howell established the Pinnacle commune in the hills of St. Catherine in 1940, harking back to the practice of the Kromante (“Maroon”) Ancestors. The settlement thrived, offering a model of being not of Babylon (European society) whilst being in it. Pinnacle was self-sufficient, not least due to cultivation cash crops including ganja, which was also a Rastafari sacrament. With the movement now spread all over the island, other communities of varying size and structure (and doctrines) were established but all of them faced stern opposition from the establishment. Pinnacle grew to around 2,000 faithful, but the harassment continued leading to the final face off with the mass arrests, destruction of the commune and dispersal of members by police in 1954. (8)
The political ‘independence’ of the island didn’t bring about any substantive change in the government’s attitude to Rastafari. In fact months after independence the most serious stand-off occurred in west Kingston in April 1963 known as the Coral Gardens Massacre. An altercation between the police and some Rasta Brethren, that appeared to be precipitated on the state’s attempt to restrict the movement of Rastas, resulted in the death of a police officer and the burning of a petrol station. The reprisals were swift. All the Brethren involved were apprehended and killed. But Prime Minister Alexander Bustmante went further and gave the order: “Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive”:
“The spaces of the Rastafari ransacked and desecrated… the police and army eagerly invaded all working class neighborhoods and arrested and detained all those who were Rastas. The lock up jail at Barnett Street was so full that they were held in the yard just as the enslaved had been and from time to time hosed down with water. The police and military raided all camps and then proceeded to cut the locks of the Rastafari in all parts of Western Jamaica.” (9)
Against the backdrop of state repression, Rastafari Elders and leaders had been engaged with the administration of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I since the 1930s. The fruits of which included the establishment of the Ethiopian World Federation in 1937 and in 1948, the granting of 500 acres of land in Shashamane, Ethiopia for repatriation. A delegation from Jamaica travelled to see the Emperor in 1961 and 1963 to discuss this and other matters.
So the events of 21st April 1966 were in stark contrast to what had previously been the case in terms of the representation of Rastafari and its engagement with the state. Over 100,000, more 5% of the then population were in attendance to greet the plane carrying His Imperial Majesty at Palisadoes Airport (this would be equivalent to three million people descending on Heathrow or Gatwick, for example). Managing the situation was beyond the capabilities of the state authorities so they had to call on Rastafari leader Mortimo Planno to co-ordinate the Emperor’s descent from the plane a through the assembled masses. As a consequence there was a Rasta presence at all of Haile Selassie’s subsequent engagements in Jamaica. (10)
The arrangements of 1966 did not usher in a new entente cordiale between the Rasta Movement and the Jamaican government. In fact, by 1969 activist and academic Walter Rodney could say that the Rastafari Brethren have “completely and inexorably broken with Jamaican society and its values.” (11) It was similar wherever Rastafari was found. Dominica with its 1974 Prohibited and Unlawful Societies and Associations Act (“The Dread Act”), was a case in point. Passed by the Patrick John administration and continued under Eugenia Charles, it has been described by some as “one of the most draconian pieces of legislation passed in any part of the world in the 20th and 21st centuries”:
“The law aimed to stem the spread of and influence of the Rasta movement in Dominica by giving police and citizens the right to shoot other citizens on sight without question if those people had dreadlocks and induced fear or mistrust. It sentenced members to 9 months in prison for the hairstyle dread locks or dreads or any memorabilia that identified them as ‘Dreads’. Dreads could be killed, or have their locks forcibly cut, in many cases for no better reason than being classified as a member of an “unlawful society”. (12)
Today, few places are as repressive against Rastafari. It could be argued that through the proliferation of reggae music, “fashion locks, etc, elements of Rastafari has become quite marketable – with the attendant risk of misrepresentation (13). But then even defining what Rastafari is can be a challenge. It has never had a definitive leader and the different Houses/Mansions (e,g, Nyahbibghi, Ethiopian World Federation, Boboshanti, Twelve Tribes of Israel, etc) point to the level of diversity within it. (14)
Although now, not even the Divinity of Haile Selassie can be regarded as universal, as poet and broadcaster Mutabaruka asserts: “I refuse to keep validating my perception of the divinity of Haile Selassie through an Israelite god.” (15) Nevertheless, there are some key central elements that have remained since its inception standing as a bulwark against western materialism: focus of the Motherland as the source of Afrikan redemption through its call for repatriation, the prophetic attributes of Marcus Mosiah Garvey and the demand for reparations.
Whatever its certified membership (if it could even be calculated) the impact and sphere of influence of Rastafari goes well beyond this, arguably proscribing the parameters of consciousness for generations of activists. To some extent a resurgence was witnessed through the organising of the 2014 reparations march.
(1) Ahkell, Jah (1999) Rasta: Emperor Haile Selassie and the Rastafarians. Reasearch Associates/School Times Publications. p. 9
(2) Anbessa-Ebanks, Kwende (2004) Rastafari Livity: A basic Information Text. Kwemara Publications. p. 28
(3) Barrett, Leonard E (1988) The Rastafarians. Beacon Press. p. 76.
(4) Rogers, Robert Athlyi (2008) The Holy Piby. Hogarth Blake. p. 6. http://www.hh-bb.com/holy-piby.pdf
(5) Pettersburg, Fitz Balintine (2008) The Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy by Hogarth Blake. p. 58. http://www.thecarafcentre.org.uk/pdf/royal-parchment-scroll.pdf.
(6) Anbessa-Ebanks, p. 26.
(7) Ahkell, p. 10.
(8) Barrett, p. 86-87.
(9) Campbell, Horace (12/04/13) Coral Gardens 1963: The Rastafari and Jamaican Independence. http://www.horacecampbell.net/2013/04/coral-gardens-1963-rastafari-and.html
(10) Paul, Annie (20/04/11) Emperor Haile Selassie’s 1966 visit to Jamaica, Coral Gardens, Kerala and more…. https://anniepaul.net/2011/04/22/emperor-haile-selassies-1966-visit-to-jamaica-coral-gardens-kerala-etc/
(11) Rodney, Walter (1983) The Groundings With My Brothers. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications. p. 13
(12) Santillo, Dave (08/01/15) A Rastafarian Stair-step Through History on the Caribbean Island of Dominica. https://puma-diaries.com/2015/01/08/a-rastafarian-stair-step-through-history-on-the-caribbean-island-of-dominica/
(13) Anbessa-Ebanks, p. 88.
(14) Anbessa-Ebanks, p. 71-86.
(14) Mutabaruka (2016) A New Faculty of Interpretation. http://www.mutabaruka.com/newfaculty.htm
So we ask the question:
Groundation Day at 50 – Where is Rastafari today?
- Is there a singular definition of Rastafari?
- Are The Gong’s 6 principles relevant to todays Rastas?
- Has Rastafari suffered from misrepresentation, if so how?
- Do the many mansions help or harm Rastafari coherence?
- Is Rastafari a movement for young people – how are they engaged in?
- Is Rastafari still perceived as a threat to the establishment?
Our special guests are:
Bro. Ldr. Mbandaka: Resident guest who is Spiritual Leader of the Alkebu-Lan Revivalist Movement and UNIA-ACL Ambassador for the UK and national co-Chair of the interim National Afrikan People’s Parliament. Bro. Ldr is a veteran activist of over 30 years standing, a featured columnist in The Whirlwind newspaper and author of Mosiah Daily Affirmations andEducation: An Africentric Guide To Excellence.
Sista Benji: Mother, Daughter, Wife not necessarily in that order. Community activist, organiser. Born in Jamaica came to England 1975. Founder member of Ras Angels, All female vocal group Foundation member of InI Families of Rastafari Support worker Grassroots Bookstore. Has worked within the Afrikan Community via radio from 1980’s [Traffic Jam Radio], event organising. Supporting families in crisis. Saturday School Teacher and the list goes on.
Ras Kwadwo: Husband, Father, Son, Brother Born in West London 1957 Pan Afrikan, Nationalist, Afrikan Spiritualist, Rastafari Joined Organisation of Rastafari Unity in early 1980’s Has been a member of an organisation ever since Foundation member of InI Families of Rastafari Taught in Saturday Schools, Youth and Community worker Facilitated Black Fathers group during 1990s Sis Benji and Kwadwo have most recently been co-presenters of Ras Story on Omega Radio.
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