History of Rastafarians
This is the History of the Rastafarians.
Biblical beginnings
Rastafarianism owes its name to Ras (prince) Tafari Makonnen, whose coronation as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia (1930) was seen as fulfilling Marcus Garvey's prophecy of a decade earlier:
"Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black King; for the day of deliverance is near."
Psalm 87:4-6 is also interpreted as predicting the coronation of Haile Selassie:
"I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there."
Emperor Haile Selassie was crowned "King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah" and is according to Ethiopian tradition the 225th in an unbroken line of Ethiopian kings descended from the Biblical King David. It should be noted that the title Negusa Nagast (King of Kings) has been a traditional title of the monarch of Ethiopia for centuries and is more usually translated as "Emperor". Likewise, Conquering Lion of Judah is an ancient title of that monarchy, not unique to the country's last reigning emperor. In addition, a claimed descent from Solomon (and, therefore, David) has been promulgated by several Ethiopian Imperial dynasties and is also not unique to the last Emperor.
In the 10th century BC, 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." Reading the King James version of the Bible Rastas interpret this as meaning she conceived his child, and from this they concluded that they the black people are the true children of Israel, or Jews. That black Jews have lived in Ethiopia for centuries, disconnected from the rest of Judaism by Muslim control of the Middle East and northern Africa, is uncontroversial; they are called Falashas; the existence of Falashas gave some credence and impetus to early Rastafarianism, as it seemed to validate the belief that Ethiopia was Zion.
Some Rastafarians choose to classify their religion as Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, Protestant Christianity, or Judaism. Some Israeli Rastas even consider themselves Islamic-Rastas. Of those, the ties to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church are most widespread, though discussed controversially in the clergy. Rastafarians believe that standard translations of the Bible represent changes created by the racist white power structure. They also revere the Ethiopian national epic, the Kebra Negast.
Modern holy books
The Holy Piby written by Robert Athlyi Rogers from Anguilla in 1928, is acclaimed by many Rastafarians as a primary source. Robert Athlyi Rogers, who founded an Afrocentric religion in the US and West Indies in the 1920s. Rogers' religious movement, the Afro Athlican Constructive Church, saw Ethiopians (in the Biblical sense of Black Africans) as the chosen people of God, and proclaimed Marcus Garvey, the prominent Black Nationalist, an apostle. The church preached self-reliance and self-determination for Africans. The Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy, written during the 1920s by a preacher called Fitz Balintine Pettersburg. It is a surrealistic stream-of-consciousness polemic against the white colonial power structure, a palimpsest of Afrocentric thought, brimming with rage and energy.
Marcus Garvey
Garvey believed in Pan-Africanism, the belief that all black people of the world should join in brotherhood and retake the continent of Africa from the white colonial powers. He promoted his cause of black pride throughout the twenties and thirties, and was particularly successful and influential among lower-class blacks in Jamaica, primarily in rural communities. Garvey is seen as a second John the Baptist, having prophecised, according to the Rastas, the coming of Selassie, when he said, "Look to Africa, for there a king shall be crowned". His ideas have been hugely influential in the development of Rastafari, , who regarded him as a prophet, Garvey never identified himself with the movement, and wrote a critical article about Selassie for abbandoning Ethiopia. The first Rastas had been Garveyites, so Rastafari can be seen as a development of Garveyism. In Rasta mythology it is the Black Star Liner (a ship bought by Garvey to encourage repatriation to Liberia) that takes them home to Africa.
Selassie believed to be God
Haile Selassie took the throne of Ethiopia in 1930 and almost immediately gained a following among what came to be known as the Rastas. Rastafarianism began as a network of similar religions, bound together primarily by their idea of an Ethiopian Zion. As Ethiopia was the only African country to escape colonialism, and Haile Selassie was the only black leader accepted among the kings and queens of Europe, the early Rastas viewed him with great reverence.
During the 1930s, depression wracked Jamaica and Ethiopia alike. Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935 (see Second Italo-Abyssinian War), marking one of the major preceding events of World War 2. Haile Selassie, in exile in the United Kingdom, formed the Ethiopian World Federation to unite black support worldwide for Ethiopian sovereignty. Rastafarians looked to their bibles, and saw what they believed to be the fulfilling of many prophecies from the book of Revelations.
Sedition charges
In 1934 Leonard Howell was the first Rasta to be charged with sedition for refusing loyalty to the King of England George V. The British government would not tolerate Jamaicans loyal to Haile Selassie in what was then their colony. He was the most outstanding of the early leaders of Rastafarianism. He was imprisoned for two years, and then founded the Pinnacle commune. The herb also gained a spiritual significance as a holy sacrament among the above-mentioned Nyahbinghi warriors.
In 1954, the Pinnacle commune was destroyed by Jamaican authorities. By the 1950s, Rastafarianism's message of racial pride and unity had unnerved the ruling class of Jamaica, and confrontations between the poor black Rastas and middle-class white police were common. Many Rastas were beaten, and some killed. Others were humiliated by having their sacred dreadlocks cut off.
On October 4, 1963, Haile Selassie addressed the United Nations with his famous peace speech from which Bob Marley made the song 'War'.
Visit of Selassie to Jamaica
Haile Selassie visited Jamaica on April 21 1966. Somewhere between one and two hundred thousand Rastafarians from all over Jamaica descended on Kingston airport having heard that the man whom they considered to be God was coming to visit them. They waited at the airport smoking lots of cannabis and playing drums. When Haile Selassie arrived at the airport he refused to get off the aeroplane for an hour until Mortimer Planner, a well known Rasta persuaded him that it was safe to do so. From then on the visit was a success. Rita Marley, Bob Marley's wife converted to the Rastafarian faith after seeing Haile Selassie, and her fervour was what drew Bob Marley into the faith himself.
The great significance of this event in the development of the Rastafarian religion should not be underestimated. Having been outcasts in society they gained a temporary respectability for the first time. By making the rasta religion more acceptable it opened the way for the commercialisation of reggae which led to the inexorable spread of Rastafarianism.
Because of Haile Selassie's visit, April 21 is celebrated as Grounation Day. It was during this visit that Selassie famously told the Rastafarian community leaders that they should not emigrate to Ethiopia until they had liberated the people of Jamaica. This dictum came to be known as "liberation before repatriation."
Selassie then met with several Rasta elders in Addis Ababa and allowed Rastafarians and other people of African descent to settle on his personal land in Shashamane.
Walter Rodney
In 1968, Walter Rodney, an author and professor at the University of the West Indies, published a pamphlet on his experiences with the Rastafarians titled Groundings with My Brothers. It became a benchmark in the Caribbean Black Power movement. Combined with Rastafarianism, both philosophies spread rapidly to various Caribbean nations, including Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, and Grenada.
Bob Marley
During the 1970s, Rastafarianism mushroomed in popularity, both in Jamaica and abroad, largely due to the massive fame of Bob Marley. Primarily, this was due to the connection between reggae music, ganja and the religion. Reggae was born from poor blacks in Trenchtown, the main ghetto of Kingston, Jamaica, who listened to radio stations from the United States. Jamaican musicians, many of them being Rastas, soon blended traditional Jamaican folk music, American R&B and jazz into ska, which was to form reggae under the influence of soul. Reggae began entering the international consciousness in the early 1970s. Many orthodox Rastas refuse reggae as a form of commercial music and "sell-out to Babylon." Reggae and ska are not to be confused with the sacred music of the Rastafarians, called burru or nyahbinghi drumming.
Selassie's death
Haile Selassie died in 1975, but his death was not accepted by Rastafarians who could not accept that God could die. They said it was a lie.