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The Promised Key, sometimes known as The Promise Key, is a 1935 Rastafari movement tract by Jamaican preacher Leonard Howell, written under Howell's Hindu pen name G. G. Maragh (for Gong Guru). [1] [2] [3]
The tract bears some close similarities to an earlier (1926) writing by Fitz Balintine Pettersburg, the Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy , but omitting much of the stream of consciousness language, long opaque abbreviations, and repetition, and some content from the Holy Piby .
Some lines of The Promised Key were taken verbatim from the Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy ; for example, the slogan "Gross beauty is the Queen in hell" may be found in both works, as part of a general condemnation of western aesthetics.[ citation needed ]
Most significantly, the identities of "King Alpha and Queen Omega" were changed from Fitz Balintine Pettersburg and his wife, as in the Royal Parchment Scroll, to Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw. This was one of the key innovations of the Howellites,[ citation needed ] and is today an article of faith of Rastafari.
In 1933, Howell started to preach that Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (Ras Tafari) was the Messiah, that Black people were the chosen people, and would soon be repatriated to Ethiopia. He soon attracted the attention of the colonial authorities, and was arrested in December 1934 for sedition. In March 1935 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, during which time he apparently wrote The Promised Key.[ citation needed ]
The pamphlet was published 1935 by the Harding Commercial Printery, Kingston with a cover featuring two crossed keys and the name of the pamphlet's putative patron, "Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Editor of the African Morning Post, Accra, Gold Coast." Nnamdi Azikiwe was the editor of that newspaper at that period, but whether he had encouraged the pamphlet in any way or this was a dedication is not known. [4]
After he was released from imprisonment he published a newspaper called The People's Voice. In 1954, his commune was raided and much literature, including copies of The Promised Key, were burned. Howell was found dead under suspicious circumstances in February 1981.[ citation needed ]
Rastafari, sometimes called Rastafarianism, is an Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by scholars of religion. There is no central authority in control of the movement and much diversity exists among practitioners, who are known as Rastafari, Rastafarians, or Rastas.
Black supremacy or black supremacism is a racial supremacist belief which maintains that black people are inherently superior to people of other races.
Ital, also spelled I-tal, is food often celebrated by those in the Rastafari movement. It is compulsory in the Bobo Ashanti and Nyabinghi mansions, though not in the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The word derives from the English word "vital", with the initial "v" removed. This emphasis on the letter "I" is done to many words in the Rastafari vocabulary to signify the unity of the speaker with God and all of nature. The expression of Ital eating varies widely from Rasta to Rasta, and there are few universal rules of Ital living.
The Holy Piby, also known as the Black Man's Bible, is a text written by an Anguillan, Robert Athlyi Rogers, for the use of an Afrocentric religion in the West Indies founded by Rogers in the 1920s, known as the Afro-Athlican Constructive Gaathly. The theology outlined in this work saw Ethiopians as the chosen people of God. The church preached self-reliance and self-determination for Africans, using the Piby as its guiding document.
Leonard Percival Howell, also known as The Gong or G.G. Maragh, was a Jamaican religious figure. According to his biographer Hélène Lee, Howell was born into an Anglican family. He was one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement, and is known by many as The First Rasta.
Shashamane is a city in southern Ethiopia. Located in the Oromia Region with a 2007 Census population of 100,454, but with an estimated 208,368 inhabitants in mid 2022; the town is known for its Rastafarian community. A couple of years ago, the current town administration made a determined move to speed up the development of the town and answer the questions of the residents and is one of the fast urbanizing urban centers in Oromia Regional State and has seventeen (17) sub-cities. Namely Abosto, Alelu, Arada, Awasho, Dida boqe, Bulchana, Burqa Gudina, Kuyera, Awasho Dhenqu, Aleche Harebate, Edola burqa, Alelu Ilu, Bute filicha, Kerara filicha, Ilala Qorke, Meja Dema, and Bulchana Deneba. The resort of Wondo Genet lies near Shashamane, as does the Senkele Wildlife Sanctuary.
Mortimo St George "Kumi" Planno, was a renowned Rastafari elder, drummer and a follower of the back-to-Africa movement founded in the 1910s by Marcus Garvey. He is best known as the Rasta teacher and friend of Bob Marley, and as the man who commanded the respect of a chaotic crowd during the arrival of Emperor Haile Selassie on his visit to Jamaica in 1966. He is referred to by other Rastas as a teacher and a leader within the context of the faith, given his life's work.
The Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy is a text from Jamaica, written during the 1920s by a proto-Rastafari preacher, Fitz Balintine Pettersburg. The Royal Parchment Scroll is today recognized as one of the root documents of Rastafari thought, along with The Holy Piby and Leonard P. Howell's The Promise Key, which itself made considerable use of content from Pettersburg's work.
Vernon Carrington, also known as the prophet Gad, founded the Twelve Tribes of Israel branch of the Rastafari movement in 1968.
Mansions of Rastafari is an umbrella term for the various groups of the Rastafari movement. Such groups include the Bobo Ashanti, the Niyabinghi, the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and several smaller groups, including African Unity, Covenant Rastafari, Messianic Dreads, SeeGold Empire, and the Selassian Church. The term is taken from the Biblical verse in John 14:2, "In my Father's house are many mansions."
Grounation Day is an important Rastafari holy day, second only to Coronation Day. It is celebrated in honour of Haile Selassie's 1966 visit to Jamaica.
The Rastafari movement in the United States echoes the Rastafari religious movement, which began in Jamaica and Ethiopia during the 1930s. Marcus Garvey, born in Jamaica, was influenced by the Ethiopian king Haile Selassie. Jamaican Rastafaris began emigrating to the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, and established communities throughout the country.
Persecution of members of the Rastafari movement, an Abrahamic religion founded in Jamaica in the early 1930s among Afro-Jamaican communities, has been fairly continuous since the movement began but nowadays is particularly concerning their spiritual use of cannabis.
Henry Archibald Dunkley was, along with Leonard Howell, Joseph Hibbert, and Robert Hinds, one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica following the coronation of Ras Tafari as Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia on 2 November 1930.
Joseph Nathaniel Hibbert was, along with Leonard Howell, Archibald Dunkley, and Robert Hinds, one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement in Jamaica following the coronation of Ras Tafari as Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia on 2 November 1930.
Reverend Fitz Balintine Pettersburg was a proto-Rastafari preacher, and author of the Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy, published in 1926. He influenced Leonard Howell, who according to author Barry Chevannes, plagiarised the Royal Parchment Scroll in his 1935 book The Promise Key.
Robert Athlyi Rogers, born in Anguilla, was the author of the Holy Piby, and founder of the "Afro-Athlican Constructive Church".
The Rastafari movement developed out of the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade, in which over ten million Africans were enslaved and transported to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries. Once there, they were sold to European planters and forced to work on the plantations. Around a third of these transported Africans were relocated in the Caribbean, with under 700,000 being settled in Jamaica. In 1834, slavery in Jamaica was abolished after the British government passed the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Racial prejudice nevertheless remained prevalent across Jamaican society. The overwhelming majority of Jamaica's legislative council was white throughout the 19th century, and those of African descent were treated as second-class citizens.
Nyabinghi is one of the oldest denominations, or "Orders", of the Rastafari movement.
Jamaica–Ethiopia relations are bilateral relations between Jamaica and Ethiopia.
