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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.
The name Rastafari derives from Ras Tafari, the title (ras) and first name of Haile Selassie (Täfäri Mäkonnän) before his coronation. In Amharic, ras ("head") is an Ethiopian title equivalent to prince or chief; the given name Täfäri (teferi) means "one who is revered". Rastafari originated in Jamaica and Ethiopia. Jah is a name of God, a shortened form of Yahweh. Most Rastafaris see Haile Selassie as Jah or Jah Rastafari, an incarnation of God. Rastafari includes the spiritual use of cannabis and the rejection of a society of materialism, oppression, and sensual pleasures it calls "Babylon". Rastas assert that Zion (Ethiopia) is a land promised to them by Jah. "Babylon" is considered to have been rebelling against "Earth's Rightful Ruler" (Jah) since the days of the biblical king Nimrod. The lion is a symbol of Rastafari because it appears on the flag used in Haile Selassie's Ethiopia.
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist, spoke about creating an African state for displaced Africans; this idea influenced many Black people. According to Garvey, Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was the only remaining African monarch with Biblical ancestry. Working-class Jamaicans viewed Garvey as a prophet and the reincarnation of John the Baptist; when Ras Täfäri of Ethiopia was crowned emperor in 1930, many proclaimed Haile Selassie as Jah (God).
Although the movement has had cultural, social, and political effects on Ethiopia and Jamaica, little scholarly research has been done on its effects in the United States. A number of Rastafari see the country as the heart of evil in the world, but many Jamaican Rastafari made the United States their new home during the 1960s and 1970s. The Rastafari movement played a role in shaping local U.S. society and culture, seen in Garvey's accomplishments, the effects of Rastafari community-building, and riddim and reggae music.[ citation needed ]
Garvey tried to organize Black people worldwide, to give them an influential voice in society with overwhelming numbers. He established the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). After failed attempts to create a following in Jamaica, Garvey relocated the UNIA to upper Manhattan's Harlem neighborhood. By 1920, he had over 2,000,000 members in over 1,000 local UNIA chapters.
The association had the goal of establishing Black political and economic independence. Garvey initially came to the U.S. to preach Black nationalism through the back-to-Africa movement. Displaced Africans would return to the land of their ancestors, where they would create a prosperous African state and make the continent a world power. In 1924, with the financial assistance of UNIA members, Garvey sought to purchase one million acres (4000 km2) of land from Liberia. This land would be the place of repatriation about which Garvey had spoken for nearly two decades. Elevan days after Garvey agreed to purchase the land, however, Firestone Tires (with the aid of the U.S. government) bought the land instead.[ citation needed ]
Established on January 20, 1920, the Negro Factories Corporation (an offshoot of the UNIA) sought to create factories which would employ only Black people and produce commodities sold only to Black consumers. Garvey envisioned an all-Black economy which could supply Black consumers around the globe, and advocated independent Black grocery stores, restaurants, laundromats, tailor shops, millinery stores, and publishing houses. The Negro Factories Corporation gave Black people initiative, hope, and the secular identity required to prosper in American society. [1] [2]
Garvey announced the creation of the Black Star Line on June 23, 1919 to correlate with the back-to-Africa movement as a shipping company which would link Black communities in the U.S., Jamaica, Canada, Central America, and Africa. It was intended to transport Black labored goods, including raw materials and manufactured items, to Black consumers around the world. Garvey had to raise $500,000 to purchase the company's first ship, and sold stock only to Black people. Over 15,000 people saw the S.S. Frederick Douglass set sail on its first trip to Jamaica. The company folded in 1922, with net losses estimated at over $1,000,000.
Jamaican Rastafaris began to immigrate to the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. Small, local, homogeneous communities sprang up in Philadelphia, Boston, Hartford, Miami, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, and (most notably) New York City, where six Rastafari communities exist in its five boroughs. The most influential of the city's communities are in the Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant sections of Brooklyn. Local Rastafari communities generally consit of community centers, schools, tabernacles, and Rasta cultural stores.
Reggay was a popular dance in Jamaica during the late 1960s, and Toots and the Maytals released "Do the Reggay" in 1968. [3] Reggae then became a musical genre, based on ska, which was centered on a steady beat played on rhythm guitar. Exemplified by Bob Marley's music, reggae is also a medium of social and political change.
Haile Selassie I was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (Enderase) for Empress Zewditu from 1916. Haile Selassie is widely considered a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history, and the key figure of Rastafari, a religious movement in Jamaica that emerged shortly after he became emperor in the 1930s. Before he rose to power he defeated Ras Gugsa Wole Bitul of Begemidr at the Battle of Anchem in 1928. He was a member of the Solomonic dynasty, which claims to trace lineage to Emperor Menelik I, believed to be the son of King Solomon and Makeda, the Queen of Sheba.
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.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism.
Pan-African colours is a term that may refer to two different sets of colours:
The Bobo Ashanti, also known as the Ethiopian African Black International Congress (EABIC), is a religious group originating in Bull Bay near Kingston, Jamaica. The title of Bobo Ashanti essentially means "Black warrior".
Jamaican culture consists of the religion, norms, values, and lifestyle that define the people of Jamaica. The culture is mixed, with an ethnically diverse society, stemming from a history of inhabitants beginning with the original inhabitants of Jamaica. The Spaniards originally brought slavery to Jamaica. Then they were overthrown by the English. Jamaica later gained emancipation on 1 August 1838, and independence from the British on 6 August 1962. Black slaves became the dominant cultural force as they suffered and resisted the harsh conditions of forced labour. After the abolition of slavery, Chinese and Indian migrants were transported to the island as indentured workers, bringing with them ideas from their country.
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.
Iyaric, also called Dread Talk, is a language consciously created by members of the Rastafari movement. When Africans were taken into captivity as a part of the slave trade, English was imposed as a colonial language and their traditional African languages were lost. In defiance, the Rastafari movement created a modified English vocabulary and dialect, with the aim of liberating their language from its history as a tool of colonial oppression. This is accomplished by avoiding sounds and words with negative connotations, such as "back", and changing them to positive ones. Iyaric sometimes also plays a liturgical role among Rastas, in addition to Amharic and Ge'ez.
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.
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 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.
Michael George Henry OD, better known as Ras Michael, is a Jamaican reggae singer and Nyabinghi specialist. He also performs under the name of Dadawah.
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.
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.
This is bibliography of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I, reigned from 1930 to 1974. The list contains books with year of publication.
