Rastafarian history

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Rastafarian history

The history of Rastafari begins with the colonisation of Africa, or 'Ethiopia' as it is known to believers, by Europeans.

The European powers took many Africans as slaves, and the people of Africa were divided up and sent into exile as captives throughout the world. The areas of captivity became known as 'Babylon'.

For Africans this exile marked the suppression of their culture by whites. However, Rastafarians believe that the suppression of blacks in Babylon is ending and that soon they will all return to 'Ethiopia'.

1930s

The Rastafari movement began in Jamaica during the 1930s following a prophecy made by Marcus Garvey, a black political leader. Garvey led an organisation known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association, whose intention was to unify blacks with their land of origin.

Garvey preached "Look to Africa where a black king shall be crowned, he shall be your Redeemer." This statement became the foundation of the Rastafari movement.

The prophecy was rapidly followed by the crowning of Emperor Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia. Rastafarians see this as the fulfilment of Garvey's prophecy. The religion takes its name from Haile Selassie's original name.

Haile Selassie is therefore regarded by Rastafarians as the Black Messiah, Jah Rastafari. He is a figure of salvation and it's believed he will redeem blacks from white suppressors, reuniting them with their homeland, Africa.

1935

The first branch of Rastafari is believed to have been established in Jamaica in 1935 by Leonard P. Howell.

Howell preached the divinity of Haile Selassie. He explained that all blacks would gain the superiority over whites that had always been intended for them.

Howell's action encouraged others to help develop and spread the message of Rasta theology, and as E.E. Cashmore explains:

All, in their own ways, added pieces to the jigsaw, and the whole picture came together in the mid 1950s when a series of congregations of rastas appeared at various departure points on Jamaica's shores, awaiting ships bound for Africa.E.E. Cashmore

This marked the first uniting of Rastafarians and it paved the way for the future of the movement, bringing hope of repatriation with Africa and freedom for the black race.

1960s and 70s

In 1966 Haile Selassie visited Jamaica, where he was greeted with vast enthusiasm.

The development of Reggae music during this period made Rastafari audible and visible to an international audience. The work of Bob Marley (one of the most important figures in Rastafari) and Island Records was popular with a much wider group than the working class Jamaican culture from which it sprang.

As the rock critics Stephen Davis and Peter Simon said, reggae propelled "the Rasta cosmology into the middle of the planet's cultural arenas, and suddenly people want to know what all the chanting and praying and obsessive smoking of herb [marijuana] are all about" (Reggae Bloodlines).

Some traditional Rastafarians were disturbed by the popularity of reggae, fearing that the faith would be commercialised or taken up as a cultural fad, rather than a religion.

In 1974 Haile Selassie was deposed by a Marxist revolution. He died mysteriously the next year. The removal of a divine figure by an atheist secular political group was initially discouraging to Rastafarians, and undermined any suggestion that he had been anything more than a human representation of God.

An audio history of Rastafari

In this audio history Benjamin Zephaniah, the poet and playwright, visits Rastafarian communities in the Jamaican hills and journeys through its history from its earliest days in the slums of Spanish Town and Kingston, to modern day London and Birmingham.

Benjamin travels to Africa to visit the Rastafarian community in Shashamane, Ethiopia, where Jamaicans have settled in an attempt to return to their roots and the land of Emperor Haile Selassie.

There are stories of the forgotten founders of the religion, Alexander Bedward, Leonard Howell, Robert Hinds and Prince Emmanel Edwards and their battles with the British authorities; how Rasta became a movement of resistance in the 1960s both in the Caribbean and amongst Britain's black community, and how even white people have taken up Rastafarianism - including a New Zealand Rasta MP and a Japanese Rasta in Tokyo.