Individual Responsibility

There is a dominance of individualism among Rastafari. ‘I and I’ is a philosophy of radical individualism. Jah dwells within each person. Each person is held responsible for him or herself as an outcome of the belief that each person is an incarnation of Jah, the divine, which means each. This means their practices have a freedom of association and participation. There are no institutional commitments required for Rastafari. Being Rastafari comes from individual conviction. Most Rastafari are not affiliated with institutional forms like Bobo Shanti or the Twelve Tribes. They are an atomised population with no network of structured contact. They prefer self-reliance to handouts. Individual autonomy is particularly important as part of rejecting the legacy of slavery.