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Christensen, J. (2014) Rastafari Reasoning and the RastaWoman: gender constructions in the shaping of Rastafari livity. Lanham: Lexington Books.

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Howell, L. (undated) ‘The first chant: Leonard Howell’s The Promised Key’, in Murrell, N.S., Spencer, W. D. and McFarlane, A. A. (eds.) Chanting down Babylon: the Rastafari reader. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, pp. 361- 389.

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Murrell, N. S. and Williams, L. (1998) ‘The black biblical hermeneutics of Rastafari’, in Murrell, N. S., Spencer, W. D. and McFarlane, A. A. (eds.) Chanting down Babylon: the Rastafari reader. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, pp. 326-348.

Owens, J. (1979) Dread: the Rastafarians of Jamaica. London: Heinemann.

Price, C. (2009) Becoming Rasta: Origins of Rastafari Identity in Jamaica. New York: New York University Press.

Rastafari ‘dread-talk’ or lyaric is a conscious construction of language as a form of religious and political expression. It is based on the Jamaican dialect, or patois, in particular the syntax and grammar. The syntax is almost devoid of subject-object opposition and verbs. Rastafari use words philosophically. The pronouns ‘me’ and ‘you’ are replaced with ‘I and I’. This is to try to overcome binary oppositions and identify with the sufferers and oppressed of society. The use of ‘I’ as the first and second-person pronoun is a way of reminding each person of their worth and value as not a ‘slave by nature’. ‘I’ is used as both subject and object. ‘I’ also replaces the prefixes in certain words, such as ‘I-ceive’ instead of ‘receive’, ‘desire’ becomes ‘I-sire’, and ‘create’ becomes ‘I-rate’. The use of ‘I’ expresses the unity and interconnectedness of all persons as incarnations of Jah. ‘I’ stands for the ability to see. It is a central concept of Rastafari word/sound/power. ‘I’ is aware of the connection to Jah, whereas ‘me’ is unconscious of this. Seeing and knowing are synonymous for the Rastafari. They change a negative to a positive sound vibration e.g. ‘dedicate’ to ‘livicate’, ‘library’ to ‘truebrary’. They make sound vibrations descriptive, e.g. ‘destroy’ to ‘downstroy’ because destruction tears things down. Rastafari refer to themselves as kings and queens, and the knitted tams that cover their dreads are called ‘crowns’.

Rastafari have a verbal culture centred on philosophising. It is a formulation of language that is used as a way of fostering group identity. ‘Reasoning’ is the name given to Rastafari discourse, in which members come together spontaneously on a regular basis to have lengthy discussions on any subject; people join and leave fluidly, topics change rapidly. It is how they interpret the world. Rastafari avoid language that contributes to servility, self-degradation, and objectification. They try to use language that sounds like what it is, for example ‘down-pression’ in place of ‘oppression’ because it drags you down. Language and music have power for the Rastafari. Chanting the name of Haile Selassie I resurrects him. Words have creative force. This idea comes from the African concept of nommo, that words and word-sounds have innate power. Emancipation requires a new language to liberate; the language of Babylon enslaves. This is a process rather than a defined lexicon. It is a way of fighting against oppression and slavery through language, which they view as a spiritual battle, a battle of consciousness expressed through language.

Rastafari have been very influential for the artistic and cultural works of Jamaica, including literature, poetry, painting, sculpture and carving, ceramics, theatre, dance, and music. Rastafari use art as a medium for social and spiritual messages, not simply decoration. It is a way to transform society. Rasta artists use found materials, such as boards, glass, and cardboard, in keeping with their veneration of nature and identification with the poor. They eschew expensive materials. Their works try to portray the daily experience of the poor. Art for the Rastafari is about the enrichment of life not just display. Since the 1970s, Rastafari imagery has become more commercialised as it has been spread alongside reggae music. The cultural impact of Rastafari, especially in Jamaica, has been much greater than the number of adherents would suggest. Music has a religious purpose, which Rastafari phrase as ‘churchical’. Traditional Rastafari music has its roots in 19th century gospel music and African drumming. Chanting and drumming feature heavily in meetings. Three types of drum are used: bass, a large drum; fundeh, a smaller upright drum; and peta (repeater) an even smaller drum. Count Ossie introduced ritual drumming in the early days of the movement; his rhythms were recorded from 1960. The drums each have a symbolic role: “The downbeat of the drummer symbolises the death of the oppressive society but it is answered by the akette drummers with a lighter upbeat, a resurrection of the society through the power of Ras Tafari” (Barrett 1977: 193). “The steady pulsing beat of the bass drum provides constant pressure which works to bring about the end of an oppressive Western system. The regular one-two heartbeat rhythm of the fundeh grounds and comforts. The repeater allows vent for protest as well as an avenue for the creative improvisation of the individual” (Christensen 2014: 66). The idea is to call to Africa through music. It is a music of invocation that aims to invoke the spirit and help it rise up over the oppressive system of Babylon. The Rastafari national anthem is taken from the anthem of the Garvey movement, “Ethiopia, Land of Our Fathers”, and is often a part of Rastafari ceremonies.

Rastafari music has had a considerable influence on mainstream music in America and Europe. Rastafari music first inspired the styles of ska and rocksteady. More significantly, reggae music is based closely on patterns of Rastafari ritual music. Reggae continues the Rastafari theme of making strong social and political commentary through music. One of the first reggae songs to become internationally successful was “Do the Reggae” by Toots and the Maytals in 1968. However, it was Bob Marley, a Rastafari, who was the most well-known performer of reggae music. His religious and political message through music was inspiring to people worldwide as well as Jamaicans beyond the Rastafari movement. Marley toured the world and spread reggae music and with it Rastafari beliefs, around which many of his songs are based.

Rastafari identities focus on trying to recreate themselves in their image of Africans. This means rejecting ways of living associated with Babylon and adopting those of Rastafari. It is an elite and exclusive identity; they are the chosen people and everyone who does not follow their ways is part of Babylon. One must have insight to accept the divinity of Haile Selassie I. However, they do not have formal organisations or doctrinal orthodoxy which means that how individual Rastafari construct their identity has fluidity and openness. There are some accepted identifying characteristics. The most well-known and immediately recognisable mark of Rastafari identity is the cultivation of dreadlocks. Rastafari are forbidden to cut their hair, following the Old Testament law that prohibits trimming and shaving of the hair (the Nazarite vow mentioned above), and also of tattooing. For the Rastafari, dreadlocks are “a sacred and inalienable part of his identity” (Chevannes 1994: 145). The hair is called a crown, compared to the crown of Emperor Haile Selassie or the mane of a lion. In the early movement, dreadlocks were a challenge to the European colonialist constructions of race that deemed African hairstyles bad and European hairstyles good. They are a celebration and acceptance of Africanness. Rastafari identity is also expressed through speech by using ‘dreadtalk’, a way of speaking that distinguishes Rastafari from non-Rastafari. Some Rastafari study Ethiopian history and the Amharic language. There are also distinctive Rastafari diet restrictions (see below), the smoking of ganja, and wearing tams over their dreadlocks, which serve to separate Rastafari from Babylon, which can mean all non-Rastafari. Rastafari know who they are and carry themselves with self-confidence because of this strong sense of identity.

Despite the Rastafari rejection of the ways of Babylon, for much of the movement’s history their family structure has reproduced the patriarchal system that also characterised the colonial society of Jamaica. The man was the head of family and the woman was subordinate to him. The husband was called ‘king-man’. Women were called ‘daughters’ or ‘sistren’ or ‘queens’. There has, however, been historical variation in the roles of women in Rastafari. At first, women were active in the early groups as they were in contemporaneous Revival movements. Then there was a virtual disappearance of women except as spouses in the 1960s. Women could only be ‘grown’ into Rastafari by a Rastaman. A woman could only be Rastafari through her ‘kingman’. Then from the 1970s, women began claiming space for themselves as Rastawomen.

Prior to the late 1970s, the status of women in Rastafari beliefs was as fallen creatures, echoing their status in the Old Testament. There was a strict division of labour, with women in the domestic sphere and men in the public sphere. Women were often excluded from decision making. A wife must obey her husband, cover her hair, and wear what her husband told her to wear. Women were said to find their salvation through men. Women for much of the Rastafari movement did not participate in public reasonings, and rarely went to celebrations. They did not have the status of an elder in the house. There was an explicit ideology of the subordination of women among the Rastafari. Attitudes to women were the same as those in Jamaican society more widely, and found among the British colonisers the Rastafari opposed as Babylon.

However, the status of women has been changing since the 1970s. Women are coming into the movement independently, rather than being brought in by men. They are present at celebrations, participate in chanting and dancing, and no longer cover their dreadlocks. Women are often the main breadwinners and the main caregivers for children. However, it is often important for men to stay at home with the children and spend lots of time with them. Family life is important and highly regarded. This is a way of addressing the family system in slavery, which was disrupted by the control of slave masters, and often meant that men were unable to stay with their partners and children. Rastafari by contrast focus on a cohesive family with defined roles. Fathers try to be active and positive role models for children, for example by cooking meals and nurturing young children. In Jamaica, some men practised polygamy or secret polygamy (where the various wives were unaware of each other), claiming that it was a traditional African practice. However, this practice was resisted by women and did not take hold. Some Rastafari women observe menstrual taboos, mainly not cooking or attending Binghi while menstruating. There is a difference in the length of time among the mansions; 7 days for the Nyabinghi Order, 21 days for Bobo Shanti, whereas others do not have the prohibition.

Rastawomen joining the movement in their own right rather than as queens of Rastamen have challenged many of the assumptions and stereotypes of women. There is a tension between feminism as a liberation ideology and Rastafari as a liberation ideology that still subordinated women. Rastawomanism emerged as Rastafari women’s ideology of liberation within Rastafari against structures of racial, class, and sexual subordination. The dress code became seen as a way of separating the self from Babylon and modelling African regal dress. Women in Rastafari portrayed themselves as ‘African Queens’ with natural beauty that is not modelled on European standards of beauty. Many claim their right to choose their own dress. They prefer the title ‘queen’ to ‘daughter’ or ‘dawta’. They use the symbol of the lioness who partners the lion. Head wraps became a symbol of militancy analogous to dreadlocks rather than a covering that diminished them. Rastawomen smoke ganja openly and attend Binghi, participating fully in groundings, also known as reasonings, and playing drums.

Rastafari value community among brethren and are active in community programmes. They represented the lowest segment of Jamaican social classes in the early years when the movement spread in the slums, which meant that community organising amongst the poor has always been an important feature of the movement. However, this sense of community at first was exclusive, as they sought to withdraw from Jamaican society, which they experienced as ruled by whites but built on black labour, while exploiting them and giving them nothing in return. They experienced violence from the Jamaican police and other authorities. This position has changed since the 1970s. Rastafari became more interested in liberating Jamaica, making it the land of the Rastafaris, and so they have become more active in Jamaican society rather than withdrawing from it. For example, Rastafari never voted until a Rastafari elder, Ras Sam Brown, first stood for election in 1961 for his Suffering People’s Party.

Different denominations are called ‘houses’ or ‘mansions’ of Rastafari. Three of the oldest and most significant are the Twelve Tribes, Bobo Shanti, and the Nyabinghi Order. The Twelve Tribes of Israel call themselves the ‘real Jews’ or Israelites and trace their descent to the twelve sons of Jacob. There are twelve denominations within the Twelve Tribes each named after one of the sons of Jacob, membership of each tribe depending on one’s month of birth. They are more open to giving a role to women than some of the other mansions. Bob Marley was a member of the Tribe of Joseph.

The Nyabinghi Order (also known as the Nyabinghi House) takes its name from the East African resistance and spirit possession cult of the Kiga people against colonialism, which in turn was named after a famous queen of the Kiga. The spirit of Nyabinghi was female and championed the cause of the oppressed and exploited. The Nyabinghi Order was previously called Young Black Faith. It emerged in the late 1940s, founded by Arthur and Pan-Handle. It was the Young Black Faith who started wearing their hair in dreadlocks. They were more militant than the early Rastafari, taking their inspiration from the Mau Mau colonial resistance in Kenya. The Nyabinghi Order leadership is by elders and those who show the initiative and desire to lead; there is no formal structure for choosing elders beyond this form of self-selection.

The group founded by Prince Emmanuel Edwards are known as Bobo Shanti (or Bobo Ashanti, the Ethiopian National Congress, or Bobo Dread). Shanti refers to the Ashanti, the African tribe from which the majority of Jamaicans are said to descend. They are one of the strictest Rastafari mansions, forming more of a formal church than the others. Prince Emmanuel is regarded as a God, part of the trinity with Haile Selassie and Marcus Garvey. The Bobo refer to him as ‘dada’. The Bobo see themselves as a ‘priestly order’ of Rastas. They have a more formal church structure, with a specific church building, services from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, and they prostrate in silent prayer at meetings. They live in a self-sufficient commune on Bobo Hill outside Bull Bay in Jamaica. They wear their dreadlocks tightly wrapped in turbans and clothe themselves in priestly robes. After Prince Emmanuel’s death, they split into three groups, all of which live on Bobo Hill.

Some Rastafari groups exclude white people, viewing them as having no authentic connection with Africa. However, in recent decades there are white Rastas, as parts of the movement have moved beyond black supremacy to seeing all races as Jah’s children and the unity of all people of the world.

Christianity is seen as the religion of the oppressors. Slaves in Jamaica were excluded from the Anglican Christianity practised by British colonials because it was seen as too sophisticated for them and it was thought that they might be inspired to think of themselves as equals in the eyes of God. In the past Catholicism was also abhorred because of the link with Italy as the power invading what was then Abyssinia. Rastas were seen by Christians as outcasts in Jamaican society: as criminals, poor, and not respectable. This began to change in the latter part of the 20th century, however, as Rastas lost some of their outcast status. There are, moreover, several points of convergence between Rastas and Christians; both revere Christ, for example. However, for Christians the veneration of Haile Selassie as the messiah is a heresy.

In the late 1990s some prominent Rastas converted to Evangelical Christianity. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is an inspiration and influence because this was the faith of Haile Selassie. Bob Marley was baptised into the Ethiopian Orthodox Church shortly before his death in 1980. There are few organised interfaith activities by Rastas inasmuch as there are few organised activities by Rastas. Members of other faiths are welcomed into ceremonies depending on the relationship with the specific group of Rastas holding the ceremony.

Rastas experience spiritual states through smoking ganja, drumming, and chanting. Religious experience is a way of testing whatever they hear to discern its truth. There is an avoidance of dogma and an emphasis on intelligence, as in reasoning sessions. Individual experience is central to this. It is a rejection of the racist denigration of black intellect as inferior, and the history of persecution in Jamaica in which authorities sentenced Rastafari to mental institutions for their beliefs. Rastafari interpret world events in a religious framework, especially events concerning Africa.

“There is nothing neither bad or good, but thinking makes it so” (Barrett 1977: 140).

Early preachers focused on the identity of God. God as a black African king undermined the status quo in colonialism and the Christian God. Rastafari ‘test’ what they hear and read, discerning the truth to ultimate questions through intuition. They do this through ‘head resting’ with Jah, communicating on an individual basis with divinity. It is also done collectively at reasoning sessions and Binghi, in which they reflect on the Bible and history to come to an understanding. Truth is grounded in ‘dread’: “the confrontation of a people with a primordial but historically denied racial selfhood” (Clarke 1986: 64). Rastafari are inspired and authenticated by the Bible, as they understand and interpret it. They use the Bible and also the ‘book within’, intuition and experience, which comes from inner divine presence. Personal experience is the most valid way of establishing truth, a way of listening to and being guided by Jah. Rastafari ‘know’ Jah; they do not just put faith in him. Knowing Jah means knowing oneself because the inner self is divine. It is not a question of belief but of knowledge, which for the Rastafari means being in the position of the master rather than the slave. They know their destiny and purpose, they determine events, and they are not determined by them. Knowing history and predicting the future through knowing Jah suggests the importance of memory in constituting life for the Rastafari.

Rastafari oppose abortion and contraception, which they see as a colonial strategy to suppress the African population. Some Rastafari women do still use contraception, however. Medicines can be a problem, Rastafari do not use patent medicines, instead they use herbal remedies from folk traditions if they can. Consumerism dominates Babylon, so Rastafari turn away from materialist consumerist things and try to live ‘naturally’. They reject consumerism and materialism as colonialist wastefulness. Entrepreneurial activity is a way to independence from the colonial system. They prefer self-employment to dependence on wage labour even if the income is lower, because wage labour is seen as a form of slavery.