Marijuana has been smoked since the time of the Pinnacle commune in the 1940s. The specific form of marijuana smoked is known as ‘ganja’ in Jamaica. It is a sacrament for the Rastafari. It was seen as a way of opposing colonial society and asserting their own authentic form of freedom. Since it is illegal in Jamaica, smoking ganja is a way of showing freedom from the laws of Babylon, although recently it was decriminalised in small amounts for religious use by practising adult Rastafari. Furthermore, it is believed that ganja enhances spiritual states and reduces stress, produces visions, brings unity and communal feelings, and bestows tranquillity to the dispossessed. Ganja has become a dominant symbol of the Rastafari, who call it ‘callie’ and ‘iley’. Ganja is seen as a natural product or herb, not as a drug. For the Rastafari, the free smoking of ganja is a religious right and an issue of religious freedom; however it is seen as criminal activity by most governments. One of the reasons Rastafari in the 20th century were associated with criminality by authorities is their connection with growing and distributing marijuana.

Rastafari have a strict diet called Ital, or ‘natural’ food, which means the essence of things or things in their natural states. Ital refers to “a complex of lifeways that offer an alternative to the unnatural man-made Babylon system” (Christensen 2014: 142). The Ital complex came from the I-gelic House mansion who lived in the hills beyond the Kingston ghetto in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s. Ital food is mostly fruit and vegetables, grown without fertilisers. Rastafari are not allowed to consume alcohol, milk, coffee, salt, animal oil, cigarettes, heroin, or cocaine. Vegetarianism is preferred, but those who do eat meat avoid pork, shellfish, scaleless fish or snails, and fish over 12 inches long. This is similar to the Jewish Kosher diet, and Rastafaris are following the same Leviticus dietary and hygiene rules. Additionally, pig and cod are associated with slave food. Pigs are taboo animals. Rastafari prefer food from their own plantations and avoid food from unknown sources. They follow the principle of naturalism in personal care as well, washing hair with only water and locally grown herbs. They avoid chemically processed goods, they do not use soap or shampoo. Dreadlocks form when hair is left alone and unbrushed, but some do comb and groom them. Herbs and things from the earth are good. They also follow Old Testament prohibitions on trimming or shaving the hair, tattoos, and cutting flesh in any way, as mentioned above. Women do not wear makeup, use hair chemicals, or wear immodest clothes. Some women observe menstrual taboos and cannot cook for their husbands while menstruating. Rastafari reject war as the destructive practice of Babylon and tend to be pacifists.

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.

The individualism of Rastafari is balanced by an ethic of unity. This is a way of bringing Rastas together for communal purposes. All black people are thought to descend from common ancestors in Africa that were separated by slavery. Rastas act as self-conscious members of a brotherhood and sisterhood, sharing with each other, especially amongst the poor. They call each other ‘brethren’ and ‘sistren’ to emphasise spiritual kinship. They emphasise the kinship of humanity under the fatherhood of Jah. Spiritual brotherhood does not necessarily mean racial exclusivity, however, although black supremacy is an aspect of the Rastafari movement. Rastas as brethren try to work together to harness individual spiritual power and create a positive, life-affirming philosophy for self and community. One way this is done is through one-to-one teaching by brethren and sistren, summed up in the phrase “each one teach one”. State education is seen as indoctrination in the colonial or post-colonial system, called ‘head-decay-shun’. Camps and yards are centres of learning the Rastafari way of seeing the world.

Rastafari endeavour to live in harmony with nature, as part of the oneness with Jah. ‘Mother Nature’ or ‘Mother Earth’ is divine and to be revered as Jah’s creation. ‘Sitting in the dust’ means remaining close to earth, the primary manifestation of nature and developing an understanding of how to live in harmony with nature’s laws. Babylon destroys Mother Earth, by making weapons, especially nuclear weapons, to destroy everything.

Rastafari has extended beyond Jamaica, to the UK and USA in particular. There are also smaller Rasta populations in Japan, New Zealand, Brazil, and other countries. Some Rastas have no ethnic link at all with Afro-Caribbean people; not only are there white Rastas but also Rastas of Native American background, and Japanese background, among others. Rastafari spread internationally through the migration of Jamaicans and the popularity of reggae music. Rastafari symbols of colour, hair, language, and Ital diet have become symbols of identity for Jamaican and non-Jamaican youth more generally. Rastafari symbols became associated with gang violence in Jamaica and then the drug trade in cocaine with US. However, those who adopted the symbols often did not also have the religious values of the Rastafari. This, alongside the sacramental use of ganja, associated Rastafaris with drugs and as addicts in the US, which many Rastafari felt was an unfair and inaccurate association. In the UK, Rastafari was taken up by second-generation immigrants from Jamaica and the Caribbean from the 1970s onwards. It has become more common since then for young people in particular to dress as Rastas without following the religious values.

Information on Haile Selassie’s home during his exile in Bath, UK: https://www.fairfieldhousebath.co.uk/

‘Jamaican Religions’ on The Pluralism Project: http://pluralism.org/religions/afro-caribbean/afro-caribbean-traditions/jamaican-religion/

‘Rastafari’ on BBC Religion: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/rastafari/

‘What Do Rastafarians Believe’ on Jamaicans.com: http://jamaicans.com/believe/

‘Rastafari’ on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastafari

‘Understanding Rastafari’ on the Jamaica Gleaner: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20150509/understanding-rastafari-part-ii

Article on Rasta community in Shashamane, Ethiopia: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28059303

Science is seen as Babylon’s tool. It is part of technocratic imperialism. Rastafari try to turn away from the materialism, mass media, and commodity fetishism of white European supremacy. There is an antipathy to white man’s ideas. When the sociologist Leonard E. Barrett attended a Nyabinghi, he was accosted for carrying cameras and tape recorder, which were called the tools of Babylon. Rastafari prefer natural things, living ‘naturally’, which means in accordance with their interpretation of ‘the laws of nature’. This can mean that Rastafari can be sceptical of some forms of biomedicine, such as vaccinations. Science and technology are seen as artificial and unnatural. They make evil things like weapons of mass destruction. They are a means of enslaving man to machine, so that he is unable to do things for himself, like Africans were when they were used as slaves.

Rastafari is more about a way of living than an acceptance of doctrine. An early codification of morality was written as ten principles by the Jamaican Rastafari elder, Sam Brown (1925-1998), who was the first Rastafari to run for political office:

1. We strongly object to sharp implements used in the desecration of the figure of Man; e.g. trimming and shaving, tattooing of the skin, and cutting of the flesh.

2. We are basically vegetarians, making scant use of certain animal flesh, outlawing the use of swine’s flesh in any form, shell fishes, scaleless fishes, snails, etc.

3. We worship and observe no other God but Rastafari, outlawing all other forms of Pagan worship yet respecting all believers.

4. We love and respect the brotherhood of mankind, yet our first love is to the sons of Ham [black people].

5. We disapprove and abhor utterly hate, jealousy, envy, deceit, guile, treachery, etc.

6. We do not agree to the pleasures of present-day society and its modern evils.

7. We are avowed to create a world of one brotherhood.

8. Our duty is to extend the hand of charity to any brother in distress, firstly for he is of the Rastafari order – secondly, to any human, animals, plants, etc.

9. We do adhere to the ancient laws of Ethiopia.

10. Thou shall give no thought to the aid, titles and possession that the enemy in his fear may seek to bestow on you; resolution to your purpose is the love of Rastafari. (reproduced from Barrett 1977: 126)

In general, Rastafari try to live in a way that defends the poor and oppressed, a worldview inherited from the early movement. The white race is seen as oppressive, but not all white people are evil, they accept individual white people on merit unless they are found guilty of racism. Rastafari became less concerned with racial separatism and aggression after the 1960s. There is, however, no uniform view on race. While there is a general principle that Jah is in everyone, Rastafari view themselves as a people apart. For many the sense is that they are a ‘covenant people’ like the Jews with special responsibilities rather than being a superior race, as early Rastafari preachers claimed. This means striving towards the ideal way of life including living off the land, growing their own food, not using the land for commercial profit, and eating only clean ital food (see ‘Ethical Guidelines’ below). This is seen as living in a natural ‘African’ way. This is phrased as being a ‘conscious’ not a ‘careless’ Ethiopian (using Ethiopian as a symbol for all black people). Those who are careless do not follow the Rasta way, the conscious do, and salvation comes from being a conscious Ethiopian.

There is no formal, central organisation of Rastafari. They avoid bureaucratic or hierarchical organisations, which they see as characterising the social structures of Babylon. They reject governments, especially the colonial British government in Jamaica, but after this ended in 1962 they remained opposed to ‘western civilisation’ in general. The organisation of Rastafari is individualised, cellular, or reticulate in its structure. There is an open form of Rastafari organisation called a ‘house’ or ‘mansion’. There is no individual leadership equivalent to a priest among Rastafaris generally, although some of the more structured houses, such as Bobo Shanti and the Nyabinghi Order, do have priests. A ‘leading brother’ acts as spokesperson during group meetings. Houses can have a chaplain, a local treasurer, a sergeant at arms, and a recording secretary; or some of these roles – or none of them. In Jamaica, Rastafaris often follow a communal way of living, patterned on the early Pinnacle communes, where they grow their own food and ganja. Membership is not based on baptism but on adoption of Rastafari beliefs and practices. This provides a broad solidarity of mainstream Rastafari, who largely support the three main Rastafari principles of the divinity of Haile Selassie, the spiritual use of ganja, and the principle of repatriation to Africa. Rastafari are then free to live their lives individualistically without collective discipline. This provides a collective sense of religious identity that is not supported by any specific ritual obligation. Houses strive for collective decision making, reaching a consensus on issues of importance to the group even if this requires extensive debate. Rastafari characterise themselves as a ‘brotherhood’ or ‘brethren’. As there is no formal membership; there is a general ethos of coming, going, and participating solely on conviction.

Haile Selassie I was deposed in 1974 by Marxist revolutionaries and died the following year on 27 August 1975 in suspicious circumstances. His ignominious fall from power and death undermined the idea that he was a living God, although the circumstances left enough doubt to allow other accounts of his fate to spread. There were three main responses to the death of Haile Selassie: that he is still alive and reports of his death were a lie spread by the agents of Babylon; that his spirit assumed a different physical form and therefore continues to live; that it was irrelevant because Haile Selassie the man was only a personification of Jah. Haile Selassie remains a spiritual presence for Rastafari and for some a supreme being. However, he did not accept Rastafari belief himself while he was alive, remaining a member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. He visited Jamaica once in 1966, when he met with Rastafari elders and discouraged them from attempting physical repatriation to Ethiopia, urging them instead to focus on redeeming Jamaica for themselves. He did not publicly repudiate their beliefs, however, as the Jamaican government of the time was hoping.

Rastas have no overall leader. Everyone is considered equal because each person is equally Jah. However, only those that follow the ways and beliefs of Rastafari realise this divine status. Becoming Rastafari is a spiritual birth in ‘sonship’, a personal divinity based on a relationship to Haile Selassie; the believer becomes a son of ‘Jah Rastafari who is god’ and shares his divinity. However, how this works out in practice is open to individual interpretation based on experience. No one member can lay down orthodoxy or tell any other member what to believe or how to behave. Elders and those who speak persuasively in ‘reasonings’ hold some authority; however, this authority is up to each individual to acknowledge, based on their own experience with that person. Authority ultimately rests individually in each Rastafari as an incarnation of Jah.