Rastafari: introduction to an unrecognized religion
The Rastafari movement is a religious movement, whose name comes from Amharic Ras, literally “Head” (synonym of duke), and Tafari, “fearless one”. Tafari is the birth name of Haile Selassie I (“power of the trinity”), Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He is considered as God incarnate by the Rastafarians. According to the Ethiopian tradition, his ancestry goes back to the biblical kings Salomon and David, that is why he is compared to a sacred figure.
At the beginning, the Rastafari ideology is purely a Jamaican concept, which developed in the 1930s, that is to say during the British colonization. It appears like the result of the mixing of different religions and African rites, so it is a kind of syncretism. However, the biblical references are dominant. Because of its religious, cultural and political influences, it is difficult to define clearly the Rastafari movement, which is thought to be a religion, and also a philosophy, an ideology. Rastafarians regard it as a way of life, a new way to feel the world and the humans.
Besides, they give an afrocentrist interpretation of the Bible to break with centuries of slavery and colonization by white people. To some extent, these uprooted people rediscover their African past and the wealth of their culture. The coronation of Haile Selassie I in 1930 confirms Marcus Garvey’s prophecy: Africa is seen as the Promised Land. Therefore, the repatriation of blacks to Africa (in Ethiopia) constitutes an essential starting point of the ideology of the movement.
The Rastafarian colours are red, green and gold, like the colours of the Ethiopian flag. Red symbolises the blood of people died for the Black cause (the martyrs), gold means the treasures of Ethiopia and green signify the earth, the vegetation.
Moreover, the lion represents the Rastafarian symbol and refers to Haile Selassie I, the “Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah” (part of his titles).
How did the movement emerge and spread in the colonial context of Jamaica? How can we explain this uncommon culture?
The aim is not to write all the history of Rastafari, but to give some keys to understand its birth, its ideology and its culture.
Antoine