Repatriation: Haile Selassie will lead Blacks back to Africa.The negation, persecution and humiliation of the government and legal bodies of Jamaica.Whites will become the servants of Blacks.The basic tenets of early Rastafari, according to preacher Leonard Howell, included some very strong statements about racial issues, as might be expected in the religion of an oppressed people living in exile: This is especially true since the spread of the movement to the West which has led to the emergence of White Rastafarians. In the near future Blacks shall rule the worldīut Leonard Barrett's list is itself about thirty years old and so many of the beliefs above may no longer have the same significance to modern Rastafarians.The Invincible Emperor of Ethiopia is now arranging for expatriated persons of African origin to return to Ethiopia.The White person is inferior to the Black person.The Black person is the reincarnation of ancient Israel, who, at the hand of the White person, has been in exile in Jamaica.He developed the list by attending public meetings and through anthropological research into the movement. The most definitive list is found in the 1977 book The Rastafarians, The Dreadlocks of Jamaica by scholar Leonard Barrett who lists what he regards as the six basic principles of Rastafari. Rastafarians' dreadlocks represent the lion's mane.There is no formal Rastafari creed and there are slight differences in the views of different groups. This lion represents Haile Selassie I, who is referred to as the 'Conquering Lion of Judah'. Black signifies the colour of the Africans who initiated Rastafari.Green represents Jamaica's vegetation and hope for the eradication of suppression.Red signifies the blood of those killed for the cause of the black community, throughout Jamaican history.The Rastafarian colours are red, green and gold. Rastafarians are opposed to abortion and contraception.Rastafarians try to refrain from the consumption of meat, especially pork.Rastafarians eat clean and natural produce, such as fruit and vegetables.Rastafarians are forbidden to cut their hair instead, they grow it and twist it into dreadlocks.Rastafarians believe reincarnation follows death and that life is eternal.There is a separate code of religious practice for women in Rastafari.Rastafarians follow a number of Old Testament Laws.Rastafarians follow strict dietary laws and abstain from alcohol.Rastafarian religious practice includes the ritual inhalation of marijuana, to increase their spiritual awareness.Rastafari religious ceremonies consist of chanting, drumming and meditating in order to reach a state of heightened spirituality.It is an exocentric religion - as Haile Selassie, whom adherents consider as God, is outside the religion.The movement's greatest concerns are the repatriation of blacks to their homeland, Africa, and the reinstatement of blacks' position in society.Rastafarians believe that blacks are the chosen people of God, but that through colonisation and the slave trade their role has been suppressed.It spread globally following the success of Bob Marley and his music in the 1970s.The 2001 census found 5,000 Rastafarians living in England and Wales.įollowers of Rastafari are known by a variety of names: Rastafarians, Rastas, Sufferers, Locksmen, Dreads or Dreadlocks. There are approximately one million world wide adherents of Rastafari as a faith. Rastafari theology developed from the ideas of Marcus Garvey, a political activist who wanted to improve the status of fellow blacks. Rastafarians believe Haile Selassie is God and that he will return to Africa members of the black community who are living in exile as the result of colonisation and the slave trade. Rastafari is a young, Africa-centred religion which developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as King of Ethiopia in 1930.
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