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194 Acts of Identity Work protocol and identity work: Brother Yendis, an elder, respected leader, and guest, was given the chalice, to “bless” and light; ritual surrounding the chalice was revealed; the foods favored by Rastafari were present; and on display were the modes of food preparation. Communion was created and imbibed, but in ways that made the activities appear natural and routine. Many recurring Rastafari celebrations typically mark dates of importance to them, such as anniversaries of Haile Selassie I’s coronation, his “earthday ” (birthday), his visit to Jamaica, as well as Ethiopian Liberation Day, African Liberation Day, and Jamaican Independence Day. In addition to the rituals associated with these events, Nyabinghi ceremonies may be convened for many reasons, ranging from the visit of “oppressors” such as Ronald Reagan to Jamaica in April 1982 (when an island-wide Nyabinghi was called to contest his presence), the freeing of Nelson Mandela in 1990, or simply to bring together Rastafari for communion. Repatriation and Black redemption remain of primary significance to my narrators. In his mid-seventies at the time, Ras Sam Brown proclaimed , “I not going to feel good till I go home. But I going reach home. You see, I trod the way that the Honorable Marcus Garvey trod and the Honorable Marcus Garvey tradition is repatriation. That’s why he went as far as to deal with the Black Star Liner ships.” Those Rastafari who are most adamant about repatriating to Africa are often those who are least able, either because they are too poor or in bad health. This fact has led some observers to speculate that the Rastafari have moved from a literal to a symbolic desire to repatriate, or that repatriation is a symbolic cover for a desire to escape material privation. My Rastafari interlocutors, however , say they still want to go Africa, and are aware of the troubles and poverty that plague Africa (even though some of them continue to think of it as “Zion”). These Rastafari recognize that life in Africa will not be easy, but many of them still cannot imagine it being worse than their lot in Jamaica. Nonetheless, whether some Rastafari want to physically relocate to Ethiopia, or whether it is the idea of “returning home” that carries currency, repatriation is a cultural construct that evokes memories and feelings that connect past and present and that facilitate collective imagining and identification. Discourses of enslavement, White hegemony, oppression, and pre-colonial Africa are culturally generated symbolic themes and stylized memories to which people can attach (and detach) themselves. These provide grounds for defining racial and religious commonality and communion, as well as explaining the importance of returning to Africa. For example, Acts of Identity Work 195 Ras Brenton’s description of why repatriation is important to him is embedded in his view of racialized exploitation: From the slaves come from Africa they been pondering to go back to Africa , and I come and learn that. I come and learn that the slaves did always want to go back. Some of them jumped overboard say them would try and go back [to Africa] and them never reach back. Well I come up as a young Rasta and say the same thing. Say it is right for Black people to go back to them continent because the White people treat us too badly, and because of this, they influence everyone else to treat us badly. Because me is a man who come to the conclusion say: Black man, Indian man, Chinese man, every nation organize against the Black man eventually to keep him degraded, to keep us down. . . . So, we must want go home forward where we can go build we own tabernacle, and build we own people, and build we own selves, instead of building other people everywhere. Because I man come to the conclusion say Black man build everywhere . . . and yet still when them [other nations, peoples] to help him build up now, them a murmur and a quarrel, and no want do it. (Ras Brenton) During Nyabinghi ceremonies, chants such as “We want to go home a yard,” which is about wanting to return to Africa, create the context for focused communion and affirmation of values “we-ness” within a larger framework of building fellowship: For every time I chant Nyabinghi I want to go a yard For the Rastaman tired to live in a Babylon there is pure victimization for through the Iwa [time, era] of the King of...

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