Rastafari in the New Millennium

Cover

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Title Page, Copyright Page

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Contents

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pp. v-viii

Tables

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pp. ix-

Foreword

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pp. xi-xiii

The advent of this volume assembled by Michael Barnett is a welcome addition to the still growing literature on the Rastafarian movement, which has achieved an immense global reach since its early beginnings in colonial Jamaica in the 1930s. It is particularly...

Acknowledgments

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pp. xv-

Many relatives and friends have provided me with support and encouragement as I have embarked on this project, too many to mention, in fact. But I want to take the opportunity to thank my parents, Easton Chamberlain Barnett and Madge Hyacinth...

Contributors

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pp. xvii-xxii

Rastafari in the New Millennium: Rastafari at the Dawn of the Fifth Epoch

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pp. 1-10

The Rastafari movement in this dawn of the new African millennium (which I believe may be considered the dawn of its fifth epoch) has achieved an unheralded amount of growth and visibility in its more than eighty years of existence. The movement...

Part 1: An Assessment of Rastafari in the New Millennium

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pp. 11-32

1. Rastafari and the Coming of Age: The Routinization of the Rastafari Movement in Jamaica

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pp. 13-32

All religions of known origin, following the death of their charismatic founders, either wither away or enter a period known in the literature as routinization, which is marked by two processes: the creation of an administration of roles and functions...

Part 2: The Globalization of Rastafari

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pp. 33-122

2. The Lantern and the Light: Rastafari in Aotearoa (New Zealand)

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pp. 35-65

The Rastafari movement came to Aotearoa in the last quarter of the twentieth century, when Maori human rights activists were borrowing ideas and rhetoric from overseas Black consciousness and Native American protest movements...

3. The Rastafari Presence in Ethiopia: A Contemporary Perspective

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pp. 66-88

The rationale for this chapter emerged out of a concern that despite the increased visibility of the Rastafari character and way of life in the Diaspora and within Africa, there is yet to be any comprehensive assessment of the role that the movement...

4. Water Development Projects and Cultural Citizenship: Rastafari Engagement with the Oromo in Shashemene, Ethiopia

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pp. 89-103

Ras Tagas King describes the situation for Rastafari repatriates in Ethiopia. For the past half century, Rastafari have been settling in Ethiopia, most specifically on land Emperor Haile Selassie I granted the African Diaspora in 1948. This land is in the Shashemene...

5. “A New Christianity for the Modern World”: Rastafari Fundamentalism in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

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pp. 104-122

This chapter will describe the beliefs of a number of “religious” Rastafari (also called “orthodox,” “fundamentalist,” or “Protestant” Rastafari) interviewed formally and informally in an urban barrio known as the Pelourinho in the city...

Part 3: Rastafari Ideology, Philosophy, and Praxis

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pp. 123-174

6. Rastafari as Philosophy and Praxis

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pp. 125-141

The motivation for this chapter stems from the fact that philosophy is a multifaceted academic discipline. Gone are the days when philosophy was an exclusive preserve of the West. Today, there are different traditions in philosophy...

7. Exploring RastafarI’s Pedagogic, Communicative, and Instructional Potential in the Caribbean: The Life and Works of Mutabaruka as a Case Study

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pp. 142-158

Through a critical content analysis of contemporary RastafarI orature¹ (focusing on the life and works of Mutabaruka), I argue that RastafarI can serve as a form of reparation for the damages wrought by the colonial education system...

8. Rastafari as an Afrocentrically Based Discourse and Spiritual Expression

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pp. 159-174

In this chapter we suggest that the Rastafari religious and social movement is clearly Afrocentrically based, especially when compared to African indigenous religions that claim an Afrocentric orientation.¹ We argue this on the basis that Rastafari...

Part 4: Gender Considerations in the Rastafari Movement

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pp. 175-235

9. The Woman in RastafarI

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pp. 177-189

It is a well-known fact that little work has been done on the female in RastafarI. Nettleford (1970) and Kitzinger (1969, 252) suggest that this is because males more readily declare to be RastafarI. Kitzinger takes this point further and argues that RastafarI males...

10. Resistance Without and Within: Reasonings on Gender Relations in RastafarI

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pp. 190-221

In an Internet survey conducted in 2010 with participants listed as attendees of the International Rastafari Studies Conference held at the University of the West Indies, Mona, in the same year, a RastafarI sistren in the 30–39 age category lamented...

11. Cultural Ideology and RastafarI Women

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pp. 222-235

Generally speaking, Rastafarians engage in many practices that set them apart from the rest of the Jamaican populace. For instance, many Rastafarians abstain from eating meat and subject themselves to other dietary restrictions...

Part 5: Religious Considerations in the Rastafari Movement

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pp. 237-252

12. The Wages of (Sin) Is Babylon: Rastafari Versus Christian Religious Perspectives of Sin

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pp. 239-252

Rastafari constitutes an oral culture, with no written constitution or book of rules. The richness, variety, and complexity of its theological perspectives are often obscured by scholarly attempts to treat Rasta in a generic fashion. Nonetheless...

Part 6: Rastafari and Reggae

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pp. 253-288

13: Kumina, the Howellite Church,and the Emergence of Rastafarian Traditional Music in Jamaica

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pp. 255-269

Music history tends to be bound to the ebb and flow of current tastes, often catering to trends of the moment. Once called “the Caribbean’s only entirely new musical form in this century” (Roberts 1972, 132), reggae music was spawned...

14. From Wareika Hill to Zimbabwe: Exploring the Role of Rastafari in Popularizing Reggae Music

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pp. 270-277

In exploring the role of the Rastafari movement in the popularization of Jamaican music, we first need to go back to the days of the emergence of ska, which is widely heralded as the first musical genre uniquely indigenous to Jamaica. There are several...

15. A Focus on Sizzla Kalonji: A Leading Influence on a New Generation of Rastafari Youth

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pp. 278-288

We seek to explore the relationship between the dancehall and Rastafari by analyzing the music and deeds of dancehall’s leading Rastafari chanter, Sizzla Kalonji. Dramatic changes have occurred in his music, and there has been a proliferation...

Part 7: Political Dimensions of the Rastafari Movement

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pp. 289-

16. Reluctant Candidates?: Rastafarians and Partisan Politics in Jamaica and Elsewhere

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pp. 291-299

Virtually every scholar of Rastafari has noted the movement’s deep distrust of “politricks” (Edmonds 2003, 49; West-Duran 2003, 122; Barrett 1977a; Chevannes 1994; Marshall 2006, 66; Kebede, Shriver, and Knottnerus 2000). Electoral politics are seen...

17. Rodney and Rastafari: Cultural Identity in 1960s Jamaica

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pp. 300-309

After more than four hundred years of colonial rule, the British Caribbean colony of Jamaica gained constitutional independence on August 6, 1962, although the state built up under the colonial government remained. It was perhaps...

Conclusion

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pp. 310-315

The wide-ranging assortment of essays presented in this volume stand as a testament to the significant evolution that the Rastafari movement has undergone, from its inception in Jamaica in the early 1930s to the present dawn...

References

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pp. 319-337

Index

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pp. 339-360

Back Cover

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