Rastafari in the New Millennium: A Rastafari Reader

8. Rastafari as an Afrocentrically Based Discourse and Spiritual Expression

159 8 Rastafari as an Afrocentrically Based Discourse and Spiritual Expression m i c h a e l b a r n e t t and a d w o a n t o z a k e o n u o r a 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 adherents worship a Black God and a Black Christ and celebrate their own African ancestry. Additionally, the Holy Land for Rastafari is in Africa (with the new Jerusalem clearly being 1. Molefi Kete Asante (2003) argues fervently that Islam and any of its offshoot movements , such as the Nation of Islam, are clearly non-Afrocentric because they do not put Africa at the center. One of the writers of this chapter makes a similar argument in his dissertation , “Rastafarianism and the Nation of Islam as Group-Identity Formation among Blacks in the United States” (Barnett 2000). According to Asante, Islam, which essentially starts with the Prophet Muhammad, originates in Arabia (somewhere between Mecca and Medina), not Africa. Additionally, the central language of Islam is Arabic, which is not an African language. Islam puts a great deal of weight on Prophet Muhammad and states that he is the last and most important prophet. But where was Prophet Muhammad born? It was not Africa, but Arabia. Therefore, Islam is Arabcentric as opposed to Afrocentric. According to Barnett the contrast with Rastafari theology and Islam could not be more stark. Rastafarianism originated with Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia; thus, the equivalent place of pilgrimage for Rastafari is Ethiopia specifically and Africa in general. Rastafari not only conceive of Ethiopia as their Holy Land, their Zion, but also the Garden of Eden, the birthplace of humanity that the Bible refers to in the book of Genesis. Rastafari also consider Ethiopia to be the cradle of human civilization as well as God’s chosen place on Earth. 160 • Ideology, Philosophy, and Praxis proclaimed to be in Ethiopia), and the origin of all humanity is seen to lie in Africa. Many Rastafari state that the Garden of Eden, which the Bible refers to, is essentially that expanse of land we now refer to as Ethiopia . Furthermore, Ethiopia is also heralded as the origin of all human civilization by many adherents of the movement. In this regard, the Rastafari movement is undoubtedly Afrocentrically based, arguably predating the Black Power and Afrocentric movements of the United States, which emerged in the 1960s. To further investigate the implicit Afrocentricity of Rastafari, we begin this chapter with an outline of the foundational elements of the Afrocentric paradigm, according to the scholar Molefi Kete Asante (1991). We then continue our interrogation by focusing on Asante’s five pillars of Afrocentricity and seeing whether there are any parallels between them and the Rastafari worldview. We hope to demonstrate that the Rastafari worldview and orientation, as articulated by lifestyle and ideology, has an Afrocentric leaning (tilt) and basis. We then conclude that it is indeed reasonable to propose that the Rastafari movement is an Afrocentrically based discourse as well as a spiritual expression. Toward a Summary and Definition of Afrocentricity The theory of Afrocentricity positions African ideals at the center of analyses involving African culture and behavior, traditions, and history (Asante 1998; Dei 1994). As a discursive framework, it problematizes the Eurocentric production of knowledge, empowering Africans to resist hegemonic views that extol Western European epistemology as superior and universal. Mazama sums it up well, describing it as a theory based on African “epistemological centeredness” (Mazama 2001, 388). Therefore, of major significance to the Afrocentric discursive framework is the notion of centeredness—a perspective that involves locating individuals within the context of their cultural references so that they can relate socially and psychologically to the myriad cultural perspectives in the world. This centeredness thus cannot be misconstrued as a mere reversal of white supremacist discourses. The reason being, inasmuch as Afrocentricity centers the experiences of Africans, it also makes space for the voices of other marginalized Afrocentric Discourse and Spiritual Expression • 161 groups, viewing the European voice “as just one among many” voices (ibid.). In this regard, the notion of centricity is relevant not only to people of African descent but also to all peoples of varying cultural backgrounds. Afrocentricity...