The Rastafarians in the 1980s

Rastafarians around the world are celebrating their fiftieth jubilee, which began in 1980 and will continue for seven years. This jubilee has a precedent in Leviticus 25:10: "And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his family." The Rastafarians' interpretation of Leviticus 25 is quite different from that of Orthodox Jews. Not many of the injunctions of Judaism are relevant to them. For the Rastafarians the most important activities of this jubilee period are stepped-up recruiting and an attempt to harmonize the activities of the various "houses and mansions," as the different groups are now called. The vintage Rastafarians intend to confront various governments and even the United Nations over their commitment to repatriation, in a ploy to obtain more freedom for the movement. Another activity involves the concept of International Assemblies.
The Rastafarians have always met periodically in what is known as Nyabingi, but this has always been a local affair during which smoking and discussion take place. They have now enlarged this activity into an international meeting to which members from all over the world are invited to discuss problems like repatriation, education, the "holy weed," the PLO, socialism, and capitalism. The first conference was held in Toronto in July 1982; the second was held in Jamaica on July 18-25, 1983. Present at the meeting in Jamaica were a Rastafarian attorney, university professors, Rastafarian writers, international reggae stars, a variety of professionals, and people from the ghettoes. These meetings promise to move Rastafarianism from the free-form "reasoning" to which it has been accustomed, to parliamentary procedures previously unknown to the movement. In the second assembly in Jamaica, the chairpersons included a lawyer and a university professor. This is a marvelous trend for a movement which started as a fringe group, for it indicates that the leadership is gradually moving into the hands of educated men and women. There is an effort under way to enhance the image of the Rastafarians' Theocratic assembly, as the vintage Rastas now call themselves, so that they can better compete with the sophisticated Twelve Tribes of Israel, which they view as nontraditional and even heretical. In addition the newly educated Rastafarian youths are being given more prominent roles in the movement. Education is not only admired but encouraged.
Another step forward made by the vintage Rastafarians is their new attitude toward women. Originally, women were generally not active at public meetings, and if they were present, they took no part. Women would sometimes serve as recording secretaries at business meetings because they were more often than not better educated than their husbands. A recent article by Maureen Rowe, a Rastafarian woman, that appeared in the Caribbean Quarterly had this to say of Rastafarian women: "The Rastafari beliefs regarding the female are clearly based on the Bible and fall in line with the premise that Rastafari is a patriarchal movement.
'Reasonings,' the traditional way of sharing information, cementing views or interpreting the Bible, take place primarily among the males."23 She went on to say, however, that the female was often instructed by her husband about the proceedings, and in this way she was kept aware of the general status of the movement. It is her opinion that the relationship between men and women did not differ too much from that of the Jamaican peasantry. Rowe states that this male dominance in Rastafarianism began to give way about 1980. One of the new elements of the jubilee seems to be the independence of women. Rowe claims that "while daughters are not challenging this reasoning, their behaviour is more in keeping with the concept of independence. Daughters are manifesting more and more commitment to Rastafari. This was apparently strengthened in 1980 as daughters began asking more and more what they could do for Rastafari."24
Professor Ras Semaj told me that the change in the position of women in Rastafarianism is one of the most encouraging developments in the movement since 1975. Prior to this, a "Rastaman-woman" was a person who was told what to do, what to wear, and how to behave. Since 1975, the influx into the middle class of independent and intelligent women has changed the picture drastically. Today there are "Rasta-women," not "Rastamen-women." According to Professor Semaj, this has created problems for some of the older saints, but the days of the quiet woman are over. A rousing speech on behalf of women in Rasta was given in the afternoon session of the second assembly by Ras Iration:
I respectfully implore this "Isembly" to acknowledge that the creation is administered by two complementary heads, male and female. Being the individualization of Rastafari Supreme Life, sexual equity is a fundamental principle of nature for the organization of the Rastafarian family. It is the fundamental concept of Rastafa-rianity that male and female are the continuation of each other; daughters are indispensable and even more so at this stage of our struggle. No liberation, national or international, can ever be accomplished without the in-depth involvement of daughters. We and self-definition, the Rastafarians continue to be anti-Jamaican and anti-Western.
There is, however, a growing contradiction within the movement. Ras Karbi, the recent winner of the Festival Song for 1983, stunned the crowd with the un-Rastafarian theme, "I'll Never Leave Jamaica Again." To the audience this was a clear denial of repatriation, one of the Rastafarians' most sacred beliefs. But those who know Ras Karbi remember that he spent a long time in the United States. He was even mentioned in the New York Times of March 28, 1980, for his work in the New York theater and his contribution to reggae. Was he saying to his Jamaican audience, "I have come home, never to leave Jamaica for America any more, until the day of repatriation"? This was not clear to the audience.
Millenarian movements, of which the Rastafarians are a classic example, seem to emerge suddenly, thrive for a moment, and then die; or if the conditions for growth are present in the social environment, they gather momentum and, like a hurricane, become a threatening social force.
From the point of view of those who govern, such a movement always appears to be a new political force that must be eliminated immediately. There are numerous examples of millenarian movements in the history of this phenomenon that were seen by the ruling powers as an imminent threat to the status quo and that suffered greatly from the overreac-tion of the ruling class. The Cargo Cults of Melanesia, the Ghost Dance cult in the United States, and Kimbanguism in the Belgian Congo are a few such examples. Early Rastafarianism was also viewed as a political threat during the colonial period and suffered various forms of oppression until 1976. However, if the millenarian movement is not eliminated entirely, it generally gathers moisture, like a weak hurricane trough, and regroups itself around its early discontents. Its martyrs become important weapons in its struggles. Vittorio Lantemari views the striving of subject Marley became a Rastafarian his songs began to include praises of Haile Selassie, true Rastafarians do not accept reggae music as divine.
The Rastafarians now use the word "livity" to define religious feeling. The word denotes the belief in Haile Selassie as God; attendance at Nyabingi meetings for religious reasoning, prayer, and fasting; belief in the hygienic code of Rastafari; the religious use of the "holy herb"; the belief in imminent repatriation,- and the wearing of dreadlocks, although this is becoming optional. The Rastafarians will tell you that the movement is made up of roots, trunks, branches, and leaves. The roots are the doctrines enumerated above. The trunks are the elders of the movement, who give religious instruction. The branches are the various houses or mansions, as the different groups are called. The leaves are the various members of the movement. There are many trees in the forest, but the Rastafarians are the evergreen trees: "Their leaves shall not wither and whatsoever they do, they shall prosper." This biblical quotation, repeated by Ras Bungo Hugh of Montego Bay, suggests that reggae music does not come from the roots and trunk of Rastafari. When pressed to elaborate on the scripture, he was silent. It is my opinion that the Rastafarians in Jamaica are distancing themselves from reggae culture, which has been recently coopted by non-Rastafarians in such events as Reggae Sunsplash, during which some Rastafarians and non-Rastafarians from all over the world, white and black, sing reggae and smoke the "weed."
Professor Semaj, in an article written for the Caribbean Quarterly, attempted to define "livity" in a theoretical way. He insisted that "the Rastafarian way of life thus represents a conscious departure from participation in an alien culture and a recognition of an African cultural orientation in terms of world-view, ethos and ideology."29 He sees the Rastafarian movement as having the potential to harbor warriors, parasites, and hypocrites, like any other segment of society. But despite these contradictions, he believes that the Rastafarian moverment is still one of the most viable fronts from which to launch a cultural revolution for the liberation of Africans in the diaspora. He concluded with a warning to the movement: "Unless other individuals who share the vision of Rastaf ari begin to contribute to the development of a social theory, we will find that the next fifty years of Ras-tafari will show some trends which will be best described as backward or even stagnant."30
Few Rastafarians have as yet heeded Professor Semaj's warning, although some Rastafarian spokespersons at the Second International Assembly seem to have had an awareness of the problem. Despite the growth of the movement, there are signs of stagnation. The ethos of the movement has become disoriented; the Rastafarian concept of divinity is not as meaningful to many since the deaths of Haile Selassie I and of Bob Marley, their prophet. There seems to be a weakness at the center of Rastafarian ideology, and if the center cannot hold, things may fall apart.

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