The Rastafarians in the Eastern Caribbean

 

The larger number of representatives from the Eastern Caribbean at the Rastafari Theocratic Assembly (held at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, July 18-25,
235 After Selassie: The Rastafarians Since 1975
1983) was solid evidence that the Rasta movement is now a force throughout the region. Unlike most Jamaican Rastafarians, who have had years of experience with police brutality and now enjoy an atmosphere of relative calm, Rastas from the Eastern Caribbean are a new phenomenon, and they are having serious confrontations with their governments and police. Several of these movements were established after the death of Haile Selassie. Most of those attending the assembly were young, articulate, and revolutionary; a few wore the garb of combat soldiers. There were representatives from Grenada, Dominica, St. Lucia, Guyana, St. Kitts, St. Eustatius, the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad, and Tobago. Although the movement is also present in Guadalupe and Martinique, there were no representatives from the French islands; this was probably because of language barriers.
Rastafarianism in the Eastern Caribbean, as in England, came in the wake of a floundering Black Power movement. The ideology of Black Power was unsuitable for places like Guyana and Trinidad, where Blacks and Indians always lived in a state of confrontation. Dr. Horace Campbell, writing in the Caribbean Quarterly on the rise of the Rastafarians in the Eastern Caribbean, said: "As long as the question of race lay at the core of their ideology, without an understanding of the question of class and the specific conditions of Indian and African workers, Black Power as an ideology could not have a future."17
Dr. Campbell states that in the 1970s the islands of the Caribbean faced a staggering unemployment rate of 30 to 40 percent with no hope for improvement in sight. It was under these conditions that the youths of the Eastern Caribbean decided to opt out of an imperialist society and reject the "carrot" of a materialistic dream. They took to the mountains, the beaches, and the shanties and converted to dreadlocks; thus, most of these movements came into being without the trappings of the divinity of Haile Selassie. In Grenada, Rastafarian groups formed agricultural communes, adopted symbols of resistance that had become well known in Jamaica, grew locks, resorted to herbs, and wore tarns of
The Rastafarians
red, gold, and green. By the time the Peoples' Revolutionary Army emerged in Grenada under Maurice Bishop, 400 Rastafarians were ready to join in the successful overthrow of Eric Gairy. This revolutionary involvement of Rastafarians in Grenada, who were later added to the army and police force, sent a shock wave up and down the Eastern Caribbean, and youths of all races flocked to the banner of Rastafari. Today, the Rastafarian phenomenon is a revolutionary force in all the Caribbean islands. As in early Jamaica, the movement has not had an easy time. The forces of reaction have united against Rastafarianism, using various techniques of mass arrest. Many governments have resorted to framing Rastafarians and have used other coercive techniques to inhibit their growth, but as the reggae singer prophesied, "the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory." Rastafarianism in the Eastern Caribbean has become a new alternative, not only for African youths, but also for East Indians. Here too the movement will demand further scholarship.

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