Thank God for Rastafari
published: Sunday | April 1, 2007

Orville Taylor

"Dem all a dispute di truth! Pass di judgment and Jah shall execute. It's impossible for Immanuel to die!"

This is the preamble to Capleton's Heathen Rage, and has been characteristic of Rastafarian artistes over the years.

It is the first of April but having a 'follicularly' challenged social scientist advocating Rastafari is no (Uncle) Tom Fool Day joke. Don't be fooled by the photograph. It is perhaps the only way that I can show 'brilliance'. Despite my bald head I sure as hell am not a 'Ball Head.' In any event, like Rastafarians, I use no comb and the name 'Dibaba' is Ethiopian.

It was seven days ago, and it is clear why it could be called a 'weak end', because one of the most important days in the history of previously enslaved black people was commemorated. March 25, 1807, was the day when the English and American governments agreed that the transatlantic slave trade would end. The Americans saw it fit to do it a year later but the Brits gave it immediate effect.

After much scholarship and activism within the body of intellectuals and others, there was finally a committee appointed by the Jamaican Government at the 10th hour in 2005. It is actually a self-appointed committee headed by my colleague, Professor Verene Shepherd. Empowered, without funds, by then Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, this group found a smattering of five million Jamaican dollars from the CHASE fund and had to obtain more than seven times that to research the details of Africans who lost their lives in the struggle against enslavement.

Committee appointed

At 6:00 p.m. last Sunday morning, a small but powerful group of broadcasters, Africans, intellectuals, activists, ordinary folk and 'whole heap a' Rasta gathered at the Kingston waterfront. The names of scores of victims of the trade were read, while the appropriately named Shepherd, led a tribute that read like an epic eulogy. No words from my lexicon can describe the 'vibe', but it was spiritual, beyond eerie and irie.

It was well known that the politicians would be attending the afternoon session when we would have had the burial ceremony starting at 3:00 p.m. After all, that was their camera moment. Needless to say, I was terribly disappointed. First of all, the United Nations (U.N.) did not see it fit to mark the real anniversary but opted for the more convenient Monday, March 26.

That is bad enough. But worse, it was such an insignificant day that cricket matches were scheduled. It is shameful that Antigua and Barbuda declared a national holiday to boost attendance at cricket while their celebrations were modest. Here, only one politician, Chief Pearnel Charles, with unblurred 'black and white vision', turned up for the more important morning session. The governing party, totally insensitive to the importance of the day, scheduled and had its National Executive Committee meeting. Bet you, Michael Manley, as white as he appeared, would not have disrespected our ancestors so. Even at the afternoon session, when we had visiting African dignitaries and the Governor-General, the parliamentarians were underrepresented.

The nonchalance of our elected political leaders is shameful and shows exactly how 'unconscious' they are of the need to confront our past.

Emotive speeches

Never mind the emotive speeches by Bruce and Portia. none impressed me because it was them making political mileage. If they were really committed to the continuation and preservation of Marcus Garvey's dream then it would not have taken a last-minute push by Mike Henry to place the issue of reparations on the agenda.

Thank Jah for Rastafari, for reparation and repatriation has been on their 'inyu' since their formation in the 1930s. Most people don't even recognise that it was this week in 1930 that Ras Tafari Makkonen ascended the throne of Ethiopi he waited until November for his ultimate 'crownation' as Haile Selassie I.

Throughout the decades, Rastafari have been relentless. African consciousness, truth and rights, black empowerment, have been their fight.

The Black Power Movement of the 1960s must have been inspired by Rastafari, since its leadership was West Indian in the body of Stokely Carmichael. Rastafari struggled for recognition and even suffered the massacre in Coral Gardens, Montego Bay, this week in 1963 as our Government under pseudo-white Prime Minister, Alexander Bustamante, authorised the "shoot first and ask afterwards" 'police-cy'.

In 1968, prodigy Walter Rodney was banned by the then blackest Prime Minister, Hugh Shearer, from returning to his legal position at the University of the West Indies (UWI). Rodney was not dreadlocked but wore copious amounts of hair like Leonard Howell, Rastafari's founding father. He introduced the concept of reparations in his book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. And Rastafari listened and spoke.

In the 1970s, under Manley, Rastas got a new lease on life and some degree of legitimacy. Rex Nettleford of the UWI had already added scholarship to their cause and later, other academics such as Dennis Forsythe, Rupert Lewis and Barry Chevannes among others, took them from the margins of obscurity.

On the other hand, the activities of Bob Marley and the Wailers, Burning Spear, Culture, Mystic Revelation and many more, transformed them from 'Dutty-head Rasta bwoy' to national icons, who now give Jamaica prominence. Sorry Ras, "Di I dem look towards Ethiopia but Jamrock is the home of Rastafari because I an I gave it to the world."

Since the 1990s, Rastafari have resurged in reggae and in society at large. However, check this! Except for a few, 'rascals,' including an artiste who has lost his way, Rastafari has no association with violence.

Yasus Afari launched a great book entitled Ovastanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World, on Thursday. Read and be enlightened!

Dr. Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the UWI, Mona.