Rastafari is a movement of Black people who know Africa as the birthplace of Mankind and the throne of Emperor Haile Selassie I -- a 20th Century Manifestation of God who has lighted our pathway towards righteousness, and is therefore worthy of reverence.
The Rastafari movement grew out of the darkest depression that the descendants of African slaves in Jamaica have ever lived in -- the stink and crumbling shacks of zinc and cardboard that the tattered remnants of humanity built on the rotting garbage of the dreadful Dungle on Kingston's waterfront. Out of this filth and slime arose a sentiment so pure, so without anger, so full of love, the Philosophy of the Rastafari faith.
It was a flower in a pigsty, watered by the nourishment of the Prophet Marcus Garvey, swayed by the wind of local political change, and cherished by the Black man's long witheld desire to hold his head upright.
Freedom of Spirit, Freedom from Slavery, and Freedom of Africa, was its cry.
(Copyright) Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah
Ras Adam's Haile Selassie Rastafari Links
The worship of Emperor Haile Selassie I as the returned Messiah is held as a basic tenet of the Rastafari faith. As more information about Selassie's life become available, it shows that it is not unrealistic to perceive HIM as Christ reborn, especially because of how racially liberating is has been for Black people to focus on a Black Christ figure. When placed alongside the Prophet of Black Liberation -- Marcus Garvey -- the importance of Selassie I's life and the logic of the Children of Africa in Jamaica recognising the spiritual connections between HIM and themselves becomes clear.
Even if the question of his divinity remains unverified until Kingdom come, it must be acknowledged that by his inspiration and in his name, Black brothers and sisters awakened and established a new and unique interest in God and Christ.
The Law & Order of the BoboShanti Salvation
The legendary Ark of the Covenant which was taken to Ethiopia by Menelik I, the son of King Solomon and Empress Makeda and which now rests in the Cathedral of Mary of Zion - Aksum, Ethiopia -- in the small Church on the right below.
READ ABOUT IT.
The African consciousness of Rastafari was first and best expressed by Marcus Mosiah Garvey, an idealistic Jamaican boy who envisioned a free and respected Negro race, and who dedicated his entire life to the realization of this vision. He was reviled, maligned, persecuted and scorned, but he held fast to his divine work with a strength, courage and resoluteness which enabled him to rise continually from whatever misfortunes he suffered. Today, over 50 years after his death, Marcus Garvey lives more powerfully than ever, revered as a visionary by Black people all over the African Diaspora.
This issue:
Some Poems from the Rastafari Message Board
VIOLENCE AND THE SOCIAL ECONOMIC ORDER - Dr. Ronald Lampart
Memories of a Summer Music Festival
AFRICAN REPARATIONS - WCAR, Documents, News, Links, IRSGroup
RASTAFARI - A Universal Philosophy In The 3rd Millenium
Reparations - The Rastafari Pathway to World Peace
is a service of the
RASTA INFORMATION SERVICE, Kingston, Jamaica.
by Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah.
The first book on Rasta written by a Rasta.
ONE DROP BOOKS, New York ... Extensive Rastafari Catalogue
RASTAFARI - THE HEALING OF THE NATION, by Dr. Dennis Forsythe
The therapeutic and sacramental uses of Marijuana
in the Rastafari religion.
Volumes 1,2,3,
by Mihlawhdh Faristzaddi
Beautiful photos and artwork surround
Psalms, Poetry and Prayers of Rastafari.
The Debt - Randall Robinson on REPARATIONS
ALL VISITORS TO THIS PAGE.
PEACE & LOVE.
