What is Rastafari?

After attending the FUBOH One Heartbeat event and also Ras Daniel Babu’s health event, I have been contemplating the real meaning of culture and community.

It seems that we have a lot of work to do in order to get to that position of strength where we can be completely independent and self actuating.

It seems that even within a movement such as Rastafari, which is so fundamentally grounded in the Afrikan experience confusion about our reason for being is still prevalent.

Dr Dennis Forsythe states: “Rastafari...a mystic religion resurrected ...in the West...embodying the great Afrikan spiritual traditions in the lineage of Ausar (Osiris), Ra, Christ and the ancient prophets.” (Rastafari – Healing of the Nation, New York, 1999)

This clearly places Rastafari in the context of ancient cultural traditions and proclaims Rastafari to be something which was brought to the West when we were brought here. It is therefore not something which we have a right to play with. Dr Forsythe also said: “ It is more than a religion, it is a counter-culture, offering an opposing Afrikanist definition and vision of life and is not to be confused with “dreadlocks,” “reggae,” or “dance hall” cultural expressions.” ( Forsythe, 1999)

As a people we are now metaphorically in therapy. A great psychological damage has been done and this damage is in need of repair. It may be a truism, but you cannot love anyone until you first love yourself.

Therefore it is necessary for each and every one of us “Afrikans” to be allowed to create for ourselves sacred space, where no one else has a right to enter. This space must be both individual and collective.

So, for all of those amongst us who want to charge the healer s with the same crime as our oppressors, I ask will a psychiatrist tell their patient to carry all their friends and family to a session with them. No! Why, because that would be foolish. That space, must be a place where the person in therapy can vent fully, uninhibited by the fear that what they say or do will/may be held against them by their loved ones.

Therefore, the use of His Imperial Majesty’ speech to slap those of us that call for unification amongst Afrikans first and foremost, is both naive and disrespectful. It is my contention that His Imperial Majesty was not speaking to Afrikans particularly in his speech, but to those who have and continue to denigrate Afrikan humanity, be they black, white or any shade in-between. Blackness and Afrikanness are quite obviously not the same thing. However, melanin is a primary determinant in the makeup of an Afrikan. Therefore, as Pan-Afrikans, Nationalists, Spiritualists and Revolutionaries we call to our people to put RACE FIRST or as His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey stated: “In a world of wolves one should go armed and one of the most powerful defensive weapons within the reach of Afrikan people is the practise of RACE FIRST in all parts of the world. Yes – PUT YOUR RACE FIRST like all other races do.”    (His Excellency Marcus Mosiah Garvey)