A SKETCH OF RASTAFARI HISTORY


by Norman Hugh Redington, Editor
The St. Pachomius Orthodox Library

INTRODUCTION: The spread of Orthodox Christianity in the NewWorld has occurred mainly as a result of immigration fromEastern Europe. There are two regions, however, where this is notthe case: Alaska and the Caribbean. The story of the conversionof the Aleut, Tlingit, and Yupik nations in Alaska has often beentold; by contrast, that of the yet more improbable emergenceof Ethiopian churches in Jamaica is little known. My hope isthat this little tract will inspire someone with greater knowledgeto study the subject properly; if it also leads to a deeperrespect and understanding between mainstream Christians and theoften-maligned brethren in Jamaica, may the Lord be praised.N.Redington, 1995

ORIGINS: THE GARVEYITE AFRICAN ORTHODOX CHURCH. Marcus Garveywas a Jamaican-born Black nationalist leader whose UniversalNegro Improvement Association (UNIA) was the most prominentBlack Power organization of the 1920s. Although himself a Roman Catholic, Garvey encouraged his followers to imagine Jesusas Black and to organize their own church. To emphasize thatthe new church was neither Catholic nor Protestant, the name"Orthodox" was adopted and the filioque (a phrase added to theLatin version of the Nicene creed in the early Middle Ages butrejected by the Orthodox) was dropped.
The African Orthodox Church entered into negotiations with theRussian Metropolia (now the OCA) for formal recognition as an Orthodoxjurisdiction. Unfortunately, these negotiations broke down: theMetropolia demanded an unacceptable degree of administrativecontrol, while the Garveyites wanted to promulgate whateverdoctrines they chose. Eventually, the African Orthodox bishopwas consecrated by the "American Catholics", a group which hadrejected the authority of the Pope but was otherwise similar tothe Roman Church.
The Garveyite Church had thousands of members on three continents,and was a symbol of anti-colonialism in Kenya and Uganda. TheAfrican Orthodox in those countries quickly broke off relationswith the New York church and instead became part of the GreekPatriarchate of Alexandria and fully Orthodox. The same processrepeated in Ghana more recently, where Fr. Kwami Labe, a graduateof St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York, has been building a strong Orthodox community on the foundations laid by the Garveyites. (I am distressed, however, that many now-canonical African Orthodox oftenseem almost ashamed of their "heretical" origins, and try to distance themselves from the earlier movement.)
Today the African Orthodox Church as such is largely defunct,although the parish of St. John Coltrane (!) in San Franciscoremains quite active.

MORE ORIGINS: THE BLACK ISRAELITES. Black slaves always felt anobvious affinity to the enslaved Hebrews; a few took this sympathyto its logical extreme and claimed to be, in fact, Jews. This movement probably existed in the U.S. during slavery times, andthere was at least one Black convert in the synagogue of antebellumCharleston. The spread of information about the Jewish "Falasha"minority in Ethiopia contributed to the growth of Black Judaismduring the late 19th Century, and Jewish sects emerged in thenorthern ghettoes alongside Muslim ones. A number of these,and similar groups of more recent origin, remain very active today. These groups (a few of them very anti-Semitic in their claim ofbeing "real Jews") are in some cases "Christian", although with anOld Testament emphasis. Frequently they claim that whiteshave distorted the text of the Bible, and there are attemptsto "restore" the text.
One of these, of importance in this story, is the "Holy Piby",an occult bible allegedly translated from "Amharic" andemphasizing the destruction of white "Babylonia" and thereturn of the Israelites to Africa, the true Zion. The Pibywas adopted by Rastafarians as the source of their liturgicaltexts.

GARVEY THE PROPHET: The Marcus Garvey of history books is a mainlypolitical leader interested in making the black race economicallyequal with the white. In oral tradition, however, he appears asa divinely annointed prophet, the Forerunner of Haile Selassie.In addition to many miracles and prophecies, he is credited withhaving predicted that a "mighty king" would arise in Africa andbring justice to the oppressed. When the Prince (Ras) Tafari ofEthiopia was crowned emperor to world-wide fanfare, many Jamaicansclaimed the prophecy of Garvey had obviously just been fulfilled:the Ras Tafari Movement was born.
Garvey himself was still alive, although his movement had largelycollapsed and he himself had been jailed on (subsequently disproved)allegations of business fraud. Garvey was no admirer of HaileSelassie, observing that slavery still existed in Ethiopia, andhe attacked the Rastafarians as crazy fanatics. They, howevercontinued to revere Garvey nonetheless, remarking that even John the Baptist had had doubts about Christ!

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD: From 1930 until the mid '60s, Rastafariwas a local Jamaican religious movement with few outside influences.Several Garveyite leaders had independently declared that HaileSelassie fulfilled Garvey's prophecy, and the movement remaineddominated by independent "Elders" with widely varying views.Not only did no Jamaica-wide "Rastafarian Church" develop, butthere was not even agreement on basic doctrine or a canon ofScripture--both the Holy Piby and the King James Bible were usedby various Elders, but were freely emended and "corrected".OVERSTANDING: This "anarchy" was considered a virtue by classicalRastas. Rastafari was not a religion, a human organization, ora philosophy, but an active attempt to discern the will of JAH(God) and keep it. Classical Rastas were mainly uneducated ThirdWorld peasants, but they approached Rastafari in an almostTalmudic spirit, holding "reasonings" --part theologicaldebate, part prayer meeting-- at which they attempted to findthe Truth.
Their attitude differed, however, from that of Protestants interpretingthe Bible. They were certain that they would arrive, by divine guidance,at an "overstanding" (rather than understanding) of the Truth. TheTruth cannot be known by human effort alone, but "Jah-Jah come over I&I",one can participate in the One who is Truth.

MYSTICISM: Early Rasta mystical experience emphasized the immediatepresence of JAH within the "dread" (God-fearer). The doctrine oftheosis was expressed with great subtlety (although not all Elderscorrectly distinguished essence from energy). Through union withJAH, the dread becomes who he truly is but never was, a process ofself-discovery possible only through repentance. (For this reason,Rastas did not proselytize, but relied on compunction sent by JAH.)The mystical union was expressed by the use of the pronoun "I&I"(which can mean I, we, or even you, with JAH present) or simply "I"in contrast to the undeclined Jamaican dialect "me".

COMMUNITY: Many Rastas lived (and live today) in the bush in campsruled by an Elder. Some of these camps are segregated by sex andresemble monasteries (down to the gong at the gate); more often,they are reconstituted West African villages. The dreads observethe rules of "ital", a dietary code based on the Pentateuch withvarious additions, and otherwise observe a spiritual rule. Males areusually bearded (uncommon in Jamaica during the classical period,and a cause of social and religious discrimination, so that Rastaswho held jobs often were "baldfaces" who kept their affiliationsecret.)
The famous "dreadlocks" were worn during the classical period onlyby a minority of dreads, mostly those who had taken the oath of Nazirite.Very recent historical research suggests that the dreadlocks werepopularized by a monastic movement which opposed the unrestrainedand potentially corrupting power of the Elders. These celibate andalmost puritanical "nyabinghi warriors" objected particularly to"pagan holdovers" in Rastafari, the continued use by dreads ofritual practices associated with the voudoun-like folk religionof the Jamaican peasantry.

HINDUISM: Another source of "pagan" thought in Rastafari was the religionpracticed by the thousands of East Indian labourers imported to Jamaicaafter the abolition of slavery. Classical Hinduism is a major religiousforce throughout the West Indies, especially on Trinidad, but itsinfluence on Rastafari has been little remarked. The dreadlocked,ganja-smoking saddhu or wandering ascetic is a well-known figure inIndia, and bands of saddhus often live in Rasta-style camps andsmoke marijuana from a formally-blessed communal chalice-pipe. TheHindu doctrine of reincarnation is also advocated by many dreads, although often with a subtle twist: to say that (for example) today'sJamaicans are reincarnated Israelites, and even "I myself have feltthe slave-master's whip", means to some dreads not that they personallyhave lived before, but that their solidarity with their ancestorsis so great that there is a "oneness through time".

REPATRIATION: Among the few things all Elders agreed on were thatHaile Selassie was "divine" (although what that meant was much debated)and that he intended to restore New World Blacks to Africa. Althougha mystical interpretation of "repatriation" was advanced, there isno doubt that all early Elders (and most modern ones) expected outwardliteral return as well. This gave Rastafari an overt political dimension:the Rastafarians all, without exception, wanted to immediatelyemigrate to Ethiopia. This was a situation with no analogue exceptZionism, and was beyond the ability of the Jamaican authorities todeal with. Revolutionaries are one thing, but the Rasta slogan wasnot "power to the people", but "let my people go". As timepassed, Rastafarian frustration at this unmet demand became explosive.The situation grew especially tense after 1954, when the governmentoverran a Rastafarian mini-state called the Pinnacle, ruled by ElderLeonard Howell in exactly the style of a traditional West African chief.Howell's followers migrated to the slums of Kingston, and the movementwent from a rural peasant separatist movement to one associated withthe ghettoes of the capital. In the late '50s and early '60s, a few Rastasin desparation rejected the non-violent teaching of all authentic Eldersand mounted a series of increasingly violent uprisings, culminating inseveral deadly shoot-outs between Rastas and British troops.With this violence, the existence of Rastafari came to (negative)worldwide notice; more positive publicity was brought by the popularityof Rasta-performed reggae dance music a few years later. The classicalperiod of isolation was at an end.


ETHIOPIANISM: I will now treat the issue of direct contact between Rastafari and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
THE ETHIOPIAN WORLD FEDERATION (EWF): As an African country mentionedin the Bible and the only African nation to successfully resistcolonialism, Ethiopia was always prominent in New World Black consci-ousness, but actual contact was minimal until the Second World War.In 1937, Haile Selassie's government in exile founded EWF to raisemoney and political support from Black nationalist groups in theWest. After the war, the EWF continued to exist in various forms,some completely under local control but all providing at least somecontact with Abyssinia.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: In the 1940s, a Garveyite bishop named Edwin Collinsset up what he said was a legitimate Coptic church under the Patriarchof Alexandria. However the Garveyite Coptics were tied more closelyto the African Orthodox Church than to Egypt, and their canonicity waswidely doubted. In 1952 the Garveyite Coptic diocese of Trinidad andTobago broke away and placed itself under Addis Ababa. Clergy wereimported from Africa and a fully canonical church was organised inthe islands. Trinidad is an Ethiopian Orthodox success story: native-born clergy (including old-time Garveyite leaders) were rapidlyordained and parishes were founded all over the country and in Guyana.ABBA LAIKE MANDEFRO: In 1959 the central Garveyite Coptic organisationin New York tried to improve its canonical status. The archbishop wentto Ethiopia, where he was supposedly ordained chorepiscopos, and returnedwith a group of young Ethiopian priests and deacons who were to studyin American universities. These clergy almost immediately broke with theGarveyites, however, and set up parishes more oriented to the needsof Ethiopian immigrants; the Garveyite Coptic church which had sponsoredthem went into an evidently irreversible decline. One of the youngpriests who came over at this time soon became Ethiopian Orthodoxy'smain representative abroad. He is Laike M. Mandefro, now ArchbishopYesehaq, exarch of the Western Hemisphere and many would add Apostleto the Caribbean.

THE EWF IN JAMAICA: All of the above developments took place independentlyof the Ras Tafari Movement, which was still confined to Jamaica. An EWFchapter had opened there in 1938 and been almost immediately taken overby Rastafarians, in particular by the prominent Elders Joseph Hibbertand Archibald Dunkley. Both men were noted mystics and initiates of anall-Black "Coptic" Masonic lodge in Costa Rica; some might thereforefind it ironic that they more than anyone else would prove responsiblefor the arrival of Orthodoxy in Jamaica!

"GROUNATION DAY": Presumably because of the spread of the EthiopianChurch in Trinidad, Haile Selassie was invited to visit that countryin 1966. Jamaica was then in the throws of an ongoing national socialcrisis in which Rastas were perceived by the establishment as a revo-lutionary threat which had to defused; a team of social scientistshad advised the government that one way to do this was to foster closeties with the real Ethiopia. Accordingly, the Emperor was invited tomake a stop in Jamaica.
On April 21 -- "Grounation Day" to Rastas ever since -- Haile Selassiearrived in Kingston. Contrary to the widely repeated claim that theEmperor was "amazed" or "bemused" upon "discovering" the existenceof the Rastafarians (the greater number of whom by 1966 believed himto be God in essence), there is much evidence that Haile Selassie's whole purpose in visiting Jamaica was to meet the Rasta leadership. Greeted at the airport by thousands of dreads in white robes chanting "Hosanna to the Son of David", Haile Selassie granted an audience to a delegation of famous Elders, including Mortimo Planno and probablyJoseph Hibbert. The precise details of this historic meetingcannot be reconstructed, and there exist countless variants inJamaican oral tradition. Almost certainly, he urged them to become Orthodox and held out the possibility that Jamaican settlers could receiveland-grants in South Ethiopia. Most traditional versions of the meeting specify that he also gave the Elders a secret message, very much in keepingwith the Emperor's known policies on Third World development: "Build Jamaica first."

THE JAMAICA MISSIONS: In 1970, at Hibbert's invitation, Abba LaikeMandefro began to evangelize the Rastafarians in person. In thecourse of a year he baptized some 1200 dreads and laid the foundationfor the church's subsequent growth. He also encountered fierceopposition from those Elders who taught that Haile Selassie was Jahin essence and demanded "baptism in Ras Tafari's name". In MontegoBay, only one dread accepted Orthodox baptism; Laike Mandefro baptizedhim Ahadu -- "One Man".

THE ECUMENIST CRISIS: A major crisis struck the young church in 1971,when a public service marking the ninth anniversary of Jamaican independence was held in Kingston. Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox(Greek and Ethiopian) clergy all participated in the service. TheRastas were scandalized that Orthodox would pray with representativesof "false religions"; hundreds of baptized members defected, and anentire parish was lost. Many of these persons no doubt joined theorganized Rastafarian churches which were beginning to replace thetraditional Elder system, and which soon incorporated widely varyingdegrees of Ethiopian Orthodox liturgical and theological influence.

EWF RASTAFARI: Besides the heretical syncretist groups, however, alegitimate Orthodox Rastafari Movement continued to flourish as thebackbone of the Jamaican church. The EWF under the leadership ofDunkley and Hibbert had enormous prestige, being tied both to theroots of the movement in Garveyism and directly to Jamaica. TheEWF retained the political and social aspects and the distinctivecultural features of classical Rastafari while advocating a rigorouslycorrect and canonical Orthodoxy, venerating the Emperor as a holyliving ikon of JAH but not worshiping him. The first steps toward OrthodoxJamaica were being taken -- albeit by people whose main secular goalwas to leave the country as soon as possible!

: {COMMENT FOR NON-ORTHODOX READERS: Orthodox theology distinguishes: several levels of divinity. Only the Uncreated is "God-in-essence"; humans: can become "divine by participation"; ikons are visible channels through: which divine energy enters the world. The question which divides the: "canonical" brethren from non-Orthodox groups is which of these: levels of divinity applies to Emperor Haile Selassie. The Orthodox: say he is divine by participation and ikonicity, and thus merits "douleia": ("veneration"); the Tribes say he is divine in essence and merits "latreia": or absolute worship.}

REGGAE: This was also the time when reggae music was at the height ofits popularity, and when explicitly religious lyrics were the normwithin reggae. Many popular bands were Orthodox, notably The Abyssinians,a group with priestly and monastic connections. The family of reggae's"superstar", Bob Marley, were mostly Orthodox, although Marley himselfwas for most of his career a member of the Twelve Tribes sect. In hislast years, dying young of cancer, Marley underwent a remarkable spiritualtransformation (evident in his music also) culminating in his baptism;his Orthodox funeral in 1981 was attended by tens of thousands of mourners.

THE SHEARING OF LOCKS: Haile Selassie was reported dead in 1975 (to thedisbelief of many Rastas even today). The Ethiopian church, like manyOrthodox churches under communist rule, endured terrible persecution whichit survived partly by compromise with the persecutors. The Marxist regimein Addis Ababa was very unenthused that an emperor-venerating and/orworshiping cult was flourishing in a part of the world otherwise ripefor revolution.
In addition, I have the impression that some of the increasinglynumerous and often middle-class Ethiopian emigres in the West lookeddown on Rastafarians. The pious suspected their Orthodoxy (no doubtoften rightly; that many "Orthodox" Rastas continued to secretly harborheretical views is quite likely); the staid resented association withan impoverished and reputedly criminal Black underclass. The latterconsideration was especially strong in Britain, where all forms ofRastafari spread rapidly among the West Indian minority in the '70s.(It is important to add, however, that England's Ethiopian community alsoprovided legal and other support for Rastas subjected to racist andpolice harassment during this period, especially in the Handsworthsection of Birmingham.)
For whatever reason, in 1976 all Orthodox Rastas were required tocut their locks and to make an elaborate formal repudiation of hereticalemperor worship (latreia). Whatever its long-term wisdom, this decree forcedpeople who were "growing into an overstanding" by the slow traditionalprocess to make a sudden decision; the cutting of locks, a purelyexternal issue, seemed to many a repudiation of the movement's history.

SYNCRETISM: In spite of these not-inconsiderable conflicts, the EthiopianOrthodox Church has spread through the Caribbean thanks to the RasTafari movement. While only a minority of Rastas have actuallybecome Orthodox, nearly all have been influenced by Orthodoxy. Themakwamya (the prayer stick used by Ethiopian clergy) is ubiquitousamong dreads; items of clerical garb are also frequently adopted.Rastafarian painters have been heavily influenced by ikonography.Syncretism is particularly evident in the organized sects which havepartly supplanted the charismatic Elder system.

THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL (unrelated to the various Black Hebrewchurches of the same name) are probably the largest and most famousof the sects. Founded in 1968 by Vernon Carrington (the Prophet Gad),the Tribes hold that Haile Selassie is Jesus Christ returned inmajesty as King: the Second Coming has already happened. Theircoherent theology and tight organization have won them many converts,including most of the famous reggae singers of the '70s. Somethingof the syncretistic feel of later Rastafari is conveyed by thecover art on the album "Zion Train" by Ras Michael (a brillianthymnographer and one of the Ras Tafari Movement's more impressiveliving spokesmen). The painting shows two clerically-turbaned dreadsbefore the open Royal Doors of an ikonostasis -- beyond which, however,is only a view of mountains against a red sky.

"PRINCE" EDWARD EMMANUEL, founder of another prominent sect, was afamous Elder of the classical era, responsible for convening the first"Nyabinghi" or Rastafarian general synod in 1958. The Prince was alreadya controversial figure who claimed to be one of the Holy Trinity alongwith Haile Selassie and Marcus Garvey; presumably, he hoped the Nyabinghiwould recognize this claim (which it did not). Thereafter the Prince begantransforming his large band of worshipers into an organized church,complete with dogma, liturgy, hierarchy, and a kind of monasticism.The group's priests, some of whom have actually been to Ethiopia, wearOrthodox vestments.

THE ZION COPTIC CHURCH, a semi-moribund Garveyite Orthodox denomination,was revitalized by white hippie converts in the '60s; despite its partlyforeign leadership, it enjoyed explosive growth among Black Jamaicansdisillusioned with the canonical church's approach. Although the "Coptics",as they are called, insist that they are a legitimate Orthodox jurisdiction and even publish tracts on such theological issues as the _mia physis_ andthe Council of Chalcedon, they also engage in some very questionablespeculations verging on Gnosticism. To their credit, they have gonemuch further than the canonical church in incorporating the best ofclassical Rastafrian culture into church life, and their retention ofdreadlocks, nyabinghi drumming, etc. has helped them gain many converts.This success is reflected in their great material wealth, for whichthey have been criticized (they are supposedly among the largest landholders in Jamaica). One aspect of their "reverse syncretism"has caused much controversy, as well as a landmark church-state casewhich landed the Coptics' leadership in prison: their gnosticizingtheories are used to justify ritual consumption of marijuana.

GANJA: Contrary to popular belief, pious Rastas do not smoke marijuanarecreationally, and some (the canonical Ethiopian Orthodox and also thefollowers of certain classical Elders) do not use it at all. MostRastafarian teachers, however, have advocated the controlled ritualsmoking of "wisdomweed" both privately as an aid to meditation andcommunally from "chalice" pipes as an "incense pleasing to the Lord".The argument is that ganja is the "green herb" of the King James Bibleand that its use is a kind of shortcut version of traditional asceticalpractice. The Ethiopian Church, of course, strongly discourages this:Orthodox monks have learned over centuries of experience that suchshortcuts are at best dangerous and at worst soul-destroying. The issue,however, has been much sensationalized by the press, in keeping with theracist stereotyping of Rastas as stoned criminals.

CONCLUSION: I believe that the Rastafarians have been greatly underestimatedby the outside world, including, to some extent, many elements in the Orthodox community. The classical Rastas were sophisticated theologicaland philosophical thinkers, not cargo-cultists worshiping newspaperphotos of an African despot. They had discovered many sophisticatedtheological concepts for themselves, and had retraced many of theChristological and other debates of the early Church. They broughta truly rich cultural and artistic legacy, including some of the twentieth century's most moving hymnography..
While Abuna Yesehaq, at least, certainly seems to recognize this,in practise Rastas often seem to be told by the church that they mustbecome Ethiopians in order to become Orthodox. Many are willing todo this, so great is their thirst for Truth and so acute theirsense of having lost their true African culture. More, however, arenot--and in a way rightly so. The Church is the poorer to theextent it does not incorporate what is good about the Rasta experienceand instead tiresomely emphasizes the "heresy of emperor-worship"and "herbal sorcery". What is forgotten is that the existence of theRastafari movement is a miracle: a forgotten people and a lostculture bringing itself by "reasonings" to the very edge of Orthodoxy.Surely this is a supernatural event, and so the Orthodox Rastas see it.An anonymous nyabingi chant goes:

Michael going to bring them, bring them to the Orthodox Church.
No matter what they do, no matter what they say.
Gabriel going to bring them, bring them to the Orthodox Church.
Raphael going to bring them, Uriel going to bring them,
Sorial going to bring them, Raguel going to bring them,
Fanuel going to bring them, bring them to the Orthodox Church.

I will conclude with a song by Berhane Selassie (Bob Marley), writtenaround the time he was converting to Orthodoxy from the Twelve Tribes andsumming up the whole Orthodox Rasta "seen":

Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the hand of the Almighty.
We followed in this generation, triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom?
Cause all I ever have: redemption songs,
These songs of freedom.

This was the last song on the last album Marley released beforehis death.


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