Pinnacle Redux* Remembering Leonard Perceval Howell

*redux (lat.): brought back, restored, revived

by Jake Homiak, This evening’s gathering is part worship, International Archives part impromptu performance for us by the Project, Smithsonian Institution remnants of Howell’s followers. Of the 20 or so The night air is heavy and still. A lethargic individuals assembled, seven or eight actually cloud hangs over the congregants, but sound lived and grew up in the legendary Rasta proves to be the solvent for this torpor, as the commune located but a few miles from here. driving beat of the drums gradually transforms Mr. Edgar Reid and Miss Gertie Campbell the mood. “Dugoo-dugoo, dugoo-dugoo, now in their 80s, were among Howell’s early dugoo-dugoo… ” The assembly slowly converts and later trusted aides. Tonight Mr. begins moving in unison with the repetitive Reid is serving as the group’s self-appointed beats of the bandu. Sweat, visible through the spokesman and Miss Gertie and Miss Amy flickering light of several bottle lamps, can be Fairweather are serving as the “chantresses” seen running down the faces of four or five for the proceedings. drummers. Astride the playing cas’, Lovelace As customary, the Elders punctuate their McFarlane deftly improves a series of flourishes “illustrations” to me noting, “This is just how and off-beat phrasing over the bass line that wi do it at Pinnacle! What we’re giving you enliven the music -- “tacca-tacca, tacca-tacca, is pure foundation!” Miss Gertie breaks into tacca-tacca-tacca-tacca-tacca, wacka-tac-tac- another foundational chant and is joined by tac…” In ones and twos, stragglers from the the congregation: surrounding community, drawn by the sound, filter into the space. Once they paint Christ white Bandu and playing cas’ are Kumina but he’s a Negro rhythms. We are at Tredegar Park, St. And he no more shall be white Catherine, JA in an unmarked rough-hewn Christ is an E-thi-op-ian Negro pavilion that serves as the meeting place for Born and grown up in Howellite gatherings and worship. Kumina is part of a Kongo-derived tradition carried to The white man told we by Central African indentured laborers that he came from heaven who came to the island after Emancipation, But that “heaven” was roughly between 1845-65. Nearly 100 years King ’s Royal Throne later, elements of this tradition would serve He’s the Father of ev-ry na-tion as Afro-centric signifiers for the congregation Who the white world must obey that Leonard Howell gathered at Pinnacle, the legendary Rastafari commune he established We are marching on to vic-to-ry in 1940. Located above Spanish Town in St. With the red, the yellow, purple-green Catherine, Pinnacle was founded on the site Said we are marching on to vic-to-ry of the island’s first Free Village -- economically Where with angels we shall sing independent settlements created by the former slaves as they removed themselves Ras Tafari is our King from the orbit of the plantations. Calling He is our mighty King his organization the Ethiopian Salvation We are marching onto vic-to-ry Society, Howell developed a similar ethos of …with the King of Kings. Pinnacle Vista by Jake Homiak independence at Pinnacle.

62 Festival Guide 2009 This is the first time I’ve heard any Pinnacle Redux Howellite group sing the British Anthem and I’m initially taken aback. After some After several repetitions of these thought however, I recollect the evidence choruses, other songs follow in quick that was given against Howell at his trail succession. One is an American tune and conviction for sedition in 1934. While which repeats the chorus line, “Down proselytizing the early Rastafari message, in Jamaica where come Howell is said to have preached to a from.” Another borrows the chorus from a gathering on St. Thomas where he said, calypso that was popularized during the “The Black people must not look to [King] Italian invasion of (1935-36) and George V as their King any more. Ras Tafari critiques Mussolini and the of Rome. is their King.” Moreover he encouraged that Yet another is what in Kumina would be they “…must sing the National Anthem, but called a bailo, a new song composed to before you start, you must remember that you communicate a specific message, in some are not singing it for King George V, but for Sister Audrey Whyte dancing between instances containing Kongo words: Brother Ruppert Whyte (l.) and Everald Ras Tafari our new King.” Still, after years Whyte (r.). Ruppert is on the playing cas’, of having heard Rastafari “burn Babylon” Everald on bandu. by Susanne Moss and the British Crown, the incongruity of the Maydombe mi kulungu-bizzi, moment lingers. why-o, why-o Multiple “versions” of Rastafari coexist in Jamaica. What we witnessed that evening Wha-dombe mi wan guh home, (on a research visit more than 10 years ago) was a period-piece version of Rastafari why-o musical and cultural expressions, ones that have had limited circulation outside the O’ mi kulungu-bizzi, why-o cocoon of Howell’s commune after it was destroyed by the colonial state in the mid-‘50s. Maydumbe mi jus a come, why-o In its particulars, little of this legacy is familiar to contemporary Rastafari. (Note in this regard the anachronistic use of the term “Negro” in the first chant, characteristic of the And then this segue: Garvey period.) The cultural expressions that do persist within this self-contained remnant of Howell’s following, attest to the breath and creative cultural dynamism that existed Mi gungo a de Africa Gungo… within his original congregation. The Howellite musical corpus for example, remains Mi gungo a de Africa Gungo… remarkably eclectic when compared with that of Jamaican Revival churches, or even Mu-ma, Mu-ma, your pickney the Nyahbinghi or Boboshanti assemblies, all of which have adapted chants from the gone ‘O! Sankey or Moody evangelical hymnals. As Sister Audrey Whyte, another follower of Mu-ma, Mu-ma, your pickney Howell put it, “Mr. Howell graduate his followers from Sankeys to Salvation songs.” gone ‘O! Finally there is the resolute faith and depth of feeling that his followers continue to express for Howell: part expressed in oral testimony; part in chants that expound on Mi wan guh sown mi gungo his works; and part in the way these musical expressions serve to enshrine Howell’s Mi wan guh sow mi gungo biography and legacy. The singing of the British Anthem ironically is one such example Mi gungo a de African Gungo because of the way that it memorializes Howell’s instructions to his early followers and Mi wanna guh so mi gungo marks an origin point for the movement. By the time serious ethnographic research on the Rastafari began, Howell’s influence Later, Miss Gertie explains that the on the larger movement had largely disappeared. Pinnacle, following several raids on the “African Gungo” is Leonard Howell commune in the ‘40s, suffered a final raid in 1954. The large-scale production of ganja and that this reference pertains to his served as the catalyst for the dismantling of the commune by the colonial authorities and has ritual Hindi name as “Ganguru Maraj.” been the primary feature of Pinnacle emphasized over the years. This however has obscured What they are “sowing” is Mr. Howell’s a deeper interest in the cultural production and organization that Howell effected at the teachings to the people. legendary site. Following destruction of the commune, the majority of Howell’s followers Finally, at the direction of Mr. Reid, and their descendants relocated to Tredegar Park, where they remain to this day largely the group concludes with an a capella isolated from the Rastafari mainstream. For decades however, there has been a popular rendition of “God Save the King,” the assumption promoted by Rastafari (perhaps by those who entered the movement during the British Anthem. As the final chorus closes, Rasta-reggae enthusiasm of ‘70s) that “the most respected Rastafari brethren and sistren in a roll of thunder peels across the heavens Jamaica are Elders who were present among some of the first congregations that gathered and the congregation reacts with cries of in West Kingston as renegades from Pinnacle” (JAHug, Centenary edition p. 45). “…RASTAFARI!” Mr. Reid punctuating There is little actual evidence of such direct and simplistic continuities. This is the point, turns to me and exclaims, “Yuh particularly true with respect to the emergence of culture that developed as see how H.I.M. answer wi!” the movement’s center of gravity shifted from rural sites like Pinnacle to the shantytowns

64 Reggae Festival Guide 2009 have heard Dreadlock Elders testify to the Pinnacle Redux impact of Howell and his followers. of Kingston in the mid-‘50s. While Here is where we need to look for controversy persists over the issue, continuities of a different nature. What there is also little evidence that Howell’s can be said of Howell is that he, perhaps followers wore dreadlocks at Pinnacle. more than any other figure, established Many were “beardsmen” and many the basis for Rastafari identity through his wore “tall hair” (long Afro-like hair), but preaching and his publications. Howell, most scholars of the movement including who at one time had been a Garveyite myself, are skeptical of a Pinnacle-locks and had met Marcus Garvey in , connection. What is known from the NY during his extensive travels, followed oral archive is that the government’s Garvey in this respect. While he was brutal raids upon his commune were building upon themes that others had accompanied by increasing maltreatment already introduced, Howell solidified and discrimination of his flock. Sometime the basis for an emergent Rastafari in the midst of this persecution, Howell is worldview. Those interested should see said to have told his followers to, “Trim This postcard, sold for a shilling by Howell his tract, The Promised Key (c. 1936-37), in 1934, read “Leonard P. Howell – Traveled and be one among any number” (i.e., to the World Through.” These were, according which framed distinctions between assimilate with the local people). to some of his early followers, to be used as and Babylon. It is also true that a few leading “passports” to Ethiopia. by Jake Homiak Leonard Howell was also a world Nyahbinghi Elders -- individuals like Ras traveler and complex personality. Part Boanerges, Ras Sam Brown and perhaps Prince Emmanuel I, who would have been men prophet, part mystic, part healer, he drew in their early 20s at the time -- did make visits to Pinnacle during its heyday in the ‘40s. upon knowledge gained in his extensive But the organizations and cultural expressions they subsequently championed bore only travels to construct his charismatic authority little resemblance in terms of direct continuities. Yet, again and again since the ‘80s, I (see figure of Ras Tafari postcards). But

66 Reggae Festival Guide 2009 he was also part bricoleur (“resourceful, However, some of his followers indicate D.I.Y. type”) who understood the power that shortly after they settled at Pinnacle, of culture. Howell drew creatively upon Howell directed them to build Kumina the cultural resources that were available drums and to “play the Salvation Order,” to him. This included influences from the at which point they began to innovate a parishes in St. Thomas (where he gathered liturgy for his Ethiopian Salvation Society. his first congregation) and from Clarendon Services were frequent, often attended by (where he was born). Regarding the outsiders, and it is also attested by Elders former, the Kongo-derived traditions of like Mr. Reid, that Howell encouraged Kumina were significant. Kumina has his followers to “ketch ena myal” (to always been strongest in the eastern parish “become possessed by the spirit”). What of St. Thomas, where some ten thousand is relevant in this context is that for other African indentures were settled after Jamaicans, cultural (deep African root) Emancipation. It is here that “Bongo Towns” influences from St. Thomas are even formed around these Central Africans and today typically seen as powerful, often Kumina (the religious form they carried dangerous, if not threatening. This was with them). Kumina, known to be a family- not lost on Leonard Howell. based , was accompanied by It seems apparent that Howell was it’s creolized Ki-Kongo language, dance reframing the meaning of this tradition at Pinnacle and fusing it with other influences and music, healing rituals and spirit Visionary drawings, Daily Gleaner, 1937 possession. Howell’s early proselytizing to further develop his own authority as in St. Thomas drew conspicuously upon a healer and as an individual with mystic, if not miraculous, powers. (Among other bearers of this tradition. things, he is legendary among his followers for curing a blind youth, dispatching a It is impossible to know the full details threatening gunman with his wooden rod and cutting an electric wire with his fountain of the St. Thomas/Pinnacle connection. pen, then suturing the live ends of the wire back together with his bare hands.) One

Reggae Festival Guide 2009 67 Shortly after the drawings and a Pinnacle Redux copy of the so-called “cult song” were of the interesting confluences here confiscated by authorities, they were is the East Indian presence within published in the Jamaica Daily Gleaner the early Howellite congregation. (Jan. 18, 1937, p. 28). After all these This influence began in St. Thomas years no one until now has noted the where East Indians were scattered obvious resemblance between these among the local populace and an “visionary drawings” and the central undetermined number participated ritual object of Indo-Jamaican Hossay in his celebrations held there. On the celebrations known as the tadjah. Suffice occasion of his celebration of Ethiopia it to say that Hossay is a tradition known Christmas on Jan. 7, 1937, Howell is both in St. Thomas and in Clarendon, reported to have had a cow arrayed both parishes with sizeable East Indian in full Rastafari regalia and processed populations and both familiar to Howell around his headquarters as part of the and his followers. The segmented and celebration. One might well infer Hindi layered construction of the tadjah, coupled influences here, but more tangible with its peaked surmounting structure, evidence of Indian influences comes in seem far too reminiscent of the future the form of visionary drawings. At the homes in Zion not to have served as the same celebration, the police and local Shankar tadjah by Jake Homiak inspirational source for these drawings. citizenry attacked Howell and his Moreover, East Indians, according to congregation. One of the local constables confiscated the drawings. Said to represent Howell’s instructions, were granted a one follower’s interpretation of how homes in a future Ethiopia would appear, the two special place at Pinnacle as visitors. In his drawings are accompanied by cryptic writing (under second drawing) said to be words publication of The Promised Key, Howell of Hindi or Urdu derivation used in a praise song Howell taught to his followers. had already appropriated a Hindi name

68 Reggae Festival Guide 2009 for himself, Ganguru Maraj (“Teacher of As Sister Audrey Whyte put it, “Mr. Howell show wi that the spirit of the drum is Famed Wisdom”). This coupled with a inna wi…it never die.” Howell’s own individualist focus on healing permeated more praise song layered with Hindi and Urdu broadly within his congregation. The early Rastafari had not yet conceived their cultural words, and his own claim to mystic healing practices as a form of collective healing (as in “the healing of the nation”), but Leonard powers, was another and understandably Howell anticipated this idea at his trial when he declared, “What is needed today is Jamaican way of layering his spiritual international salvation, not individual salvation.” His inclusion of other races (notably authority within his congregation. East Indians) at Pinnacle shows the inclination in this direction, and pre-echoes the latter Beginning with those who entered the anti-racist teachings of His Imperial Majesty I. movement in the ‘50s, many Rastafari After the Jamaican government’s destruction of Pinnacle in 1954, Rastafari began today are fond of noting the fact that the evolving new cultural expressions and ways of surviving in Babylon. In a movement that is culture had developed “from stage-to- traditionally “forward looking,” Howell and his people were largely forgotten. When I first stage.” This being said, few of the esoteric started working in Jamaica in 1980 for example, the few Elders who did mention him, did so particulars from Pinnacle and Howell’s more in way referencing their own longstanding involvement in the movement, as opposed Ethiopian Salvation Society have carried to celebrating Howell and his contributions. By the over into the present day. But there are early ‘90s however, several things happened to continuities. Pinnacle was an incubator change all of this. Leonard Howell’s influentialThe for the traditions of cultural resistance, as Promised Key was rediscovered and republished well as for pride in both African identity by several Rastafari publishers, including Ras and the African cultural heritage. Pinnacle Miguel Lorne and E.S.P. McPherson. Around the is where the African drum first becomes same time, The Jamaica Journal published articles notable as a symbol to “the nation.” In by Garvey scholar, Robert Hill, on Howell’s role this case, the Kongo-derived Kumina drum in the early movement (Hill, ‘83) and on the was said by Howellites to “communicate Howellite Church by Ken Bilby and Elliott Leib from pole-to-pole through the four poles of Four poles of the Kumina drum send the (Bilby and Leib, ‘83), which explored the role of Creation,” sending a universal message. Universal message! by Jake Homiak Continued on page 71

Reggae Festival Guide 2009 69 “Kumina, the Howellite Church and Pinnacle Redux Continued from page 69 the Emergence of Rastafarian Traditional Kumina in early Rastafari. In 1992, Ras E.S.P. McPherson followed by releasing a two-CD Music in Jamaica”, Ken Bilby and Elliott set of original Howellite chants (field recordings, one my own, with accompanying texts) Leib. Jamaica Journal 19 (3): 22-28., entitled Kulungu. Mutabaruka occasionally played selections from these CDs on his JA radio 1985 program Cutting Edge. By the late ‘90s, Nyahbinghi Rastafari began celebrating Howell’s The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and birthday (June 16, 1898) at the now abandoned site of Pinnacle. Everton Blender (himself the Rise of Rastafarianism, Hélène Lee of the Nyahbinghi House) followed this with a release on his Visionary album (Heartbeat, (Chicago Review Press, 2003) 2001) entitled “Leonard Howell.” Finally, French music journalist Hélène Lee published her From Kongo to Zion: Three Black English-translation version of The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism Musical Traditions from Jamaica, Various (Lawrence Hill Books, 2003). Artists (Heartbeat, 1983) The Jamaican story of Howell and his followers has been resurrected as a key part of the narrative of Rastafari nationhood (arguably too, Jamaican nationhood). None of Jake Homiak is a Smithsonian cultural this is fortuitous, nor is it simply being done to memorialize a foundational component of anthropologist who has lived and worked with Rastafari history. Pinnacle Redux reflects broader developments across the international Rastafari across the Black Atlantic. In 1980-81 he Rastafari community. In the increasingly outer-nationalist context in which the movement lived in Bull Bay, JA, spending time with members is now situated, every Rastafari community rightfully claims its own indigenous standing. of the Boboshanti commune and also attending Nyahbinghi ceremonies. His long-term association It is in this context that the dissemination and celebration of Howell’s unique legacy with Rastafari continues to this day. In the mid ‘90s, serves to re-center and authenticate Jamaica as the birthplace of the movement. Today, Jake teamed with late Professor Carole Yawney Jamaica’s Leonard Howell Foundation vigorously advocates Pinnacle’s preservation as a (Toronto York University) initiating the International national heritage site. Visit www.LPHfoundation.org. Pinnacle Redux indeed! Rastafari Archives Project. The initiative culminated in “Discovering Rastafari!” a first-of-its-kind exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural Suggested Readings and Listening History. “Discovering Rastafari!” traces the origins Dread History: Leonard P. Howell and Millennarian Visions in Early Rastafarian and spread of the movement and is scheduled to Religion, Robert Hill (Frontline Books, 1983) run until November 2010.

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