The Best Books in Rastafari Studies

Darren J. N. Middleton

John F. Weatherly Professor of Religion Texas Christian University

stablished around ninety years Hélène Lee, The First Rasta: Leonard ago, the Rastafari religious Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism. movement is a bright spot on the Chicago Review Press, 320pp. Eworld’s cultural map—sistren and bredren are now everywhere, their dreadlocks After the November 2, 1930 coronation of flashing as they wield the Bible as a His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, the last decolonial weapon. Reggae music explains Emperor of Ethiopia, whom Rastas see as such globalization. Since the late 1960s, “Jah,” or God-in-the-flesh, the awareness of artists like Bob Marley and Queen Ifrica a new era in Black history grew as far away have been using the power of word and as Jamaica. Some Kingston-based followers sound to promote Rastafari’s message of of the black nationalist and Pan-Africanist black somebodiness—an anticolonial activist Marcus Garvey, like Leonard Howell, theo-psychology that sponsors a retrieval of became animated by Selassie’s royal title, self and cultural agency denied by late “the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” modern capitalism, which is known as an allusion to the Book of Revelation in “Babylon” in the language of the Rastafari. the Bible. Howell became the “first Rasta,” Several studies have addressed the varieties according to Hélène Lee, and her biography of Rastafari religious experience. In the describes his many accomplishments. process, they take up issues and proposals “Pinnacle” is one such success. Located in that not only excite conversation, but the St. Jago Hills high above Spanish Town, continue to shape the movement as it Jamaica’s old capital, Pinnacle is the first advances around the world and into the Rastafari commune, which Howell founded new millennium. in the 1940s. Police raids eventually crushed

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Athenaeum Review 5.22.2020.indd 137 5/28/20 3:17 PM Pinnacle, and the Rastafari who fled soon her with the Order of Distinction in the resettled in the slums of western Kingston, Rank of Officer. While other, heavily in places like Trench Town. Lee’s moving as footnoted tomes followed the 1980 first well as adroit account of this story ends by edition of this book, few can rival Hannah’s emphasizing the words on Howell’s epitaph incisive observations and swift-paced prose. (“No man is indispensable but some are irreplaceable”), which remind readers that Dean MacNeil, The Bible and Bob Marley: Howell nurtured a now-notable religious Half the Story Has Never Been Told. Cascade group in its infancy, and that Pinnacle was Books, 166pp. Rasta’s first vision of the promised land. Hannah’s book is a detail-laden account Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, of the Rastafari faith as an experiential Rastafari—The New Creation, Gold Medal philosophy with deep roots in scripture, Edition. Jamaican Media Productions Ltd., specifically those passages that uphold His 136pp. Imperial Majesty’s divinity. And so I appreciate Dean MacNeil’s own study, the first Rastas in Howell’s day were vilified, often monograph to describe the biblical basis for seen as a social menace, but they eventually the music of Robert Nesta Marley (aka: came in from the cold, as prominent “Tuff Gong”), whose roots reggae situated the individuals articulated the Rastafari message, Rastafari movement, “Jah people,” on life’s or “Rastology,” in persuasive, compelling ways. cultural map. If it is true that all Western A fêted filmmaker, journalist, and Independent philosophy is a footnote to Plato, then all Opposition Senator in the Jamaican Parliament reggae is a footnote to Marley, which is why (1984-87), Hannah is the author of many I often urge my biblically-literate students books, including this touchstone text, the to listen to him. When such undergraduates first insider’s account of a transnational analyze Marley’s lyrics, they often come to see religious movement centered around His Tuff Gong as an Amos-like prophet, concerned Imperial Majesty’s divinity. This judicious and to criticize capitalism, or Babylon, as well as perceptive book, a contemporary classic, to promote environmental and social justice. dismantles media stereotypes and They are only half-right. “That Marley can misappropriations in pop culture, situating be appreciated not only as a great artist and what she dubs the “true essence” of Rastafari songwriter but also as an interpreter of livity (practices and beliefs) in the broad, scripture is an integral part of the Bob Marley often unheralded context of Black history story that has not been sufficiently addressed,” and heritage. Among the numerous topics MacNeil announces. Reading MacNeil sets discussed are Garvey’s impact on Rastology; the record straight. After spending four the economic as well as spiritual value of chapters carefully scrutinizing over eighty marijuana or “ganja”; the challenges and songs and identifying 137 biblical references, questions women pose to a patriarchal MacNeil emerges from his meticulous work spirituality; the issue of reparations as well to reveal that the Wisdom Literature forms as repatriation; and, the growing trend of the principal part of Marley’s musical white Rastafari. Hannah has been a canon. “18 percent of Marley’s biblical Rastawoman for decades, is considered an quotations are from Proverbs and 26 percent Elder Empress of the faith, and just are from Psalms, which is more than two or recently the Jamaican government invested three times greater than any other book,”

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Athenaeum Review 5.22.2020.indd 138 5/28/20 3:17 PM Nana Yaw Ananse, Marley Mural, 2020. Bob Marley Museum, Kingston, Jamaica. Photo courtesy Darren J. N. Middleton.

MacNeil reveals. Together with the Wisdom Ennis B. Edmonds, Rastafari: A Very Short Literature, the Gospels and Pauline Introduction. Oxford University Press, 144pp. literature also inspired Marley to preach resistance and redemption, which are This accessible account of the Rastafari “constant themes, as ingrained in his music religious movement begins with its Jamaican as the Bible and the guitar.” Marley’s music origins and then comes forward in time, put Babylon, the world even, on notice. And showing why and how the Rastas have MacNeil’s clear-eyed, clever book shows transitioned from their initial status as cultural readers how and why. The Bible and Bob outcasts to their current position as ideological Marley summarizes the singular vision and influencers. “Rastafari and reggae have scripture-flecked legend of Rastafari’s global provided Anglophone Caribbean writers with ambassador. Because of Marley’s life and a distinctive voice that has liberated them from art, reggae’s sprightly signatures now mimicking the aesthetics of British literature,” soundtrack the diverse, wide-ranging livities Edmonds holds. “Bob Marley is certainly right. of individuals ready to reclaim a sense of The rejected and maligned Rastafari has black somebodiness and cultural agency become the cornerstone of Caribbean cultural once denied by Babylon. production, whether in music, art, or literature.”

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Athenaeum Review 5.22.2020.indd 139 5/28/20 3:17 PM Besides being readable, this book displays understood as an artful, vernacular religion admirable nuance. An instructive chapter on in commonplace life. Bedasse is one such the Rastafari’s social formation reveals that scholar. An associate professor of history and there are many mansions, or denomination- of African and African-American studies at like groups, within the movement, each one Washington University in St. Louis, she has marked by pronounced principles and authored an award-winning book that ranges practices. There are many Rastologies—the across three continents and five countries inexorable result of the movement’s acephalous to reveal how today’s Rastas are rising to the character. Whereas members of the Twelve challenge of re-imagining their faith to fit Tribes of Israel mansion tend to engage the their ever-changing world(s). Here, Rastafari world around them, for example, other groups, repatriation to Tanzania is the lens through like the Nyabinghi, favor strict isolationism. which Bedasse investigates complex issues of Whatever else it accomplishes, then, Edmonds’s race, gender, and social class; religion’s nature edifying work gives proof to the lie that all and function; tense alliances between Rastas think and act alike. Similarly dextrous indigenous Tanzanian Rastafari and diasporic discussions of three timely trends— Rastafari repatriates; and, the ostensibly uneasy internationalization, gender relations, and alliance between socialism and economic commodification—conclude this concisely development in decolonial times. “The written and attractively priced text. Rastafarian movement has made its mark around the world as a cultural phenomenon,” Bedasse acknowledges. “Yet the focus on its Monique A. Bedasse, Jah Kingdom: cultural representations has neglected the Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization. University history of Rastafari’s evolution as an of North Carolina Press, 270pp. expression of black radicalism, and has relegated its militancy to a bygone era when The Rastafari religious movement has its association with popular culture could spread from the Caribbean to many parts of not have been foreseen.” the world since the 1930s and this is due, at Jah Kingdom complements other, recent least in part, to the Rastafari’s long-held hope accounts of Rastafari repatriation to Africa, for repatriation to Africa as well as Jamaican such as those authored by Giulia Bonacci popular culture’s transnational appeal. From and Erin C. MacLeod, yet it moves beyond Senegalese Muslim Rasta making pilgrimage their sterling efforts, revealing an emerging to the Mouride holy city of Touba to site of Rastafari identity—Tanzania—and Rasta-identifying Maori nationalists in shows readers how Rastas in this East Aotearoa, New Zealand, and from Israeli African country are using black radical Dreads fostering philo-Zionism in Tel Aviv to politics to repair the ancestral links broken Kyoto-based Zen Rastas looking to reclaim the by colonialism, the slave trade, and certain Japanese environment, Rastas are everywhere. forms of neo-colonialism. Bedasse’s Today’s bredren and sistren are becoming less virtuoso study, which makes detailed use of homogenous, however, and local livities as well numerous and valuable primary sources, as global diversity are now an integral part of “insists on a history driven less by outsiders the way Rastas are evolving. Recent studies and more by the men and women for whom confirm this observation. And by emphasizing Rastafari remained an enduring and the Rastafari’s impact as well as existence in ever-evolving project,” and therefore I think far-flung parts of the world, scholars are now it ranks as the most instructive model for underlining the idea that Rasta may best be the future of Rastafari Studies.

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