White Rastafarians?
By Nick Poole
When you think about the word “Rastafarian”, you probably imagine a Jamaican man with dark skin and dreadlocks… as a matter of fact, you probably think about Bob Marley. This wouldn’t be an inappropriate association, after-all, Bob Marley is probably the most internationally recognized practitioner of Rastafari. However, not all rastas these days are from Jamaica, and there is even a small but growing population of Caucasian practitioners. No, I’m not talking about teenaged skateboarders who smoke marijuana and listen to reggae music, I’m talking about real, deeply religious, white rastas. Now, depending on how much you know about Rastafari, you’re either wondering, “How does a White person join the Rasta faith?” or you’re wondering, “What’s the big deal?”. I think it may be wise to first address the latter.
Let’s start with a little history of the religion. Rastafari is a relatively new religion, which finds it’s beginnings in the early 1930s, surrounding the coronation of Haile Selassie I as the Emperor of Ethiopia. The word “Rastafari” actually comes from his pre-coronation name: Tafari Makonnen (“Ras” is an Ethiopian title, literally translated to “head”, but more precisely equated to “Duke”). Rastafari began when it was suggested that the coronation of Haile Selassie I as the Emperor of the only fully independent African State fulfilled Biblical prophecy. People of the Rastafari Faith believe that Haile Selassie I is God incarnate, and refer to him as HIM or His Imperial Majesty. The faith is deeply Afro centric, and maintains that Ethiopia is “Zion”. For a short period of time near it’s origin, the faith was not only afro centric, but Black supremacist. This notion of racism towards whites didn’t last very long, as Haile Selassie himself publicly condemned racism. Rastafari is also well known for the practice of smoking Ganja as the sacrament. Which drives many people to wonder, are white rastas real people of faith, or are they just in it for the marijuana?
Well, there’s no question that many people are attracted to the prospect of a religion where marijuana use is not only accepted but widely encouraged. However, A person can’t just dreadlock their hair, smoke ganja, and call themselves a Rasta. Rastafari is a real faith which is earning respect in the theological world as a religion that pulls a lot of weight. It was a beacon of Hope to the poor population of Jamaica in the 1930s and has continued to minister to the under-privileged today. It teaches solid values such as Positivity, Faith, Meditation, and “overstanding”, the Rasta word for understanding which was changed to have a more positive connotation. It warns against the potential danger of corrupt “Babylon” society, and has been instrumental in driving political change. It’s been just as influential in Jamaica as Christianity, and thanks to the Rasta influenced Reggae music of Bob Marley and other popular artists, it’s increasing in global influence.
Rastafari sounds like a fine faith, why is it so strange that a white person would want to be part of it? Bottom line is that it’s not. It may seem strange from the outside, seeing as the majority of Rastas are black. Many people would also argue that because it is an afro centric religion, white people have no place in it. Well, according to that logic, all Christians should be middle-eastern. The truth of the matter is that, in theory, even a White man could preach Afro centrism. While most white men weren’t physically “taken” from Africa, and forced into slavery, modern science fairly universally supports that all life started in Africa. Given the power of that statement, it isn’t hard to see how Africa found it’s place as the center of Rasta faith.
The question is though, In a faith which preaches the rejection of corrupt white culture, how are white patrons received? There seems to be conflict in the Rasta community. Many rastas are skeptical when they meet or hear of a white person who claims to be Rasta. They assume, naturally, that they came to Rasta through listening to reggae music, or worse, as a way of justifying their misuse of the sacrament. There also seems to be a fundamental distrust of white people, and historically for good reason. A true Rasta would say that all man is equal, and every body, white and black, came from Africa, so it is only natural that All people, regardless of race or color, turn to Rastafari for the “highest truth and overstanding”. However, the common sentiment among rastas is that whites cannot understand the “black struggle”, As they were never taken from their homeland and enslaved. But surely, anyone who really cares about the human race on the whole can appreciate the need to stop violent acts like this. After all, Rastafari itself teaches that all people are one with God, Or “Jah” as they say (Derived from jahweh of the old testament).
In modern Rastafari, especially more contemporary sects such as the Twelve Tribes, White rastas are welcomed. Anyone who believes that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way society treats the “down-pressed” and in the way man views and interacts with one another is encouraged to join the faith. Real rastas are peaceful people who overstand the need for equality in the world, and so they extend that principle even to the faith itself, All men are equal in Rastafari. Some Jamaican rastas are even excited to meet white rastas, as they bring a new point of view to the reasoning sessions, and also because they stand as a symbol of whites acknowledging the wrongs of their ancestors and rejecting “Babylon”.
All in all, white Rastafarians are out there, and they’re no less devoted to Rasta than the first Rastas of Jamaica. So next time you ask a white man his religion, and he tells you he is Rasta, don’t laugh, It may not be a joke.
http://www.jamaica-travel-vacation.com/white-rastafarians.html
We remember the past,so it does not happen in the future.No hate never, reality.I love all my white children,and am loved by all i allow to come around me that doesn’t mean they don’t overstand my philosophy.HUEMANS are the foundation,and have the right to put things in their proper perspective.There is no greater religion than truth.And there is none higher than African woman & man on this earth.This was a gift from MAMA to her children,through the mother of the earth.It’s a spiritual thang.All of your people knew judgement day was comming,just like we knew you were comming to tear up the world.No body likes the so- white people must be a reason,on every part of the globe for their hatred of you,was it something your race has done to ALL the colored race,check your history.AND STILL DOING,to all the colored people,no ancestors now YOU!!! YOU MUTANTS ARE FOUL….And yes Bo the future will be changed black to the way it was,cause you see BLACK IS THE NEW BLACK.We all know to CAGOTS love is what you BUY,not feel. ME SAY WAR.
Indeed we must shun hate. It eventually destroys the hater. This is why we see so many powerful rich (the ill-gotten and maintaining types Afrikan or not) wallowing in self hate.
Its difficult for most (poor) people to see this sometimes especially in this material days.
Still, I am loathe (with no hate mind ya) to believe that white people can want what BLACK PEOPLE NEED.
OUR FREEDOM.
You have no idea what it means to be running around with your slave names/slave gods & sons (with others promising us 72 virgins on death!) .
No idea what it means when we see Afrikans prostrate in your universities-lapping up your lies & innuendos about our supposed inferiority.
Call yourself rasta white boy & girl. But know what it means. Then come again.
Peace to all white & black peace makers
babylon and zion isnt in the shade of your skin – its in the shade of your soul , war only creats more war and hate between nations. every ones blood is red, we all have one hart, one brain ect ect. its just ancestors. No more hate , just peace and One love , to all people. We have a common enemy, and its the puppet masters , behind the puppets of the white house and the parliment of england, yes,THE WEST,.. this is babylon, they are greed, they are hate. ..All this childish, school yard, “my race is better than your race “is all negative bullshit.And you are missing the bigger picture.Your being a slave to hate.We are all brothers and sisters, made by the creator. so militant black (hate filled ) Rastas………….need to wake up them selves, open there eyes, i know my enemy, i know who i am, i feel the strenth of my ancestors, and i am a warrior of Zion.
JAH bless to all with true peace and love in there hearts- PEACE-LOVE -UNITY
No hate Jon just truth can you despute any of the reasonings of a true rasta that knows what has to be done.All rastas do not hate they intergrate,proving they have missed the real reason of the of the movement that is based on sufi principles.PEACE,LOVE,AND UNITY HAS NOT WORKED IN THE PAST,AND WILL NOT WORK IN THE FUTURE.Are we the blacks or whatever trick you cagots and cagot puppets continue to tell us we are or are not,we are the owners of this world,always have been. we the MOORS !!! civilizers of the so-called white race. Are we suppose to love every tom, dick, and cagot that claims to love us. After 500 years you do wake up. Experience is the greatest teacher,we’ve had the white experience too long now. Through love of the master is why people don’t know their history.We don’t have that luxury any more. Love is what the indigenous gave to the first colonists, only later to be tricked and murdered through the white cagots diseases intentional murder, by giving them smallpox blankets. And through the Tuskeegee Experiment, that ran from the 50’s thru the 70’s in which black men were given syphllis,and not treated,and allowed to give it to the black queens mother of all HUEMANS, and Mankind. Even the Chinese were given opium to subdue their will, while the white british flooded China with it. The BLACK THEN NATIVE AMERICANS the moors descendants, who were jet black in color, were given spirit water, liquor, being spiritual, naturally, were taken down from within and without.That has taken place wherever whites have landed and found us.As one poem puts it when the white man landed on these shores we had the land and they had the bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed, when we opened them,we had the bible and they had the land. Sounds familiar?All Huemans are spiritual, and by nature are loving,that’s why we are in the shape we are in now, we fell in love with our captors. So don’t get it twisted ,we can’t afford to bow down any longer, our children are watching. PEACE,LOVE, & UNITY IS KILLING US. iT KILLED OUR ANCESTORS, AND THE CAGOT LOVE CONTINUES. You need truth in yo life. Love happens in fairy tales, reality only those that are equipped with real respect,whites call love, no such puppy. RESPECT. So much RESPECT to those that are woke,and overstand the struggle has to be over, people make money off a struggler, That’s why the struggle continues after Martin,after Malcolm, AND WITH FARRAKHAN, iT’S BY DESIGN.All don’t have the same mind or we wouldn’t have to fight the power. Well Zion peace don’t work so put on your warrior face cause it time, then we’ll have PEACE, AND REBUILD AND CLEANSE. UNTIL THEN WAR!! YOU NEED TO WAKE UP TO THE TRUTH AND GET OUT OF CAGOTS WORLD.There is but one race , the HUEMAN ONE. With a functioning pineal gland. Third Eyers,on your mark. 2011 is here,POWER IS OURS.
Soul better be drenched in melanin for it to work properly people so if no melanin present on the outside none on the inside. Don’t mention SOUL if you ain’t got no color.IT’S A BLACK THANG, AND YOU WOULDN’T OVERSTAND. WAR…
It’s time for all men & women to unite with one mind that is the creator entwined.For we know that the creator is us, in us & with us hence I&I.Meaning one with myself & love me for who the creator created me to be & do. I would rather die for a cause that is greater than me,my children,my treasure. Not just the ones i birthed, i was just the vessel used to bring the creator thru the port hole to earth, a time traveler. OUR CHILDREN WILL CARRY ON WHAT THEY LEARN TO THE NEXT GENERATION… At the rate we’re going they won’t be able to spell kat in 10th grade. We are intentionally being carried backward through what we fought for so hard INTERGRATION!!!! Worse thing to ever happen to our parents, then us. Our children have to be given the right knowledge the 7 liberal arts should be taught in every school for gods,then a trade must be taught,we are the builders,the inventors,the civilizer as well as the inventors of the so-called white race,the rulers of this world.We should act like it.TEACH OUR OWN,THE TRUTH OF THEIR GLORY.Cut off the boob tube and talk to them, take them to the bookstore history Dept. learn with your child about the Creator on earth,all we built.whether we were from Kemet, Nubia,we have to know us,the creator.We are all people one big family that has been scattered ,misinformed, and now being assimilated into the cagot.We are not the cagots,we are the ones they want to be…So we just gotta be us,the creator.Ever remember when you have gotten on mama’s last nerve,and whatever she grab that’s what you getting beat with.WE get beating.WE bout to get a beating,for going along with those “dogs” they have got over on us time,and time,again.Not the children they deserve the best they can get from us, they were put in our charge,we are responsible for knowing and not doing anything about it.And those that are much praises for helping our children overstand the dupe.Our children, the ancestors love to hear & read how great their ancestors were. This is their worlds free to travel and visit their relatives all over the world,we even jumped off ships on new or ancient shore to get away from white cagots love only to be found and your love inflicted upon us no matter where we were in the world you came to us,cagots.Now you are assimilating yourselves into us but you still hate us, this can’t be love.The video Africans in Asia by Eugen adams should open any eyes that refuse to be opened of treatment of Afrikan people by whites,by them that saw it and drew it to be so.The rastaman natural man,that loves his mate and children has to rise up in the warrior stance once again.H.I.M. picked up a gun in defense of his family Ethopia.All must fight for something sometime,our children and the future of this world seems as good as any.No one is comming to save us it’s us we are waiting for,a mind not filled with fear,no fear. Fear was what the slavemaster instilled in our fore parents our children have no fear, that spell has worn off. Now new hip-hop has put us to a all low chanting negative vibrations to our young men and women to disrespect themselves,and not respect their mother and fathers if they not dead or in jail. OR A MENTAL JAIL,brothers i know you overstand,we our existance is in a state of emergency. That cotton field is looking real close for a people that have not prepared for the last hooraa.Nor what to do in case of an emergency.LOOK AT KATRINA, AND NEW ORLEANS,LA. We as a big family have to get away from this madness created by the mutant albino,for our destruction.We have to separate and go on our merry way, or fight. But check out Rosewood ,Florida and Black Wall Street as to why we will never be successful as long as we reside in Babylon. It’s not in the plan for Afrikan people to come back to full glory,not with them around.They are Dream Killers,murderers,rapists,sodomites,our children should,’t be around this vibe,pure evil,and disruptive for the guidance of a creator to their full potential that is no limit. The black woman responsibility is double,to rise a nation.But she has always been the backbone of that civilization and is the one responsible for just that. She has to be put back in her place as soulmate,mother.RESPECT FOR ALL MY SISTERS AND BROTHERS we are but a few that see the whole picture, so we must help others to see, that is our purpose to spread truth to our people… to wake up and see. And when you see you…YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL JUST THE WAY YOU WERE CREATED TO BE.sO WE WANT TO BE FREE.
“.Now you are assimilating yourselves into us but you still hate us, this can’t be love.”
Still No Respect from melodymaat8?
I HATE NO MAN
I Believe in what I believe
I Respect in what you believe
No matter what people say I shall carry on, and not dwell on negativity
Jah Bless