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 could neva come together and be at peace with others without being at peace with ourselves. Meaning: Until misinformation and falsery are corrected within us and without us, we will never see the white’s as a credible people. If the whites truly accept rasta then he must realize that the sins of the father will always be pass on to the son. Knowing this, he must repent and overstand that the things that he is enjoying today comes from the legacy of oppression. So he must divorce himself from society as a whole and enter a cleasing process for the soul.So what im trying to say, unless Babylon is finally called out for the nature it truly is, Rasta will always be for Blacks only. Blacks are the original ones. The blessed and spiritual because of our melanated bodies it is much easier for us to be intune with nature than others. Our skin can process Soular RA-diation (sub-atomic particles)which is in turn processed and translated into codec information, Resulting in the evolution of DNA. 2012 here we come..
Melodymaat, jodete racista de pendejo!
Malik, my heritage is of the oppressed by the English before Afrika was ever heard of in the carribean. Don’t judge because of the color of skin. Ireland and Scottland has been the brunt of all things evil on the other side of the Atlantic, since the crusades. Remember William Wallace. Probably not since one track minds are whats breeding around this place. Sorry, I was born under the section 8 sign. You?
Marcos you idiot the same back to you. pro-black, a**hole to you.All people came from the colored female,and colored male. Stay out of Rasta Business, not apart of this it’s outside of your history. Why does everyone think they are a HUEMAN being? NOT!!!! Truth hurts the oppressors chillen don’t it. Well I know who I am, do you? Why are you even on this site? Not for CAGOTS,for the true and the truth,real RASTA,that’s what every Tom ,Dick, AND marco want to be. Don’t Hate cause we know your fate, you know it too!!! Every RASTA wanna be, with your sad sob story,you will experience what was done to the creators children real soon, that is the colored race that has endured all folk not of original stock of GODS. The creator, THE COLORED PEOPLES MOTHER AND FATHER,made in the image of the creator with NATURAL COLOR, NOT FROM A TANNING BOOTH,feel me? So right back at you imposter. So JODETE PENDEJO you’re too stupid to be a racist, tu madre es una puta for sure. You’re too stupid to see, third eye blind, I’m not against you, I’m just for MY PEOPLE. Besides ALL of YOU came from PEOPLE OF COLOR, you too were once a color, BLESSED. Me say war.
Peace be with you brethren. First and foremost if you don’t believe in what His Imperial Majesty says and follow his teachings YOU ARE NOT A RASTA POINT BLANK PERIOD. To even think of race is absolute ignorance. No man has any influence on what his or her ancestors have done. If you can’t forgive how can you be forgiven? No man is perfect and all have sinned. If we continue in these petty race discussions, how can we ever unite. Melodymatt8 , could you please tell or show me where I can find these blasphemous teachings you are claiming to be the truth. And remember, those who are forgiven little show only a little love.
MELODY MATT U ARE TRULY THE WOLF IN LIONS CLOTHING WE HAVE BEEN WARNED ABOUT, U ARE THE ONE WITH LOCKS WHO MISLEADS THE YOUTH BACK INTO A ROAD OF RACISN< JUDGING THE OUTER WIYTHOUT SEEING THE INNER, U HAVE BEEN BLINDED SO U TRY TO BLIND THE REST, U TRYY TO DESTROY THE BRIDGE SELASSSIE TRIED SO HARD TO BUILD, U CONTINUE THE DIVIVSIN THAT WE HATED OTHE OPRESSERS FOR DOING, U ARE NOT A RASTA FOR RASTA IS LOVE THAT WOULD MAKE YOU AN IMPOSTER PUSING HATE\, IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO KNOW WHAT PART OF THE WORLD U LIVE?
do great trees argue and ridicule eachother for the colour of eachothers leaves? no, they stand mighty and firm, with a radiant mixture of colours, each as beautifull as the next, some tall, some small, some wide and some thin, but yet, there are no troubles from within them, they stay rooted to nature together and assist the growing process with each others nutrients brought forth… what the I is touchin upon herem is that trees do not bring destruction upon one another, they are a creation of jah standing perfectly in nature, but yet us humans bring destruction to such a beautifull thing jah has created, and just like the trees, we are bringin that same destruction to ourselves instead of uniting and realising we are a beautifull array of colours that was all created by ONE creator to live in harmony,
what people must realise is that there is more to life itself then the pysical relm, for a man to truely see rastafari, he must not only liveth in the pysical relm, but also the mental and spiritual, when a man reachs rasta far heights, he looks at a man for what he brings forth from within, the divine conception of his heart, the goodnes and upliftment brought forth through all his words, deeds and actions….
we should not be looking upon the colour of a mans skin and then automaticaly taking it upon ourselves as human beings to then pass a judgement upon another, Qedamawi Haile Selassie I showeed we this…. and from when the king of kings has showed we this, how could another man ever try to question that?
if you are a man/women who decides to take it upon themselves to cast a judgment as ridiculous as a white man cant be a rastafarI, den you are only lieing to yourself and allowing a seed of hatred and anger to sprout and manifest from within, and rastafarI must uphold the heighest livity in life, and hatred, discrimination, rascism for another man is only ankering you down, so then you would never truly be able to reach the HEIGHEST HEIGHTS,
recognise, if a man is too say he is Rastafari, he must recognise and feel the deepnes of what he is realy saying he is, a mans skin colour does not determin what he can and cant feel,
if a man says he is rastafari, they must overstand that this is HAILE SELASSIE I, Ras-Tafari is the first name of the emporer before he was corrinated, so how can a man truely say he see and is RASTAFARI, if he doesnt recognise and RASpect the king of kings lord of lords conquoring lion selassie I?
i do not wish any badness upon any man for a false claim such as whites canot see rastafari, but i only wish to uplift and uprise this person from the mental and spiritual chains that remain on him, ankerin him down not allowing him to reach the highest livity in life, i only wish to bring forth goodness throught my words deeds and actions, this is why i adress this melody matt, we, as a people, can never fully uprise and break the chains left on us by babylon, if we forever gwarn the way they wont us too, rastafari should not only address your mental and pysicall, but also your spirtual, and if this is truley so, when you meditate on this issue and call on the holy name of RASTAFARI to grant you wisdom too see the truth in the life and how to bring your people forth out of darkness, and into the light, how can this ever be acheieved if all our hatred and judgements of skin colour has not been abandoned?
WE are all MAN and WOMEN in natures womb, father has given us this time and we must grow in all relms, physical mental and spiritual, and our mother nature nurters us as we grow and brings forth exactly what we need to do so,
remember this, we are still growing, and wen father sai the time is rite, we will be truely born….
My Beloved Brethren, InI greatly look forward to meeting you in Zion. Thank you so much for the beautiful righteous statements you have made and may you be blessed by the Most High forever, Shalom Brethren.
instead of false judgments about a mans skin colour being produced, bring forth something that will better the world, not seperate it and divide it
thanks and ises too real rasta, King propet KP, ras james and all other rastaman that are seing sense through the smoke of the destruction babylon brought to us so many years ago, and still are,
we must unite, we must unite
then the love will forevah be strengthened between u and I,
RASTAFARI