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Chapter 3 / Ethiopianism in Jamaica

Ethiopia and Ancient Thought
Ethiopianism and the Black Struggle
Ethiopianism in Jamaica
The birth of the Rastafarian Movement
The Struggle
Rastafarians Turned Maroons
Message from the King of Kings
The First Nyabingi
The Aborted Repatriation
The Rastafarians Get a National Hearing

The emergence of the Rastafarians will remain a puzzle unless seen as a continuation of the concept of Ethiopianism which began in Jamaica as early as the eighteenth century. The enchantment with the land and people of Ethiopia has had a long and interesting history. From biblical writings through Herodotus to the medieval fantasy with the mythic King Prester John right down to our day, Ethyiopia has had a hypnotic influence on history, which has been retained by the imagination of Blacks in Diaspora. Ine the nineteenth century, when the defenders of slavery tried to divest Blacks of every dignity of humanity and civilization, Blacks appealed to the fabled glory of Ethiopia. When confronted by stalwarts of religion, philosophy, and science who sought to falsify history in teh service of Western slavery, black preachers - though for the most part unlearned - discovered in the only book to which they had access (the bible) that Egypt and Ethiopia were in Africa, and that these counties figured very importrantly in the history of civilization. They eveidently read and pondered the meaning of Psalm 68:31 -"Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God" ; and with some reflection they must have read Jeremiah 13:23 - "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" They no doubt figured out that Simon of Cyrene, who helped Christ to bear his cross on the way of the crucifixion, was an African and that the Ethiopian eunuch of the Acts of the Apostles was a man of great authority. Such references to a Black race in the Bible were probably the key to the dynamic mythology which became known as "Ethiopianism" and which energized Black religion in slavery. From South Africa to the Caribbean to North America, the concept of Ethiopianism has remained a part of black religious thought.
Because few writers have connected Ethiopianism with the rise of Rastafaiansism, in this chapter first we will explore the concept of Ethiopia in ancient history; second the concept as used in Black religious reaction to proslavery propaganda; and third, the term as used by Black leaders such as Marcus Garvey, who inspired the Rastafarians. Then we will look at the beginning of the Rastafarians and how they adopted the concept as a model for social transformation in Jamaica.

Ethiopia and Ancient Thought
Rivers of ink have been spilled trying to obscure the identity of the Egyptians and the Ethiopians. This became especially necessary as it grew fashionable to foster a "sociology of knowledge" in the nineteenth century which claimed that Blacks were by nature uncivilized and have remained so throughout written history. At all costs, it became necessary to prove that all areas of highly developed civilization, in which Blacks were numerous, were originated by the White race. If White origin was impossible to prove, it was necessary to de-negrify the blacks in these civilizations by calling the inhabitants White, even if such a description denied acientific objectivity. To "scientifically" prove these notions, nineteenth-century scholars divided the Black race into various categories of skin colour; thus the people of West Africa were true Negroes - based on the melanin in their pigmentation. Under such categories, the people of Egypt and Ethiopia, who were of lighter colour through centuries of miscegenation, were not Negroes but Hamites. Others who were less mixed butt obviously too Black to be called Hamites were deignated Nilotics. Even today, Africa and its people suffer from these confusing racial classifications, though modern scholarship has long since destroyed their credibility.
But who are the Hamites? Today, this question is very controversial and might best be left unanswered. but many black scholars are becoming restless to answer the question and would like to see some new discussion. If the true history of the Black race is to be written, the dogmatic statements of the nineteenth-century scholars need to be challenged. Despite the avoidance of the question and the emotion surrounding it, great emphasis is placed on the mythical origin of the Hamites by fundamentalist Christianity and racist bigots. It is therefore of interest to millions of Blacks that this question be reconsidered.
The first mention of the name Ham occurs in the Christian Bible; here the myth of the origin of human races is recorded and their place of habitation allotted to them. Although learned scholars interpret the myth of total assertion of ancients' minds which gain meaning only through interpretation, naive and unlearned minds believe them to be truths at face value. And they are true to the extent that mythical statements make total assertions of the world in "beginning" time, and even more so when we consider that the book of Genesis is considered by some to be the revelation of God.
Most Hebrew dictionaries agree that "Ham" or "Cham" mean "heat" or "hot" , a designation that fits well into the climatic theory that is supposed to cause blackness. In Hebrew, "Cush" is the word for "Black" and wherever "cushite" is used it refers to people of Black Africa. "Mizraim" is still used in the Near East for Egypt, whose people wer described by the ancient text as Black. "Phut" or Put" is a reverence to Ethiopians. From Bibilica references, then, one may conclude that the Hamites or Cushites were Black and that both Egypt and Ethiopia were inhabited by Cushites or the Black race. One can further conclude that Blacks, contrary to the attempts of Western writers to deny the evidence, were the founders of one of the greatest civilizations history has recorded.
To discuss Ethiopia without discussing Egypt is impossible. The author believes that they were both inhabited by one and the same people. The word "Ethiopia" as we now know it is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word for the Blacks. In Greek, "Ehiop" means "burn" or "black"; when the old testament was translated from Hebrew to Greek, "cush" was changed to "Ethiop". The flowering of Black civilization arose in Nubia on the banks of the Upper Nile and has come down to us as the meroitic civilizatoin, from which both the Egyptians and the Ethiopians drew their cultural dynamics. An early eyewitness of the Egyptians and Ethiopians was Herodotus, according to whom "the natives of the country (Egypt) were black with the heat." On another occasion he states "they are black-sinned and have wooly hair". On comparing a tribe of India with the Ethiopians he said, "they all, also have the same tin of skin which approaches that of the Ethiopians." Numerous sources from ancient history exist which testify to the fact that the Ethiopians and the Egyptians were one and the same people. Both wre of the Black race and the forerunners of one of the wolrd's great civilizations. It amy be argued that the present people of Egypt and Ethiopia do not qualify as Blacks. This cannot be denied, but when Herodotus met the Egyptians in the fifth century b.c. a lot of miscegenation had already taken place. The Persian blood had been added to the stock, followed by the greeks under Alexander, the Romans, and finally the Arabs.
"Nowhere was dionysus more favoured, nowhere was he worshipped more adoringly and more elaboratedly than by the Ptolemies, who recognized his cult as an especially effective means of promoting the assimilation of the conquering Greeks and their fusion with the native Egyptians."
In time, the conquering armies of Eurasia would modify the African stock, but our history of reativity went back ten thousand years before that, and even at this Herodotus was not misled -unlike the writers of history and our modern day anthropologists. Count Constantin de Volney (1747 - 1820) spoke about the race of Egyptians that produced the Pharaohs and later paid tribute to Herodotus' discoery when he said:
..."the ancient Egyptians were true Negoes of the same type as all native-born Africans. That being so, we can see how their blood, mixed for several centuries with that of the Romans and Greeks, must have lost the intensity of its original colour, while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mold. We can even state as a a genral principle that the face (this is the Sphinx) is a kind of monument able, in many cases, to attest or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of the people."
The Egyptian monument depicting the fact that the African race caused Volney to reflect:
"What a subject for meditation... just think tha tthe race of black men, today our slave and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, science, and even the use of our speech."
Needless to say, many scholars later sisputed Volney's observatino. One of these was the brother of the decipherer of the Rosetta Stone, Champollion-figeac, who declared that black skin and wooly hair are not sufficient characteristics to designate a man Black. Since that time, proponents of this kind of doubletalk have come and gone.
But to conclude this short review of the ancients, we must quote Diodorus of Sicily who gave us an important view of the Ethiopians:
"The ethiopians call themselves the first of all men and cite proofs they consider evident. It si generally agreed that born in a country and not having come from eslewhere, they must be judged indigenous. For it is likely that located direclty under the course of the sun, combing with the humidity of the soil, produces life, those sites nearest the Equator must have produced living beings earlier than any others. The Ethiopians also say that they instituted the cults of the Gods, festivals, solemn assembles, sacrifice, in short, all the practices by which we honor the gods. For that reason they are deemed the most religious of all men, and they believe their sacrifices to be the most pleasing to the gods. They claim that the gods have rewarded their piety by important blessings, such as never having been dominated by any foreign Prince. In fact, thanks to the great unity that has always existed among them, they have always kept their freedom."
Here we may obswerve that, even before the findings of modern archeologists, the ancients expressed the belief that humanity originated in Africa and tha tall religion began there. The ancient enchantment with Ethiopia is addictive, but this short discussion must suffice. We have tried to show that Egypt and Ethiopia figured greatly in the building of civilization, and that the earliest and the most creative peoples of this civilization were Black Africans. The testimony of the ancients and many Egyptologists have confirmed that this black civilization, howerver, was uanble to wthstand the barbaric hordes which surrounded the Mediterranean basin. by 814 b.c., with teh Roman vicory over Carthage, the Black civilization lost its power. Therafter, they were oppressed by all races. Oppression by strangers no doubt sparked migration of Blacks south and west from the Nile basin to be regrouped in empires west of Egypt. Meanwhille, Egypt and Ethiopia were to undergo radical change, but despite the vicissitudes of history, they remain a part of Africa. Although there have been various attempts to Europeanize these people, Blacks all over the world still find the origins of their ancestral creativity in these two great civilization in history, in Black tradition, the word "Ethiopia" has come to designate all of Africa including Egypt.

Ethiopianism and the Black Struggle
It is now impossible to know with certainty when Ethiopianism emerged in Americn Black religion. but is is certain that all American Blacks knew themselves as Africans before and after the emancipation. Thus, when the first Black churches began to emerge in the ante-bellum period, almost all placed their nationality ahead of the various denominations with which they became afiliated. The first Baptist church organized by Blacks in the South was named the first African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia (1788). This appellation became the norm throughtout the United States, whatever the denomination. The Blacks in America saw themselves as a nation entirely separate form other Americans until long after emancipation.
By the time of the emergence of the Black churches, Africa (as geographical entity) was jsut about obliterated from their minds. Their only vision of a homeland was the biblical Ethiopia.It was the vision of a golden past - and the promise that Ethiopia should once more stretch forth its hands to God - that revitalized the hope of an oppressed people. Ethiopia to teh Blacks in America was like Zion or Jerusalem to the Jews. It began to take on an eschatological dimension. As the Black churches developed in America, the spirit of missonis developed. This course was part and parcel of the denomination to which they belonged, but for the Black church, the mission grew increasingly concerend with the Blacks in the New World, of which Haiti was the first, and Africa the second and more important.
As a result of the missionary outreach, Ethiopianism began to take on more realistic dimension. Pioneered by the Rev. Edward Wilmot Blyden, who was sent to Liberia as a missionary by the American Colonization Society, the new dimension began to take shape. His wide training gave him a grasp of African culture far beyond that of his contemporaries. He saw the Pan-African dimension of the Black race worldwide, and began to structure it in a series of books and articles. The eyes of Blacks in both America and Africa began to open. For a knowledge of Africa he went to the classical sources of the Greeks, the Romans, and the Arabs where he discovered that Africa was not the barbaric, inferior culture projected by ewhites, but the founder of all civilizations. From Ethiopia the Blacks had penetrated the desert westward to find the great West African civilization and it was from these great civilizations of the west that slaves were taken in the sixteenth century to the New World. Although a Christian missionary, Blyden believed that Christianity was a destroyer of the dignity of Blacks. He even advocated Islam as a better religion fr the Africans.
Ethiopianism did not take on any really revolutionary dimension in teh United States. It merely existed as a mild ideology, foreceful but unstructured. Then, toward the close of the nineteenth century this ideology assmed a revolutionary aspect in Africa and carved out a new Ethioppian church movement from the missionary churches. This reaction ot missionary Christianity was a direct rejection of the European orientation of Chirstianity and a search for an African Chirstianity which would more adequatley answer the needs and aspiration of their people. This Ethiopian ideology set off a tidal wave of independent movements in Africa. The last estimate of these movements amounted to six thousands different schisms.

Ethiopianism in Jamaica
Long before Ethiopianism came to America, the term had been adopted in Jamaica by George Liele, the American Baptist slave preacher who founded th efirst Baptist church in the island in 1784 - which he named the Ethiopian Baptist Church. This church (discussed in Chapter 2) grafted itself onto the African religion of Jamaican slaves and developed outside of the Christian missions, esxhibiting a prue native flavor. It has continued to do so under various names and is still the church the most acceptable to the masses because it was the religious expression most suitable for the political and social aspirations of the slaves. From it came the grassroots resistance to oppression.
But the movement that was to embody the Ethiopian ideology par excellence was the Back-to-Africa Movement of Marcus Garvey. It was in Garvey - the prophet of Arican redemption - that the spirit of Ethiopianism came into full blossom. Through his writings and speeches, the glory of Ethiopia-africa became the glory of things to come. We must look at some of his most inspired words. Speaking on the image of God, he wrote:
"We, as Negroes, have found a new ideal. Whilst our God has no colour, yet it is human to see everything through one's own spectacles, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own sspectacles. The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob let him exist for the race that believe in the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. We Negoes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God - God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the oneGod of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship him through the spectacles of Ethiopia."
From this statement by Garvey most Black God movements have drawn their roigin. Among these are the Church of the Black Madonna in Detroit, the Black Muslims of America, and the Rastafarians.
Marcus Garvey was bold and virulent about the defense of African history. He, like Blyden, saw African civilization as anterior to all others, and he seemed to have been well versed in the ancient references to Ethiopia. In one of his strongest speeches he asserted:
"But ehen we come to consider the hisotry of man, was not the Negro a power, was he not great once? Yet, honest students of history can recall the day when Egypt, Ethiopia and Timbuctoo towered in their civilization, twered above Europe, towered above Asia. When Europe was inhabited by a race of Cannibals, a race of savages, naked men, heathens and pagans, Africa was peopled with a race of cultured black men, who were cultured and refined, men who, it is said, were like gods".
Marcus Garvey returned to the theme of the superiority of the ancient Black race time and again. There was no equivocation in his belief about the dignity of the Black race; this dignity was only to be ignited for the Blacks to assume the true leadership of the world as they had in times past. He realized that the Western world was so demoralized that there was no need to appeal to its conscience.
When reflecting on the nature of twentieth-century man, Garvey stated:
"as by the action of the world, as by the conduct of all the races and nations it is apparent that not one of them has the sense of justice, the sence of love, the sense of equity, the sense of charity, that would make men happy, and God satisfied. It is apparent that it is left to the Negro to play such a part in human affairs - for when we look at the Anglo-Saxon we see him full of greed, avarice, no mercy, no love, no charity. We go from the white man to the yellow man, and see the same unenviable characteristics in the Japanese. Therefore we must believe that the Psalmist had great hopes of this race of ours when he prophesied "Princes shall come out of Egypt and Ethiopia shall stretch forth his hands unto God".
The importance of this verse of Psalm 68 cannot be overestimated. It was the theme of the Garvey movement and has remained the most quoted text in th Rastafarian movement. The style and ardor of Garvey's speeches and writings were those of a prophet of Israel. His clarity of speech and his reiteration techniques were such theat he could bring the spirit of an odience to boil. No wonder he became the inspirer of such men like Kwame Nkumah of Ghana and numerous other African leaders.
The messianic dimension of Garvey's movement has not only a revolutionary thrust, but indeed a high ethical force. His movement was disigned to restructure a fallen race and, like a prophet, he was impatient for its accomplishment. In his address Who and What is a Negro?, we can feel this impatience:
"The power and sway we once held passed away, but now in the twentieth century we are about to see the return of it in the rebuilding of Africa; yes, a new civilization, a new culture, shall spring up from among our people, and the Nile shall once more flow through the land of science, of art, and of literature, wherein will live blackmen of the hightest learning and the highest accomplishments."
Here is the language of a prophet. Notice the reference to the Nile. No accuracy of geography exists here; the emphasis is on racial uplift, not scientific precision. Garvey never visited Africa. His knowledge of the continent was biblically oriented. Despite this, his followers both in the New World and in Africa perceived the meaning of his message. The fulfillment of this quotation in our day cannot be denied. The movement he organized was known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association. In a speech delivered in Madison Square Garden in New York, March 16, 1942, he described the movement in these words:
"The Universal Negro Improvement Association represents the hopes and and aspirations of the awakened Negro. Our desire is for a place in the world, not to disturb the tranquility of other men, but to lay down our burden and rest our weary backs and feet by the banks of the Niger and sing our songs and chant our hymns to the God of Ethiopia."
Here again we find the Ethiopian theme: not heaven with its rivers of milk and honey, but by the banks of the Niger. Here the Niger replaces the Nile, but that makes no difference. The songs and chants shall be sund to the God of Ethiopia. In this smae vein we shall be able to understand the ideology of the Rastafarians who also use the term Ethiopia in what seems to be a contradiction. This is religious language - a language aimed at inspiration, not information.
In Marcus Garvey, Ethiopianism reached its highest development. From ideology, it became a movement. In this movement Ethiopianism was a lived experience. Its leader was named the Provisional President of Africa. The god worshipped was the God of Ethiopia, and all structures and orientation were aimed toward African redemption. Finally, even the national anthem of the Garvey movement - which has been adopted by the Rastafarians - expresses the mythic dimension of this ideology in military fervor. Ine the Fortieth Article of the "Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World" (adopted in New York in 1920), one can find the original anthem in the following reference and context:
"Resolved, that the anthem "Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers' etc. shall be the anthem of the Negro Race." Entitled "The Universal Ethiopian Anthem," it was based on a poem by Burrel and Ford. The words are as follows:
Ethiopia, thou land of our fathers,
Thou land where the Gods loved to be,
As the storm cloud at night suddenly gathers
Our armies come rushing to thee.
We must in the fight be victorious
When swords are thrust outward to gleam;
For us will tghe victory be glorious
When led by the red, black and green
Chorus:
Advance, advance to victory,
Let Africa be free'
Advance to meet the foe
with the might
of the red, the black and green

Ethiopia, the tyrants falling,
Who smote thee upon thy knees,
And thy children are lusty calling
From over the disitant seas,
Jehovah, the great one has heard us,
Has noted our sighs and our tears,
With his spirit of Love he has stirred us
To be one though the comint years.

Leaving the history of Marcus Garvey, we move to a discussoin on the emergence of the Rastafarian movement in which the ideology and inspiratoin of Garvey have been retained as in no other organization, and where Ethiopianism has now become a full-fledged doctinal base of the movement. This recognition prompted the Ethiopian Orthodox church to establish a mission in Jamaica in 1968 (more on this topic in Chapter 7)

The birth of the Rastafarian Movement
When Marcus Garvey left Jamaica for the Unaited Staes in 1916, his followers in Jamaica fell into disarray. Although the movement continued to exist with local leadership, no one could fill his void. Particularly due to eth headstrong nature of the Jamaican personality, the movement needed a strong charismatic leader. Ine the course of time, many small movements prefessing to be Garveyites emerged. This situatoin existed until 1930 when Ras Tafari, great grandson of King Saheka Selassie of Shoa, was crowned Negus of Ethiopia. He took the name Haile Selassie (Might of the Trinity_), to which was added "King of Kings" and the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah," placing himself in the legendary line of King Lolomon. His coronatoin in St. George's Cathedral, Addis Ababa, in November of that year brought representatives of all the great powers as well as journalists and correspeondents from every part of the world. The crowning of a young Ethiopian king, with this Biblical title, together with the pomp and grandeur of the fabled empire, was more than a secular occasion. For the people of Marcus Garvey's leaning, this came as a revelation from God. In Jamaica, an almost forgotten statement of Garvey who, on the eve of his departure to the United States was supposed to have said "Look to Africa for the crowning of a Black King; he shall be the Redeemer," came achoing like the voice of God. Possessed by the spirit of this new development, many Jamaicans now saw the coronation as a fulfillment of Biblical prophesy and Haile Selassie as the Messiah of African redemption.
Among those who took this crowning seriously were Leonard Howell, Joseph Hibbert, Archibald Dunkley, and Robert Hinds. All four may have been original Garveyites and at least three of them had traveled outside of Jamaica. It could be expected that they had become acquainted with other cultures, witnessed social and economic developments of other countries and, as a result, most likely had reasons for b ecoming frustrated with the colonial stranglehold which existed in Jamaica.
We have very little information on the history of these men. Had they not figured so prominently in the founding of the Rastafarian movement, no one would have heard about them. In a monograph written by three university professors in 1960, we learned that Leonard Howell was a world traveler who had served in the Ashanti war of 1896 and during that time had learned several African languages. He also visited the United States where he encountered severe racial discrimination. Finally, sometime before 1930, he returned to Jamaica. Joseph N. Hibbert was born in 1894. At age 17 he migrated to Costa Rica where he lived for twenty yhears. While in Costa Rica he became a member of the Ancient Order of Ethiopia, a Mesonic Lodge, and returned to Jamaica in 1931. We do not have the early history of the tow other members of this quratet. All four were ministers and founders of separate groups claiming to have received the revelation that the newly crowned King of Ethiopia was the Messiah of Black people.
Leonard Howell - later to to become the leading figure in the early development of the movement - began his ministry in the dilapidated slums in West Kingston where he immediately developed a following. Hibbert stated his mission in St. Andrew, in a district called Benoah, but later moved to Kingston where he found Howell expounding the same doctrine; Robert Hinds was his deputy. Archibald Dunkley, a seaman employed by the United Fruit Company, started his mission in Port Antonio and later came to Kingston as a minister. It was in Kingston, then, that the movement had its period of incubation, and from this point of inception that the movement gradually spread throughout the island. Recruiting members from the various splintered cells of old Garveyites, i appeared by 1934 that under the leadership of Howell, Dunkley, and Hinds a solid nucleus of Rastafarians had been established in Kingston.
No one knows how the name "Ras Tafari" was adopted over the title "Haile Selassie." The name "Ras" in Amharic is the title given to Ethiopian royalties, comparable to the English title "Duke". Tafari is the family name of the King. Whatever the reason, this name has become not only a holy appellation and a ritual invocation but also the name of the movement itself. The name "Rastafarians" is a Jamaican rendering of "Ras Tafari" and is the name given to the members of the movement. The name "Haile Selassie" is used mostly in prayers and songs. The other name reverenced in the movement is "Jah", used frequently in the combination "Jah-Ras-Tafari". The Jah seems to be the shortened version of the Biblicl "Jehovah" which does appear in their prayer.
The inception of the movement is grounded in some key verses of the Old and New Testament. First and probably most convincing of these is Revalation 5:2-5:
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals therof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, .. was able to open the book, neither to look thereon... And one of hte elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, to Roots of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof."
A collaborating scriptural revelation is also found in Revelation 19:16 - "And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS" to these Jamaican seers the similarity of these verses to the title of the newly crowned King was far from mere coincidence. The titles of ther King as found in the Bible were God's revelation to the religious mind. therefore they searched the scriptures to find more assurances of their new revelation. To their surprise more and more verses seemed to answer their questions. In Psalm 68:4, they found one of the ritual names: "sing unto God, sing praises unto his name: extol him that rideth upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him."
In the eprophesy of Daniel they believed to have established not only the longevity of the Ethiopian Kingship, but also the colour of the King. In Daniel 7:9,
"And I beheld till the thrones were cast down and the ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire."
in this verse, the Rastafarian exegetes find not only that the King was of the Black race (compare herodotus' description of the Negroes), but that fire is synonymous with blackness. Many more scriptures pertaining to the rastafarian beliefs will be discussed in the chapter on their beliefs and practices in order to undrstand Jamaican religious philosophy. The doctrine does not matter; so long as the preacher can document it with the scriptural text, the truth of the doctrine is "sealed and signed".
It is necessary to understand that movement of this type are not interested in empirical truths, but rather in the certitude of the doctrine. That is, if it fulfills an emotional need it can succeed. In this case the inception of Rastafarianism came, as the scripture would say, "at the fullness of time". Jamaica in 1930 was at low tide economically and socially. Socially, people experienced the brunt of the Depression as well as disaster due to a devastating hurricane. Politically, colonialism gripped the country and the future of the masses looked hopeless. Any doctrine that promised a better hope and a better day was ripe for a hearing.
Armed with this situation and possessed by a new messianic message, leonard Howell and his men set out to make the "crooked path straight and the rough places of Ethiopia, of whom Marcus Garvey spoke, had appeared in the flesh, and al who needed redemption could now receive it from the most powerful ruler on earth before whom all kings had bowed. Black people throughout the world needed only to call on his name and hte Lion of Judah would break all chains. Armed with this unique power, early Rastafarian leaders set out to preach the glad tidings. But this new wave of enthusiasm was not to be overlooked by his majesty's representatives in Jamaica, and the spread of Rastafarianism was soon to run contrary ot the "Law and Order Code of the British Empire".

The Struggle
The incubatoin period of the movement occured in the slums of Kingston between 1930 and 1933. Satisfied with the success of the new movement and having set up a nucleus in the capitol, Howell decided to evangelize its members throuhgout the island. To finance his project, he is reported to have made photographs of the newly crowned King Haile Selassie, and sold them at a shilling each as passports to Ethiopia. Sources say he sold five thousand copies in a very short time. His most successful are was St. Thomas, the neighboring parish to Kingston. This had been the scene of the 1865 Morant Bay Rebellion, thus a ripe area for revolutionary doctrine. On Januray 5, 1934, the Daily Gleaner of Jamaica reported the arrest of Leanoard Howell in St. Thomas, for it was reported that the movement had taken a radical revolutionary standce. The arrest resulted from on an open-air meeting held in the village of Trinityville, St. Thomas, on December 16, 1933. At that time Howell had acvocated six principles: 1, hatred for the White race, 2, the complete superiority of the Black race, 3, revenge on Whites for their wickedness, 4, the negation, persecution and humiliation of the government and legal bodies of Jamaica, 5, preparation to go back to Africa, and 6, acknowledging Emperor Haile Selassie as the Supreme Being and only ruler of Black people. This first glimpse of the new doctrine that launched th eRastafarian movement has not changed significantly over the years. Needless to say, Howell's conviction for seditious activities followed and the Rastafarians received their first island publicity.
The daily Gleaner reported that crowds of people gathered in Court House Square at Morant Bay for a glimpse of the alleged seditionist and their followers charged with less serious offenses. Among the charged were Robert Hinds, and Leonard Howell. Howell, who was reported to be the representative of Ras Tafari, King of the Ethiopians on the island, was charged with uttering a seditious speech in which he abused the government of both Great Britain and the island. He intended to excite hatred and contempt for His Majesty the King and those responsible for the government of the island, to create dissatisfaction among the suject of His Majesty, and for disturbing the public peace and tranquility. Howell pleaded not guilty, but the jury wasted very little time in reaching a guilty verdict. The case was tried before the Acting Resident Magistrate for the parish of St. Thomas, Ansel O. Thompson. The magistrate called Howell a fraud and sentenced him to two years imprisonment; Hinds, his deputy, was given a sentence of one year. The government, sensing that a new and dangerous movement was beginning, quickly arrested Archibald Dunkley and Joseph Hibbert, the other two founders of the movement. With the sudden arrest and imprisonment of the leaders of the Rastafarians, both the government and the concerned citizens of the island suspected that they had silenced the potential seeds of violence in His Majesty's domain. but, to the cultists, the setback was temporary. Trusted lieutenants assumed that activities of the movement and matters continued in secret.
Following the release of Howell and Hinds from prison, Howell organized what was known as the "Ethiopian Salvation Society" and quietly recruited a large following and by the year 1940 he was the leader of a cult commune deep in the hills of St. Catherine overlooking hte city of Kingston.

Rastafarians Turned Maroons
In his continued effort to avoid the harassment of the police, Howell headed for the privacy of the hills and, like his maroon ancestors, either purchased or captured a piece of the hill country near sligoville (about twenty miles from Kingston). The name of the commune was Pinnacle. Followers were estimated to number from five hundred to as many as sixteen hundred. The entrance was known only to members and could be accessed only by foot, at great hazard. Live in the commune was strictly patterned after the Maroon communities of Jamaica. Howell served as chief (African style), and was reported to have taken thirteen wives for himself. For a living, they planted native cash crops, among them the famous ganja (marijuana) herb that has remained the center of th emovement's ritual practice. This early phase of Rastafarian wilderness life was redely destroyed when neighbors in the community, harassed by the cultists who demanded that taxes should not be paid to the Jamaican government but to them in the name of Haile Selassie, tipped the police to their existance. About juli 1941, police raided the commune and arrested seventy Rastas, charging them for acts of violence and for the cultivation of a dangerous drug. Twenty-eight Rastsas were sent to prison, but Howell, their leader, evaded the police - a feat which was considered miraculous and enhanced his power, but he was finally apprehended and sent to prison for another two-year term.
As with a dedicated prophet, opposition to Howell merely reinforced dedication; in 1953, news reached the public that Pinnacle was again in operation with little change, except for greater security. In this second phase of Pinnacle, the male members began to grow their hair and locks - a custom that distinguishes the Rastaman to the present. They were called "locksmen", now known as "dreadlocks" or "natty-dread", but in their early period, they wre known as Ethiopian warriors. Ferocious dogs were used for security. To enter the commune one made one's presence known by sounding a gong at the gate.
However, success evaded this second phase of the Pinnacle as it had the first. Early in 1954, the police again raided the cultists and 163 members were arrested. Howell and his lieutenants were also apprehended and tried, but by this time the government had become tired of sending them to prison. The judge acquitted them as nuisances - but the Pinnacle experience did not end here. The commune was destroyed by the police who then turned the members and their leaders loose inthe slums of Kingston. The long struggle with the police seemed to have taken its toll on Howell, by now advanced in age. Impressed by his powers or because of senility, he began to claim divinity for himself. With that claim, his followers deserted him nd it is said that in 1960 he was committed to the Kingston Mental Hospital. Howell was later released from the hospital and died in 1981 in the parish of Saint Andrew.
The Pinnacle commune is an important phase of the early development of the Rastafarians because it established several facets of the movement. It began a communal pattern of living which has continued among a large segment of the cultists. (Today, an example of the Pinnacle experience is being carried out in the group headed by Prince Edward in St. Thomas.) The use of ganja may have been adopted as a ritual practice in the hills where it was easily grown in abundance and the freedom to indulge was unimpeded. Pinnacle, then, was the wilderness experience which became the "bridge-bruning act", solidifying the movement around certain rites and practices wth which they are now identified. The university team of professors who made a report on the movement in 1960 said of Pinnacle:
"by all accounts, Pinnacle seemed to have been rather more like an old maroon settlement than a part of Jamaica. Its internal administration was Howell's business, not Government's. It is therefore understandable that the unit could have persisted as a state within a state for several years without the people or the government of Jamaica being aware of it."
With the destruction of Pinnacle, the followers of Howell returned to Kingston to settle in that part of the town where the disposessed of the city always found a place where they could feel at home. The area was then known as "Back-O-Wall" or "Shanty-Town" (the descriptoins of which are given in Chapter one). Here the most industrious began a new life in what the Kingstonians called "skuffing", which means making the best of life by any means possible. Among the displaced were the semiskilled who earned their livelihood by making brooms (an occupation still carried on by some cultists), cutting and selling wood, fruits and fish - any occupation to keep life going. But the lieutenants of Howell did not sit idly by; many took to the sidewalks and began to harangue the passers-by about their social conditions, spreasding the glad tidings of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who could bring a better day.
The period between the destruction of Pinnacle and 1959 was one of regrouping. It was a time of intense hatred for the establishment and especially for the police. The name Babylon was now given to the establishment, and Rastafarians with their dreadlocks roamed the street like madmen calling down fire and brimstone on Babylon, using the most profane language to shock the conservative establishment. Their wild behavior attracted large audiences and their Rastafarian rhetoric of defiance made their presence felt in Kingston. Although many were shocked by their appearance and behavior, hundreds of the dispossessed began to receive their message and soon several small camps had sprouted in Shanty-Town.

A Message from the King of Kings
New impetus was injected into the early development of the movement in Jamaica through the Ethiopian World Federation, Inc., of New York, establised in 1937 as a lobbying organization to solicit aid and goodwill for Ethiopian struggles against Italian colonialism. It was said to have been organized under the direct authority of Haile Selassie. As early as 1938, a branch of this organization was established in Jamaica. The aim of the EWF, as its preamble proclaimed, was to unify, solidify, liberate, and free the Black people of the world in order to achieve self-determination, justice, and to maintain the integrity of Ethiopia - which is the divine heritage of the Black race. We do not know whether the Rastafarian leaders knew of this movement, but it is quite possible that Howell might have been connected with it and that his Pinnacle enterprise (the Ethiopian Salvation Society) might have been aided by this movement. Our sources suggest that the success of the Jamaican EWF led to many schisms, each claiming to be the true organization. To this day, the Rastafairans are in close touch with the EWF group, sometimes combining efforts in their enterprises.
The great impetus came in 1955, when a leading official of the Ethiopian World Federation, Inc., visited Jamaica with an important message which was to energize the flagging Rastafarian movement. The Daily Gleaner of September 30, 1955, headlined the event as "Large Audience Hears Message from Ethiopia." Among the statements is the following attributed to Mrs. Mamie Richardson:
"The Emperor (Haile Selassie) is now engaged in building up a Merchant Navy... and the time was not far distant when ships from Addis Ababa would sail to American posts. There was the possibility too that ships would one day call here (Jamaica)".
But better news was just around the bend for the Rastafarians - news that was to develop their doctrine of inevitalbe repatriation. Soon after Mrs. Richardson's return to New York, the Ethiopian World Federation of that city informed the various branches in Jamaica that the Emperor had granted 500 acres of land ot hte Black people of the West who, through the EWF, aided Ethiopia in its time to distress. The rich and fertile land was the personal property of the Emperor and was being given on a trial basis. If used successfully, additional grants would follow. The letter stipulated the types of people who would best profit from the land grant were farmers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, electicians, and other skilled persons including nurses and doctors. The vision of ships and now land in Ethiopia created what might literally be called a religious revival among the Rastafarians. "Repatriation now!" was the cry of cultists. With the news of imminent repatriation in Ethiopia in His Majesty's ships an with royal lands awayting the pilgrims, recruitment for both the Ethiopian World Federation and Rastafairans was easy. The movement double its memberships almost overnight. This news of an African return came at the time when thousands of Jamaicans were leavving to seek a living in Great Britain, a land which for them was starnge, cold, and unknown. At this time the Rastafarians developed the phrase, "Ethiopia! Yes! England! No! Let my people go!"
All the ingredients for our framework have now fallen into place. Therefore, at this point, we should reflect on the early stages of the movement because -from this point on - the movement and its beliefs and rituals will only become more firmly routinized in the society. We have seen that Jamaica has never rid itself of social upheavals, most of which were occasioned by dipossessed groups at the fingers of established society. Whereas in the earlier days, upheavals were caused by the religious dynamics of the Native Baptist church, the dynamics of the present day are a revival of the same, only in this case the fuel comes from a newly awakened doctrine - Ethiopianism. the new movement also reinforces the theory that it is in the religious teaching which exists outsie the established churches that political pressures are brought on behalf of social change.
The dynamics of movements of social transformation may come from various incidents which, to established segments of society seem purely secular, but to the dispossessed, who often perceive events in supernatural perspectives, may seem cues for actions of redemption. thus the founders of the Rastafarian movement accepted the crowning of Haile Selassie as an important sigh toward the day of redemption. Seemingly secular events in world history became sighs for the masses. The embodiment of this even as an ideology for social upliftment was poweful enough to generate a sudden wave of opposition and a vigourous reaction from the establishment. but this opposition and reaction also brought valuable publicity to the movmement, which in turn yielded a following. The leaders of revolutionary movements are generally the first to meet the brunt of the establishment's reaction, but the success of revolutionary movements is made on the blood of martyrs; in the case of the Rastafarians, Howell, although now almost forgotten, was the real hero of the establishement of Rastafarianism. Th eharassment of Howell by the police might have been the reason why Rastafarians, since the destruction of Pinnacle, have decided to remain leaderless - a decision which has strengthen the momement. The abortive attempt of Claudiur Henry, which we shall discuss shortly, probably sealed this decision. The sustained activity of the police against the culstists after Pinnacle was to create a boldness in the cultists which finallyled to serious reactions. Instead of a flight to the mountains, they now decided to stand up and fight.

The First Nyabingi
The growing popularity of the Rastafarians in the city of Kingston and elsewhere in the island suggested to some of the leading brethren that it was now time to assess thier strength and, if possible, to seek to unify the various cells and camps into an organized whole. This decision led to what the Jamaican news media called a convention, but it was known to the Rastafarians as Grounation: today it is called Nyabingi. The Rastafarians "Universal Convention" took place in March of 1958. The gathering of the "bearded brethren" was unprecedented and an equally unprecedented outpouring of Rastafairan effervescence emerged under the influence of the herb, because they soon attracted attention of the press which gave sensational coverage to their activities. The Jamaican evening paper first reported this meeting as follows:
"for the first time in local history members of the Rastafari Cult are having what they call a "Universal Convention" at their headquartes known as the Coptic Theocratic Temple in Kingston Pen. Some 300 cultists of both sexes from all over the island have assembled at Black-O-Wall headquarters since Saturday, March 1. The convention is scheduled to last until April 1. The convention was said to be "the first and the last" in that they were expected to migrato to Africa their homeland."
This convention not only revealed to the public some of the little known rituals of the Rastafarians; it also gave them much publicity. The meetings consisted of drumming, dancing, and smoking the herb around a bonfire of old car tires which gave the otherwise drab living condition of Back-O-Wall a festive air. The press reported that with this festive air came a greater amount of abusive language directed at the police, and that one of the items on the list of their agenda was the decapitation of a police officer as a peace offering. Except for routine surveillance by the police, the government paid very little attention to the Rastafarian assembly. But as the days went by, the headlines became more lurid, and police vigilance was increased. Failing to provoke a confrontation with the police, which some cultists might have expected to do for strategic reasons, more militant Rastas tried to capture the city of Kingston in the name of Haile Selassie. The Star of March 24, 1958, reported this incident as follows:
"the city of Kingston was "captured" near dawn on Saturday by some 300 bearded men of the Rastafarian cult along with their women and children. About 3:30 a.m. early market-goers saw members of the Rastafarian momement gathered in the center of Victoria Park, with towering poles, atop of which, fluttered black, geen and red banners, and loudly proclaimed that they had captured the city... When the police moved toward them, a leader of the group with his hands raised issued a warning to the police:"touch not the Lord's anointed" ... The police finally moved them."
This new militancy of the cult was to continue during this period, including many clashes with the police. Later in that same year, they attempted to capture Old King's House of Spanish Town in the name of Negus, the King of Ethiopia. The government's reaction was immediate. Under the Jamaican Dangerous Drug Law, cultists were arrested for the possession and use of Janja, and were subject to search and various harrassements, such as shaving their head and beards. The 1958 convention gave the cultists both positive an negative publicity in the eyes of the government and the public, but out of this convention was to come a most alarming incident. More on that shortly.
Following the convention, many voices were raised among both the intellectuals and the middle-class community, beseeching the government to take a realistic look at the grievences of the common people. A sociologist from the University of West Indies wrote: "The aspirations of a social group are not to be disregarded by an attitude of angry contempt for its personal and private habits.... For in the long run the type of Prince Emanuel (a Rstafarian leader) may have more to do with the West Indian future than the rype of Lord Hailes", the then Governor General of the aborted West Indian Federation. Another columnist of the Daily Gleaner wrote: "If the problem of the Rastas is not faced now, it is liable to get so big that no one can deal with it and it then becomes, perhaps very unpleasantly, your and mine and the ministers".
The reference to Pince Emanuel by the university professor enables us to introduce two figueres who loom quite large in the unfolding of the Rastafarian story: Prince Edward Emanuel and Reverend Claudius Henry. It was under the suspices and leadership of Prince Emanuel that the 1958 convention was called. One of hte oldest Rastafarian leaders since the days of Leonard Howell, the Prince's leadership is still the strongest and his group the most organised on the island. It was his invitation that brought the Reverend Claudius Henry, the mastermind of the abortive repatriation scheme, to Jamaica to visit teh 1958 convention. The Prince, as he is called by his followers, had been one of the most prominent Rastafarian leaders of Back-O-Wall since 1953, and has been in almost every confrontation with the government on behalf of African repatriation. In an interview he reported that he appeared on earth in the Parish of St. Elizabeth in 1915, and like Melchizedek, is without father or mother; he came to Kingston on 1930, and was fortunate enough to see Marcus Garvey. When I met him in 1963, he was still residing in Back-O-Wall with his members. The Prince is the picture of an Ethiopian patriarch - six foot four inches tall and now sixty two years old.
The reference to the Prince by the university professor was occasioned by the severe harassement he received following the 1958 convention. In that year, his camp was raided by the police who arrested him and burned his settlement to the ground. His trial was highly publicized in the city mainly because of the fame of his lawyer, Barister Evans, who was said to have defended members of the Mau Mau movement in Kenya. Prince Edward and his men were finally released - a great victory to the Rastafarian cause. The Prince remained at his camp at Back-O-Wall until 1966, when the government carried out a "scrape-the-earth campaingh" and drove the various Rastafarians groups from that part of the city.

The Aborted Repatriation
All urgings for the governement to face the Rastafarian problem before it was too late were indeed prophetic. In 1959, the problem became very unpleasant not only for the average Jamaican citizen, but also for the government ministers. The aftermath of it was to lead to a national emergency. The actor in this drama was Claudius Henry, who gave himself the title, "The Repairer of the Breach". According to Prince Edward Emanuel, Claudius Henry was a Jamaican who lived for some time in New York City, and who was in Jamaica during the 1958 convention on the Prince's invitation. Other sources said Henry was a member of the Ethiopian World Federation, and on his return was connected to that movement in Jamaica, but resigned because of differences in leadership. No evidence exists that the Reverend Henry was ever a member of the Rastafarian movement. In 1959, he founded an organization called the African Reformed Church in the western part of Kingston, where he attracted a heterogenous membership of many former Rastafarians. He seemed to possess dynamic leadership ability, for he was soon able to take control of a large segment of the Rasta movement, Setting himself up as the "Moses of the Blacks", who would lead then to the Promised Land.
The drama began when he distributed thousands of cards bearing the following statement:
"Pioneering Israel's scattered children of African Origin "back home to Africa". This year 1959, deadline date - Oct. 5th. this new government is God's Righteous Kingdom of Everlasting Peace on Earth. "Creations Second Birth." Holder of this Certificate is requested to visit the Headquarters at 18 Rosalie Avenue... August 1st 1959, for our Emancipation Jubilee, commencing 9 A.M. sharp. Please reserve this Certificate for removal. No passport will be necessary for those returning to Africa, etc. We sincerely, "The Seventh Emanuel's Brethren" gathering Israel's scattered and anointed prophet, Rev C.V. Henry, R.B.
Given this 2nd day of March 1959, in the year of the reign of His Imperial Majesty, 1st Emperor of Ethiopia, "God's Elect" Haile Selassie, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Israel's Returned Messiah."
Sold at a shilling each, many hundreds of these cards were acquired by the hopeful masses. The symols contained in it could not fail to appeal to various sect and cult members. It was tailorred to appeal to a wide audience. first, the card aimed at a segement of people accustomed to celebrate the emancipation of slavery on August 1st each year - a custom recently discontinued on the island. Second, the word "Israel" would not fail to bring a segment of Jamaicans who claimed to be Black Jews; and the imminent repatriation themes were sure to draw hundreds of Rastafarians adn EWF members. The selling of the cards for a shilling each recalled the similar incident with Leonard Howell in St. Thomas. It seems that the jubilee celebration was to be a briefing for the day of repatriation - October 5. Apparently, thousands of Rastafarians and other hopeful Jamaicans believed that annoucement of the "Repairer of the Breach" and swarmed to his banners.
On October 5, 1959, people from all over jamaica flocked to Rosalie Avenue ready to depart to Africa. The Daily Gleaner carried the following report:
"Hundreds of Rastafarians gathered at Headquarters of the Africn Reformed Church, 78 Rosalie Avenue, following the report that members of the cult wished to join the Back-to-Africa movement would leave the island by ship yesterday. No ships or plane had come for them, no passport arranged, nor passages booked but they were going to Africa. the culstists who came from all parts of the Island, started arriving at Rosalie Avenue from Sunday afternoon and up to yesterday afternoon were still trickling in taxicabs, trucks, and afoot. Some with their belongings said that they were ready to leave for the trip. It was learned that many of them especially from the country parts, had solf out their belongings and were planning to leave fro Africa yesterday. Many more were expected to arrive expecially from Montego Bay area last night"
The Reverend Henry now found himself in a very large "ditch" indeed. With thousands ready to depart, the atmosphere was charged with expectation similar to that experienced at Mona near the present university when Bedward of the native Baptist church gathered his followers to ascend to heaven in December, 1921. At the appointed hour of the ascension, the liftoff was put forward a day, and then another day, until the Prophet finally landed in the Kingston jail. The same fate was soon to befall the Reverand Henry.
A representative from the Daily Gleaner visited Henry, who painfully explained that the October 5 deadline had never been intended as the day of a departure for Africa, but the day on which he expected the government to explain how it would meet the demands of Jamaica's African peoples. Here may be seen a classic example of what is known, in social movement theory as "revolutionary judo," that is, the contradiction between symbolic declaration and real intention. Much of what is said by leadres of revolutionary movements is mostly "word magic" to jolt the society out of its complacency. But someitmes true believers do not understand parables, and in this case irresponsible pronouncements created a fiasco. The Gaily Gleaner of October 7, 1959, reported:
"Hundreds with no place to go lingered at 78 Rosalie Avenue; among these were women and children. Many from Kingston and St. Andrew, and St. Mary left for their homes, but others were ashamed to go home because they had sold their houses and lands. They lingered on the premises until they could stay no longer".
the excitement created by this Henry fiasco was given little attention by the government for many days. Several days after the aborted repatriation scheme, Henry was finally arrested but the court freed him and ordered him to keep the peace for one year with a fine of 100 Pounds, a very lenient sentence compared with the suffering his irresponsible acts had cost his faithful followers. But this was not to be the end. Crushed in pride and possibly misjudging the government leniency toward him , Henry became increasingly hostile to the government. His previously religious stance became radically revolutionary and militant. News began to leak to the police that Henry was planning a military takeover of the island. Ridiculous as the information seemed, the police decided it best to investigate. What they found was close to the gossip for, early in April, the Jamaican Gleaner carried the following story:
"PASTOR AND NINE OTHERS ARRESTED
A police raiding party in an early morning raid yesterday seized over 2,500 electrical detonators, 1,300 detonators, a shotgun, a 32 caliber revolver, a large quantity of machetes sharpened both sides like swords, placed in sheats, cartridges, several sticks of dynamite and other articles at headquarters of the African Reformed Church, 78 Rosalie Avenue."
The other arciles were discovered to be conch shells filled with marijurana. Other raids were carried out at Clarendon where the movement had branches. The author is unable to verify any of this account, but the Reverend Claudius Henry was indicted for a breach of the treason laws and sent to prison for six years. (He died on October 6, 1986). Others of his party received lighter sentences.
The Henry excapade took a new twost when, soon after his imprisonment, his son Ronald was reported to be in the Red Hills overlooking Kingston training a guerrilla band of Rastafarians with high powered rifles reportedly brought secretly into the island from New York, the city from which Ronald had come. No one now knows for certain if the operations of father and son were the same, but many Rastafarians interviewed by the author agree that they were. News of this operation reached the ears of the Jamaican police, and a combined force of police and soldiers of the Royal Hampshire Regiment, which formed a part of the British command in Jamaica, moved against the rebels in the hills. Two of the British soldiers were killed form ambush, and Ronald and his own men made their escape. A national emergency was declared and a manhunt undertaken. Days of running soon took its toll on rebels who were caught while sound asleep in the parish of St. Catherine. Ronald Henry and four of his men were tried and sentenced to death. Later search in the hills discovered three bodies of Ronald Henry's men buried in shallow graves. It was later revealed that these men had probably been shot by the rebels because of disloyalty to the cause of liberation.
The news of these tragic happenings related to the Rastafarians cult aroused Jamaican society from its slumber. Even the New York Times dispatched a correspondant to cover this news. Upper-class Jamaicans, who once saw the Rastafarians as a set of unscrubbed bums, now lived in fear of them. But most of all, the confrontation of the cultist with the power-that-be brought the need for a closer examination of the grievances of the poor of which the Rastafarians were only the cutting edge. At the request of the leading Rasta brethren, Dr. Arthur Lewis, head of the University of the West Indies, authorized three of his best scholars to study the doctrines and special contitions of the Rastafarians and to make recommendations to the Premier of Jamaican on their behalf. The summary of this document will close this chapter.

The Rastafarians Get a National Hearing
The study carried out by the three university professors was a landmark in the history of the movement. Although less than a month was spent in gathering the materials, the intensity, dedication, and urgency with which the scholars tackled the problem and the expertise of the men who carried out the research resulted in one of the finest pieces of scholarly, objective reporting ever carried out by the university on behalf of the community. The study not only revealed the socioeconomic conditons of the movement to the general public, but also, for the first time, articulated the history and doctrine of the movement. At the same time, the study presented to the Rastafarians a mirror in which they could view themselves in relation to the community. Ten recommendations were presented to the government:
"the government of Jamaica should send a mission in African countries to arrange for immigration of Jamaicans. Representatives of Ras Tafari brethren should be included in the mission. Preparation for the mission should be discussed immediately with representatives of the Ras Tarari brethren. The general piblic should recognise that the great majority of Ras Tafari brethren are peaceful citizens, willing ot do an honest day's work. The police should complete their security enquiries rapidly, and cease to persecute peaceful Rast Tafari brethren. The the building of low-rent houses should be accelerated, and provisoin made for self-help cooperative building. Government should acquire the principle areas where squatting is now taking place, and arrange for water, light, sewage disposal and collection of ruggish. Civi centers should be built with facilities for technical classes, youth clubs, child clinics, ets. The churches and the University College of the West Indies should collaborate. The Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church should be invited to establish a branch in the West Indies. Ras Tafari brethren should be assisted to establish cooperative workshops. Presses and radio facilities should be accorded to leading members of the momement."
In the Jamaica of 1960, these recommendations were considered the radical dreams of a set of ivy tower intellectuals out of touch with reality. But acceptance of the recommendation by the HonorableNorman Manley and his bold attempts at carrying them out demonstrated a sense of maturity and vision on the part of the government to act decisively in an area of social action that demanded immediate attention. Of the ten recommendations, the first article created teh greatest controversy, but the government considered it the most crucial and immediately adopted it and the mission to Africa was carried out with great thoroughness. Though no large-scale immigration to Africa by Jamaicans was achieved, the sending of some Rastafarian leaders to Africa resulted in the movement's enhanced knowledge of African realities, and probably diffused the movement's enthusiasm for immediate repatriation. Almost all of the recommendatiosn have been carried out to some extent over the years, the last being the establishment of a branch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on the island. Also, the present freedom of the Rastafarian movement on the island may to some extent be attributed to the far-reaching insights of these recommendations.
Except for the "Holy Thursday Massacre" in the parish of St. James, near Montego Bay in 1963, in which several police and others including Rastafarians were killed, the progress of the movement has had an uneven but steady growth up to the present. The work of the university professors, issuing from the most prestigious institution of the island, gave high visibility to the rastafarians in the public eye, and people of the community began to take the movement more seriously, many seeing the cultists as the vanguard of social transformation. Their ideology was soon to affect the economy, politics, social relations, and the educational system, but their struggle had only just begun.
In this chapter we have discussed the rise and struggle of the Rastafarian movement from its inception to the first phase of its recognition by the government and people of Jamaica as a legitimate social movement of reform. We have shown that this movement, like other movements of its type, rose out of stressful social situations by adopting an ideoloty - Ethiopiansim - which had already existed in the society, but which was given new meaning to spark a revolution for social transformation in a society that had grown insensitive to the needs of the masses.
We have proved a point that a social movement of transformation is most likely to succeed when that movement attaches itself, even though unconsciously, to traditional elements in the cultural milieu, and that, if this traditional residue is sufficiently grounded, its power to threaten the status quo often triggers a negative response from the privileged classes of the society. In this overreaction, the privileged classes often create a climate of growth and acceptance for the movement from the oppressed class. If a social movement such as the Rastafarians is able to refine its ideology and sustain a viable opposition, maintaining its independence from cooptation, its possibility for bringing about social change in the society may be achieved. We shall now se how the further development of the movement has maintained this pressure.