Ganja in Rastafari: The Holy Herb in Faith, History and Law

For many Rastafari, ganja (cannabis) is a sacrament, the "holy herb" used in prayer, meditation and reasoning to draw the worshipper closer to Jah and to open the mind to insight. Its place in the faith rests on readings of the Bible, on the history of the plant in Jamaica since the arrival of Indian indentured workers in 1845, and on decades of conflict with the law that ended, in Jamaica, with the legal recognition of Rastafari sacramental use in 2015.

This article treats the herb as a matter of religion and history. Its ritual setting in the reasoning circle is described in Nyabinghi and reasoning, and its broader place in the Rastafari way of life in Rastafari livity.

Why Ganja Is Sacred to Rastafari§

Rastafari who use the herb describe it in religious terms. It is a means of meditation, quieting the mind so that the believer can hear the inner voice of Jah, who in Rastafari belief dwells within each person as "I-and-I". It is a bond of community: in reasoning sessions the herb is shared among brethren and sistren as a sign of unity, and discussion of Scripture, history and current events follows. It is also an offering, its smoke compared to the incense of the Temple, rising in praise.

Rastafari often say that the herb reveals the truth about Babylon. In their account, colonial society taught Black people to despise themselves and their history, and the meditative state associated with the herb helps the believer see through that teaching. For this reason Rastafari reject the language of "drugs" and "getting high". They contrast reverent sacramental use with the recreational use of the wider society, and many disapprove of tobacco and alcohol, which they regard as harmful products of Babylon.

The herb's role should not be exaggerated. It is not the centre of Rastafari belief, which turns on Haile Selassie, Africa and the Bible, and a considerable number of Rastafari, for reasons of health, conviction or membership of particular houses, do not use it at all.

Scripture and the Holy Herb§

Like everything in Rastafari, the herb is justified through reading the Bible. The verses most often cited include:

• Genesis 1:29, in which God gives humanity "every herb bearing seed".
• Psalm 104:14, which speaks of the herb that God causes to grow "for the service of man".
• Proverbs 15:17, "better is a dinner of herbs where love is", read as praise of a simple, herbal life.
• Revelation 22:2, where the leaves of the tree of life are "for the healing of the nations", a phrase Rastafari often apply to the herb itself.

A Rastafari tradition says that the herb first grew on the grave of King Solomon, the wisest of kings, which explains its name "wisdom weed". Biblical scholars read these verses as references to plants in general, not to cannabis, and the tradition about Solomon's grave has no source outside Rastafari oral teaching. For believers, however, such readings are part of the practice of "overstanding" Scripture through inspiration and reasoning.

From India to Jamaica: A History of Ganja on the Island§

Cannabis was probably present in the Caribbean before the nineteenth century, but its religious and social history in Jamaica begins with the arrival of indentured labourers from India after emancipation. From 1845 onward, tens of thousands came to work on the sugar estates, bringing with them the plant and its Indian names. Ganja is a word of Sanskrit origin, used across north India for the plant's flowering tops, and several other Jamaican words connected with it have Indian roots. In India cannabis had long been associated with the god Shiva and with ascetics, as described in Shaivism and in the survey of cannabis in religion and magic.

Among the African-Jamaican poor, ganja spread as a folk medicine, a working man's comfort and a feature of rural life. The colonial authorities, following international trends in drug control, passed the Ganja Law of 1913, which prohibited it, and later legislation imposed heavy penalties, including prison terms, for possession.

When the first Rastafari appeared in the 1930s, the herb was already familiar among the communities in which they preached. Leonard Howell's commune at Pinnacle, described in Leonard Howell and Pinnacle, grew ganja as a cash crop, and by the 1940s and 1950s the herb had become part of Rastafari worship and identity, especially among the younger groups of West Kingston.

Ganja, Police and Persecution§

Because ganja was illegal, it became one of the main grounds on which Rastafari were arrested and imprisoned. Raids on Pinnacle in 1941 and 1954, round-ups in Kingston in the 1950s and 1960s, and the violence of the Coral Gardens incident in 1963 all involved the herb in some way. For many Rastafari the ganja laws were simply one face of Babylon's war on the poor and the Black.

The first serious challenge to official views came from scholarship. In the early 1970s the anthropologists Vera Rubin and Lambros Comitas led a large study of long-term ganja users among working-class Jamaicans, published in 1975 as Ganja in Jamaica. It described a culture in which the herb was woven into work, medicine and religion, and it questioned many claims made about its effects. In the same decade reggae artists made the herb a public cause: songs and album titles by Peter Tosh, Bob Marley and others carried the Rastafari view of the sacrament to listeners worldwide, as told in reggae and Rastafari culture.

Different Rastafari Views on the Herb§

Rastafari are not uniform on this question. In Nyabinghi gatherings the herb is part of the ritual life of the camp. Among the Bobo Ashanti, with their strict codes of purity, and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, practice has varied, and use is often treated as a matter of personal conviction rather than obligation. Orthodox Rastafari, influenced by the Ethiopian church, are often more reserved, and some reject it entirely; see Rastafari and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

Within all houses there are voices warning against misuse. Elders distinguish between the reverent use of the sacrament and casual consumption, and some Rastafari have criticised the way the global cannabis industry has borrowed Rastafari imagery, the red, gold and green, the lion and the face of Haile Selassie, to sell products. For them, commercialisation is another form of Babylon taking what belongs to the faithful.

The Law Today: Jamaica 2015 and Beyond§

In 2015 Jamaica passed the Dangerous Drugs (Amendment) Act, which made possession of small amounts a minor offence dealt with by a fine, created a regulated system for medical, scientific and therapeutic cannabis, and recognised the sacramental use of ganja by adherents of the Rastafari faith in their places of worship. Rastafari welcomed the recognition as overdue, while noting that it came after decades in which many of their members had been imprisoned.

Elsewhere the picture is mixed. Courts in several countries, including England and Wales and the United States, have generally refused Rastafari claims to a religious exemption from drug laws. In South Africa, the Constitutional Court rejected a Rastafari law graduate's claim in 2002, but in 2018 it ruled that the private use of cannabis by adults could not be criminalised, a decision that grew out of litigation in which Rastafari had played a leading part. Some Caribbean states, among them Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados, have recently made specific provision for Rastafari sacramental use. Laws on cannabis continue to change, and they differ greatly between and within countries; the legal and rights questions facing the movement are surveyed in Rastafari today.

Frequently asked questions§

Why do Rastafari use ganja?§

Rastafari who use the herb regard it as a sacrament that aids meditation, unity in reasoning and insight into Scripture and the truth about Babylon. They describe its use as worship, not recreation, and cite biblical verses about the herb of the field.

Do all Rastafari use ganja?§

No. Use of the herb is common but not universal. Some Rastafari abstain for reasons of health or conviction, and some houses, especially among Orthodox Rastafari, are reserved about it or reject it.

Is ganja legal for Rastafari in Jamaica?§

Since 2015 Jamaican law recognises the sacramental use of ganja by Rastafari in their worship and treats possession of small amounts as a minor, ticketable offence. Other uses remain regulated, and laws in other countries differ considerably.

Where does the word ganja come from?§

The word comes from Sanskrit and Hindi, where it names the flowering tops of the cannabis plant. It reached Jamaica with indentured labourers from India, who began arriving in 1845.

Sources and further reading§

• Ganja in Jamaica: A Medical Anthropological Study of Chronic Marihuana Use — Vera Rubin and Lambros Comitas, 1975
• The Ganjah Complex: Rastafari and Marijuana — Ansley Hamid, 2002
• The African Roots of Marijuana — Chris S. Duvall, 2019
• Cannabis: A History — Martin Booth, 2003
• Rastafari: Roots and Ideology — Barry Chevannes, 1994
• Rastafari and Other African-Caribbean Worldviews — Barry Chevannes (ed.), 1995
• The Rastafarians — Leonard E. Barrett, 1977
• Rastafari: A Very Short Introduction — Ennis B. Edmonds, 2012