Liber XXIII · Rastafari
Introduction
Garvey and Ethiopianism, Haile Selassie, Babylon and Zion, the mansions, livity and reggae.
Rastafari arose in Jamaica in the 1930s among the descendants of enslaved Africans, drawing on the Ethiopianism of the Black church, the pan-African vision of Marcus Garvey and a reading of the Bible in which the crowning of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930 fulfilled prophecy. Rastafari speak of Jah, of Babylon and Zion, of I-and-I and of livity, the way of life that includes the ital diet, dreadlocks and the sacramental use of ganja. This section covers its origins and early preachers such as Leonard Howell, the Emperor and his 1966 visit to Jamaica, the main mansions — Nyabinghi, the Bobo Ashanti and the Twelve Tribes of Israel — reasoning and the Nyabinghi drum, the language called Iyaric, reggae and Rasta culture, and Rastafari around the world today.