Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader

This anthology explores Rastafari religion, culture and politics in Jamaica and other parts of the African diaspora. An Afro-Caribbean religious and cultural movement in the 1930s, today Rastafari has close to one million adherents. The basic message of Rastafari - the dismantling of all oppressive institutions and the liberation of humankind - strongly appeals even to non-believers who are capivated by reggae music, the lyrics and the immortal spirit of its practitioner, Bob Marley.

The Rastafarian movement had largely been a Jamaican phenomenon from its inception in the 1930s until the 1960s, when immigrants from the Caribbean migrated internationally. This collection of essays attempts to define in populist manner Rastafari; its beginnings, successes, and failures; its belief system; and its religious, economic, cultural, psychological, and social connotations. With no formal structure, Rastafari is an evolving belief system based on the principles of Leonard Howell's The Promised Key. Its message of Afrocentricity is important, but the resistance and liberation psychology, along with reggae music, all give meaning to people's lives. The "Downpression" of Jamaican society reflects a "Babylonian" experience of the black's soulful desolation. From the life-affirming practices of Rastafari, selfhood and dignity is reclaimed. Bible study, fasting, and living with the earth were early components; later the African tradition of ganja smoking was used in rituals to commune on a higher plane. Recommended.?Leo Vincent Kriz, West Des Moines P.L., Ia.
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