The Promised Key: The Original Literary Roots of Rastafari

The Promised Key is a Rastafari movement tract by Leonard P. Howell, a Jamaican preacher; renowned as a Jamaican “John The Baptist”. Published around 1935 under Howell's Hindu pen name G.G. [for Gangun Guru] Maragh, meaning "teacher of famed wisdom", the tract bears some similarities to the Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy, without the stream-of-consciousness language, long opaque abbreviations, and repetition. Most significantly, the identities of 'King Alpha and Queen Omega' were transposed from Fitz Balintine Pettersburg and his wife as in the Royal Parchment Scroll, to Emperor Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw. This was one of the key innovations of the Howellites, and is today an article of faith of Rastafari. Leonard Percival Howell (born June 16, 1898 in Clarendon Parish died February 25, 1981), known as The Gong or G.G. Maragh (for Gong Guru), was a Jamaican religious figure. According to his biographer Hélène Lee, Howell was born in an Anglican family. He was one of the first preachers of the Rastafari movement (along with Joseph Hibbert, Archibald Dunkley, and Robert Hinds), and is sometimes known as The First Rasta. Table of Contents THE MYSTERY COUNTRY THE FALSE RELIGION THE PROMISED KEY ETHIOPIA'S KINGDOM THE HEALING BALM YARD ROYAL NOTICE HOW TO FAST DEPARTMENT GOVERNMENT ETERNAL LAW OFFICE EVE THE MOTHER OF EVIL THE RAPERS ETHIOPIAN QUESTION THE FIRST AND THE LAST MATRIMONIAL AFFIDAVIT BLACK PEOPLE BLACK PEOPLE ARISE AND SHINE "FORWARD TO THE KING OF KINGS"