From Peace and Love to ‘Fia Bun’:
Did Rastafari Lose its Way?
By Leahcim Semaj PhD
Presented at
Rastafari Studies Conference
Negotiating the African Presence: Rastafari Livity and Scholarship
Commemorating the 59th Anniversary of the Report on the Rastafari Movement
University of the West Indies, Mona Campus
August 17-2-, 2010
Abstract
50 years after the publication of the UWI Report, 49 years after a delegation on repatriation to Africa and 44 years after the visit of His Imperial Majesty to Jamaica, serious questions arise as to the capability of the Rastafarian Movement/Religion.
Rasta established red, green and gold as a cultural item in Jamaica, a liberating music genre, the validity of ital food long before the health food craze but are not the ones benefiting from the marketing of it. Rasta gave the name dreadlocks to the world but it was innovative African American women in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles who became loctologists and locticians and more recently the creators of ‘sister locks’.
30 years ago I described a social theory that would evolve out of the Rastafarian religion. It has quietly become a significant frame of reference for many. This success may however serve to make the Rastafarian religion obsolete at worst or a quaint novelty at best, now that the society has been able to successfully extract the essentially useful core of the Rastafarian movement. It is quite possible that Rastafari has fulfilled its promise, is now a spent force, and has lost its way. As a result, the movement has become more of an empty symbol.
1. Spiritual insights to unite the various houses
2. Intellectual acumen to engage the Afro-centric thinkers
3. Managerial capabilities to build transnational sustainable businesses
4. Cultural engineers to build the necessary rituals for living
5. Brand management
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