Rastafari developed in the slums of Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1920s and 30s. In an environment of great poverty, depression, racism and class discrimination, the Rasta message of black pride, freedom from oppression, and the hope of return to the African homeland was gratefully received. The Rastafarian movement began with the teachings of Marcus Garvey (1887-1940), a black Jamaican who led a "Back to Africa" movement. He taught that Africans are the true Israelites and have been exiled to Jamaica and other parts of the world as divine punishment. The Rastafarian movement first became visible in Jamaica in the 1930s, when peaceful communities were founded in the Kingston slums.
INTRODUCTION Rastafari is a cultural, religious movement that began in Jamaica in the 1930s. Its adherents are known as Rastafarians, Rastas or Dreads. Cosmologically loaded goods and behaviors are consumed by Rastafarians through an ideology that is informed by Biblical scripture and Ethiopian history. Using the concept of "extended self" (Belk 1988), the Rastas have borrowed cultural practices and symbols from history to identify with the Rastafari movement. This visible expression of a Rasta culture has contributed to various lifestyles that evolved among the informants to help them manipulate their fortunes during a time of great social and economic change in Jamaica.
He is renowned for his vivid crepuscular sunsets, narrative art and Voodoo spirits. Later, during Fall 2001, the internationally renowned Danish filmmaker Jorgen Leth, who also is a collector, has agreed to premier a new film, "The Dreamers," which will include rare footage of master artists over the last 20 years. Interviews in the film will reveal "...another Haiti, where creativity and optimism seem inexhaustible...a strong sense of historical destiny..."with inspiration from the Voodoo universe and the dream of paradise. Voodoo evolved as the predominant religion of the Haitian people by merging many traditions imported by enslaved Africans to the New World. Black and Carib peoples endured dehumanizing, tyrannical conditions for five centuries.
He proclaimed one day to, “Look to Africa for the crowning of a black king, he shall be the redeemer” (The Rastafarians: Sounds of Cultural Dissonance). A few years later after Garvey’s prediction a man named Ras Tafari Makonnen (this is where Rastafarian comes from) was crowned king of Ethiopia and took the name Haile Selassie meaning, “Power of the Trinity” on November 2, 1930. At his coronation he took up the titles, “The King of kings” and “Lord of lords” and “the conquering lion of Judah.” Rastafarians believe that Haile Selassie was the incarnation of Jah (God) on earth and is the second spiritual guide to lead them. Though Selassie eventually died, Rastas still believe that he is alive in “perfect” skin leading them. The Rastafarian religion was first set up to empower the black people of Jamaica in a time of strife and poverty.
The reign of the Garvey movement, as Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., wrote, "awakened a race consciousness that made Harlem felt around the world. "^2 Popular Hero Borne along on the tide of black popular culture, Garvey's memory has attained the status of a folk myth. While the 1987 centennial of Garvey's birth will be marked by formal ceremonies honoring his memory, on a more dynamic plane, Garvey is daily celebrated and re-created as a hero through the storytelling faculty of the black oral tradition. As the embodiment of that oral tradition transmuted into musical performance, Jamaica's reggae music exhibits an amazing fixation with the memory of Garvey.
To really understand what the rastafarians are all about; let’s take a brief look at their history. The movement began back in the 1930’s in Kingston Jamaica under the inspiration and teachings of world renowned Marcus Mosiah Garvey. During a time of struggle, racism, “class-ism,” and discrimination against blacks, Garvey went about the business of teaching and enlightening blacks that to improve their condition, they must establish their own “world” back in Africa On November 2, 1930, Ras Tafari Makonnen was crowned emperor of Ethiopia and took on the name Haile Selassie (Might of the Trinity) plus additional titles including “Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” and “Elect of God and King of the Kings of Ethiopia.” This was when the rastafarians who had been listening to Marcus Garvey for a while, became convinced that he, Ras Tafari Makonnen, was the one the African Messiah who had come and liberate all Africans from their oppressors. This belief led to the birth of the Rastafarian movement. Leader Leonard Howell took control and led the group to initiate six fundamentals principles of Rastafarian belief.
We cannot rewrite the past, but we can write our future. I will be looking into a modern day conflict focusing on the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Hopefully, we can write a future that sees an end to lies and cover ups. The LRA’s origins begin in 1986 once Yoweri Museveni became president. A Ugandan priestess and rebel leader, who was a member of the Acholi ethno linguistic group and a self-proclaimed mystic, founded the cult like Holy Spirit Movement (HSM), or Holy Spirit Mobile Forces.
At the time when Islam was massively being practiced in the northern part of the country since the eleventh century, Christianity was reshaping the socio-cultural life of the indigenous people along the coast with the slave trade in fifteenth century. The relationship between the two faiths has since then been peaceful in the country with the Muslim leading majority until the death of the long serving president Lansana Conte in December 2008, which resulted in the rise of another dictator, but this time, a Christian. In September 2009 in Guinea, the army opened fire on civilians who were protesting against the eventual candidacy of Captain Mousa Dadis Camara, the leader of the junta in power. About 159 people were killed according to the UN, numbers of women were sexually abused in public and about one hundred of people including high-ranking army officers disappeared. Ethnic and regional tensions are at their highest levels for the first time in the country.
Boutros – Ghali and the Rwandan Genocide Born in Cairo on November 14, 1922 into a Coptic Christian family, Boutros Boutros-Ghali grew to become the sixth Secretary-general of United Nations (UN). In 1946, he graduated from Cairo University and furthered his education on to receive his Ph.D in international relations from the University of Paris. Serving as the first Arab and first African holding the leading UN position, according to (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.), he was faced with many challenging peacekeeping operations in Herzegovina and Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda. With this text, however, I seek to offer a non-judgemental scrutiny of Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s leadership before, during and after the Rwandan genocide. Boutros-Ghali, before the Rwandan genocide, was very instrumental in ensuring peace between the Israelis and the Egyptians.
Reggae music originated from Jamaica in the early 1960's. In the streets and ghettos of Kingston, shortly after independence from Britain in 1962, reggae started to evolve from Mento, which was a local form of Jamaican music in the 30's to what it has become today. Originated in Jamaica, reggae music is recognized by rhythmic accents on the offbeat, usually played by piano, guitar, or sometimes both. Changing American popular music, the genre began to be played in the 1960s producing a new and different sound. Reggae's origins are in traditional African and Caribbean music, American rhythm and blues, and in Jamaican ska and rock steady (Scaruffi, Piero).