Top Ten Little-Known Facts About Rastafari

Beyond the Locks: 10 Surprising Truths About Rastafari Philosophy

Most people associate Rastafari with reggae rhythms and the image of Bob Marley. However, for millions of believers from the hills of Jamaica to the streets of Ethiopia, it is a sophisticated liberation philosophy and a way of life rooted in resistance. Rastafari is far more than the stereotypes of reggae music and nappy natty dreadlocks. For millions of warriors worldwide, it is a profound and intricate liberation philosophy with a rich history.

From secret mountain communes to "Ital" lifestyle to the hidden history of women's leadership, here are ten little-known facts about the history and culture of Rastafari.

1. The Three Popular Mansions of Rastafari

Rastafari is not a single, unified organization. It in modernity can be considered to be comprised of three primary "Mansions" (denominations), each with unique traditions:

• Nyabinghi: The oldest mansion, focusing on traditional drumming and chanting.

• Bobo Ashanti: Known for wearing tightly wrapped turbans and robes, following strict Mosaic Law.

• Twelve Tribes of Israel: The most progressive branch, which welcomes all races and does not mandate dreadlocks.

  
  
  
  

2. The "Ital" Diet: More Than Just Veganism

The Ital diet (derived from "vital") is a spiritual practice designed to increase Livity—life energy. Ital followers typically avoid salt, chemicals, and processed foods. While many are strictly plant-based, the core principle is eating food "from the earth" to keep the body a clean temple for Jah.

3. The Hidden Role of Rastafari Women

While history books often highlight male leaders, women like Tenneth Bent were foundational. These women served as financial backers and organizers for the Ethiopian Salvation Society and were instrumental in managing the early outreach programs that provided food and clothing to the poor in the 1930s. Coincidentally it is also a little known fact that the word Nyahbinghi is rooted in womanhood and femininity.

The African Roots: The "Mother of Abundance"

• The word originates from the Kinyarwanda/Kirundi languages of East Africa (specifically Rwanda and Uganda). 

• Etymology: It is widely believed to mean "the one who possesses many things" or "mother of abundance." 

• The Legend: It was originally the name of a legendary African queen or deity. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the "Nyabinghi cult" became a powerful anti-colonial movement. 

• The Warrior Spirit: A famous medium named Muhumusa claimed to be possessed by the spirit of Queen Nyabinghi, leading armed resistance against German and British colonialists in Uganda. Because of this, the name became synonymous with unyielding resistance against oppression.

4. Pinnacle: The First Rasta Commune

The movement’s heart was forged at Pinnacle, a self-sufficient community established in 1940 by founder Leonard Howell. Located in the St. Catherine hills, this "Lost Paradise" housed over 700 followers who lived entirely off the land before it was destroyed by colonial authorities.

As of April 2026, the story of Pinnacle has shifted from a history of displacement to a formal mission for heritage preservation. Here is the summary of what is happening right now:

• Official Heritage Protection: In late March 2026, the Jamaican Government reaffirmed the declaration of six specific lots at Pinnacle in Sligoville as a National Heritage Site. This legally protects the core historical area from being bulldozed for private housing. 

• Reparative Justice: This move is part of a broader government effort to make amends for past state persecution. It follows the recent handover of land titles to Rastafari elders in St. James as restitution for the 1963 Coral Gardens incident. 

• The Development Plan: The vision for the site is to move beyond ruins. Plans are in motion to create a Pinnacle Monument and an Entrepreneurial Village, designed to be a center for heritage tourism and a space where the community can practice traditional "Ital" self-sufficiency. 

• Ongoing Legal Battles: While the government has secured specific lots, the Leonard P. Howell Foundationcontinues to fight for the return of more of the original 500-acre estate, specifically focusing on the sacred burial grounds of early leaders. 

• Cultural Significance: This is a major victory for the movement. For the first time, the state that destroyed the commune in 1954 is now acting as its legal guardian, recognizing it as the true birthplace of the Rastafari movement.

5. The Ongoing Exodus to Shashemene

Repatriation to Africa isn't just a symbolic hope; it is a physical reality. Since the 1960s, a community of Rastafarians has lived in Shashemene, Ethiopia, on land granted by Emperor Haile Selassie I. This settlement remains a living bridge between the Caribbean and the African continent.

6. The Meaning of Red, Gold, and Green

The iconic colors are borrowed from the Ethiopian flag and carry deep Pan-African symbolism:

• Red: The blood of martyrs shed for Black liberation.

• Gold: The mineral wealth and prosperity of Africa.

• Green: The lush vegetation and the "Promised Land."

7. Nyabinghi: The True Root of Reggae

Before ska and reggae took over the airwaves, there was Nyabinghi drumming. Using three specific drums—the bass, fundeh, and repeater—this hypnotic music was created for "groundation" ceremonies. These ancient African rhythms are the literal heartbeat of modern Jamaican music.

8. Ganja as a Holy Sacrament

In Rastafari, cannabis (Ganja) is never viewed as a recreational drug. It is referred to as the "Holy Herb" or "Wisdom Weed," used during "reasoning" sessions to clear the mind and commune with Jah. Interestingly, while Ganja is sacred, alcohol is strictly forbidden, viewed as a tool of "Babylon" (the oppressive system).

Ancient Origins

The word is Sanskrit in origin (gañjā), referring to the resinous flowering tops of the hemp plant. It is traditionally linked to the Ganges River (Ganga) in India, where the plant grew wild and was used in sacred Hindu rituals dedicated to the god Shiva.

• Source: Sanskrit/Hindi (Gañjā). 
• Path: India ➔ British Indentured Labor ➔ Jamaican Plantations.
• Modern Meaning: A sacred spiritual tool for the Rastafari and a staple of Jamaican cultural identity.

9. Who is Ras Tafari?

The movement's name is taken from Ras Tafari Makonnen, the birth name of Emperor Haile Selassie I. "Ras" is an Amharic title for Prince or Duke. To Rastas, the Emperor’s 1930 coronation fulfilled the biblical prophecy of a "King of Kings" arising in Africa.

10. Marcus Garvey: The Movement’s Prophet

Jamaican National Hero Marcus Garvey is revered as the movement’s prophet. His 1920s message—"Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned"—is seen as the direct prediction of Haile Selassie’s rise. To many, Garvey is the "John the Baptist" to the movement's Messiah.

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Why This Matters Today

Understanding Rastafari is key to understanding Jamaican identity and the global struggle against colonialism. It remains one of the world's most vibrant and misunderstood spiritual movements.

Want to learn more about Jamaican history? Check out our latest posts on Rastafari Today!

The Criminalization of African Spirituality: Part 1

"Democracy means that people can say what they want to. All the people. It means that they can vote as they wish. All the people. It means that they can worship God in any way they feel right, and that includes Christians and Jews and voodoo doctors as well."

~Dalton Trumbo

 

For most of my life Obeah in Jamaica has been a taboo. Scoffed at by academics and intellectuals rooted deep in empiricism and cynicism. The Church associates Obeah with spiritual wickedness and evil, skeptics tend to think it is used to defraud vulnerable people like the snake oil man to swindle and bamboozle. In my family it was the butt of jokes and was the stuff of old time superstition.For me the stuff Obeah was like the mythos of slavery... a literature populated with Rolling Calves, Black Heart men, Ananse, masks, Pocomania, Kumina, Revival, Jonkunnu, Bats(what Jamaican call moths), owls, D. Lawrence, Bible and Key and Maccabees Bibles.

In a more academic light... Obeah is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices developed among West African slaves, specifically of Igbo origin. Obeah's history is similar to that of other Afro-American religions including Palo, Vodou, Santería, and Hoodoo. Obeah is practiced in Suriname, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Belize, The Bahamas, and other Caribbean nations. Enslaved Africans brought spiritual practices to the Caribbean that included folk healing and a belief in magic for good and for evil to opposition.

Vodun means spirit in the Fon and Ewe languages, pronounced [vodṹ] with a nasal high-tone u; also spelled Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Voudou, Voodoo, etc. is practiced by the Ewe people of eastern and southern Ghana, and southern and central Togo; and the Kabye people, Mina people, and Fon people of southern and central Togo, southern and central Benin. It is also practiced by some Gun (Gbe) people of Lagos and Ogun in southwest Nigeria.

It is distinct from the various African traditional religions in the interiors of these countries and is the main source of religions with similar names found among the African Diaspora in the western hemisphere such as Haitian Vodou; Puerto Rican Vodú; Cuban Vodú; Dominican Vudú; Brazilian Vodum; and Louisiana Voodoo. All of these closely related faiths are syncretized with Christianity to various degrees and with the traditional beliefs of the Kongo people and Indigenous American traditions.

Now the term 'Obeah' is first found in documents from the early 18th century, as in its connection to Nanny of the Maroons, but discussion of it becomes more frequent when it was made illegal in Jamaica after Tacky's War, in which an Obeah-man provided advice to the rebels. In 1787 a letter to an English newspaper referred to "Obiu-women" interpreting the wishes of the dead at the funeral of a murdered slave in Jamaica: a footnote explained the term as meaning "Wise-women".

A continuing source of white anxiety related to Obeah was the belief that practitioners were skilled in using poisons, as mentioned in Matthew Lewis's Journal of a West India Proprietor. The European world had equated Black and African Spirituality with their own history of wizards and witchcraft and necromancy. Thousands of people in the Caribbean have been subject to prosecution for their religious and spiritual healing practice, since the first law against Obeah was passed in Jamaica in 1760 then in the anti-Obeah law passed in Barbados in 1818 there was the specific forbidding of the possession of "any poison, or any noxious or destructive substance"during slavery, until the recent past.

A doctor who examined the medicine chest of an Obeah man arrested in Jamaica in 1866 identified white arsenic as one of the powders in it, but could not identify the others. The unnamed correspondent reporting this affirmed "The Jamaica herbal is an extensive one, and comprises some highly poisonous juices, of which the Obeah men have a perfect knowledge."


During the mid 19th century the appearance of a comet in the sky became the focal point of an outbreak of religious fanatical millennialism among the Myal men of Jamaica. Spiritualism was at that time sweeping the English-speaking nations as well, and it readily appealed to those in the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, as spirit contact, especially with the dead, is an essential part of many African religions. During the conflict between Myal and Obeah, the Myal men positioned themselves as the "good" opponents to "evil" Obeah. They claimed that Obeah men stole people's shadows, and they set themselves up as the helpers of those who wished to have their shadows restored.

Myal men contacted spirits in order to expose the evil works they ascribed to the Obeah men, and led public parades which resulted in crowd-hysteria that engendered violent antagonism against Obeah men. The public "discovery" of buried Obeah charms, presumed to be of evil intent, led on more than one occasion to violence against the rival Obeah men. Laws were passed that limited both Obeah and Myal traditions but due to the outrages perpetrated by the mobs of Myalists, the British government of Jamaica sent many Myal men to prison, and this, along with the failure of their millennialist prophecies. 

Obeah laws, which still exist in many Caribbean countries, there have also been laws against specific religious groups, including the Spiritual Baptist faith, which was outlawed for a substantial part of the twentieth century in Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent, and Grenada. Other people faced prosecution for independent religious and healing work under laws against practicing medicine without a license, vagrancy, and ‘night noises’, among others.

• 1760: In response to a major slave rebellion, the colonial government outlaws Obeah for the first time in the Caribbean, with the Act to Remedy the Evils arising from Irregular Assemblies of Slaves, defining Obeah as: "The wicked Art of Negroes... pretending to have Communication with the Devil and other evil spirits"
• 1898: Under the Obeah Law practitioners face 12 months in jail and flogging. An Obeah practitioner is defined as: "Any person who, to effect any fraudulent or unlawful purpose, or for gain, or for the purpose of frightening any person, uses, or pretends to use any occult means, or pretends to possess any supernatural power or knowledge"
  
• 1908: Parliament passes the Medical Law, which was intended to regulate medical practice, but was also used frequently in cases to define difference between medicine and Obeah

Faces Of Africa - Haile Selassie: The pillar of Ethiopia, part 1 & 2

haile selassie JFK in usa 1.avi

Haile Selassie Meets The Queen of England

More on the Haile Selassie's alleged death!

Yogiraj on Meeting Haile Selassie

Yogiraj Recounts His 1982 Meeting With Haile Selassie, Conquering Lion Of The Tribe Of Judah!

Save Pinnacle for RasTafari

The planned eviction of I and I Rastafari family from Pinnacle -- the first self-sufficient Rastafari community on the island, located on lands purchased by Leonard P Howell -- seems to be manifesting as Babylon would will it. Already set to give away Goat Islands the Government now intends to take Rastafari lands.

So I and I would like to know, while Jamaica works out with its neighbours sanctions against the Dominican Republic for disinheriting Haitians in that country, our own courts do the same to Rastas?

As far as I and I comprehend, the Jamaican State has made the site a national heritage site, and wishes to evict whoever lives on it. Hence this is firstly a case about land title -- who "owns" the land?

Many of the revolutions of history were fought on grounds of land and property, the Coral Gardens incident of 1963 had similar issues of land ownership to the dispute and ensuing tragedy. So, for public clarity I and I would like to know whose land is it?

If the Rastafarianism is a recognised religious group in Jamaica, and by this I mean in law -- which I believe they are -- and seeing that Jamaica has recently adopted its own Bill of Rights, then there is no denying that Rastafari is a legitimate with regard to religious freedom as recognised in Jamaica, Great Britain, the United States, and other countries. I and I believe one of the arguments against this heinous act of the state, is based on freedom of religion.(ie by evicting off the land and interfering with Rastafari's freedom of religion). Thus this makes the case a constitutional one as well. Does the public defender have anything to say?

I and I cannot be sure what the State intends to do with the site. If the idea is to keep it as State property, as an important part of Jamaican history, it may seem hard to argue against that. After all, the State may argue that they are taking care of the place by doing this, and making sure its historical significance is well known by everyone. This is a controversial notion and forces the question, who have the stakeholders consulted? Could not an initiative that engenders a community and communal heritage trust be set up to navigate the dual existence of a heritage site and the Rastafarian community?

Bearing this in mind, I ask, is it time for some Rastafari agencies and groups, artistes, and lawyers to find a way to take this case to the Privy Council or the Caribbean Court of Justice? There needs to be good advocacy and help in raising international awareness for this undoubted human rights travesty.

I encourage both the Rastafari community, as well as the State, to examine the Saramaka People v Suriname case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. In this case, descendants of self-liberated African slaves were held to be "indigenous peoples" and to enjoy the rights recognised to these categories of people under international law. A similar case can be made for the communities at Pinnacle as well. Using that line of argument, if the land if sold no project will be able to start unless the consent of the local communities has been secured by the company. (See the International Finance Corporation Performance Standard number 5 and 7). This is a powerful tool. I hope you understand, this does not change anything with regards to the title to the land, but at least it could prevent the land from being destroyed by logging, mining, tourist resorts, or whatever their plans are.

Ultimately, whilst seeing that Jamaica has not joined the appellate jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice, it would appear that no case can be brought there. The final Court of Appeal of Jamaica is still the London-based Privy Council. They apply the same law so it ought not to matter much for your case. These are issues representatives of the RasTafari community and its lawyers if there are any must be aware of.

This injustice cannot be allowed!

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/letters/Save-Pinnacle-for-RasTafari_15580078#ixzz2moS7571i

p.s. Thanks to Nadia Bernaz of RightsAsUsual for her expertise on the matters of rights and point of law!

The Debacle at Pinnacle: RasTafari Robbed of The Promised Key - Babylon's New Assault!

#Rastafari robbed!!!
So what of OUR PROMISED KEY?

The planned eviction of InI RasTafari Family from Pinnacle: the first self-sufficient RasTafari Community on the island located on lands purchased by Hon. Leonard P Howell, seem to be manifesting as Babylon would will it!

IS THIS A CASE FOR THE #CCJ???
The Caribbean Court of Justice is a shared final court of appeal for currently three Commonwealth Caribbean countries: Barbados, Guyana and Belize. Jamaica is probably the next country of the region that will stop sending their appeals to the London-based Privy Council and switch to the CCJ as well. A human rights assessment of the Court and concluded that its very creation constitutes a positive step towards better access to justice in the region and shows once again the key role superior courts can play in protecting the rights of vulnerable groups.

Bearing this in mind again I ask is it time for some RasTafari agencies and groups artistes and lawyers, to find a way to take this case to the CCJ???

Time for #Rasta to find the #CaribbeanCourtofJustice!

Land reform and revolution reaching to ahead... THIS CAN'T WORK!

Whapp'm to "adverse possession"???

Gi weh GOAT ISLAND and tief RASTA LAND! (Having given away the Goat Islands the Government now intends to steal RasTafari lands!)

So InI would like to know, while #Jamaica works out with its neighbours sanctions against the Dominican Republic for disinheriting #Haitians in that country our own courts do the same to Rastas????

Why this situation wasn't blasted over the #media ages and ages ago? This case has been in court for a while now! Where are the artistes to chant on this issue???

Leonard Howell, his seed and scions, the early Howellites all suffered for this. InI cannot leave History to repeat itself. InI will not allow Mr. Lake and his friends at the National Heritage Trust to deceive us into believing they care to preserve RasTafari legacy.

Never forget the atrocities of CORAL GARDENS, when many RasTafari bredda and sista were abused and massacred.

As a member of the Rastafari community in Montego Bay and growing up in the aftermath of the Coral Garden atrocity and having gleaned 2nd hand knowledge of it, heard first person accounts, InI cannot sit by whilst InI bredda and sista are being dealt another modern day injustice and atrocity, no matter the civility of the apparent legal process, this is a violation of a vulnerable sector of society by the state, guised as civil law and legal prociess, it is vile and unethical, a violation of culture!

#ancestoral land theft, Rasta #oppressed in the 21st century, SUBDIVISION... robbery...

http://lphfoundation.org/rastafari-ordered-to-vacate-pinnacle-by-january-31-2014-resident-magistrate-vashti-chatoor-131113/

#Rastafarian #digitalactivism #socialactivism #IandI #Selassie#Haile #EqualRights #Justice

Happy Belated EarthStrong to the King!

"Conquering Lion of Judah...Triumphantly we all must sing" 

JULY 23, 1892 

My God, the Black God!
226 in the line of King David...

Haile Selassie I (Ge'ez: ቀዳማዊ ኃይለ ሥላሴ qädamawi haylä səllasé[nb 1]; Amharic: [ha.ɪlɜ sɨlːase]

(23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Tafari Makonnen Woldemikael, was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. 

He was the heir to a dynasty that traced its origins by tradition from King Solomon and Queen Makeda, Empress of Axum, known in the Abrahamic tradition as the Queen of Sheba. Haile Selassie is a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history.

Listen to this Yogi from India speak on meeting Haile Selassie in 1982! (note the date)

Women in Africa and Rastafari: A Renewed Idea of The Black Woman!

For Our Daughters Documentary - A Film for Black Girls, And Those Who Care for Them

Omega Rising: Women in Rastafari

Dr. Ivan Van Sertima's Lecture: Black Woman in Antiquity

The Glory of Empress Menen!

Skin Deep