Christians in the majority in Jamaica
Like all other Caribbean islands, Jamaica is very religious. Christians are the majority in the country, representing 64.2% of the population, including Protestants (62%) including the Seventh Day Adventist Church (12%), Pentecostal Church (11%), Church of God (9.2%), New Testament Church of God (7.2%), Baptists (6.7%) and other Methodists and Anglicans. Catholics are only 2.2%. Protestant churches grew during the nineteenth century because of the involvement of pastors in the black cause. This is the legacy of British colonization. The churches and sects represented are numerous. The Anglican is the oldest, the Baptist, the Methodist, the Moravian, the Presbyterian, the Ethiopian Orthodox are practiced everywhere on the island. The new Adventist and Pentecostal churches, as well as the Jehovah's Witnesses, also have many followers. Even the most traditional churches have incorporated elements of West African worship.
Persistent Afro-Caribbean cults
African cults are also present in the DNA of the people deported to Jamaica. Blacks who came mainly from West and Central Africa brought with them Islam and animism. Appearing in the 1860s, the Revival is the most powerful of these currents. Pocomania and Kumina are 19th century Jamaican animistic cults still practiced today. The Maroons practice Kumfu cults also inherited from West Africa. The music and dance of the African myal cult are found in the ceremonies. Trances, dances, songs and drums are used to call upon the spirits and their beneficial or evil powers. Animal sacrifices are also part of the ritual. The belief in Obeah (Jamaican voodoo), "the spirit", is now very reduced but still exists.
Rastafarianism, a political and religious movement
This Afro-nationalist movement was born in the 1930s and is based on the principles of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The return to Africa, the legitimate land of all Africans of origin, will give black Jamaicans a specific cultural identity. Several theories are in conflict as to the birth of the Rastafarian religion. Multiple influences bubbled up against a background of acute economic and social crisis. Some agree to recognize in Althyi Rogers, originally from Anguilla (who committed suicide after having founded a church in South Africa), the spiritual father of Rastafarianism. His commentary on the Bible, Holy Pibi, published in the United States in the early 1920s, had a great influence on the origin of the religion. A prophecy, "Look to Africa, when a black king will be crowned, the day of deliverance will be near," spreads. Other actors entered the scene in the 1930s: Leonard Percival Howell, Archibald Dunkley, Nathaniel Hibbert, who would identify the Emperor of Ethiopia as the new god. Marcus Garvey is a founding figure of the theory of the return to Africa for African Americans and is considered today as its major founder, although it is difficult to identify who was the first of them. Gradually, the religion took shape and the text became sacred and codified the lifestyle of Rastafarians
Ras tafari, the king of kings
The emperor of Ethiopia, Ras Tafari Makonnen, belongs to the oldest dynasty in the world, descended from Menelik, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. This biblical line of monarchs never stopped when he was born on July 23, 1892 in Ethiopia at Ejersa Goro, in the Oromia region. The only survivor of a family of eight children, he received at the age of thirteen the title of Dejazmach, commander of the gate. He was invested on November 2, 1930 under the name of Haile Selassie I (power of the Trinity). He will crystallize the hopes of the new initiates, fulfilling the prophecy. The Nega, king of kings, lord of lords, lion of the tribe of Judas, knows nothing about Jamaica, but he has fulfilled the biblical prophecy taken up by Marcus Garvey. He is now a messiah for the Jamaicans who will declare themselves Rastafarians under Ras Tafari, their new divine leader. He becomes the messiah of the newborn religion. He is the god incarnate, who must bring the black diaspora back to the biblical kingdom of Sheba, the land of their ancestors
A wise and visionary head of state, he propelled the medieval empire of Ethiopia into the modern world and led his country towards democracy with reforms such as the abolition of slavery, the creation of a parliament, the institution of the right to vote and land reforms. At the dawn of the Second World War, he had the courage to speak before the League of Nations to openly denounce the rise of fascism and Nazism. He took an active part in the creation of the United Nations. He was assassinated in 1975 during a coup d'état
One of his speeches expressing the essence of his philosophical and political thought was immortalized by Bob Marley who set it to music: "Until the philosophy that holds one race superior over another inferior is finally discredited and abandoned, as long as there are first and second class citizens in every nation, as long as the color of a man's skin means more than the color of his eyes, and as long as basic human rights are not guaranteed for all, regardless of race.. until that day, the African continent will not know peace"(War, from the album Rastaman Vibration). The first Rasta preachers, from the poorest peasant communities on the island, began to spread the doctrine
Armed struggle and persecution
Numerous Rasta communities will be born, with as many leaders and ideological currents. Some flirted with violence and Rastafarianism even had an armed branch. The Pinnacle community, led by Leonard Percival Howell, established itself near Spanish Town in 1940. It is there that the Rastafarian religious practices inspired in part by the rules of Indian ashrams will take shape. Died in February 1981, this great Rasta leader is considered as the first Rasta (read Le Premier Rasta, by Hélène Lee). This community attracted the wrath of the administration and police raids eventually got the better of it
In the 1950s and 1960s, Rastas were abused and persecuted. They live in the hills of the interior of the island from where they throw the anathema on Babylon, the white civilization. Abused, attacked, decimated, the Rasta communities survive despite police assaults. The authorities liquidate one of the main bastions in 1954. The Rastas scattered in the ghettos of the capital, a place where their philosophy of social justice and black dignity spread. In the 1970s, a current of sympathy for them was born, as police repression struck indiscriminately. This was the time when Jamaican music was heard beyond the island's natural borders. Many musicians are Rastafarians or have the appearance of it. An era of normalization of the religion began, internationalized by the growing success of Bob Marley, legendary figure of reggae
Dreadlocks, reggae and vegetarianism
Peaceful by nature, Rastafarians live a life of meditation and contemplation in poverty. Rather than working in the service of Babylon, the white civilization that enslaved them, they work only to provide for their basic needs, usually by cultivating small plots of land in the mountains. They believe in reincarnation and are vegetarians; they have developed the I-Tal food , natural and vital. The three Rasta colors - red for the triumphant church or the blood shed in Africa, gold for the wealth of Africa, and green for the grasslands of Africa - are also omnipresent in their clothing, a sign of belonging as obvious as the dreadlocks
The origin of the Rasta hairstyle is not clearly established. Is it an imitation of the Maasai hairstyles or the Indian hairstyles? Allusion to the hairstyle of Samson? Rastas wear their natural hair without styling it or cutting it, and maintain it with natural elements (aloe vera in particular). The dreadlocks, the braids of the rastas, can take astonishing proportions and are sometimes, for more convenience, enclosed in woolen caps, the tams, or high headgear perched like massive towers on top of the skull of the rasta. Today, Rastas are in the minority and one should not confuse the young Rastas of opetta displaying the three colors and the dreadlocks which parade in the tourist areas with the true practitioners. The last communities live secluded in the Blue Mountains, away from urban life. You can visit some of them, like the Rastafari Indigenous Village near Montego Bay.
Ganja, sacred herb and export product
In the aftermath of emancipation, it was necessary to replace the former slaves of the plantations. Indians under contract were brought to the island during the 19th century to work on the plantations. They are the ones who introduce ganja in the island, a grass originating from the banks of the Ganges. Cannabis sativa, of its botanical name, is considered by the Indians as a sacred plant. The British planters, realizing very quickly that it reduces the work capacity of their new workforce, are at the origin of the first prohibition of the ganja, but its use develops with the massive arrival of Indians. In the 1930s, the Rasta movement gave a boost to the consumption and therefore to the production of weed. Later, the 1960s and the Peace and Love generation marked a new turning point in the popularization of marijuana. Ganja is a peacemaker, as is reggae music. Daily Bible readings and religious songs are also part of the rituals of Rastafarianism. The lion is an omnipresent symbol of the religion, inspired by the title of Haile Selassie
