Yet for Fox and the rest of his congregation, weekly services are integral to their faith. Not all Rastas deem it necessary to worship in a church. It holds a royal charter from the Imperial Ethiopian World Federation and considers itself the only official Rasta church in the United States. Lael Fox worships at the Church of Haile Selassie I in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Rastas outside the Church of Haile Selassie I. Some wear dreadlocks as a sign of religious commitment and rebellion against Babylon. They believe in repatriation to Africa and also adhere to the Ital diet, which limits the consumption of meat. Rastas worship Selassie as an incarnation of Jah (Rastafari’s name for God) and reject Western culture (called Babylon) in favor of what they regard as more authentic African traditions. Haile Selassie’s title as a prince - Ras Tafari - inspired the name of Howell’s new religion.
Leonard Percival Howell, the founder of Rastafari, declared that the emperor was divine. The African messiah, Garvey and many of his followers believed, had arrived. When Haile Selassie was crowned emperor of Ethiopia in 1930, he became the leader of the only autonomous African country in the League of Nations. Garvey also hoped that an independent black leader would emerge in Africa. From the association’s headquarters in Harlem, Garvey encouraged its members to prepare for an exodus to the promised land of their ancestors: Ethiopia. He founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914, not only to fight racism and colonialism, but also to reconnect Africans in the Diaspora with their motherland. In the early 20 th century, Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey reinforced these hopes with his “Back to Africa” repatriation movement. To them, its illustrious history became an emblem of the achievements of the entire African continent, and many expected the savior to come from Ethiopia. Nineteenth-century Christian preachers in Jamaica prophesied his arrival, pointing to Psalm 68:31: “Princes shall come out of Egypt Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.” Jamaicans struggling against social inequity looked to Ethiopia as a symbol of black pride. Rastafari was founded in Jamaica in 1932 on the belief that an African messiah would emerge to liberate blacks from oppression around the world. To them, it is both a religion and a way of life. It preaches discipline, self-reliance and self-knowledge. Yet Snoop Dogg’s conversion highlighted a general lack of knowledge and understanding of Rastafari among the American public.įox and other Rastas say their faith is not at all frivolous. Others suspected a publicity stunt to promote his new album, or an excuse to smoke more marijuana. Many poked fun of the artist’s claim to be a reincarnation of Bob Marley - probably the most famous Rasta in history - suggesting Snoop might be experiencing a mid-life crisis.
He has abandoned hip-hop in favor of reggae and been rechristened by Rasta priests, becoming “Snoop Lion.” It probably did not help that the rapper Snoop Dogg, who has a well known fondness for weed, made headlines in July when he announced his spiritual awakening and conversion to Rastafari. Yet thanks primarily to their use of marijuana, the popular stereotype of them as “pot-smoking hippies” seems hard to shake, no matter how much Fox and his fellow Rastas try. They believe in an Ethiopian messiah, the celebration of black identity and repatriation for Africans scattered across the world by centuries of slavery. Although many outsiders refer to the religion as Rastafarianism, some Rastas consider the term derogatory, objecting to the ‘isms’ they think are too prevalent in Western society. CREDIT: EDIRIN OPUTUįox is one of fewer than a million people around the world who practice the Rastafari faith, which is less than a century old. The Church of Haile Selassie I, in Brooklyn.
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