Dreading inna Babylon
Rastafari in Jamaica: Notions of Authenticity, Networks and Modes of Alternative CommodificationMaster of Cultural Anthropology Master Thesis
30-8-2013
Name: Merhawi Fessehazion Student number: 6184685
Thesis supervisors: Dr. Gerd Baumann & Dr. Peter van Rooden Second reader: Dr. Francio Guadeloupe
Third reader: Dr. Barak Kalir
Content
Introduction ... 1
Chapter 1: Histories: A Strangely Problematic Setting: from Oppression to Commodification ... 5
Ideologies of Resistance that came before Rastafari ... 9
The Emergence of Rastafari in Jamaica ... 10
The 'Dealing' with the Rastafari Movement by the Colonial Government... 13
The Shift in the 'Dealing' with the Rastafari Movement by the State ... 15
Chapter 2: Fieldwork Methods, My Position in the Field and Ideas about the ''Authentic'' Rasta ... 18
Fieldwork Methods ... 18
Fieldwork intro: Who Was I? Their reflections on my Reflexivity ... 19
Encounters: Whom did I Meet in the Field? Rasta, Non-Rasta, or an Essence of Rasta as Authenticity? ... 22
Rasta's ... 22
Non-Rasta's... 24
An Authentic Rastafari? ... 25
Chapter 3: Distinctions: Being Sorts of Rasta : Symbols and the Embodiment of them ... 33
Symbols ... 34
Haile Selassie ... 34
Red, Gold and Green ... 38
Dreadlocks ... 40
Empress Menen ... 41
The Embodiment of these Symbols ... 43
Chapter 4: The Lack of Formal Networks and Contradictions ... 45
Organizational Structure... 45
Examples out of the Field ... 48
Contradictions due to the Lack of Resources and Formal Organization ... 50
Chapter 5: Creating a Space within Babylon by Alternative Forms of Commodification ... 53
Examples out of the Field ... 55
Feelings Towards the Commodification of Rastafari ... 56
Conclusion ... 59
Epilogue ... 63
1
Introduction
''Tell you about the Blackman Redemption; can you dig it? A Blackman Redemption; can you stop it?
Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh no!'' - Bob Marley and the Wailers
My initial acquaintance with Rastafari was, like with most of the people who do not live in Jamaica, through Reggae music. It was a form of protest music what sparked my interest in it, like Hip-Hop did when I was of a much younger age. Living in the Netherlands as a black man, I was, like many other people of color, trying to find my place it in this predominately white society. The focus of reggae lyrics that were inspired by Rastafari ideologies resonated with me. It helped me to find a sense of pride in being black. Something that I could not find in white mainstream music and national TV. The more that I started to listen to the music the more I got interested in Rastafari history and how it has developed from its beginning until now. The vantage points to look at Rastafari were and are numerous.
As an anthropology student I started to develop an academic interest in the [Rastafari] movement. How they practiced their pan-Africanist ideas, defined blackness, why I had to explain on numerous occasions that the flag of Jamaica is not the same as the one of Ethiopia, that the consumption of weed is not legal in Jamaica and that the Jamaica population does not predominantly exists out of Rastafari's. It got me to wonder why these people were conflating the Ethiopian flag with the Jamaican flag. Especially when I knew that the history of Rastafari in Jamaica is one of oppression. How did these ideas that these people have came into being?
When browsing through various tourist magazines, in which agencies are trying to lure tourists in coming to visit their country, one of Jamaica's biggest USP (Unique Selling Point) is Rastafari. There are different package deals wherein tourists can visit different hallmarks of legendary reggae artist of whom the most popular is Bob Marley. When visiting the numerous craft markets that Jamaica has to offer images of Bob Marley and the colors of the Ethiopian flag are to be seen in abundance. Tourists are walking around with knitted hats that have the colors of the flag of Ethiopia with artificial dreads attached to them, or are walking around with t-shirts with Bob Marley, or are wearing bracelets with the colors of the Ethiopian flag. The salesmen and women are all trying to sell these tourists different crafts which they think these tourists came for; and Rastafari holds an important role in various stands. This incorporation of Rastafari into the Jamaican culture and the important place it holds in it made me understand that the conflation of Rastafari and Jamaica by these various people was far from illogical.
2 My starting point of this thesis is that Rastafari started out as a counter-culture. It gave an alternative in the way that people looked at Africa and the way that black Jamaicans could perceive themselves. This was made possible via different ideologies and symbols. Via these symbols and ideologies they had set themselves apart from mainstream Jamaican society and the colonial regime. These symbols and a part of the ideologies are being co-opted/commodified [by the Jamaican state and tourist industry].
An interesting question from a academic perspective is: 'What happens when this ''Redemption'' is being commodified?' That is the predicament in which the Rastafari movement in Jamaica finds itself. From being shunned by the establishment and main society to becoming a ''lifeline'' in itself.
So Rastafari finds itself being conflated with a system that has tried to oppress it from the moment of its offset. What sparked my interest was how ordinary Rastafari's dealt with these changes and which effects it had on them as a movement. Are they deploying various strategies to differentiate themselves from 'Babylon?' How do they find their place in nowadays Jamaica? This created the following question that I constructed for my thesis: 'How do Rastafari's in Jamaica differentiate themselves from 'Babylon' now that their symbols and ideologies are being co-opted by the Jamaican state and tourist sector (Babylon)?'
To answer this question I have worked out a conceptual theoretical triangle. My first theoretical concept is in this triangle 'authenticity.' To differentiate themselves they have to distinguish the 'real' from the 'unreal.' I will analyze my data that I have gained during my fieldwork by using the works on authenticity by van der Port.
My second theoretical concept is 'networks.' When talking about the ''authentic'' Rasta my focus will be on the individual. Another level of distinguishing oneself is on a group level. On a level of a 'moral' community. How do Rastafari's operate in groups to differentiate themselves from 'Babylon'? I will place this in a theoretical framework by drawing from the works of Eriksen.
My third theoretical framework is 'alternative commodification.' It is next to impossible for Rastafari's to place themselves completely out of Babylon. With this theoretical concept I will analyze how Rasta's work within Babylon, but still manage to differentiate themselves by adhering to their ideologies.
In the first chapter 'Histories: A Strangely Problematic Setting: from Oppression to Commodification' I will first give an short history of Jamaica and then I will place Rastafari in a historical and social context from which it arose. This will be done to understand how it went from being oppressed to being commodified. But also to get an better understanding of how Rastafari is being used as an political ''pawn'' in which it is being stripped of its own agency in being able to define its own identity/authenticity.
3 The second chapter 'Fieldwork Methods, My Position in the Field and Ideas about the ''Authentic'' Rasta' exists out of three parts. First I will describe the methods that I used during my field work period. In the second part 'Who was I? in the field? Their Reflections on My Reflexivity' I will place myself in the field. Who was I, how was I being perceived the field by others and what were the effects for my research and fieldwork period? In the third part, 'Encounters: Whom did I meet in the field? Rasta, non-Rasta, or an essence of Rasta as authenticity?' I will analyze the data that I have gathered and place it in the theoretical concept of authenticity.
In the third chapter 'Distinctions: Being Sorts of Rasta: Symbols and the Embodiment of them' I will argue that there are different sorts of Rasta's. Rastafari is not a monolith religion, so people tend to have different views about how to 'carry out' their livity. It is interesting to analyze how these symbols are being perceived, if the commodification of these symbols has influenced their perceptions of them and how they are being embodied. I will argue at the hand of my interviews that Rasta's in a broad way adhere to the same symbols (e.g. dreadlocks), but they can interpreted them in different ways.
In the fourth chapter 'The Lack of Formal Networks and Contradictions' I will argue that the 'resources' that Rastafari's can use are scarce. The reason for this is the lack of (strong) organizations and persons, within the movement, that hold a position of authority, concerning the ideology of the movement. Instead of formal organizations the 'connections' between Rasta's are build on personal informal networks. The lack of resources, or the abundance of them, leads to contradictions, concerning the direction the movement should go, how Rasta's deal with Babylon and how they believe that Rastafari can change Babylon.
In the fifth chapter 'Creating a Space within Babylon by Alternative Forms of Commodification' I will argue that Rasta's cannot completely withdraw themselves from Babylon, so I will show at the hand of my research participants how they experience the commodification of their culture, how they deal with it and how they contribute to it.
In the conclusion I will answer my main question and how, via the three main theoretical concepts that I have used, Rastafari's deal with the commodification of their culture.
I will shortly introduce three academics here, because I heavily draw my information them. The first one is Dr. Stephen A. King and the book is 'Reggae, Rastafari, and the
Rhetoric of Social Control'. King, a professor at Delta State University, is a professor who's
interest lies in speech communication. The second one is Dr. Noel Erskine and his book 'From
Garvey to Marley'. Erskine, who is a professor of Theology and Ethics at Emory University is
an researcher who's interest lies in the historical and complex nature of black theology and pedagogy, the history and development of the black church, Revivalism and Rastafarism, to
4 name a few. The third one is Dr. Frank van Dijk and his book 'Jahmaica: Rastafari and
Jamaican Society, 19930-1990.' Van Dijk is a cultural anthropologist who promoted on
subject of Rastafari and is currently linked to the social science department of the University of Utrecht.
5
Chapter 1: Histories: A Strangely Problematic Setting: from Oppression to
Commodification
''the stone that the builder refused became the cornerstone. Nobody would know of Jamaica if it wasn't for Rastafari.'' - Mutabaruka
This quote was pondered by Mutabaruka during the silent march that Rasta's held in Kingston, to get a compensation for the survivors and family members of the Coral Garden massacre. But also, as Mutabaruka said; they were not just standing there for the plight of Rasta's, but also for black Jamaicans. The quotes in the above stem from the violent past of Rastafari in Jamaica and that the structures that were build during the era of slavery and colonialism are still not ''evaporated'', what the national slogan [of Jamaica] 'out of many one people' tries to imply.
Rastafari is being intimately linked with Jamaica. During my talks with people here in the Netherlands variety of them thinks that the red, gold and green colors are the colors that make up the flag of Jamaica. This suggests the strong association that people have between the [Rastafari] movement and Jamaican society.
This strong association is also what I had noticed during my fieldwork period. Throughout the country, and especially in the various craft markets, the red, gold and green colors and Bob Marley pictures are to be seen in abundance. Busses were taking tourists to various places, like Nine Mile the town where Bob Marley spent the first couple of years of his life, and the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston. When walking through the various craft markets in Ocho Rios, Negril and Montego Bay the red, gold and green colors were more recurrent than the ones of the Jamaican state. Next to the obvious natural beauties that Jamaica has to offer to the tourists Rastafari works as a ''cultural cloth'' to deepen the Jamaican experience for these tourists. In Negril there were parties were non-Rasta's were singing Rastafari themed songs and various Rastafari Reggae artists are performing for these tourists.
During my fieldwork I also spoke to different Jamaicans who gladly talked about Rastafari's in Jamaica when they found out that I was a student carrying out my research. When talking to a cab driver in Ocho Rios he told me that the people in the area really respected Rastafari. Another driver in Montego Bay who brought me to the Coral Gardens remembrance said that they [Rastafari's] were the holders of Jamaican culture. They are the ones, according to him, that lived the life a lot of Jamaicans could not (i.e. a clean life). Next to these 'positive' messages that I was hearing from non-Rasta's I did hear some comments about the way I kept my dreadlocks. Different women wanted to ''clean it up'' for me, and when I declined their offer, they did not understand why I wanted to keep it in a ''unkempt''
6 manner, a way that a lot of Rastafari's keep their dreadlocks. When sitting in a cab on my way to mainstreet Ocho Rios a police car drove by with a Rastafari sitting in the back. The other people sitting with me in the cab were reacting in the following way: 'of course ah Rasta'. These encounters incited questions in me how Rastafari's perceived the performed entanglement between Jamaican culture and Rastafari culture.
From my research participants, who were Rasta's themselves, I got a whole different picture of how they [Rastafari's] are being perceived in Jamaica. They brought up the days when they were being called 'dutty'(i.e. dirty) Rasta. My research participants also painted different pictures. They were saying that these non-Rasta's were still despising them, that the government was still not accepting them and that they were predominately being used to lure tourists and to make money out of them.
In order to understand these different views about Rastafari in Jamaica I will give the reader some information about Jamaica and then a historical backdrop of its history in Jamaica. After that I will describe the social and economic context in which the Rastafari movement came into being in Jamaica and its relation with the Jamaican state/people from then until now.
Jamaica is an island that is one of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean Seas. In the North lies Cuba at a distance of a mere 140 kilometers and to the east Haiti at about 180 kilometers. Its greatest length is approximately 240 kilometers, its greatest width some 80 kilometers (van Dijk 1993:33).
The Island was predominantly inhabited by the Arawaks who largely depended on fishing, lived along the shores of the Island and were generally described as peaceful ''primitive'' people; who were quickly ''exterminated'' in one hundred and fifty years, by the Spaniards; who arrived in 1509 on Jamaica. A combination of fatal European diseases, mass-murder, slavery, ill-treatment and suicide were the reasons why not one of the original Jamaicans were left by the beginning of the seventeenth century. As a substitute the Spaniards important enslaved Africans, although on a ''limited'' scale (about one thousand). By the midst of the seventeenth century the island came under British rule (Ibid.: 45-46).
Jamaica was at first a colony for small farmers and white indentured labors, but that changed when sugar entered Jamaican society. Sugar was mainly used by the elite as a sweetener and a medicinal ingredient and became, after 1700, an everyday product in Europe. Jamaica provided the opportunity for large-scale production.
The production of sugar required an enormous labor force and to this end thousands of slaves, who mainly came from the African West Coast, were brought to the island. By 1775 there were 12.737 whites and 200.000 enslaved Africans (Ibid.: 47).
7 The abolition of the slave trade in the British territories followed in 1807. By 1820 there were about 35.000 whites (one of the distinctions that were being made was between the mostly Scottish and English-born immigrants and the Jamaican creoles(i.e. white Europeans born in Jamaica)). Socially below the whites was an intermediate class of free colored (mulatto or brown) persons, originating from children born out of the sexual relations between white masters and female slaves. By the beginning they [Mulatto's and brown] already outnumbered the whites. The third group were the blacks, who heavily outnumbered the white and colored classes (Ibid.: 50).
By 1 August 1834 the abolition of slavery finally came, but the 311.000 ''former'' slaves were compelled to work on the plantations, without pay, for another four years (van Dijk 1993:53-54; Edmonds 2003:30). With the abolition of slavery the plantation owners found difficulties to find cheap labor; which they found in indentured labors from India, China and Africa. However the indentured labors turned out to be too expensive for the plantation owners. The final blow (dealt in 1864) for the plantation economy in Jamaica was the dropping of the protective measures, favoring colonial sugar imports, by the British Crown (van Dijk 1993:54)
Jamaica slowly gained independence. In 1958 it became a province in the Federation of the West Indies, a federation among the British West Indies. Jamaica attained full independence by leaving the federation in 1962.
Jamaica's current population is predominately of black African origin, descendants of slaves from Africa's West Coast. According to the 2001 census 91.2% Jamaica's population is black, 6.2% is mixed and 2.6% is other or unknown1 .
In spite of the Island's motto 'Out of Many One People', suggesting complete racial harmony, ethnic origin and skin color are still of great social significance. The former colonial hierarchy still influences the social and economic position of Jamaica's population to a great extent. Social status and economic and political power in Jamaica society were based on a three-layered strategy, in which the white European population formed the top, a significant group of what in the Jamaican context are ''brown men'' formed the intermediate middle class, and the black African masses the lower classes. With the upward social mobility of the black and mulatto population this class-color correlation started to fade. But is has to be said that a small group of whites still exercises a disproportionate influence and power over the island's economy and politics. The mulatto middle class is, in spite of increased social mobility, over the recent decades, still well represented. The overwhelming majority of the lower classes, the peasantry and what one could term the lumpenproletariat or underclass, is black. (van Dijk 1993: 37-38) .
8 Among the middle and upper classes in Jamaica, the dominant cultural orientation has long been exclusively European (British) and American. As a former British colony, the official language spoken in Jamaica is English and the ''Queen's English'' is regarded as good and civilized. This is notable when reading various articles about ''broken English''(Patois) and ''good English''2. The vast majority of the population, however, speaks Patois (pronunciation: Patwa), a dynamic mixture of several African languages and English, which is generally perceived by the elite as the lower-class language, the language of the poor black peasantry. Similarly, the elite considers European features - a thin nose, small lips, straight hair and a light skin color - to be more beautiful and desirable than African somatic features. (Ibid.: 38-39).
My research predominately took place in Ocho Rios, so a short description [of Ocho Rios] is in order. Ocho Rios (Spanish for ''Eight Rivers'', which is probably a corruption of the Spanish original name ''Las Chorreras, which means ''the waterfalls) is a town in the parish of Saint Ann on the north coast of Jamaica. Many believe that Christopher Columbus first set foot on land in Ocho Rios. Just outside the city, travelers and residents can visit Columbus Park, where Columbus supposedly first came on land, and see maritime artifacts and Spanish colonial buildings.
Ocho Rios was first a small fishing village, until the beginning of the 1990s, when the beaches of Jamaica were beginning to get recognized as a tourist attraction.3 It has a port for cruise ships, as well as cargo ships loading sugar, limestone and, in the past, bauxite, which is just a five minute drive away from the city.
The town is known for the use of it by the very first James Bond movie 'Dr. No'. It is also known for its 'Dolphins Cove', a place where people can interact with dolphins.
Ocho Rios was going to be my only field of research, what has changed during my research. It was a fieldwork site that was to small and during my interviews I was recommended to visit other places as well. So I absorbed Negril, Kingston and Montego Bay in my research.
2 http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/allwoman/Get-your-child-to-speak-properly_14232098 3 http://www.thebluehousejamaica.com/Ocho_Rios_History.html
9
Ideologies of Resistance that came before Rastafari
''Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God.'' - Psalm 68:31
Jamaica has a history of being a soil that sprouted different resistance groups prior to Rastafari. I will give a short oversight of these different groups to show the reader the historical context in which Rastafari has sprung.
Captured Africans, by slave traders, and transported to the 'New World' longed for and believed that a return to Africa, within their own lifetime, was feasible. As time passed the expectation of returning to one's home took another form. It became a belief of returning home after death. These longings of returning back home faded away as time passed due to the decline of new arrivals and the crealization. Due to the abolition of the slave trade slaveholders had to focus on the reproduction of their slaves instead of attaining new enslaved Africans from Africa. The absence of ''new'' Africans made it hard for the slaves to have a connection with their homeland. Legends and myths became more important because of this absent.
This does not mean that the enslaved Africans did not pursued freedom at all. Due to the fact that returning back to Africa was next to impossible freedom had to be achieved in the New World and one of the options was either individually through running away, manumission, or collectively through rebellion and insurrection (van Dijk 1993:57). More slave rebellions occurred in Jamaica than in all other British colonies in Caribbean combined4. Jamaican Maroons had succeeded in creating a state within a state and provided a safe haven for runaway and rebellious slaves.
So, ideas about returning back to Africa were not just ideas that originated from Rastafari, but have a long preceding history. Throughout the New World there were different initiatives that were focused on bringing freed former Africans slaves to Africa. These different programs were set up by the British to settle the poor black in Sierra Leone in the late 18th century. There were also different initiatives in the United States to resettle former enslaved Africans in Freetown. These 'Back to Africa' ideas never really crystallized in Jamaica, but remained a latent ideological factor.
There are different reasons why Ethiopia became such an important symbol of Africa's past glory. One of the reasons is that Ethiopia commonly was used to designate the whole of the African continent (van Dijk 1993:59-60). Many black people began to identify themselves with the frequent references to Ethiopia and the Ethiopians since Christian preachers begun
10 their missionary work in the Anglophone parts of the ''New World'' and parts of Africa. This next quote, by van Dijk, captures their connection to the Ethiopians and Ethiopia:
''What must have struck them, was the parallel between the biblical Israelites and themselves: taken away from their homeland, exiled and enslaved in a strange country. Was the Diaspora of the House of Israel not very much like the scattering of the black people by the Atlantic slave trade? And would not the next step be the end of exile and slavery and the return to the Promised Land? In fact, were the African people in the West not very much like, perhaps even, the true Israelites?'' (Ibid.:61)
These parallels that have been found by black people in Diaspora and other references of Ethiopia only strengthen the feeling that is being described in this excerpt. It had an effect on black people in Jamaica, South Africa and the United States of America. This glorification of Ethiopia via the Bible had been termed 'Ethiopianism'. It originated in South Africa during the 1870s and was a secessionist church movement rebelling against missionary churches that condoned the practice of white colonial rule and apartheid. It also challenged prevailing arguments that blacks were inferior in the Bible and articulated a more positive image of black people in the Bible (King 2002: xvi)
Like I have said in the above it is important to see what happened before the Rastafari movement began. The emergence of Rastafari was not a coincidence, but a continuation of the past. Black people in the colonies and the New World already had ideas about repatriation and the significance of Ethiopia.
The Emergence of Rastafari in Jamaica
The social context in which Rastafari emerged is in an important point of departure, in order to be able to understand the arising of this new movement in Jamaica. A hundred years after the ending of slavery the structure that was created during the days of slavery, that was based on the believe that white was a symbol of purity and goodness and that its opposite, black, was a symbol of impurity and evil, was still standing. There were a handful of white people at the apex of the society, a number of brown people consisted the middle class and the vast majority of black people were at the bottom of the society and were hardly benefitting of the economic progress that had been made. The country was, according to Erskine, in a grip of high
11 employment, poor housing and children malnourishment (Erskine: 2004:42; Chevannes 1990: 62).
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican black Nationalist, born in Jamaica on August 1, 1887, has influenced the Rastafari movement extensively. After traveling throughout Central and South America and England he became interested in African culture and history. After his experiences, during his travels, he believed that blacks must unify to overcome their oppression and returned to Jamaica to found the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). After travelling to the United States the UNIA started a chain of black-owned small business. By 1920, the UNIA boasted a membership of two million blacks.
Garvey was influenced by Ethiopianism and glorified Africa's past and taught that God and Christ were black. He linked the regaining of their [blacks] dignity and equal rights to the ability to have a land of their own and being the own masters of this land. He coined the slogan 'Africa for Africans'. With his organization [the UNIA] he sponsored the Black Start Steamship Line, a corporation founded to transport blacks back to Africa (King 2002: xv).
He was ridiculed by Jamaica's dominant society, but by a part of Jamaica's black lower classes he was being perceived as saint and later on by the Rastafari's movement he was being perceived as a prophet. The UNIA slogan 'Princes come out of Egypt, Ethiopia shall stretch forth her hands to God (Psalm 68:31)' and a play of Garvey named 'The Coronation of King and Queen of Africa' played an important role in the perception of black Jamaicans to see Garvey as a prophet when Ras Tafari was being crowned as Haile Selassie the King of Ethiopia.
Rasta's emerged from the Jamaican black underclass that perceived Garvey as saint. They were frowned upon by the colored class and the white elite. They contended that capitalism and its attendant values of racism, classism and colonialism are products of Babylon. Babylon was a system of (evil) colonialism and political chicanery was the reason for their current situation of powerlessness and poverty in Jamaica (Erskine 2004 : 39).
Leonard Howell has been identified as the first Rastafarian preacher in Jamaica. He encouraged Jamaicans to reject the authority of the King of England and to give their loyalties to the new emperor of Ethiopia [Haile Selassie]. He failed to attract a community of followers during his first public meetings in Kingston in January 1933. He soon shifted his center of activities form the capital to the countryside, where he was able to make his first converts under a human and cultural crucible where the traditions of Afro-Jamaicans meet and merge with those of the descendants of maroons and African and East Indian indentured laborers (Erskine 2004: 41). The pledging of his allegiance to an King other than King George V soon attracted the attention the colonial government. As expected, Jamaica's colonial
12 government objected to Howell's anti-colonial rhetoric. In 1934 the police arrested Howell for breaking Jamaica's sedition laws (Ibid.: xvii).
Rasta's did not had the need to change Jamaican society or adhered to Marcus Garvey's 'black capitalism.' What Rastafari brought to the black underclass was an understanding of God, which was a continuation of ideas [e.g. Ethiopianism]. Erskine described the social context in which Rastafari arose:
''The economic situation in Jamaica coupled with the cultural dislocation of the majority of Jamaicans forced them to seek a context in which to make sense of God-talk as they sought to carve out social, cultural, and political space for themselves. Faced with social and economic disenfranchisement and terminal poverty, they turned to a religion as a form of empowerment and resistance to help them understand local and global events.'' (Erskine 2004: 41)
What Rastafari did was that it confronted Jamaican society with its blackness and made it deal with its relationship to Africa.
The main catalyst event of the Rastafari movement was the crowning of Ras Tafari (his original name) to Haile Selassie in 1930 (Edmonds 2003: 32). Ethiopia is one of the earliest countries to have adopted Christianity and a part of the Ethiopian nobility claimed to descent from King Solomon of Judah and the Queen of Sheba. So the new emperor [Haile Selassie] appropriated the following titles 'King of Kings', 'Lord of Lords', 'Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah', thus reaffirming the ancient roots of Ethiopian civilization and its independent place in Judaea-Christian traditions (Chevannes 1995:9; Erskine 2004:69). Due to his use of Bible references Jamaicans were able to connect this new belief called Rastafari (Ras, the Ethiopian for 'prince' and Tafari) to the Bible and can been seen as a continuation of pre-existing ideas like Ethiopianism.
Many blacks in the Caribbean and the United State got their first glimpse of Ethiopia due to the international media exposure that the coronation of Haile Selassie received. Some of Garvey's followers consulted their Bibles and subsequently believed that Haile Selassie was the 'King of Kings', the black Messiah prophesized by Garvey (King 2004:xvi-xvii). He said 'look to Africa for the crowning of a king to know that your redemption is nigh'. The reason why black Jamaicans noticed his crowning was because of the work and ideas of Marcus Garvey coupled with a heightened black, pan-African consciousness.
13
The 'Dealing' with the Rastafari Movement by the Colonial Government
Even during Howell's incarceration Rastafari's continued to make the press in Jamaica. The difficult social and economic conditions in the early 1930s due to the 'great depression' created a great unrest amongst the Jamaican peasantry. Rastafari's added more fuel to the fire. One of their ideas was that the land belonged to the black population, which attracted the attention of the colonial government. In a country ruled by a handful white people it is understandable why this idea was being perceived as dangerous when a lot of the black underclass were unemployed and landless. Especially the newspaper The Daily Gleaner reported about the Rastafari's and describing them as a 'dangerous cult' (van Dijk 1993:92).
Even when being targeted and arrested by police officers Rastafari managed to keep on growing and spreading. One of the reasons for the difficulty to break the movement apart, by the colonial government, was the acephalous nature of the [Rastafari] movement. There are groups, quasi-groups and individuals, who while sharing the core beliefs, nevertheless remain separate and independent. So the faith of the movement is not dependent on a particular leader, like Howell for instance (Chevannes 1995:31)
Until the 1970s Rastafari continued to experience different kinds of repressive actions by the colonial government. Although being reluctant to pursue this strategy, because of the fear to contribute to the increase in popularity of the movement, early [Rastafari] leaders like Howell, Hibbert and Dunkley were arrested, imprisonment and hospitalized. Other repressive actions, by the police, were the 1958 groundation, the fracas at Coronation Market in 1959, the Henry rebellion of 1960, the Holy Thursday massacre of 1963, the demolition of Back-O-Wall in 1966, the raids on Claudius Henry's commune in 1967-1968 or the Rodney riots of October 1968 were clear examples of various large-scale retaliation by the colonial government (van Dijk 1993:345).
During my fieldwork period I noticed that the Holy Thursday massacre still holds an important place in the memories of my research participants. It was, according to my research participants, one of the important and clear examples of the repressive strategy's that was being applied by the colonial state and police.
While Kingston had traditionally been the centre of Rastafarian activity during the 1950s Jamaica's tourist capital Montego Bay had also witnessed a growing adherence to the movement. It was the Custos [i.e. a keeper of country records and the highest officer in that county] of St. James Francis Kerr-Jarret, who in 1956 had urged Governor Hugh Foot to contact the British ambassador in Addis Ababa to see whether Haile Selassie could be induced to deny his alleged divinity. Three years later Kerr-Jarret financed the trip of seven Rastafari's to the Moral Rearmament movement's training center in Michigan. As a result of the trip, the main Rasta formation in Montego bay, the Orange Street Gully group, had fallen apart (Ibid.:
14 164). So this method, applied by Kerr-Jarret, did not split up or slow down the growth of the group, because of its decentralized nature. The presence of Rastafari's was so strong that the local Chamber of Commerce thought it was necessary to accuse the police of pampering the local Rasta's. It [the Chamber of Commerce] claimed that tourist were being harassed by Rasta's who were wielding their machetes (Ibid.:165).
The already widespread fear of the Rasta's in Montego Bay reached its climax when on April 1963 six bearded men, said to be Rastafari's, were involved in a violent incident. The incident in which eight persons lost their lives, sent shockwaves of panic and horror through the entire island, and once more convinced many Jamaicans, that Rastafari's were extremely dangerous. This phenomena is named 'moral panic' within the field of sociology. Goode and Ben-Yehuda describe the concept in the following manner:
''These historical episodes represent explosions of fear and concern at a particular time and place about a specific perceived threat. In each case, a specific agent was widely felt to be responsible for the threat; in each case, a sober assessment of the evidence concerning the nature of the supposed threat forces the observer to the conclusion that the fear and concern were, in all likelihood, exaggerated or misplaced.'' (Goode & Ben-Yehuda 1994:150)
When analyzing this event the reader will see that a moral panic, like described in the above, erupted during this ''event''.
On 11 April, these men, armed with guns and machetes, attacked a gas station in Coral Gardens, and set the place and two automobiles on fire. Not long afterwards they also killed the property headman of the Rose Hall estate. Later in the morning numerous heavily armed policeman and soldiers, with two armored units, were brought to the area. After different clashes with their pursuers three of the six Rasta's were killed and the other three vanished(van Dijk 1993:165).
In the mean time this event added only more fuel to the fire, in regard to the prevailing sentiments about Rastafari in Jamaica. Radio stations created widespread fear and panic with their repeated announcements of an island-wide Rastafarian uprising. The prime minister Alexander Bustamante, two ministers and the top of the police force and military were flown to Montego Bay, and hundreds of police and army reinforcements were transported to the area. It had been said, by Rasta's, that he gave the orders 'to bring in every Rastafari, dead or alive' (Ibid.:165).
15 On the same day police forces were rounding up every Rasta that they could find in Montego bay and its vicinity. The raids continued throughout the evening and night and no fewer than 170 Rasta's were arrested on every charge the police could come up with; varying from vagrancy to being a suspected person. Many Rasta's started to cut off their locs and beards. An unidentified government spokesman was quoted saying: 'If jail cannot hide the Rastafarians put them on Bogue Hill [ Montego Bay's cemetery].'
Jamaica was appalled by what happened by what became known as the Holy Thursday or Coral Gardens Massacre. There were two theories to explain what happened on that day. The first theory was in line what were the popular thoughts about Rastafari's; that they were high on weed, to what the attendant of the gas station testified. It was the most convenient explanation and the one that was accepted by the JPL government. It also ensued a call to elimination the cultivation of ganja. The second theory, which was more plausible, was that the leader of the ''gang'' was bent on vengeance after being shot and sentenced to a prison term last year after a dispute where the overseer of the estate for attempting to cultivate the land without permission and was overheard saying that someone at the gas station betrayed him (Ibid.:166-167).
The nation's elite were not interested in the second explanation and demanded action. The Coral Gardens Massacre incident was not directed at the six men, but at the Rastafari movement as a whole. During the funeral of one of the policemen killed during the manhunt the Baptist reverend E.H. Greaves expressed the feelings that were simmering throughout Jamaican society when he demanded 'legislation right away to rid this community of the Rastafarian menace which he said was not good for any civilized country.' Also the Chamber of Commerce expressed it wishes ''to exterminate this evil movement'', concerned about the effects of the event on tourism and trade.
These events still hold a profound place in the memories of Rastafari's. During my fieldwork period I also attended the 50th remembrance of the Coral Gardens Massacre. In Kingston there was a silent march to remember those who died and suffered at the hands of the police force and to ask for a compensation for the families who had lost someone and financially compensation, because families as still suffering from the massacre.
The Shift in the 'Dealing' with the Rastafari Movement by the State
The coercive measures that the colonial state took did little in disrupting the growth of the movement. If anything it contributed to the continued existence of the movement. One of the following strategy's that the government undertook was the strategy of ''adjustment''; meaning making some concessions to the social movement while not accepting their demands or goals (King 2002:82; van Dijk 1993:347).
16 The Jamaican government's adjustment, to the demands of the Rastafari movement in the 1960's, was evident in two major ways. First, the government allowed the visiting of Haile Selassie to Jamaica in 1966. Second, the Jamaican ruling class accepted certain means of protest, most notably by allowing supposed Rastafari's to editorialize in the national newspaper, the Daily Gleaner. Both of these measures were aimed at pacifying the movement.
Instead of appeasing the Rastafari's the visit of Haile Selassie only empowered them and turned them more towards political activism. It also highlighted the strength and popularity of Rastafari as a grassroots social movement. Leonard Barrett, a noted scholar of the Rastafari movement, called Selassie's visit one of the major turning points on the routinization or legitimization as a social movement in Jamaica. More important the visit of Haile Selassie and his decree that Rastafari should seek ''liberation'' in Jamaica before ''repatriation'' to Africa. This decree only ignited the already growing political consciousness of the Rastafari movement (King 2002:82). The movement formed an alliances with other black power movements in Jamaica and became more identified with the increasingly politicized lyrics of Jamaica's popular music.
The other adjustment tactic was that the Daily Gleaner published letters from Rastafari ''leaders''. Samuel Brown, identified by the Gleaner as a spokesperson for the movement in Jamaica, was one of the more ''political'' and outspoken of these Rastafari ''leaders'' to publish in the Gleaner. Brown used the space that he got to counter the prevailing ideas about Rastafari's, for instance that they were a group of ''fanatics'' (Ibid.: 84).
This strategy of adjustment basically proved to be unsuccessful. It did little to stem the increased political activism and growing popularity of the Rastafari movement. The ideological and organizational nature of the Rastafari movement rendered many control strategies ineffective (Ibid.:84-85).
The development of ''international reggae'' after 1971 made it harder for the Jamaican government and dominant class to ignore or suppress the movement, while a new generation of academic scholars approached the movement more sympathetically (King 2002: 85; van Dijk 1993:346). The movement became more known an popular throughout the world with the reggae soundtrack 'The Harder They Come' and the reggae album of the Wailers 'Catch a Fire.' The PNP candidate for prime minister, Michael Manley, used the popularity of Reggae and Rastafari in Jamaica by beginning to express sympathy to the movement and hired reggae artists during his political rallies (King 2002: 85). He attempted to appeal to the Rastafari and Jamaica's black power movements. It can also been seen as one of the earliest moments when the movement was started to being co-opted by the state, in this case the political establishment.
17 The adjustment strategy of the government did not entailed any ''real'' concessions towards the goals and demands of the movement. The concessions that were being made were of a symbolic nature; like the visiting of Emperor Haile Selassie and the space that they got in the national newspaper the Daily Gleaner. When this does not work the establishment may opt for another strategy; cooptation.
An establishment may, when a social movements agitation becomes especially intense, may try to incorporate leaders or sympathizers into the establishment on ''non-threatening'' positions. Another cooptation strategy may be to incorporate parts of the dissent ideology into the mainstream, entering into a more or less ''merger with the social movement (King 2002:107; van Dijk 1993:348) . When we consider all the ''adjustments'' that has been made by the Jamaican political and cultural establishment, and the significance of those ''adjustments'', one can argue that the ruling class indeed co-opted the Rastafari movement. It incorporated its symbols while deflecting it its most substantive religious and political ideologies (King 2002: 106)
One of the most clear examples of the co-optation of a part of the Rastafari movement is the co-optation of reggae. One of the first clear examples of the co-optation of Reggae music and the Rastafari movement was the exploitation of it by Micheal Manley during his 1972 national political campaign. Reggae artists were being invited to perform during the rallies and the perception was created that they were being incorporated into the institutional bodies, which did not happen. The Jamaican tourist board also saw reggae as a potential economic source to bring tourists to the island and started to organize reggae festivals like Reggae Sunsplash.
Rastafari started to being incorporated into the Jamaican culture, at least its symbols. Tourist operators offer tourists trips to different landmarks of Reggae prominents (e.g. Bob Marley's birth place) and the craft markets offer different crafts with the red, gold and green colors on it. Rastafari's political demands are not incorporated, so it remains on a symbolic level.
When walking through various craft markets you can see how Rastafari has been turned into a commodity. You can by different crafts with it symbols; i.e. a red, gold and green hat with artificial dreadlocks attached to them. The profits that are being made are in the millions of dollars, the Jamaican state and tourist industry turned the symbols of the movement into a commodity and created the illusion that the political parties and society as a whole accepted the group that were ''once'' oppressed.
The co-optation of Rastafari does not mean that the harassment in the past are not present anymore. While Jamaican society, the elite and police force seem to have embraced it as a part of Jamaican culture, this seems to not be the case.
18 So you this is the strange situation wherein Rastafari finds itself. It is being co-opted by the state and Jamaican society, but also is not being ''fully'' accepted. What I noticed during my fieldwork period that there was still the feeling they are being more targeted by the Jamaican police force and are still not accepted by the Jamaican society. They [the Jamaican state and society] just pick certain aspects of the culture and market it as something that is authentically Jamaican. So the agency of the movement is in the hands of other parties.
Chapter 2: Fieldwork Methods, My Position in the Field and Ideas about
the ''Authentic'' Rasta
Fieldwork Methods
The most important method that I deployed during my research was the use of semi-structured interviews. This method helped me to keep the topics close to my research, but also gave me enough space to listen to my research participants and ask questions that I had missed in my interview setup.
Observation also played an important role within my research. For instance, it helped me to locate symbols that were taken for granted and not named by my research participants. Via observation I was able to capture visual and linguistic aspects that my research participants took for granted. Due to my observations I was able to bring these aspects under their attention and ask for the meanings that they attached to them.
Even with the observation method it is still possible to miss certain aspects that are important to my research participants. This is why I also used the photo elicitation method, in which I gave a disposable camera to several research participants and ask them to photograph what Rastafari means, according to them, from a visual aspect. Afterwards I would develop them and asked them why they choose them and what kind of meaning they had, to them.
I used the snowball method to get to know different Rastafari's. My gatekeeper played an important role in this. She knew people who I could talk to, and when friends of her came by her house (where I also was staying) I started a conversation and planned interviews with them.
Another method that I deployed was the 'who do I want to interview?' method. Most of
the
Rastafari literature that I read consisted of Rastafari men that were used in the gathering of data. I tried to create a balance on base of gender. My gatekeeper was a woman and I used the snowball method in order to interview Rasta women within her network, which turned out to be a useful method. I did make sure that I did not interview Rasta's that only came out of her own network.19
Fieldwork intro: Who Was I? Their reflections on my Reflexivity
'Are you a Rastafari?' was the question that I got, from a person who wanted to buy some coconuts from sister Apple. She was also standing next to me, and I answered with 'I do not know'. He answered me with 'what are you then?'. This situation occurred a couple of minutes before my first interview and my first couple of days in Jamaica and it arose the question within myself, 'who am I within the field?'.
When entering my research site I had noticed that the question of ''I'' and who this ''I'' was, was more significant than I had imagined and that it would alter various times during my research period in Jamaica. My identity, and how I was perceived by others, constantly shifted during my fieldwork. This is why I want to reflect on it and if it did, how it affected me and my research during my fieldwork period.
Before'' placing'' myself in the Jamaican context, I am first going to ''place'' myself within the Dutch context. By doing this, the reader will have a better understanding of the ''shock'' that I encountered when I entered my research site.
I am a black man, born from Eritrese immigrants, who came to the Netherlands in the early 80's of the twentieth century. I am born in the Netherlands. By the state I am classified as a 'niet-westerse allochtoon' (i.e. a person who has, at least, one parent who is born in a foreign country5) positioned against the 'autochtoon' (i.e. a person who both his/her parents are born in the Netherlands6). So I, as person, who is born in the Netherlands, is still being considered as an ''alien.'' Next to color of my skin I also have dreadlocks and a facial beard. Within the Dutch/Western context these [''African''/''black''] physical features are being connected to a wide array of ideas, from uncivilized7 to being ''exotic'' (which may not even be that different from each other). People in the Netherlands, but also tourists in Jamaica often want to touch my hair, because of their unfamiliarity with it and these experiences are bringing feelings to my mind of when Africans like Sarah Baartman were brought to the European continent to be seen and touched in order to get white Europeans familiar with the ''African race8.'' My racial identity is also not questioned (i.e. people hardly ask me if I am mixed raced). People also do not connect me to a specific (religious) identity. So while living in the Netherlands I do not have to think about ''I'', in the sense that I was positioned as a black non-Western Allochtoon who was not perceived as of being of mixed race.
Before arriving in Jamaica I knew that the possibility existed that people could mistaken me for a Rastafari, but I could not imagine, how it could influence, or even limit my
5 http://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/menu/methoden/begrippen/default.htm?conceptid=37 6 http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/methoden/begrippen/default.htm?ConceptID=88 7 http://jezebel.com/5832293/nivea-says-afros-are-uncivilized
20 own actions, during my fieldwork. Another perception of me could be that of a Jamaican, instead of a Dutch student from abroad.
One of the first thing that I noticed upon my arrival in Ochi was that Jamaicans tend to address people by their appearance (e.g. a person with specific kind of dreadlocks would be called a Rasta/Nyabinghi and a person with his/her dreadlocks covered would be a called a Bobo). So I was frequently called a Rasta or a Nyabinghi by people in the streets when they called out to me. This made me aware of the way people perceived me when I was walking in the streets. I cannot bring up a moment during my stay when a person, who was not a research participant of mine, asked me if I even was a Rasta. These ideas about my religious identity did not changed when I stated that I was a student from abroad who was conducting research in Jamaica. I also did not ''corrected'' these perceived ideas that people had of me, because I hoped to gain new insights of Rastafari through me. This ambiguous state I was positioned in, and also choose to remain in, was something that I had to maneuver through during my research period.
What also played a role was the fact that I sympathize with a lot of the ideas that Rastafari's adhere to. I do not call myself a 'pan-Africanist', but I do combat institutional racism. So my hair and my ideas further strengthened the ideas, of some, that I was a Rastafari. What (sometimes) happened next was that I was put under a greater scrutiny (e.g. why was I not wearing a button with Haile Selassie on it, or why was I not covering my dreads). This form of ''directness'' that I encountered, from my research participants and other Jamaicans, was something that I really needed to get adjusted to. Especially when I was, for the first time, in a non-western country (except for Eritrea) for a long period (three months), without knowing anybody and that I operated in a field of ambiguity did not made it easier.
My research participants, when in the field, introduced me to other people in various ways. In an early stage of my research period I met with a lecturer, who is a Rastafari, named Dr. Jalani Niaah. I already established contact with him before the start of my fieldwork. During our talk in Kingston he asked me, in the middle of our conversation, if I was a Rastafari, because of the way that I talked about our topics. He also asked me if I was mix-raced and if I was planning to let my dreadlocks grow. These three questions came back frequently during my fieldwork. When he made some calls for me he introduced me as a dreadlocked pan-Africanist. Rastafari's are also pan-Africanists, so his decision to help me was not illogical. Even Orah, my gatekeeper, during one of our talks, asked me if I was or was not a Rastafari and later on talked about me as a dreadlocked youth. What I noticed from their perceptions of me was that Rastafari is more than a certain belief system; it also a pan-Africanist social movement.
21 My ''roots'' also played a key role during my research. Like mentioned before, I am a child from Eritrean immigrants. Eritrea is located next to Ethiopia and was a part of it until 1993. After a liberation war of 30 years Eritrea liberated itself from Ethiopia. In the beginning I was curious to see how Rasta's would respond to the fact that I am a man of Eritrean descent, because of its history with Ethiopia. Dr. Niaah said that it was a sad thing that a great nation as Ethiopia was cut off from the sea and that the [Ethiopian] empire fell apart. When I encountered other Rasta's they were curious about my roots and were glad to meet me because of my roots. I can recall one talk that I had with a Rasta (I-Yee) in Kingston. He was even proud to meet me, because I came from the ''Motherland.'' This made him eager to talk to me about his ideas of Rastafari. The same went for Clifford, a Rasta who had a stand in the craft market in Ochi. When I was with him another Rasta came by he introduced me as student from Eritrea, Africa.
This directness coupled with the ambiguous position I was in was the initial ''shock'' that I encountered. When walking through the streets in the Netherlands I hardly get bothered, in Ochi I could hardly walk around without people wanting something from me, because I was a tourist/foreigner. I found it really hard to deal with this, because I, as a person, living in West, was aware of the global power structures that placed me in a more prosperous position than the people in streets asking me for something (e.g. money). It was not just that people wanted something from me. I can recall a moment when I was walking through main street with an ice cream and a woman, who was sitting on a stoop, said to me in a lightly irritated manner 'Rasta do not eat cream'. What immediately went through my head was, 'I cannot do anything without people watching me'. Being under constant scrutiny did cost me a lot of energy, because of my unfamiliarity with it.
Another aspect of my identity that was put into question, what was my racial identity. Jamaica is a country where the vast majority of the people are from African descent. This group is vastly bigger than the brown and white population of the island. The effect of this was that my fairly light complexion made it that I was ''placed'' in the brown category. I frequently got the question if I was mixed-raced. This affected my ideas of my racial identity and racial identity in general. These seem to be more fluid that I expected. Where in the Netherlands I was being perceived as a black man, without any questions of my racial identity in Jamaica I became something else. I went from somebody who never had to question his racial identity to someone who frequently got the question ''what he was.'' I was not the only one struggling with this idea of race. My gatekeeper Orah; a African-American woman with a light complexion, had to struggle with the same issues of race. In the United States she was a black woman and in Jamaica she was considered ''white.'' One of the reasons for this discrepancy between these different places may be the ''mixing of races'' in Jamaica. Whereas
22 in the Netherlands and United State there are more black people who are bi-racial or of ''mixed'' descent, what makes me/us relatively darker in the Netherlands and the United States than in Jamaica; where because of the very high percentage of Jamaicans of African descent the ''mixing'' cannot take place on a scale as large as in a countries where the majority of people are white.
So these ideas of race and identity played an important role in how ''they'' and ''I'' perceived myself.
Encounters: Whom did I Meet in the Field? Rasta, Non-Rasta, or an Essence of
Rasta as Authenticity?
I can still remember the first time when I drove into Ocho Rios ('Ochi'). I took a taxi from the airport in Montego Bay and Orah (my gatekeeper and the woman with whom I was going to stay with during my stay in Jamaica) was going to pick me up in Main street. Due to different circumstances she could not pick me up and I met with a friend of hers. The first thing that I noticed upon my arrival was that there where so many cars driving through a street that hardly could hold that amount of traffic. When I was picked up by the friend of Orah I asked her the question 'how big is Ochi' when she replied me with 'this is it'. The first thing that went through my mind was 'is this place going to be 'big enough', as a research site, to conduct my research?' I quickly spotted the two crafts markets, that were located on Main street. I saw tourists walking around and the street vendors selling goods varying from fruits to CD's. I finally arrived in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.
Rasta's
I was renting a room, in Ocho Rios, in a starting guesthouse, owned by my gatekeeper Orah EL. She was born in United States of America and is living in Jamaica since 1999. She is in the beginning of her sixties and a Rastafari. She brought me into contact with several Rastafari, like Sister Apple, Sister Vanessa and the Prof-I, who is leading the Nyabinghi center of Ocho Rios. She was also my contact who introduced me to Sister Amma, who lives in Kingston. Via Orah I predominately met with other females, something that I also hoped. I tried to make sure that my research population was diverse, based on gender. During my preparation of my fieldwork I had noticed that the used informants were predominately men, something that I did not wanted for my own research. These research informants varied in age from their late thirties to well in their sixties. I had trouble finding Rasta's of my own age. All of my research participants were independent workers. Sister Apple has a little shop on the roadside between Ocho Rios and Oracabessa, in which she sells her fruits and self made
23 crafts, like purses and hats, in which she incorporated the red, gold and green colors. Sister Vanessa is also a woman in her forties who lives in the neighborhood of Sister Apple and is a singer, makes crafts and paintings that she sells. Prof-I is the owner of the Nyabinghi center, who does not work. Sister Amma, who I stayed with in Kingston for four days, works out of her own home. People can order food from her and pick it up at her home. That's how she makes her living. She also introduced me to Amrabak m a Rastafari who travels throughout Kingston with his craft stand. I went to his craft stand at the UWI during black history month and had a talk to him and another Rastafari (I-yee) with who he works. When I talked to him, he attended to me that I should meet with Prof-I. This was something that I heard a lot from different (non-)Rastafari. So I quickly understood that he held a pivotal role within the movement (in Ocho Rios). Sister Amma also wanted to introduce me to some other Rastafari, but because I went to Kingston on a later moment of my fieldwork I could not follow up on her offer because I met her in a later moment of my research. All these people are Rastafari and identify themselves as Nyabinghi's. With my research informants, that are stated in the above, I did not had any language problems, except for Prof-I, who's Patois I found, sometimes, hard to understand.
During my fieldwork I traveled two times to Kingston. On my first one day stay I met with Jalani Niaah, who is a lecturer at the university of the West Indies. During our talk he advised me to travel through Jamaica, because Jamaica was not that big, but because I already rented a (rather expensive) room at Orah it wasn't possible for me to do that, but I did went to Negril, like he advised me. I had the feeling during our talk that he really was trying to steer my research. He was a Jamaican and a Rastafari, and because of this I had the feeling, at the moment, that I may had gone about my research in the wrong way, but I am glad I was able to incorporated his ideas in my original plan. During my stay with Orah I had the feeling that she thought she knew what my research was about and she made some remarks about it (e.g. 'this would be great for your research' and 'you really need to interview her'). She, for example, wanted me to talk to one of her friends. I met her earlier (she is one of the founders of the Rasta village for children that is being set up by her and Orah), and I did not felt the need to interview her. In retrospective in may have been a way in asserting the control over my own research.
One of the problems I had in accessing networks was that my research informants, who are working in Ocho Rios, did not live in Ocho Rios. In the beginning of my research I had the intend to only ''use'' informants who lived or worked in Ocho Rios. When my research progressed I noticed that I needed to expand it a little bit (which is one of the reasons why I went to Kingston, Negril and Montego Bay). So it was hard to access their networks. I tried to compensate this by asking questions about their networks and how they use these networks.
24 The informants that I talked to in Ocho Rios were Jonathan, a Rastafari who had a stand in the bigger craft market on Main street, and was in his sixties, Clifford who had a music stand in the smaller craft market on main street and Everton, who sold fruits on the road, while walking around. So it was hard to access their networks, but I tried to compensate this with my questionnaire. Another problem that arose was that there are no formal networks that I could use to get know more people, everything was very informal (which is also an complaint that a lot of my informants expressed to me). I also interviewed a Rasta prominent named Mutabaruka, who also attended a meeting at Prof-I's Nyabinghi center, which was also attended by one of my other research participants, Sister Vanessa. I missed this gathering because of the absent of formal networks, and, for instance, a flyer or other form of notifications. I also missed another event because of this.
One of the other problems that I encountered with the language barriers was during two (informal) group interviews. When they [my research participants] were surrounded by other Rasta's they tended to switch to a more difficult form of Patios, what made it hard for me to follow the conversation. It demanded a 100% concentration level of me, which made me ''juggle'' between writing and listing. A conversation that took place on a high ''pace'' made it next to impossible for me to ''steer'' the conversation. I also build up a report with another research participant (Everton), but his Patios was something that I could not comprehend and his English was not sufficient enough to have a formal interview. So I tried via informal conversations to get his ideas, about my research topics, from him.
Non-Rasta's
The circle that I was surrounded with were predominately Rasta's, so I did not met as many non-Rasta's as I wanted to. My position as a tourist made it hard to establish a ''normal'' relationship with most of the non-Rasta's, because most of them wanted something of me. The persons that I did met had clear ideas about what Rastafari entailed and shared their ideas with me.
The ideas that I got from non-Rasta's were that they do see, as Edmond said, Rastafari's as ''culture bearers.'' One day I was sitting in Turtle park, Ocho Rios, catching up on some reading. It is a quiet place where predominately couples and school children hang out. It a breath of fresh air next to the crowded Main street. At a certain moment a man stepped up to me asking me to borrow my self phone, because he needed to make a call. He is a construction worker in his forties and needed to make a call for a job. After his call we ended up talking about Rastafari. This happened when I informed him that I was doing research about it. He tried to explain to me what Rastafari entailed. He used the Bible as an
25 starting point and that it was a Christian based religion. He was not the only one who used the Bible in explaining Rastafari. I met this man, who I would estimate to be in his thirties. He asked me if I was a Rastafari and was eager to explain what Rastafari meant, according to him. He explained to me that we, black people, are the true Israelites, because it said so in the Bible. He had a strong affection with Rastafari and used to had dreadlocks, but cut them due to the difficulty to find a job with them [dreadlocks].
Being perceived as Rasta also influenced the way non-Rasta's talked and acted around me. I can recall a taxi driver asking me if it was okay by me if who would smoke in the care because he knew that Rasta's do not like it.
An Authentic Rastafari?
When I talked to my research participants I always started with the question 'what is Rastafari?' to get an idea about their perceptions/ideas of the culture. I always found it difficult ,and a little bit snobbish. to, from my position as an anthropologist, from another country, to ''decide'' what Rastafari ''really'' entails. So decided to let my research participants to do the talking.
I had noticed, when meeting new people in the street and looking for possible research participants that I, subconsciously, had a notion about what Rastafari is and only followed up on a talk when I had the idea that the person was a Rastafari. One of the reasons for this could be because I was aware of my position in the field. Like said before, I was aware how people perceived me, as a tourist, with African roots, but from the West. This meant that people tended to ''cater'' to those perceived notions that they had about me; a black tourist, with dreadlocks, who probably is interested in Rastafari. Orah mentioned to me that the people in Ocho Rios are really perceptive, so during my first days walking through main street people would notice me and try to ''place'' me and try to sell their goods to me, because they would place me as a tourist. This would change during my fieldwork when they would have seen me a couple of times. I can remember meeting a man in the beginning of his thirties who I asked if he was a Rasta and replied with yes. He also asked me to take a look in his shop and I agreed. When I looked in his shop there was nothing that was ''connected'' to Rastafari, but more Jamaican orientated. I bought something from him in a attempt to develop a rapport with him. After this encounter I met him again and we talked about what his dreadlocks meant to him. He replied that the female tourists love them and he used them to get close to them. My first ideas were that he was not a Rastafari, but a 'Rent-A-Dread'. Rent-a-Dreads are, according to King, often uneducated and unskilled Jamaican men - have locked their hair and assimilated themselves within the Rastafarian community ''to appeal to women tourists'' (King 2002:129). What I have noticed is that these Rent-a-Dreads also have other sources of income
26 along this activity, like this dreadlocked craftsman that I have met, because it is another way to ''sell'' the Jamaican ''experience'' and these female tourists provide a viable source of income.
Experiences like the one noted in the above made me think about the question: 'who is and who is not a Rastafari?', but the way they tried to sell me the Rastafari experience gave me an inside in their ideas about what authentic Rastafari entailed. Haile Selassie was being portrayed as the King and the nucleus of Rastafari, while the dreadlocks were being described as part of their African identity.
When placing the concept of 'authenticity' in a theoretical framework I used the work of anthropologist van der Port. In his article 'Registers of Incontestability: The Quest for
Authenticity in Academia and Beyond' he notes that within the field of anthropology the
constructivist approach ''reigns'', e.g. Anderson 'Imagined Communities (2006[1973])'. Cohen also adheres to an constructive approach and describes authenticity as something that is ''negotiable'' and says that something that in past has not been seen as authentic can be seen in that manner in the present (Cohen 1988:379). Authenticity is being constructed in the present, according to him. Within this thesis I will not follow the constructivist approach to validate claims of authenticity made by my research participants. Instead my focus will be on what my research participants base their claims of ''authentic Rastafari.'' The reason why I choose for this approach instead of the constructive approach is because the question of what exactly is authentic can only be answered by the people who ''live it.'' Is it not more interesting to see how this constructed authenticity is being transcended in the present by Rastafari's?
Van der Port uses 'registers' to analyze claims of authenticity and describes registers in the following manner:
''I take a 'register' to be a specific mode in which communication takes place - a mode that brings certain experiential fields 'into resonance' (in analogy with the way that the sound of stringed instruments attains 'depth' because a string, when brought into vibration, brings other spaces and materials into resonance.'' (Van der Port 2004: 11).
The register that Rastafari's that I met during my research used was their identification with Africa and more specific Ethiopia and Haile Selassie. I can remember visiting Prof-I at his Nyabinghi centre, where he also lives. When I walked in he was there with two other men. They were talking about different kind of ways to harvest food and what grew in the yard of Prof-I himself. During this reasoning the conversation shifted at one moment to the subject of homosexuality in Jamaican society. When one of the persons condemned it he [Prof-I] said
