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Someone who had an enormous influence in
Black Thinking, was Marcus Garvey. He is
also presented in this video. The Movement
of Rastafari kept the Garveyite traditions
until his philosophies are now at the root
of most black liberation groups in the world
today.
Leonard Howell, one of Garvey's
followers, started to spread his believe
that the Ethiopian Emperor actually was God.
This believe continues to be present with a
lot of Rastafarians. The
"Howelites" started to congregate
and the birth of the movement was a
fact.
Persecution of the Movement was a fact,
too. Members were stoned to death, for
example. The camps were brutally looted, as
we see one eye witness describe just what happened.
Leonard Howell himself was thrown into a
mental hospital because the colonial
downpressors didn't like his message of
Blackman Liberation.
With a society that is so brutally set
against this Movement, the Rastafarians
started their own communes, some of which
continue to thrive until this very
day.
Fillmore Alvaranga then tells us, when
dreadlocks came into the picture. He points
to the Mau Mau freedom fighters in Kenya,
Africa. Barry Chevannes tells us how the
militancy of a certain group back in the
late 1940's also started to carry dreadlocks
as a sign of protest against the powers of
downpression called Babylon system.
This also triggered a reverend Claudius
Henry who came from America and started to
preach doctrines in Jamaica. Eventually, the
colonial government charged him with
subversive activity and it was said he wrote
a letter to Cuba asking for an invasion. As
he was charged, some people came and tried
to liberate him out of prison. In the
resulting gun fire, the colonial government
had found another reason to downpress
Rastafari even further.
When two or three Rasta's would stand
together at the corner of the street, people
were encouraged to report it to the police.
That enraged Mortimer Planno, who together
with a few brethren wrote an appeal to the
University to come and research the
Movement, in order to see that there is no
reason for the persecution.
So said, so done. It went further, as the
Jamaican governor was more or less forced to
organize a ten-man Rasta delegation to the
African continent. They went to Kenya and
had reconciliation with the descendants of
tribes that had sold the Jamaicans' fore parents
as slaves to the white slave traders. they
went to Ethiopia where Haile Selassie told
them that there was land for them:
Shashamane.
But then there was another incident, in
1963. Again, Rastas were accused of killing
and putting a gas station to fire. Three
were shot, three hundred were arrested for
being a Rasta. And, according to Fillmore
Alvaranga, this happened under the motto:
"If the prison can't hold them, throw
them in the cemetery"...
Rastas were then more or less declared
outlaws: "wanted dead or alive".
Literally. Police harassed them everywhere,
forcing many to cut their locks. We see
someone in the streets agreeing to this
policy. Agreeing to the governor saying to
"arrest Rastas, dead or alive"...
"Persecution elevated the movement's
status among the people", the narrator
tells us. The younger generation was
attracted to the Movement. Emperor Haile
Selassie's visit to Jamaica in 1966 also
helped easing the tensions.
The Movement continued to develop, and
the different camps began to have different
doctrines and names: Nyabinghy, Twelve
Tribes, et cetera. But one thing remains
firmly: "repatriation is a must"...
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