Rasta views on race
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The Abrahamic religion of Rastafari emerged in 1930s Jamaica. It centered on an Afrocentric ideology and from its origins placed importance on racial issues.
According to Clarke, Rastafari is "concerned above all else with black consciousness, with rediscovering the identity, personal and racial, of black people".[1] The Rastafari movement began among Afro-Jamaicans who wanted to reject the British colonial culture that dominated Jamaica and replace it with a new identity based on a reclamation of their African heritage.[2] Barnett says that Rastafari aims to overcome the belief in the inferiority of black people, and the superiority of white people.[3] According to Alhassan, Rastafari does this by centring Africa and blackness in order to decentre Europe and whiteness. She also says that by asserting the divinity of Haile Selassie and Empress Menen Asfaw, Rastas "radically assert humanity for all Black people".[4] Rastafari is therefore Afrocentric,[5] equating blackness with the African continent,[6] and endorsing Pan-Africanism.[7]
There is no uniform Rasta view on race.[8] Black supremacy was a theme early in the movement, with the belief in a distinctly black African race that was superior to other racial groups.[9] This history has opened the religion to accusations of racism.[10] While some Rastas still hold such beliefs, black supremacy has waned in the movement since at least the 1970s, and non-black Rastas are now widely accepted.[11]
In 1971, Joseph Owens reported: "notwithstanding certain statements with apparently racist import, the essence of Rastafarian teaching is that all races are basically equal."[12] He later criticised scholar Leonard E. Barrett for quoting non-Rastas such as Marcus Garvey and Elijah Muhammad to evidence Rastas' black supremacist views, arguing he gave "undue emphasis on [the] racialist features of the doctrine".[13] In 1983, Cashmore noted an "implicit potential" for racism in Rasta beliefs but said that racism was not "intrinsic" to the religion.[14] In 1986, Clarke said that some Rastas had acknowledged racism in the movement, primarily against Europeans and Asians, and that some sects rejected the notion that a white European could ever be a legitimate Rasta.[8] He noted, however, that other Rasta sects believe an "African" identity is not inherently linked to black skin but whether an individual displays an African "attitude" or "spirit".[15]
In 1988, Barrett described black supremacist language as "an echo of the days of Garvey" and that "despite the rhetoric", Rastas were not anti-white and many white people had been accepted by Rastafari (sometimes more easily than other black people).[16] Similarly, Campbell identified Pan-Africanist white Rastafari in Apartheid-era South Africa in the 1980s, who joined the movement because they were seeking "the development of a non-racist culture" in the country.[17]
Rastas often cite an anti-war speech Haile Selassie gave to the UN in 1963 in support of racial acceptance. In his speech, Selassie repudiated racism and fascism, and said, "We must become members of a new race." This speech heavily inspired the lyrics of Bob Marley's 1977 song "War". [18]
Covenant with Jah
Rastas typically believe that black Africans are God's chosen people, meaning that they made a covenant with him and thus have a special responsibility.[19] Many Rastafari espouse the view that this, the true identity of black Africans, has been lost and needs to be reclaimed.[20]
Practitioners of Rastafari often identify with the ancient Israelites as God's chosen people in the Old Testament. Some Rastas believe that black people, or Rastas specifically, are the descendants or reincarnations (metaphorically or literally) of this ancient people,[21] though this view is less common in contemporary Rastafari.[22]
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