What do white people have to add to Rastafari
Ayinde:
This discussion started on the Rastafari Speaks board and I am reposting my comment here to encourage debate.
http://www.rastafarispeaks.com/forum/index.cgi?read=10032
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They have nothing to contribute if their understanding is limited to Bob Marley and the 1930s.
In the context of human development, all types of people have contributed either directly or indirectly.
While Rastafari is, in part, the liberation struggle of Africans and in my opinion it was derived from a more indigenous way of living, few people today have added to the understanding Rastafari. For many it still remains the liberation struggle born in the 1930s. Few appreciated the works of the elders who remained in the hills far removed from pop culture.
In my view many gravitated to pop-Rastafari from the viewpoint of its slightly altered Christian teachings, which was easy to accept. For many, Rastafari offered the illusion of a new type of people that would play down the issues of Race and Gender inequities whilst pacifying those in economic poverty. Both Blacks and Whites could simply say brother, Jah Rastafari and one love often enough to gloss over the real experiences of many.
Today many (Blacks, Whites and all in between) are simply not mentally equipped to treat with Rastafari in a global context much more a Universal context. People take aspects that allow them to feel better in relation to their own social dynamics and run with it.
Many claim Rastafari, without paying attention to its much older foundation, which offers meaning to all people. The much older root shows that the Jamaican elders in the hills were identifying with a natural process of development. Some Whites, Indians, Chinese, etc. have done this but they did not call it Rastafari.
This natural living in the forest offers a window to many about how to grasp the essence of higher development. The work does not start or end in the forest and ones must learn to apply the wisdoms and values gained to all aspects of living, in the forest or in the concrete jungle among diverse people.
In my opinion, few people (Black White and all in between) can develop these natural abilities without returning to the ‘forest’. Most will have to continue fighting over little things while gaining little pieces of truth under duress as they trek this earth.
The few with a more developed common sense (sense of reason) can learn and refine truths from their own experiences alongside the experiences of others.
Ras Mandingo:
INI have to learn how to reason with MAMA NATURE, the laws of nature are the laws that govern INI lives and Iniverses!!!
Observation, comparison and correction!!! That's the key!!! More Perception than imagination!!! Burning Ilusions!!!
The back to jungle would then mean "Know Thyself". The whole Iniverse is inside INI. Spitiruality, mentality, nutrition, dialogue, movement...and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, TRINITY LOVE!!!
Give Thanks for the reasonings,
Give thanks for Life,
Selah,
Ras Mandingo Jahson. :D
livelyup:
So,
if i understand you correctly, there is a general 'family' of movements that center around the connection with truth via being close to nature, or more correctly, natural processes and dynamics. As far as i can see these movements have existed all over the world, though their ultimate origin is african, and have a multitude of labels, and in some cases no label at all.
In almost every case that i can think of there has been a core of people who have held fast to the importance of a nature based livity, and a much larger group of people who have adopted the cosmetic attributes of these understandings and then superimposed culturally specific concerns onto them. I do not suggest that these culturally specific concerns are invalid or unimportant, but they do seem to be prone to political or religous dogmatism.
There would seem to be a fine line to be walked. A return to the forest implies a renunciation of worldly concerns, at least to some extent. But there are real problems and injustices that cry out to be confronted and chanted down. There would seem to be very few people who have managed to succesfully combine these two activities, who are able to be 'in this world but not of it'. What intitially drew me to a rasta conception of the search for truth was that it attempts to rconcile these two paradoxical aims.
A question that I have been considering is whether there is worth in giving a label to the path that i (we) are on. Does calling the trod rastafari, or for that matter zen, or taoism, or pagan, simply serve to begin the process of division and politicisation that inevitably seems to occur to the realisations had by those who have spent their time in the wilderness?
Paul
Ras_Joe:
Blessed Love Ayinde,
Yes brother Rasta is much more than what ones see. It is deeply rooted in INI soul, it is a higher form of living that allows ones to see life from a truthful point of view.
When I man think of Rasta I think of humans striving to be one with Jah and Nature. Not humans worrying about what the next human is saying about his/her livity.
Yes Rasta is about the self and learning self. Not by following a particular book or set of rules, but connecting with INI higher self which is Jah.
Blessed Love :)
Empress_Lioness:
I will look to the hills from whence cometh my help...my help cometh from the Almighty who made the heaven and di earth.
My help comes from JAH...Rastafari
Greetings,
the question asked was what do whites have to add to Rastafari?
Absolutely Nothing!!
Then again too, neither does anyone else. Rastafari need nothing added and nothing taken away. Fah too long now individuals have mistaken Rastfarianism as a religion, instead of a way of living. It is not anything one can claim or join, one must be led and directed by Jah to Rastafari.
My opinion about whites and dem "rasta" way of life is just that.
However, I would be less than a Queen if I did not speak truthfully. African people have very little to claim as our own. Very little materialstically that is, that the whites have not claimed as thier own. From the invention of modern medicine-crediting socrates for the works of the ancient Egyptian Imhotep, to the smoking of ganja and the wearing of natty hair (which by the way can not get but so natty).
Most white rastas that InI have met DO NOT have an acceptable understanding of the principals of Rastafari, like how dem look herbs fi dem so-called meditation. My granny use to boil it pon di fiyah and feed it to the cranky babies.
And true dem most time Issociate Rasta with Bob Marley. Do they understand the persecution and prejudice that Rastafari had to endure? It has been a life long struggle for black people, not just some trendy bandwagon that anyone couldah deh pon.
Dat nuh mean seh white people alone, dat mean any HUE-man who feel seh dem a Rasta and dem cyaan even recite di King Earthstrong! Before you can BE Rasta, you must first love, respect, overstand, and know bout King Sellasie. Many people try to have Ratafari without the King, that would be like a christian who don't believe in Jesus. You CANNOT have Rasta without King Sellasie and the Holy Trinity. He is the center, he is our focal point, and our reason we chose Rastafari. God has been called many, many names, but who will yeild to the name of the King?
In short, NO ONE can add or take away from Rasta, we can only live life according to Jah Jah plan. While it is not or place to judge, it is our place to Iducate, and Itinually praise His Majesty. And don't be afraid to dash fiyah when you see a disrespectful imposter rasta, our King fought and died for us, how many of us would?
Perfect Peace and Ises,
Empress Lioness
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