Ships that will never sail: the paradox of Rastafari Pan-Africanism

Abstract

This article undertakes an analysis of the Pan-African ideas and practices of the Rastafari in Jamaica from two perspectives. The first is that of Marcus Garvey, whom the Rastafari regard as the prophet who inspired their origin with his teachings, his alleged foretelling of the coronation of the Emperor of Ethiopia and his Back-to-Africa movement. The second is that of three other native religions, Revival, Kumina and Convince, founded by enslaved Africans and bearing the unmistakable marks of African religious ideas and practices, out of which the Rastafari first emerged, but which they made a conscious decision to reject. There is thus a paradox which the article explores: the most vocal and effective Pan-African religious presence in Jamaica being the least Pan-African in its religious practice.

Keywords:

• Marcus Garvey
• Pan-Africanism
• Rastafari
• Repatriation
• Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA)