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ABSTRACT
This article discusses the development of a hermeneutical, phenomenological approach to Sacred Scriptures emerging from a “Third World” Liberation Theology. Referring to a study of Rastafari theology, I focus on a postcolonial interpretation of the rituals in the Rastafari movement. The adoption in Rastafari livity of the Bible and of apocryphal books such as the Kebra Nagast, The Holy Piby, and The Promised Key explores the meaning of Black identity and of Liberation Theology. This paper undertakes a review of these sacred texts within the Rastafari movement. Indeed, the Rasta spiritual canons create a new category in biblical studies and thus apply a postcolonial discourse and criticism within a “Third World” Theology. This can be seen even in food and music. In 1960s reggae music, scriptural themes are imbued with Ethiopian Christianity. Charismatic figures such as Bob Marley have contributed to vocalising the importance of Black consciousness in the world, and more recently with Ital food, Rastas has marinated eating habits with scriptural themes.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Sugirtharajah, “Introduction,” 1.
2 Duncanson-Hales, “Dread Hermeneutics.”
3 See Beckford, “Prophet of Dub,” 77. See Blount, Cultural Interpretation.
4 Cone, The Spiritual and the Blues. See Dyson, Reflecting Black. See Beckford, “Prophet of Dub,” 71–2. Beckford has demonstrated that the academic leadership of Black theology, compared with the US, is still underrepresented in the UK.
5 I decided to put postcolonial(ism) in brackets for two reasons. First, the suffix “-ism” may have a negative connotation but this depends on the context. It comes from the Greek “-ismos” and Latin “-smus” which means “theory of”. Second, the expressions Postcolonial(ism) and Rastafarian(ism) can be highly problematic and can be a “hegemonic” tool in the hands of Western academics. Rastas can say what they like about not wanting to use Rastafarian(ism) and can use this argument against “-ism”. From a postcolonial and phenomenological perspective, I will intend to reduce the use of -ism. From the Middle Age to modern time, socio-cultural movements have started to employ this terminology in various fields such us arts, business studies, literature, philosophy, psychology, sociology and religion (i.e. Buddhism, Communism, Fascism, Eurocentrism, Marxism, Humanism, Imperialism, Impressionism, Rastafarianism, Syncretism and so on). This suffix became very common in several European languages. The Italian novelist, poet, and scholar, Gabriele d’Annunzio (1863–1938), known as the Vate (the prophet), in the time of Mussolini, said that the suffix “-ism” was a linguistic trend amongst European scholars. For further analysis, see Gabriele d’Annunzio letters of 11 March 1881, eds. Cortellazzo and Zolli, Il Nuovo etimologico, 825.
6 Sugirtharajah, “The Bible and Postcolonialism.”
7 Boal, Theater of the Oppressed, 1.
8 Sugirtharajah, Postcolonial Criticism and Biblical Interpretation, 12. For further analysis of the term of “absurd” which deals with the theory of postcolonialism, see also Coltri, “On Authority and Freedom,” 92–3.
9 Edmonds, Rastafari, 43.
10 Ibid., 44.
11 Edmonds quotes the PhD by Homiak, “The Ancient Days’ Seated Black,” 510. Cf. Edmonds, “Dread ‘I’ In-a-Babylon,” 24.
12 Erskine, “The Roots of Rebellion,” 122.
13 Sugirtharajah, The Bible and the Third World, 31.
14 Taylor, “Sheba’s Song,” 66.
15 Ibid., 67–8.
16 Beckford, God of the Rahtid, 12. See also Reddie, “Christianity Tu’n Mi Fool,” 69.
17 Taylor, “Dancing the Nation,” 3. See also Nettleford, Inward Stretch, Outward Reach, 97–8.
18 Reddie, “Christianity Tu’n Mi Fool,” 58.
19 Ibid., 52.
20 Sugirtharajah, Postcolonial Reconfiguration, 4.
21 Hubbard, The Literacy Source of the Kebra Nagast, 1.
22 Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 202. In Rasta vocabulary, I-cient signifies “the wise men” and I- indicates both virtue and knowledge of Rastas, and the spiritual and divine aspect of Haile Selassie (unity) that is present in their prayers (I-ses).
23 Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 190.
24 Taylor, “Sheba’s Song,” 71.
25 Budge, The Queen of Sheba, 3. See also Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 204.
26 Rossini, Storia d’Etiopia, 254.
27 Ibid., 254. He says: Altri punti restano insoluti; per esempio, il nome di Machedà attribuito alla regina. Machedà è detta un’antica capitale, e così è chiamata una gente sui confini d’Agamè; Machedà nel Sudàn orientale è la stessa Abissinia. Cf. also Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 204.
28 Hubbard, The Literacy Source of the Kebra Nagast, 5. See also The Sunday Dispatch, October 24 (1954): 6
29 Reddie, Black Theology, 35.
30 Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible, 75.
31 Budge, The Queen of Sheba, 34. Cf. Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 204.
32 Budge, The Queen of Sheba, 55.
33 Ibid., 172.
34 Ibid., 174.
35 Erskine, “The Roots of Rebellion,” 122.
36 Taylor, “Sheba’ Song,” 72.
37 Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 54. The term Tawidh is used both in Amharic or Ge’ez and in Arabic, and it means “unitarian” which has not nothing to do with the Anglophone fixed connotation of unitarian itself. For Arabic theology as much as Ethiopian and Rastafarian theology, unity is referred to the affirmation of the believer who perceives the absolute uniqueness of God. Thus, “there is no God but God”. See also Kukkunen, Ibn Tufayl, 5.
38 See the talk of Ephraim Isaac who discussed his book hosted by the Library of Congress in July 2014. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahido Church, Video. For Beta Israel people, see Augustyn et al., “Beta Israel.”
39 Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, xiv–xv. For further analysis, see Cone, God of the Oppressed, 49–56, 57–66.
40 Jagessar, “The Sea Is History,” 175.
41 Ibid., 180–1.
42 Davidson, “Leave Babylon,” 47–9. See also Samuel and Williams, “The Black Biblical Hermeneutics of Rastafari,” 326–48.
43 Samuel and Williams, “The Black Biblical Hermeneutics of Rastafari,” 327.
44 Housman, The Kebra Nagast, 27.
45 Ibid., 27.
46 Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 198.
47 Budge, The Queen of Sheba, 87–8.
48 Housman, The Kebra Nagast, 136.
49 Ibid., 5.
50 Ibid., 10.
51 Pollard, Dread Talk, 11.
52 Edmonds, “Dread ‘I’ In-a-Babylon,” 33.
53 Afari, Overstanding Rastafari, 155.
54 Hannah, Rastafari, 141.
55 Wanger, “The Biblical Canon.”
56 Dillmann, Biblia Veteris Testamenti Aethiopica.
57 Hannah, Rastafari, 98.
58 Ibid., 32.
59 Ibid., 33.
60 Ibid., 91.
61 Ibid., 91.
62 Barrett, The Rastafarians, 70.
63 Ibid., 75.
64 Rogers, The Holy Piby, 19.
65 Jamaican Culture.
66 Coltri, Beyond RastafarI, 227–8.
67 Sugirtharajah, Postcolonial Criticism, 128.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marzia Coltri
Marzia Anna Coltri is an independent scholar and a temporary lecturer with Bishop Grosseteste University. She wrote Beyond RastafarI: An Historical and Theological Introduction (Peter Lang, 2015), and she has authored several articles online on philosophy of politics, underrepresented minority religions, and women. Her latest edited chapter is “Women and NRMs – Location and Identity” in (eds.) Inga Bårdsen Tøllefsen and Christian Giudice Female Leaders in New Religious Movements (New York: Palgrave, 2017). Her research interests vary across the field of critical thinking, women and leadership, but also focus on assessing the interaction between fashion and religion. Marzia also works on understanding the development of philosophy in the Middle East.