Rasta-Man, the #AtoZchallenge

Two reasons for this one, I love Three Little Birds and this has been a great excuse to listen to it over and over for a bit, along with the rest of Legend (scroll down, I embedded it. You’re welcome). Secondly, I’ve never actually looked up what the hell Rasta is. Beyond some hazy conception of Bob Marley, Jamaica, and smoke uncoiling from the end of a blunt; no clue so good excuse to look it up.

Also, try to say Rasta-man without a bad Jamaican accent. You can’t can you? Just sayin’.

Here’s a snapshot of what I learned.

OK, I figured this was probably the case, but if you grow dreads and smoke the ganja, that doesn’t make you a Rasta (other than as a slang term that’s inaccurate) or a Rastafarian. Pretty much just makes you a pothead, depending on how much you smoke – and none of that Clintonian “but I didn’t inhale” bullshit. Hold that shit in. Make it count.

So if someone with long tangles of matted hair who carries a lingering aroma of the devil weed with them isn’t a Rasta, what is it? Interesting, but Samson had seven braids of hair and as a Nazirite had never shaved. Sounds like dreads to me.

I always thought it was an offshoot of one of the major religions, and it kinda is.

Now, smoking weed IS considered a way of speaking to Jah, the Rastafarian god (no offense, but that sounds better than the wafer). Rastafarians also read the Bible as guidance.

From Wikipedia:

The Rastafari movement is an Abrahamic religion which developed in Jamaica in the 1930s, following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, emperor ofEthiopia (ruled 1930–1974), some as Jesus in his Second Advent, or as God the Father.^[1] Members of the Rastafari way of life are known as Rastas, Rastafari, or Ras. The way of life is sometimes referred to as “Rastafarianism”, but this term is considered offensive by most Rastafari, who, being critical of “isms” (which they see as a typical part of Babylon culture), dislike being labelled as an “ism” themselves.^[2]

Interesting in that Babylon, Western society, is viewed as having corrupted biblical teachings – not a huge stretch to think that, I suppose.

As I was reading through the section on language, “I and I” as a substitute for other pronouns was used as an example of trying to move the language forward by “tweaking” (my word) English (imposed on Africans). My only experience with this is from one of the characters in Grand Theft Auto IV, who was a Rastafarian gangster (a lot of a contradiction from what I’ve just read) and who was always saying “I and I.” I had to turn on subtitles to understand what the hell he was saying all the time.

 Anyway, I leave you with Three Little Birds. A song I find always lifts my spirits by reminding me that “this too shall pass,” whatever “this” happens to be at the moment — usually Lauren these days.