What do White people have to add to Rastafari
Posted: Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Posted By: Ayinde
Date: Tuesday, 11 March 2003

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.

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