History of Rastafari There are many misconceptions regarding the Rastafarian movement. These misconceptions have helped to fuel the fire of ignorance, which has lead, many to believe that Rastafarians are “heathen”, “cult worshippers”, “devil priest”, “anti-Christ”, “paganistic”, “cannibalistic”, “long haired”, “witch doctors” who are to be feared and not trusted by anyone. These statements are far from the truth and absolutely have no credence. Many people question Rastafarians as to why, how, and when did the movement start? Rastafarians explain that Africans started the movement in the diaspora as an attempt to recapture and sustain the African dignity and culture as an alternative method to colonization and oppressive means of rulership by the European colonial powers during the post slavery era at the dawn of the 20th century. Picture colonial Jamaica of the 1930's, an axis of 400 years of exploitation of the masses in the name of the "motherland" England, a Crown colony maintained by the then British ruling class. Social rituals founded upon Anglo-Saxon ethics of church, state, morality, education and finance (social or otherwise) there on the island as in other colonies were nothing more than Britain removed to the Caribbean, "chips off the old block".Colonial society by then was socially and financially ordered according to "class and station" of White, Chinese, Syrian, Black, Jewish, Indian and Creole, down to the rock bottom dispossession of the Black suffering masses. Thus it was upon the poor Black psyche that the initial outpourings of the spirit of Rastafari was accepted and taken to heart; it offered salvation to those whose lot was little better than nothing - poverty in the extreme with/little or no hope of change for the better. Early Pan Africanist such as Dr. J....
