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THE BOBO DREAD
by Barry Chevannes
Senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at the
University of the West Indies, Jamaica. He was a senior visiting scholar
at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague and the recipient of a
Rockefeller Fellowship. He is the author of Rastafari, Roots and Ideology.
"As a spiritual philosophy, Rastafarianism is linked to societies of runaway
slaves, or maroons, and derives from both the African Myal religion and
the Revivalist Zion Churches. Like the revival movement, it embraces the
four-hundred-year-old doctrine of repatriation. Rastas believe that they
and all Africans who have migrated are but exiles in "Babylon" and are
destined to be delivered out of captivity by a return to Zion or Africa
-- the land of their ancestors and the sear of Jah Rastafari himself,
Haile Selassie I, the former emperor of Ethiopia."
In this beautiful play on words, Joe Ruglass, the poet, folk-song composer,
and flutist who has for years played with the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari,
begins his poem that expresses the Rastafari rejection of Jamaica as a
homeland and their yearnings for repatriation.
The Rastafari ever
since the movement's rise in the early 1930s have held to the belief
that they and all Africans in the diaspora are but exiles in 'Babylon,'
destined to be delivered out of captivity by a return to 'Zion,' that
is, Africa, the land of our ancestors, or Ethiopia, the sear of Jah,
Ras Tafari himself, Emperor Haile Selassie's precoronation name. Repatriation
is one of the corner-stones of Rastafari belief. The fact that the majority
of Jamaicans, including most of those who migrate, regard Jamaica as
their home might make the position of Joe Ruglass and the other tens
of thousands of the Rastafari seem very sectarian. The truth is , however,
that the doctrine of repatriation is kindred to a lineage of ideas and
forms of action four hundred years old. They arose first in response
to European slavery and then, following emancipation, in response to
the system of social, cultural, and economic oppression on which modern
Jamaica was built.
Of all the contemporary
autonomous groups that together make up what we know as the Rastafari
movement, the Bobo exhibit the highest intensity of Revivalism. They
are Dreadlocks, but because they differ from the mainstream organizationally
and in other respects, I treat them separately in this [section.] Unlike
other Dreadlocks, most Bobo live together in a commune, organized in
the tradition of Howell, and circumscribed by rituals. Outwardly, their
separation from the rest of the Dreadlocks is marked by the wearing
of tightly wrapped turbans, sometimes long, flowing black or white robes,
and attractively handmade sandais. Even their form of greeting is different
from that of other Dreadlocks.
The Bobo strike
a compromise with the existing society by accentuating respect for certain
values flaunted by the Dreadlocks in the Youth Black Faith tradition.
All the agressiveness characteristic of the Dreadlocks is alien to the
Bobo, who go out of their way to cultivate excellent relations with
their surrounding community.
THE
COMMUNE
Nine miles to the
east of Kingston in Bull Bay live the Bobo in a small utopian community.
The community is situated on a hillside, below a small promontory. The
sight it presents a mile from the main road justifiably merits the name
the Bobo give it, "City on a Hill." Large buildings are painted in red,
gold, and green colors and bordered by flags flying. From the commune
itself the view out to sea is a beautiful one: a vast, receding expanse
of water with slightly changing colors moving away from two hills, on
either side of the commune. To reach the commune, one travels between
a river bed on the left, and on the right a series of settlements, one
or two of them under government sponsorship. Farther up the road, where
the gradient suddenly steepens, and immediately below the Bobo, are
squatters whose numbers steadily increase day after day. The Bobo themselves
are squatters on the vast crown lands.
The compound is
entered through an arched gateway under which every Bobo, on leaving
and entering utters a prayer, sometimes in his heart, sometimes aloud.
Above the arch in bold characters is painted the name Ethiopian International
Congress. On the gate itself is written a warning against bringing weapons
of violence into the compound. Inside, and to the right, stands the
guardhouse where all material things, such as knives and guns and money
are deposited. Then in a very steep ascent one passes the house of Queen
Rachel, the young and beautiful wife of Prince Emmanuel, and her four-year-old
son Jesus. Directly above her on a terrace is the temple, and stretching
out from it the large spacious dwelling house of Prince Emmanuel Edwards,
or Dada, as he is called by the Bobo.
Next up the hill
lie the kitchen and generating plant on the right and the storeroom
on the left. Where the slope becomes gentle, beside the kitchen, is
the meeting yard where all services are conducted except on Sabbaths
and days of fast. On the edge of the meeting yard is the guest hut,
a small circular shed with a table and several benches. A towel hangs
from one of its posts. In front of it is raised a basin of water above
a patch of basil mint. This gives the distinct impression of being a
Revival seal, or sacred spot. No one uses the basin of water or towel,
neither Bobo nor guests. The last structure on the right of the path
is a sick bay where the women seeing their menses are confined until
their two weeks of defilement (calculated by adding twelve days to the
duration of the menstrual flow) are over. The other structures throughout
the compound are houses. With the exception of the houses and other
buildings, the entire compound is a fairly extensive field of gungu
peas, covering more than half of the compound's two hectares.
There are no other
cultivated plants, but during the rainy season calalu is planted. Gungu
peas are rich in protein, and do not require much watering. Over the
temple fly four flags: a black, red, and green flag with seven stars,
representing the state; a red, gold and, green flag with seven stars,
representing the church that rules the earth, "as every traffic light
show you"; a blue and white flag, representing the United Nations; and
a green and white flag with seven stars and the word NIGERIA written
across it, representing Nigeria.
Prince Emmanuel
emerged as a Rastafari leader during the 1950s by spearheading an islandwide
convention of the brethren at Ackee Walk where his camp was first set
up. At the end of the weeklong meeting, the participants marched on
Victoria Park and there planted the red, gold, and green flag in a symbolic
capture of the ciao The convention was to deal with the question of
repatriation, and when this had been announced, many of those people
who came in from the country had allegedly done so expecting to depart
for Africa. Following the convention, Prince's followers became more
sectarian. They began to attribute divinity to him and separated themselves
from other Rastafarians by wearing the turbans and the robes. The Bobo
remained at Ackee Walk until 1968 when they were finally bulldozed.
They then settled at Harris Street in Rose Town, were again forced out
to Eighth Street in Trench Town, then to Ninth Street, and finally,
to Bull Bay where they have remained ever since on the rocky government
lands overlooking the town.
Because they regarded
Prince Emmanuel as God, they believed each of their stopping places
to have been recorded in the Bible. Ackee Walk was Nazareth, where Jesus
came from; Harris Street was Galilee, where Jesus went after leaving
his native home; Eighth Street, Capernaum; and Ninth Street, Bethlehem,
for it was there that Jesus, Queen Rachel's son, was born. The settlement
in Bull Bay they named Mount Temon, where God is supposed to have come
from, according to a passage from Genesis.
The compound is
organized simply: at the head is Prince Emmanuel, or Jesus himself,
and beneath him his followers. Generally speaking, all male Bobo are
either "prophets" or "priests." The function of prophets is to reason,
the function of priests to "move around the altar," that is, to conduct
the services. Apart from these rules are the other social functions
that keep the camp going: a guard at the gate to ensure the ritual purity
of all visitors who enter, the keeper of the stores, the cooks, the
manager of the delco plant, and the comptroller whose main task is to
purchase supplies. Finally come the women and the children whose places
are subordinate to those of the men.
Relations with the Outside
Through their tremendous hospitality, the Bobo have built up a special
relationship with the local community. They make a special effort to
invite people to attend their services and can count on a few adults
and younger children. I noticed a tendency for more teenage girls than
boys to respond to the invitation. A visit to the Bobo during their
celebrations has the quality of going to a fair and must be seen in
light of the relative lack of entertainment and diversion in this semirural
community. The nearest cinema is over two miles in the direction of
Kingston, reached by an unreliable bus service. On reaching the commune,
visitors are seated in the round hut and feted with fruits or, at nights,
with supper. Sometimes one is offered a choice of "ital" or "non-ital"
food. Flour dumplings, rice and peas, oranges, and ripe bananas are
the food offered, and for drink there are bush teas, beer, and soft
drinks. These last two beverages are specifically for the guests, for
the Bobo do not themselves drink from bottles. I once overheard several
teenagers complaining among themselves that they did not get any supper
from the Bobo, possibly because the Bobo had nothing to offer.
| At
the time of my fieldwork, to get from this commune to the main road
leading to Kingston, a Bobo must first pass by a group of displaced
squatters from Kingston, a lower-middle-income housing scheme, and
a settlement of leaseholders, tenants and settlers-in all a community
of approximately 140 households. These were the people the Bobo
went out of their way to invite and to fete. To understand the importance
of these relations, two things should be borne in mind. First, the
Bobo depended upon the community's goodwill to get water, which
is scarce in Bull Bay. The spring that normally flowed into the
riverbed had dried up, and the only source of water for the residents
came from a water tank situated in a catchment area further back
in the hills. The housing scheme had water piped into the homes,
but the rest of the community had access to a standpipe located
midway between the main road and the foot of the hill. By cultivating
the friendship of residents in the housing scheme, the Bobo (along
with some of the squatters) were able to avoid the long trek.
The second
thing to bear in mind is that for many years, long before the
Bobo settled on the hill, some Dreadlocks inhabited the beach
at Nine Miles. They were by and large fishermen. Being Dreadlocks,
they related to the surrounding peoples as did Dreadlocks everywhere
else, aggressive in two respects: their hair and their words.
They valued their tremendous locks and thought nothing of reproaching
women for what they would consider an abomination, namely the
"burning" of their hair. Many of them also, in their devotion
to the power of words, were not above the use of "bad words,"
or indecent expressions. Among a small section of the community,
mainly among the settlers, I found that the beach Rastas had a
bad reputation. They were all lumped together as "Rascal" (a play
on the word "Rasta"), "nasty," "wicked," and accused because "they
interfere with people" or "they curse women." Most people, however,
did not seem to mind them. The general outlook was "some good
some bad," "Just people like miself," "Nothing to it if my daughter
become a Rasta," and so on. One policeman remarked, "I have no
feelings against them for environment fashion behavior." These
neutral sentiments seem to reflect the greater acceptance of the
Rastafari, who have been integrated into important spheres of
national life, particularly music and the arts. All three sections
of the community had stable Rastafari households in them.
Whereas attitudes
toward the beach Rastas, or the Dreadlocks, were on the whole
neutral, those toward the Bobo were definitely positive. Almost
universally the Bobo were described as "peaceful" and "nice" because
"they trouble no one," and "they have manners." Bobo gentleness
was contrasted with the obstreperousness and aggression of the
awesome Dreadlocks. Some respondents called the Bobo "decent."
In the main they referred to Bobo meticulousness in appearing
neat and clean at all times with shirts tucked in, feet washed,
sandals wiped or polished, and hair concealed beneath a tightly
wrapped turban. This approval corresponds with the fact that many
of those people who disliked the Dreadlocks and even some of those
who did not, singled out not their doctrine but their hair as
the main cause of their aversion. Uncombed locks did not make
one appear "decent."
Out of an
entire sample of ninety-one households there was not a single
head of household or spouse living in the area for more than six
months who had not been invited to visit the commune.
In short,
the relations cultivated by the Bobo served to differentiate them
further from the mainstream Rastafari. Their observance of the
norms of "decency" and "good manners," which by and large referred
to neatness in appearance and gentleness and affability in speech
was in direct contrast to the Dreadlocks display of their hair
and predilection for "sounds."
How does the
commune support itself? How can the Bobo afford such generosity?
I have found no evidence that the Bobo have any other source of
income than that of broom manufacture. According to Prophet Stanley
and others, those who live apart from the commune and engage in
their own enterprises contribute of their own independent resources,
but this does not appear to be either consistent or obligatory.
It would be naive to think that the Bobo, living in the country,
do not plant ganja, if only for their own consumption. But that
is speculation.
To make brooms,
straw is bought in the market unless it can be obtained in the
nearby hills. Usually, however, it is for the sticks that the
surrounding hills are combed. There are four types of brooms for
which sticks are necessary. First is the small hand broom, its
stick approximately 45 centimeters long and 5 centimeters in circumference;
second is the house broom of shoulder length or between I and
1.5 meters; third the yard broom, which is slightly shorter than
the house broom; and fourth the cobweb broom 2.5 meters long.
The Bobo obtain hand-broom sticks from the thickets around the
commune, but for the rest they must search the forests. The best
sapling to make broomsticks is the "panchalan," or Spanish elm,
whose branches shoot straight up, tall and slender. The sticks
are then placed in the broom-making area of the commune where
the brethren are free to come and make brooms. The finished products
are then taken onto the streets of Kingston, especially the affluent
suburbs, and sold aggressively for whatever price they can fetch.
The Bobo are quite clever at this. They fix prices according to
their perception of the class position of their prospective buyer.
In this way they may fetch up to ten or twelve dollars for a broom
worth no more than three or four.
Why do the
Bobo engage only in broom manufacture? Why not diversify the source
of income? Many of the members of the commune are very skilled
artisans, shoemakers and tailors. The Bobo regard themselves as
Israel, and when Israel was in captivity in Egypt its sole occupation
consisted in procuring straw to manufacture bricks. Today it is
cement that holds the sand together, but this development is incidental
to the Bobo. What matters is the straw: straw work identified
Israel. This explanation given by one of the prophets does not
account for the fact that the Bobo do not make mats, bags, or
hats, other obvious straw products for which a ready market is
available. The cash derived from brooms is supplemented by gungu
and calalu, which grow freely throughout the commune .
As a utopia
the City on the Hill depends on rituals and fixed statuses for
well-ordered organization and stability. Everyone has a place,
whether prophet, priest, or woman, and everyone accepts that place.
The prophet does not disagree with his appointment by Dada, nor
does he envy the role of priest. Prince is at the head of the
commune, and to enter into the apparent joy and serenity of it
one must accept him and accept also the place assigned by him.
But it would
be a serious mistake to believe that it is Prince himself, his
own charisma, which alone draws young men and women into renouncing
the outside world. I mentioned before that all the Bobo observed
were young. Every one of them that I spoke to had already been
a Dreadlocks before turning to the Bobo. In light of what we have
so far seen regarding the differences between the Dreadlocks and
the Bobo, this course of events could only mean one thing, namely,
that they find the persistent tension between Dreadlocks and the
society intolerable and, therefore, reject the aggressive posture
of the Dreadlocks because they regard it as the prime contributor
to that tension. But if the Bobo are to retain the belief in Selassie,
then their simultaneous accentuation of the Revivalisms inherent
in the Rastafari movement and the creation of a utopia take on
the character of necessities.
One householder
in the housing scheme referred to the Bobo as "pure old criminal
up there." This was one of only five people out of a hundred who
did not like some aspect of the Bobo. While conducting research
among a youth gang in West Kingston (Chevannes 1981), I came to
understand the reference to criminals was based on the fact that
a number of the Bobo had been gunmen. Bent on laying aside the
pressure of politics and crime, they placed themselves out of
reach of rival gangs in a way that was not possible had they remained
conventional Dreadlocks. For Dreadlock membership required the
continued adoption of a critical and aggressive stance at least
against certain, if not all, politicians. In fact, being Bobo
seemed to place them out of reach of the police. In spite of pressure
by the police on the Rastafari for ganja and other alleged offenses,
I have not come across a single instance of a Bobo being arrested
or detained. As Bobo, they retreated further away from the world
of the profane, cutting themselves off and maintaining the separation
by a ritual distance. Prophet Richard, a former gunman, sang the
praises of Prince Emmanuel, who he said not only saved him physically
by curing his gunshot wounds through his knowledge of herbs and
roots, but opened his eyes to truth. The world of the Bobo is
as close as any Rastafari can come to that mental state the fundamental
Christian sects call "being saved." It made complete sense when
one of my Bull Bay informants remarked that 95 percent of Bobo
practices and beliefs were hers too. She was a regular member
of the nearby Seventh Day Adventist Church.
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The Female Taboo
The place of all females is below that of all males, regardless of age.
As a "King-man" or "God-man," the male child is held up as being superior
to all females even though the latter are often referred to as "empresses."
The subordination of women to men is characteristic of the Dreadlocks
in general, only the Bobo carry it to a greater length. In the commune
all females must cover their legs and arms. Women are confined to looking
after the children and performing other household chores such as cleaning
and washing. They, too, are all relatively young people. The most I
counted on any one occasion was Twelve, but the total figure was something
like Twenty, the rest being "sick" (in menstrual recluse). None of those
I saw appeared to exceed thirty five years of age.
| Women
give deference to men. A young Bobo was engaged in discussion in
the round guest hut when his little daughter came running up and
snuggled into his lap. Without interrupting his reasoning, he caressed
her. The child was really running away from her mother who, following
close on her heels, asked the prophet to hand her over to be put
to bed. He ignored her totally and continued talking. Sensing that
she had stepped outside her bounds, she physically retreated two
steps without any show of resentment or annoyance and waited for
five minutes before the child was released.
A woman may
serve guests, but may never serve Bobo males. Traditionally, among
the peasantry it is the woman who cooks and serves, but among
the Bobo it is the men who cook and the men who serve. The women
may eat sitting on a bench outside the kitchen or take the meal
back to their private quarters. Of course if they so wish they
may cook for themselves after their days of purification from
the menstrual flow are over.
Prophet Stanley
and his wife, Gladys, live a short distance below the compound,
an arrangement that allow his entrepreneurial activity as a shoemaker
and manufacturer of wood- roots beverages to avoid being stifled
by the demands of communal life. He is thirty-seven and has been
a Bobo for seven years. During this period he has not slept in
the same room as his wife. Whenever he wants, he has sexual intercourse
with her and then leaves. Women, he says, distract from meditation.
If a Bobo
is faithful to his marital union, his sexual activities are limited
to Twelve days out of a twenty-eight day cycle. The other sixteen
days, his wife must remain hidden from the view of all men. This
is where the "sick house" comes in. Sometimes her period of defilement
lasts longer than sixteen days. During this time, other women
acting as nurses administer to her needs and take care of her
domestic chores. I reckon that continence in such a situation
is not always easy for the Bobo male. From time to time, around
the winding bends in the road leading up to Mount Temon, one comes
upon a Bobo engaging a local woman in what would appear to be
less than divine reasoning.
Bobo women
are allowed to give birth in the hospital. There is no taboo about
that, but they remain unclean for three months after, during which
time only nurses attend to them. In Stanley's case, living independently
outside the commune, he is required to give up the house and live
elsewhere for the three months after his wife returns from the
maternity hospital.
I was unable
to find out how Bobo women perceived their subordinate status.
Once my assistant reported the case of a young girl who sought
refuge in the commune after being turned out of her parental home
in Trench Town. The Bobo she sought out duly made her his empress.
Upon hearing this story, two of our informants from Hannah Town
related what they said was a commonly held opinion, that women
preferred Bobo as lovers, I imagine over Dreadlocks. On my way
up to the commune one fasting day, I was asked by a young woman
named Violet to tell Priest Samuel she was waiting by Prophet
Stanley's yard to see him. She mentioned having been beaten by
another man for living with a Bobo, who I presumed was Samuel.
She could not approach the commune in her condition-legs uncovered
and clothes soiled. Violet, it should be noted, was obviously
conversant with commune regulations governing the conduct of women.
That she was no longer cohabiting with Samuel, though still in
need of him, or that she failed to observe the conduct on dress,
could be interpreted to mean that she did not find camp life entirely
to her liking.
Prophet Stanley
warned Violet that she had to wait several hours for Samuel's
fast to be broken before being able to see him, indicating thereby
the observance of regulations governing fasting. Nevertheless,
as soon as the message was delivered, Samuel's look of asceticism
gave way to a look of much pleasure. He disappeared from the temple
at once, not to return for the rest of the day.
I do not know
what steps if any Samuel took on Violet's behalf. The view that
women are a source of distraction could only lead one to imagine
that in subsequent grips of religious fervor Priest Samuel would
put the blame for having broken commune regulations and his own
meditation on a woman. Women become scapegoats. When God asked
Adam why he picked and ate the forbidden fruit, his answer was
not that he himself wanted to taste it but that the woman gave
it to him to eat.
Bobo treatment
of their women does not differ essentially from the treatment
most Dreadlocks accord their women. The main difference lies in
the Bobo's greater ritualization of woman's "evil" nature. She
is regarded as contaminating. Those prophets and priests who can
contain themselves do so. Those men who cannot be sure to resist
observe avoidance taboos.
Earlier, I
implied that some Bobo might compensate for the ritual curtailment
of their licit sexual activity by illicit relations with local
women. Behind my impression is the assumption that the severe
limitation on access to their women is a great strain. This of
course is speculative. What is certain, however, is that religious
fervor can make continence possible. Thus for example, Prophet
Tommy, a young peasant convert from the Bito district near Bull
Bay, had not, so he said, had intercourse for the last seven months
because his girlfriend, also a peasant girl, "would not bow";
that is, she would not become a Bobo. He made it clear to me that
this was the precondition he fixed on cohabitation. For him, therefore,
religious fervor is placed above the personal need for sex. He
also observed that he did not suffer from wet dreams as a consequence,
for these he said came as a result of having rather than refraining
from sex.
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Beliefs and Rituals
According to Prince Emmanuel, the Holy Trinity comprises the three spirits:
Prophet, Priest, and King. The King, of course, is Selassie. The Prophet
is Garvey, and the Priest is Prince Emmanuel himself. In one of his discourses,
without naming any specific country Prince Emmanuel said that Garvey was
active in the liberation movement in Africa. One of the Bobo prophets
later revealed that Idi Amin, at that time the controversial president
of Uganda hounded by the West, was Garvey. Prince went on to point out
that Africa was the name the white man gave to Ethiopia or to Jerusalem.
Black supremacy was a must, for this was one race none other could produce.
The white man was evil, for any book you picked up depicted Lucifer as
white. The true Israelite was the black man, not the Israelis who are
white impostors. White philosophy could carry the black man nowhere, neither
Christianity nor "religion," only righteousness. He ended the discourse
by denouncing migration as another form of slavery, by which he meant
using one's money to buy a passage to Africa, and declared that the only
way to get to Ethiopia was to await salvation, that is to say, repatriation.
| One
of the priests later tried to explain what was meant by no other
race being able to produce black. Black, said Priest Mark, is the
lowest class of people, yet they are God. "Black is God because
it brings every other nation." If a Chinese cohabits with a black,
the product of that union will be black, but Chinese bring forth
Chinese. When pressed for further clarity he became confused and
said black and Chinese did not produce black. The general point,
however, was that the black man was in some genetic sense superior
to the white man.
The life cycle
of the Bobo is circumscribed by ritual as befits any utopia. Every
man, including the outsider, is greeted by the words "Blessed
my Lord" accompanied by a bow with the right hand touching the
left breast. A profound bow is reserved for Dada himself, who
returns the salutation with the same words and gestures. "Blessed
my Lord," or sometimes just "Blessed" or "my Lord" are also used
in place of"goodbye" or the conventional "excuse me," as for example
when someone is about to interrupt or take leave of someone else.
At sunrise,
noon, and sunset, each Bobo prostrates himself and prays with
his head turned toward the east. If a priest is present in the
company of one or more prophets, he alone prays for all.
The evening
services are conducted in the open yard before an altar facing
east. They begin with drumming and singing under the leadership
of three priests. Everyone attending must dress in a black robe,
and those not so attired must remain outside of the meeting ground.
The songs are, many of them, familiar sankeys. At the end of the
singing comes a series of ovations or tributes, first always to
Emmanuel, the High Priest, then to Marcus Garvey, the Prophet
and next to Selassie the King. Then tributes are made to the "international
guests," that is, "official" people such as myself. Each tribute
ends with "Holy Emmanuel I Selassie I Jah Rastafari," with everyone's
joining in the "Jah Rastafari" and hands clapping in applause.
Readings from the Bible come next, and these are interspersed
with singing until Emmanuel arrives. Following is a descriptive
summary of one of his sermons.
He began by
saying that man is God and God is man. The man who was talking
here now represented Jesus Christ here on earth. God could not
be spirit; he must be flesh. This was he. These words won the
acclaim of all the prophets and priests, who with one accord shouted,
"Jesus of
Nazareth Holy Emmanuel I Selassie I Rastafari."
The next fifteen
minutes were taken up singing the chorus:
The last line,
"Move round Jerusalem . . . ," was repeated on and on for as long
as the conducting priest desired. A noticeable feature of all
singing is that it begins pianissimo and very low on the scale,
then rises steadily in both pitch and volume. When "I want to
get ready" ended it was exactly one octave higher than at the
beginning. The drumming did not stop however, and over its throbbing
the priests took turns praying. They then broke into another favorite
song:
At this stage
the dancing and participation became very enthusiastic. A Bobo
not in the congregation, because he was not attired in his robes,
fell into a near trance state. His movements became rapid and
out of tempo, attracting the attention of a circle of guests and
noninvolved Bobo. Occasionally he would shout out "Black supremacy!"
or "Revolution!" A member of the congregation came over and said
something to him but it produced no change either in his movements
or utterances. Everyone was feeling quite high and at the end
of the drumming Emmanuel asked, somewhat rhetorically,
"Who is
there that can't own God in the flesh?" whereupon the semipossessed
shouted "I." Peals of laughter ran through the congregation and
the onlooking crowd.
Emmanuel then
called for chapter 4 of the First Epistle of John to be read.
All faced the east and recited
"Glory to
the Father, Glory to the Son, Glory to the Holy One of Creation."
Then as the
passage was read, Prince Emmanuel developed on its theme, in the
manner of the Revivalists, verse by verse:
Esau and
Jacob represent black and white. The black man is God, my Lord.
"So you see only we is savior of the world. Only one man could
redeem you and that man shed him blood. Him send a true prophet.
That Comforter don't charge none. Free! Free Salvation! Most High
God, Jahoovyaah!"
All shouted:
At the end
of the reading, the doxology was again recited facing the east
and after this the sankey "Jerusalem my Happy Home" was sung.
One of the priests called out each of the verses of the song.
Jeremiah chapter 8 was then read. At verse 10 of this book, Emmanuel
said:
"It refer
to Great Britain, America, all of them. We used to leave Jerusalem
and go to the Gold Coast to pick up gold just like that. When
the white man came and saw it, oh my! They would kill us out!"
The audience
response to this was truly great. The white man, he explained
as the reading continued, is Satan. Satan is able to create images
but his images do not have life like God's. This was a reference
to a myth later told to me by one of the prophets that Satan once
stood by watching God fashion images. God sent him off to fetch
some water, and before he could return, God blew the breath of
life into them.(*)
Verse 21 of
the chapter read,
"For the
hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment
hath taken hold of me."
When Prince
Emmanuel asked of the priest reading,
the priest
answered,
Prince then
turned to his audience and said:
"Greater
than Solomon is here!"
Were a standing
ovation allowed he would have received one, so great was the applause.
The priest added,
"The word
of the Lord has spoken, Jesus of Nazareth Holy Emmanuel Selassie
I."
"Jah Rastafari!"
responded the congregation.
After the
doxology, Prince thanked everyone: musicians, priests, guests,
and "international guests." He gave instruction to them to continue
until morning if they wished, and with a profound bow to everyone,
departed for his quarters.
Twice each
week and on the first Saturday of every month the Bobo fast. On
these days, nothing whatever passes the lips, and from noon until
six o'clock a service is conducted, but this time in the temple.
Outside the entrance on either side stand two standard bearers,
waving their flags. Pictures of the Three Persons of the Bobo
Godhead and texts of various sorts adorn the interior walls of
the temple. All worshippers are robed in white, males on the right,
women and children on the left. The service consists of hour after
hour of singing to the beat of the drums, followed by Scripture
reading without preaching, followed again by singing. Then at
three o'clock, the three-hour ritual to end fasting begins with
Prince Emmanuel emerging from his quarters. A priest leads the
congregation in the singing of a hymn, each line of which is followed
by the word Adonai, sung on the same note as the final word. At
six o'clock Dada enters the room to the left of the altar, washes
out his mouth, and upon returning breaks his fast with a morsel
of bread and goes back to his house.
One by one
the priests follow the same procedure and resume their places;
this procedure is repeated by the prophets and last of all the
women and children. During these three hours, the same hymn is
sung over and over. Those who, for whatever reasons, do not participate
in the service enter the temple at this time and go through the
ablutions and breaking of the fast. When all have eaten, Dada
once more appears through the doorway. All turn to the east, in
which position they remain, reciting several prayers, and end
by singing a doxology. One by one, again beginning with the priests
and ending with the women and children, the members of the congregation
pay their living God a special act of reverence: bowing profoundly
and at the same time saying a word of greeting. And each act of
reverence he returns in kind, before retiring to eat his supper.
Outside, his worshippers feast on bananas and other fruits.
(*) This story
parallels closely a Yoruba myth of creation in which Obatala,
who had hidden to watch, was put to sleep by Olodumare. He awoke
to find the breath of life already blown into the human figures
he had molded for Olodumare.
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THE UNIVERSAL ETHIOPIAN ANTHEM
Poem by Burrell and Ford
Marcus Garvey's middle name was "Mosiah," a fact to which the people would
have attached great significance given the strong tradition of wordplay
in Jamaican cultured Mosiah being suggestive of a cross between Moses
and Messiah. Too much is already known and written about the life, work,
and impact of Garvey throughout the African world, continent and diaspora,
for me to trace these subjects. I wish, however, to single out two recurrent
themes in his idealization of Africa: Africa as symbol of identity, and
Africa as home. Like the many preachers before him, Garvey tirelessly
used the biblical references to the name Ethiopia, the mere mention of
which "excited powerful emotions in the hearts of Christian Blacks" (Lewis
1987, 168). When therefore six years after founding the UNIA and building
a powerful international mass movement, Garvey summoned the First Convention
in New York in 1920, the name Ethiopia was adopted as the focal point
of identity for blacks the world over.
The fortieth demand
in the Declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World read:
"Resolved, that the anthem 'Ethiopia, Thou Land of Our Fathers,' etc.,
shall be the anthem of the Negro race."
No one who has stood
to the singing of one's national anthem on some important or historic
occasion, or the anthem of a group or a movements can fail to imagine
the emotional power transmitted by hundreds and thousands of people
of African descent singing this song. Hearing old Garveyites sing it
even today or the Rastafari sing their own adaptation of it is enough
to convince one that the anthem has lost none of its power even if the
Garveyite movement has. It undoubtedly stirred the same passion then
as the "Nkosi sikele i Africa," the national anthem of the African National
Congress of South Africa, does today. (*)
(*)At the singing
of "Nkosi sikele i Africa" in the assembly hall of the University of
the West Indies, Mona, on the historic visit of Nelson and Winnie Mandela
to Jamaica in 1991, many academics, white and black, not to mention
other staff and students of the university and other visitors, their
fists clenched above their heads, sang this anthem as a sign of their
identification with the struggles of the people whose hopes it represented.
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